Sending some New Years cheer your way.......

It's STILL snowing.  I don't want any more.

It snowed on Xmas Eve.  It snowed on Xmas Day.

Jeez.  Enough already. 

A White Christmas is definitely overrated.

Especially when you have been trapped indoors for a week.

We got a special visitor on Xmas Eve.

Tinkerbell!

She was even wearing a helmet!

Xmas Day was, uh, LONG.

Katie didn't finish opening her presents until 7pm.  

That's right.

7pm!

It was an all day affair.

She insisted on playing with, watching or wearing every single thing she opened. 

Here's Katie playing with her self-proclaimed, "favorite own grocery cart!"

I had to read EVERY book she received.

Not just once, but three or four times.

Oh, and say hello to "Daddy Nemo".

The end of the day was spent in Thomas World.

Katie welcomed James The Red Engine and the Musical

Caboose to her train family.

And last but not least came the tricycle.  

"Daddy!  NO! Don't crash into 'dat!  Dat's not good!"

Happy Holidays to you ALL!!!!

Love and hugs,

US

Katie loves to "work out".  Here she is "doin' a set wif Daddy an' Snow Mickey".

I overheard Katie singing a Daddy song today.  

  

"Sailin', sailin' over the ocean greeeeeen

I blew a fart,

An' fell apart,

An' den I ate my spleeeeeen"

Yes, Huzbend composes his own children's songs.  There is actually another verse to this song. Something to do with "ocean blue" and "then I have to poooh".  Sigh.

The weather has been quite chilly round here.  Like, 20's.  Yeah.  That's chilly for Seattlites.  We don't get that cold.  I know you're going to ask.  Yes, Huzbend is still riding his bike to work.

My birthday was on Wednesday.  A nice big snow storm rolled in and shut down the whole of Western Washington, so there was no hot night out on the town for me.  Oh well.  Who would want to go out when they could have Marshmallow Pudding Pie with Starry Sprinkles!?!?!?!

That pie was DAMN good, if I don't say so myself (I made it).  My homemade pizza....uh, yeah....not so yummy.  Wayyyy too much garlic.

Katie refused to acknowledge that it was my birthday.  That is until we received a giant Mickey Mouse themed fruit arrangement......

....which she got to "share" with me.  Only then was it cool that it was Mommy's birthday.

She sang Happy Birthday to me (awwwwwwwww) and this was her reaction when we told her how old I was.......

It snowed the day after my birthday as well.  I'm glad that the snow storm that rolled in on my birthday was able to give joy and sledding to all the little kiddies.  Here's our neighborhood sledding hill......the street.

Some More Photos

We cut down our Xmas tree this past weekend.

It rained.

All the trees looked exactly alike.

  

It was like the Twilight Zone or something.

But, of course, I managed to find the BEST one.

I have one word to describe this picture....

HOT.

This is what Xmas in Seattle is all about;

mud puddles and candy canes.

Katie's preschool class paid a visit

to a local Children's museum.

Katie used her time at the museum to do a little

spa treatment.

First, a relaxing head massage with help from the "Scarf Shooter".

This was followed up with a

cosmetic overhaul.

Katie needed a little

freshening up.

TAHHHH-DAAAAAHHHH!!

You look mahhhhvelous, dahling!

A Late Thanksgiving Post by Katie

We ate CORN ON DA COB for Tanksgiving!

(makes chomping sound effect)

Granma ate turkey and Granpa ate turkey and Daddy ate turkey

and Mommy ate turkey and Katie ate turkey TOO!

Daddy and Katie go on bike ride.

Baby Cow went for a ride TOO.

WHEEEEEEEE!  

Up the hil! Up the hill!

Up we go to da top of da hill!

Granma made Wehgo house for

Lightnin' McQueen.

Katie go hike and Mommy hike and Daddy hike

and Granma hike and Granpa go hike TOO.

We saw water go CRASH!

THE END.

Contrary to most of the photos (and posts) on this blog, Katie does get girly from time to time.

Yes, she likes to wear shirts with cars on them.  Yes, she plays with trains and jumps in mud puddles.  But, she also likes to have dinner parties with her 'guys'.  She likes to carry around inanimate objects and pretend that they're babies.  Given a choice of colors to wear she'll most likely pick the item that is pink or purple.

When the day is through and our trains are put away and our Lightning McQueen shirts are tossed into our hampers, us tomboys like to get girly.

Here's GmaF showing Katie a thing or two about bein' girly...... 

