Operation Christmas Child

I thought I would finally end my eight-month blog hiatus to promote a good cause. This month, Operation Christmas Child will be collecting shoeboxes of gifts to send to needy children in every corner of the world. This is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, a great organization that seeks to help those in need throughout the world, bringing people out of hopeless situations and into a relationship with Christ. You can see the work they do by clicking here. One of the biggest undertakings lately has been the relief efforts in Haiti, where they will stay for as long as it takes to get everyone back on their feet again.


Operation Christmas Child is of the biggest events held each year. It requires little effort on our part. All you have to do is take a shoebox and fill it with small gifts. It does not have to be wrapped. Angie and I have done this for the past few years, and it has not been a financial burden at all. I recommend finding a dollar store or toy store and you should find more than enough.

The national collection week is November 15-22, 2010. You can look here for a place in your area that is picking up shoeboxes.  You also can give online if you're having a busy week.

Let’s face it – even during times of high unemployment, this is still the most prosperous nation in the world. We can help share this wealth with others by doing such a simple act. It is also a great way to get in the holiday spirit, and to start the holiday season with goodwill.

Today's Parenting Tip

Here's today's parenting tip:

If you are holding your one-year old son in your arms, and he's not wearing any clothes because he's about to take his bath, then the worst possible thing you can do is make him laugh hysterically.

Today's parenting tip was brought to you by Pampers.  Contain those leaks with Pampers!

Julie & Julia

A little while back, Angie and I watched Julie & Julia on DVD.  I really enjoyed it, mainly because the main character is blogging about how she is trying all of Julia Child's recipes, and she is using it as an escape from her job.  I love writing, and I like the idea of somebody looking at a bad situation, and then doing something about it.  I wish more of us could do that.  It also had a lot of funny parts, and the historical backdrop of Julia Child's story is fascinating to watch.  Overall, it is a movie that I would recommend, both for the ladies and the fellas.

This movie also reminds me of an interesting conversation that I had back in December.  We bought this movie for each of my grandparents for Christmas.  Before buying it online, I wanted to check if Wal-Mart had the same price, so I made a phone call.  Here is a transcript of the conversation:

Wal-Mart associate: Welcome to Wal-Mart.  How can I direct your call?
Me: I'm calling about the price of a DVD.
Wal-Mart associate: WHAT?!?
Me: Electronics, please.
Wal-Mart: Okay, please hold.
Electronics associate: Electronics.
Me: I would like to know the price of Julie & Julia on DVD.
Electronics associate: Julian & Juliet?
Me: No, it's Julie & Julia.
Electronics associate: Julian & Julia?
Me: Yes, that's the one.
Electronics associate: Yeah, we have that.  It's $10.99.

Anyway, I do recommend the movie, and now when you watch it, you get to be inspired and you get to remember my funny and random conversation.

Noah's First Haircut

Here are some pictures of Noah's first haircut.  Noah had his hair cut at Angie's House of Haircuts, located in the upstairs bathroom of our house.  In fact, I just had my hair cut there, and it's a place that I highly recommend.  Noah mostly sat still, and was a good boy during the haircut.  He certainly looks less like a baby and more like a young boy.

Noah's First Year

Noah is now one year old. We celebrated his birthday last week with a big party with friends and family. The party had a jungle theme, since his room is decorated that way, and he always holds his stuffed lion when he goes to bed. You should see the excitement on his face when he is in his crib and you give him his lion. Angie made a cupcake cake of a lion. The cake looked amazing and was delicious. We had more food than we knew what to do with, and it was a great time.

It is amazing to think that my son is now a year old. Every day is a new discovery. He certainly has a lot of personality. He really is becoming less of a baby and more of a boy.

Noah had his one-year checkup this week, and he remains off the charts in height and pretty close to the top in weight. As we expected, he’s going to be a big guy.

In child development news, Noah has been crawling for about three months now. It began as an “army crawl,” but has progressed to a full crawl. He enjoys crawling, and he can’t stay in one place for a long period of time. He is always on the move. At first, he liked to go into his bedroom and pull every book off of the bookshelf. He later got over that, and now he is all about taking every toy out of the closet. He will stand on his own from time to time, and likes to climb up people when they are seated.

Noah loves cabinets, as well as anything with a knob or button. We have had to latch the cabinets shut, except for a couple of cabinets with pots and pans. When he gets tired, he really wants to get in the cabinets, and gets upset if you take him away from there. We have to keep the bathroom closed, because Noah will immediately crawl there and take everything out of the drawers.