Gripes

I went to Williams-Sonoma last week to pick up some turkey brine and cranberry relish.  I was in a rush because Katie was yelling at me.  "I WANT COOKIE-CRACKERS!!!!!!".   Sigh.  So, I grabbed the jar of brine and went about trying to find the cranberry stuff.

With the help of a store assistant I finally found it.  I thought to myself that I should check the ingredients just in case there was something that Katie could be allergic to in there.  I mean, what could possibly be in cranberry relish that she would react too?  Maybe soy....maybe?

Well, right there on the label it said it was processed on the same equipment that handles tree nuts, etc.  That's a definite no-go.  

Cranberry relish ~ OUT.  And you know what, the turkey brine said the same damn thing.  I did a quick tour around the store and even their old fashioned marshmallows had a nut warning!

So, I had to make a special trip to Central Market (kinda like Whole Foods) to find non-nut contaminated turkey brine and cranberry sauce.  Katie was happy.  She got to say "hi" to the crabbies and lobsters that they have for sale.

I'm old.  I turn 35 next month.  

About a month ago I injured a muscle in my neck while I was asleep.  It still hurts.

On Friday, I was trying to talk to my mom on the phone and give Katie horsie rides using one arm.  The next morning I couldn't inhale all the way because I think I pulled a lower back muscle.  That still hurts too.

Then today, I had to empty the leaves out of our huge-ass garbage bin and put them into our ginormous-ass yard waste bin.  (The landscaper guy put them into the wrong bin.  Grrrrrrr.  I guess I should be happy that I didn't have to rake them.)

Anyways, in the process I messed up my shoulder.  I'm not quite sure it's a muscle.  I think it's the joint.

Man, I suck.

Hey, NEMO!

Did I mention that Katie LOVES her Nemo costume?

She wears it just about every day.

See below for an example.....

Santa Spoiler Part Two

Okay, so I just realized that if there's no Santa that means there's no Easter Bunny and no Tooth Fairy.

Bummer.

Here's something really deep. 

Why did the Peanuts kids make fun of Linus for believing in the Great Pumpkin?  Santa is okay, but the Great Pumpkin is not?  What kind of message does that send?  Those kids are completely intolerant of people with different belief systems.  It's not right, I tell ya. 

I have more thinking to do.

Sorry, no videos or photos in this one.

Just me blabbing.

I made the worst tacos ever last night.  I have no idea what I did.  I admit that I did rubberize the chicken by overcooking.  But, I've done that before and have been able to salvage.  I put chili pepper in there.  I put some cumin in there.  They tasted like, um, nothing.  Nothing.  The avocado had more taste than the chicken taco meat.  They were horrible.

Last week, I managed to make instant mashed potatoes from scratch.  Yep.  You read that right. I must have overcooked the potatoes and then added way too much moisture.  It tasted like it was prepared fresh out of the box.  I am so talented.

Katie had Flamingo (a recently acquired 'guy') on her potty yesterday.  He was busy going poopy.  Then I hear this, "Flamingo is taking a dump."  I wonder who she picked that up from?

GmaF came for a visit this weekend.  We did lots of fun stuff and even went to see 'Lucy', a famous australiopithecus afarensis, who was visiting town.  Do you know that she's 3.2 million years old?  Anyways, Katie had three huge temper tantrums in one day.  That, my friends, is a record.  Kicking, screaming, crying.  I think we were the hit of the museum.  We certainly put on a show exiting the building.  They'll be talking about us for weeks.

**SANTA SPOILER AHEAD**

I am seriously considering whether or not to get Katie into the whole Santa Claus thing.  First of all, there's the whole lying thing.  Then there is the consumerism, the commercialism, the 'big-brother is watching you' aspect....

That said, I don't remember having much trouble getting over the Santa thing.  I had fun perpetuating the myth for my younger sisters.  I know that I got excited about getting presents from him every year and I'm sure that my parents had a good time sneaking presents under the tree and eating the cookies we left out each year.

But, then I think about all the presents that I got from SANTA over the years.  Instead of thinking to myself, "Wow.  Santa is one real cool dude for getting me that Caveman video game!"  I shoulda been thinking, "My parents rock."  After I found out about the Santa myth as a kid, I didn't go back and thank my parents for all the hard work.  Okay, so no kid would say thanks out loud.  But, I could've thought about it.  You see, I didn't even think twice about it until JUST NOW.  How lame is that?  Sigh.  Sorry, Mom & Dad.