Noah learned a couple of signs recently. A while back, he learned the sign for “more,” and he took off with it. Around the same time, we taught him to clap, so now he claps for “more” when he’s eating. Well, he didn’t stop there. Now, he claps when he wants a drink, and he claps when he wants you to read a book to him. The sign for “more” turned into a general request for anything.

Another new sign recently learned is “eat.” Normally, you put your fingers to a point and point to your mouth. His version is to tilt his head and then put the palm of his hand on his mouth. When it’s time to eat, we say “Do you want to eat?” and he does that sign. Then, I can pick him up without him getting upset, because we all know that he is always excited to eat.

We read to Noah as often as we can, and it must catch on. Now, he has a few favorite books. When he finds a favorite book, he will show it to one of us and yell some one-syllable sound. This means we need to read to him. Often, when we are in the middle of a book, he will find another book and immediately want the next one to be read. (Once again, he can’t sit still.)

Babbling is still constant. He often yells out “da-da-da-da” or “dee-dee-dee-dee,” as well as “nah-nah-nah.” He learned something this week that is pretty funny; whenever either of us is on the phone, he will wait until we hang up and then yell three or four syllables very loudly. One of my favorite things that he does now is yell “Ayyyyyy” whenever I come home from work. It reminds me of the Fonz.

It gets harder to list every single thing that Noah does, because he is always changing. The first year was a blast, and I look forward to more great times ahead.

A Few Months of Noah Pictures

So, I forgot to post Noah's monthly picture with Noah back in January.  And in December.  And in November.  Whoops!  Here are Noah's last three monthly pictures.

Here is Noah's nine-month picture.  He's wearing his Disney outfit that his grandparents got him when they visited Disney World.

Next, we have Noah's ten-month picture.  Notice the Christmas pillows in the background.

Finally, we have his 11-month picture.  I didn't expect him to be as big as Pooh by this point, but that's where we are.

Noah's big 1st birthday is coming up this coming Monday, February 22, and we can't wait.  Stay tuned for the one-year picture, along with a whole lot of updates.  He seems to be doing something new every day.

More Pictures from Florida

Here are some final pictures from Florida.  On our last day, we visited the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.  This is a pretty cool place.  I wasn't aware of this, but Thomas Edison and Henry Ford lived next to each other in Fort Myers in the winters.  Their houses and work areas (including Edison's lab) remain intact and are now open for tours.  You get to see many of Edison's inventions, along with some amazing rubber trees that were brought over from India and were used to produce a source of rubber.

Angie and I spent about three hours there, and we easily could have stayed longer.  It was a fascinating look at the genius and inegenuity of those two men.  Of course, we couldn't resist the urge to get pictures with the two men for which it's named:

In these pictures, Angie is telling Thomas how much she values her inventions and how she can't believe that it's in the 50s and cloudy in Florida, and I'm telling Henry that I can't believe I'm still driving his Escort.  (Yeah, they told us that the statues are drawn above scale.)  Notice the size of the tree in the background of Angie's picture.  It appears to be a group of trees, but it's actually a single tree.

One other place we visited on our trip was the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium.  We went on a walk through the nature area, and saw some unique animals.  The cool weather caused many of the animals to be put inside, but it was still a nice tour.

Once again, we'd like to thank Bill and Linda for hosting us.  We had a fun time, and will definitely be back someday.

The Shell Factory

On the second day of our Florida vacation (New Year's Day), we paid a visit to The Shell Factory.  It's a kooky little place in North Fort Myers.  They sell shells, of course, but there is also a fun park and nature park.  We just walked around the shell displays and the fun little exhibits (a good portion of this is free to walk around in), and took some fun pictures.

One of the most important rules in the Hynds family is this: If you are near the skeleton of a large shark's mouth, you must take a silly picture with it.  Angie obliged.

Then, we all joined in on the fun.  Honestly, how many chances do you get in life to pose for a picture inside a shark's mouth?

Then, we roped Bill and Linda in.  Okay, enough with the shark.  Let's move on to more important things...

...like a triceratops.  Once again, you can't pass up an opportunity like this.  If you see a triceratops, take a picture with it.  No exceptions.

We will soon post all of the other pictures on our Facebook pages.  It was a fun way to spend an afternoon.  On a side note, it rained profusely when we got there, and we all got soaked!  Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the cool spell that hit Florida and stayed for more than a week.

One more note about New Year's in Florida - it was the first time in my life that I was in the Eastern Time Zone when the ball dropped at Times Square.  I got to ring in the New Year at that moment, instead of having to wait another hour.  It's the little things, really, that get me excited.