Now that I wrote that paragraph up there, it seems like as a parent I want to get all the thanks. It seems a bit selfish.  Sigh.

Katie is too young NOT to think that Santa is real.  She has created a whole world in which Lightning McQueen gets a flat tire and then needs a hug.  A world in which she and Mickey Mouse catch Big Red Gooey Fish for Mr. Pettibone.

So, I'm not quite sure if these guys really exist for her.  They're invisible to me but she can tell me exactly where they are sitting in the room.  It's hard to know if she comprehends make believe yet or if she is just doing it.

That last sentence, like, totally doesn't make sense.   

I don't know.  Maybe we'll just celebrate Festivus.

So, I thought to myself, "Self, there are way too many videos of Katie on this here website!  I think it's time that I share some of the spotlight with other deserving folks."

Here's a guest spot from Uncle Nick.

He so craaaaaazeeeeee!

Throwin' a fist-bump your way, Big Guy.

"Orange Pumpkins on Halloween Night!"

Halloween was awesome this year.  Katie really got into it.  See that title up above?  Well, Katie made that up.  It's her Halloween song (it only has that one line, but it's still totally cool).  

She's actually been talking about pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, and all things Halloween since the beginning of September.  Here are some of the Halloween festivities.....

Last weekend we went to a Halloween Carnival/Fundraiser.

Katie had a great time participating in such classic games as:

Ring Around The Bat, Spooky Golf and the ever popular, Bean Bag Toss.

This was one of her favorites.  Magnetic Fishing.

This week, one of the playgroup Mom's hosted

a Halloween party for the kiddies.  There were turkey hotdogs,

cheese sticks, watermelon chunks and Halloween cookies.  

Ah.  Could there be a better lunch menu for a toddler?

Now, when have you ever seen Batman, a cheerleader and a fish sit down

together for a nice story?  Never, huh.  Now you can say you have.

On Thursday night, we carved out Katie's pumpkin.

At first she was reluctant to stick her hands into the goopies.

But, she overcame that aversion very quickly.

Halloween day was dedicated to pumpkins.  Katie and I made

pumpkin bread together.  She helped me use the hand mixer, stir up the

ingredients, and also taste tested everything.  Including the flour.

Here is Katie's patented 'Double Spoon Stirring Technique'.

Please, do NOT try this at home.

We decided to attend a downtown Trick-or-Treat festival.

The bakery handed out cookies and the donut shop handed out, what else,

donuts!!!

Hey, look!  I found Nemo!

As soon as we got home, Katie wanted to start in

on her candy.  Because of the allergies, I took out ALL the

candy in her bowl and replaced it with four dum-dum lollipops and

some Smarties.  She didn't care for the Smarties, but loved the lollipops.  

She loved them so much, she felt the need to share

the joy with Daddy.

And so, Halloween is over.  Katie is already prepping for the

next big holiday.  We've got our Thanksgiving library books

out on the table for her to peruse.  It's time to let go of the

pumpkins and embrace the turkey.

But for now, it's good night from

Halloween town!

Happy Halloweenie!!!

 (Don't worry, I'll post some costume pictures soon!)

What're You Eating?

An Instructional Video by Katie

Leaves

Katie was looking out the sliding glass door onto the deck the other day.  She was just standing there lost in thought.

All of a sudden, we heard a sob followed by, "LEEEAAAVVVEEESSS!!!!!" Then, she began to cry.

We figured out that she wanted to go outside and get some leaves. Since it was dark, rainy and cold, Huzbend went outside and picked one up for her.  I patted it dry and gave it to her.  She carried it around with her for about ten minutes (a long time for a toddler to carry a leaf) before dropping it on the living room floor.  Our guess is that she wanted to save it.

She's noticed the leaves falling out of the trees.  I've explained to her a few times that the leaves change color and fall out of the trees when it gets colder.  They go Bye-Bye for the winter and then grow back in the Spring.  She'll see that when it gets warmer they'll start out as Baby Leaves (buds) and then grow and grow and grow until they are great big green leaves again.

I think that she is sad that the leaves are falling off the trees.  Maybe she thinks it hurts them somehow.  Her little heart is breaking for the leaves.

Yesterday, before a car trip she had to pick up two leaves to take on the trip with us.

Now, how am I going to explain when we pack all the leaves up into the yard waste bin to be taken away by the garbage truck?  Sigh.

I guess we'll know we're really in trouble when she starts naming them.

The Pumpkin Patch

Today we visited a pumpkin patch

with our preschool class.

 

Katie was not impressed with the

displays of pumpkin-headed people.

"No.  No like dat......"

She did, however, like the orange pumpkin 

cookie she got during storytime.

Yummy.

"Dis one!  You take it home and make

it jack-o-lantern!"

Hmmmmmmm?  Whaaaaat'ssssss thissssss?

A lonely ole' mud puddle?

Here, Mr. Mud Puddle, let me give you a nice, big....

......SPLASH!!

A preschool buddy also took pity on Mr. Mud Puddle.

At the end of 15 minutes of muck-splashing mayhem, he was a well

loved Mr. Mud Puddle indeed.

Here's the final product.

Nowadays, the only way I can get Katie to look at the camera and smile is to

call her one of the characters from the movie "Cars".  

The other parents milling about must have thought I was absolutely nuts.

(The preschool parents already know me.  I think.)  

Not only was Katie covered in smelly farm mud, but here I was yelling out

like some sort of freakish paparazzi......   

HEY!  LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!  LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!

LOOK!  LOOK HERE!

LOOK AT MOMMY!  TOW MATER!

Man.  Two year olds are awesome.

You busy girl.

Katie has a allergy.  Mommy Daddy eat something.  There's no soy in that, noooooooo.  Squirl eat nuts.  Katie eat nuts, no.

What's Joooey doing?

Katie went to the ospital!  Doctor gave you medicine.  You get ice fream too.  And Nemo too. All Katie's pals get medicine at Katie's house.  Thomas.  Rosie. Percy.  Billy.  All sick.  Sometimes everybody get ice fream too.  But, no Nemo.

Mr. Pettibone a kitten.  Mr. Pettibone is walking with us.  He likes to eat big red gooey fish.  Mr. Pettibone came in the car to preschool.  It smells like big red gooey fish in here.

Katie get up on chair in kitchen.  You do work on the pewter, like Daddy.  You typed on it.

Katie Mommy go to beach in kitchen.  Sit on blankit and cook marshmello.  It's dark in here. No ghosts come in to house to say hi, noooooooo.  Mommy say no ghosts.

Katie like punkins.  Punkins orange.  Punkins make jack-o-lantern.  Smiley face punkin. Punkins at Halloween!

Lightnin McQueen is chasing us.  Watch out!

Naked Baby go on slide with Katie.  One.....two.....free.....RACE!  Fall down into the seal poopies. Naked Baby slip on the seal poopie.  I got a Baby Whale.  Baby Whale is hungry.  He wants something to eat.

You want a cheese stick....one more time. 

You a Dancin Queen!  You a Dancin Tow Mater!  Put music on to dance in living room!  Look at Katie gooooooooo!  Get down, Katie! 

Bye-bye.

Fun With A Tape Measure

A Sickness Update

The doc gave us a thumbs up.  

We can now rejoin civilization.

Her lungs are clear, but she still needs to kick the cough and runny nose.  

Also, as a precaution we are going to continue the nebulizer treatments for another week.

Thomas will be happy.

We had uncharacteristically beautiful fall weather this weekend.  It was bright and sunny and the temps hovered at around 75 degrees (at least 10 degrees above normal). Not a rain cloud in sight.

Did we go hiking, camping, walking, swimming, or do ANYTHING outside?  No.  We spent the weekend in the hospital.  I'm pretty sure we missed what will be the last sunshine that we will see for the next 8 or 9 months.

Oh yeah.  I did say 'hospital', didn't I?

Katie came down with another cold on Wednesday.  Seemed like any other cold until she woke up early Saturday morning (4am early) wheezing with a rapid heartbeat.  She couldn't talk because she couldn't stop coughing.  This was NOT some plain old cold and I called for an appt. with her doctor.

We went in at 10:30.  They listened to her lungs and heard something rattling around in there, so they decided to do a chest x-ray.  It came out negative for fluid in her lungs.  No pneumonia. But, the oxygen level in her blood was down to 91.  Normal level is about 99.  It was decided that we should go to the emergency room at the local hospital.  Before we left, they gave her a nebulizer treatment - which consists of shooting a mist of albuterol (used to open her airways) into her face.  

The treatment helped to ease Katie's breathing and so after a quick stop home for supplies and lunch ('cause we all know how long you could be sitting in the ER) we headed off.

The wait at the ER wasn't to long and we were soon in a room.  The ER doc came in and told us he suspected something called, 'restrictive airway disease' and that this might or might not be a precursor to asthma.  I guess if she was to experience this shortness of breath a few more times down the line she would be diagnosed with asthma.  Such wonderful news.

We had to give her a huge dosage of prednisone (a steroid) to help relax the inflammation in her lungs and then an hour long nebulizer treatment.  After about 4 hours in the ER, her blood oxygen levels didn't recover as hoped.  We were admitted.

Up to the pediatric care ward we went.  Because they suspected that Katie's lung infection was viral, everyone that came into the room had to wear a surgical robe, mask and gloves.  If either Huzbend or I left the room, we had to wear masks.

The incremental nebulizer treatments began as well as a steroid treatment once a day. Katie was not impressed with all the poking and prodding.  Although she held it together more that I thought she would, she did throw a few big tantrums; screaming, crying, kicking, flinging arm type tantrums.    

Katie began to recover early Saturday night.  Her blood oxygen level while awake was slowly climbing and her breathing became less labored.  The problem was that after she fell asleep, her level would drop down to below 88 and set off an alarm.  When that happened I had to put an oxygen mask to her face.  The nurse tried to get Katie to let us put that oxygen tube thing up her nose, but Katie would not allow it.  She threw the biggest meanest tantrum that I have yet to see from her.  She soon fell asleep and I cried.  I was so tired of having to listen to her cry.

Sunday she was even better with her waking levels at 96.  But, when she took a nap her levels dropped back down to 88 and lower.  With those stats and a listen to her lungs (still not 100% clear) the doctor didn't feel comfortable sending her home.  So, it was one more night in the hospital.

Finally, on Monday her waking level got to 97.  Her napping level wasn't great, but the doctor said that her lungs sounded good and she didn't seem to be in any respiratory distress.  We were allowed to go home.

So, we've been doing the nebulizer at home every 4 hours.  Katie actually likes it now.  She'll sit on the floor and share her albuterol mist with Thomas or whoever else she has deemed 'sick'. Here is video of one of the first treatments we did at home.  She didn't like the medicine in her eyes. 

Katie is still coughing but her breathing is pretty normal, as far as I can tell.  It's hard to gauge when she won't stop running in circles.  The ER doctor told me to keep her home for a few days so that she could relax and not cough on other kids.

We go back for a follow-up with her primary doctor tomorrow.  I'm hoping that we get the green light to get back out into the world.

Wouldn't you know it, the forecast for tomorrow is rain.  Sigh.

Today was the first "full class" day at preschool.

This year preschool is two days a week.  One day I go to school with Katie (my "work day") and the other day I drop her off.  The same goes for all the other parents.

This means there are 18 or so kids vs. 8 or so parents.  Each parent has a "buddy child", a kid they are supposed to keep an extra eye on in case of difficulties.

My buddies are twin boys.  Their mom decided to leave them at preschool today.

Insanity ensued.  

One of them immediately had a complete and utter meltdown.  He was screaming as if someone had reached into his chest and ripped his heart out.  There were big raindrop tears falling down his cheeks and the boogies were a-flowin'.  This, in turn, got his brother going.  Now there were two out of control toddlers.  The teacher and another parent stepped in to help out.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could console them.

We waited 5 minutes (which felt like hours) and had to call the mom to come back.

Talk about stress.

Katie seemed to be okay with all this.  She didn't like it very much when I was carrying around one of the crying boys and demanded that I pick her up too, which I did.  But that ended quickly when he started screaming at the top of his lungs.  It seemed that she wanted to get as far away from him as possible.  

I only caught fleeting glances of her today at school.  I'm guessing she had a good time and I think she ate snack.  I did see that she held hands with one of her gal pals on the walk out to the playground.

We go to preschool again on Friday.  Friday is not my "work day" and so I have the option to drop Katie off and go away somewhere.  I don't think she'd have a problem with this.  It's ME that has the problem.

I don't know.  I'm not really worried that she'll have a reaction like the twins did today.  I guess it could happen, but I think she'd be totally okay.

It's just strange to think that I have spent these last two years sharing just about every experience with her.  And now, she's going to school and I'm going to have no idea what went on.  I'm going to have to ask her what she did at school and then wait to see if she's in the mood to answer.

Props to all of you out there who have to "let go" every day.  

You know you're having a bad day when you fall

asleep with a cheese stick in your hand.

You know you're having a horrible day when you wake up with

a cheese stick in your hair.