What a beautiful week it's been.  Sunny and in the low 70's just about every day.  Sigh.  Seattle in summer is the best.

Memorial Day weekend was spent picnicing at various spots.  Sunday, we hit a really cool beach.

Here are Katie and Daddy playing a Katie-created game called, 

"LOG".

We planned the trip so it would coincide with low tide.

Katie wandered from "puddle" to "puddle" running

and splashing about.

A good time was had by all.

Soon, she got tired of all the running and decided

to take a break.

She also decided to take a taste of some

"Fish Water".  Not such a good idea.

This beach park happened to be the place we discovered Katie's food allergies last summer.  After eating part of a Clif Bar, she puked in the car and began her reaction.

Well, guess what?  No allergic reaction this time, but YES another puking incident.  This time it was projectile strawberries!  Whooo-hoooooo!  We think it might have been the sipping of the "Fish Water" that did it.

We don't have good luck at this park.

What else is going on this week?  Um, the last day of preschool is tomorrow as well as a Preschool Bowling Fundraiser.  I'll let you know how that goes.

We haven't been having much luck with pull-up diapers lately.  There have been lots of "accidents" - a.k.a. peeing in the pull-up.  Yesterday, we made the jump to full on underwear.  All day, except naps and night time.  So far, no accidents.  I have TWO spare sets of clothes that I carry in my backpack just in case, though.

Lastly, before we head on out for the weekend, just wanted to send a "Happy Birthday!" to Granma C., Auntie Sheila, and Mommy's Friend Sharon!!!!!  Enjoy, ladies! 

The Zoo by Katie

I went to the zoo with some of my preschool buddies.  Chase and Logan and Tyler.

We ran around and were crazy.  We went

into the woods.  Mommy said, "Get out of the woods!  There might

be prickers in there and you would get owees."

I ate a cupcake.  It was sweet.  It had

mavilla frosting.  I ate a brownie, too.

We saw lots of animals.  My favorite animal was gorillas.

The baby gorilla climbed up, up, up the tree.

It has hands and feet so it can climb.

Gorillas have hands so they can grab a steering wheel, but they're

legs are too short to reach the pedals.

Flamingos have long legs.  They use their beaks to steer the car.

I rode in Logan's wagon.

We took our shoes off and were silly.

We threw our shoes.

Logan ate my sock.

The Project

We have this big gravel driveway next to our house.  The old residents used to park their RV on it. For the past two and a half years we have used it as a wildlife refuge for obscure species of weeds.

Well, no longer.  Half of the weed sanctuary has now been repurposed.  We've had this idea for a play area for Katie for a while now.  It was great to actually see it come to fruition.  Huzbend decided to take on the task over the past couple of weekends.

Any job that requires the use of a sledge hammer is right up his alley.

Here he is putting the final cedar bark touch on his masterpiece.

Katie waited patiently on the steps of the deck......

....for her turn at a ride in the wheelbarrow.

Finally!  It was done.

Katie spent at least an hour going up and down the slide.  She was filthy by days end, but exhausted.  That's always a nice little treat.  It means only 100 trips into our room after she's been tucked in at night instead of one thousand.

On another note, Katie has taken to calling herself "Baby Henry".  Henry is a train in the Thomas series.  She tells me that I am her older brother "Gordon" (another train).  Huzbend, for some reason, is "Baby Henry's Mommy."  This has gotten very confusing.

This morning, Huzbend left for work on his bike.  Katie asked me, "Where did Mommy go?"  I answered that I was right here.  She said, "No.  Baby Henry's Mommy."  Meaning actually her Daddy.

This "Baby Henry" play has extended to preschool as well.  Today, she told me this tale, "(girl) pulled my hair at preschool.  I told her, 'No, (girl), don't pull my hair.  Steam comes out of there."  

Big-Girl Bed Update

I think Katie is protesting her new bed.

She sleeps in it just fine for nap time.

But, for the past two nights she has slept on the floor.  On a pink body pillow.  Right next to the bed.

We let her stay there.  I mean, she was asleep in her room.  Just not in her bed.  Which we just bought.  Spending money and stuff.

Hmph.

All Katie and no sleep makes Mommy a crabby lady.

This is evidenced by that last blog entry.  It seems that I had a bad case of the Mondays.

The big-girl bed is a work in progress.  Nap times seem to be going smoothly, but not so for night-night.

Last night, Katie kept getting out of bed to ask me to put a blanket on her.  This lasted from 9pm until close to 11pm.  It was, like, every 15 minutes or so, or just enough time to allow me to fall into a light sleep. 

She has a new tactic for getting me out of bed.

I had just fallen asleep last night and I was starting to dream.  I felt something on my hand.  I thought to myself in my dream, "That doesn't feel like my hand.  Something is touching me." My dreaming mind thought it could be a snake or a zombie.  Some kind of appendage.

I open my eyes and not 5 inches from my face is Katie, just staring at me.  It was like a scene out of 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence'.  CUH-REEEEEPIE.  (I'm guessing not many saw that movie.  I actually liked it.)

It weirded me out, man.

It occurred to me this morning that right now we are spending a lot of effort to get her to stay in her room for sleep time.  Then years and years from now, when she hits the teenage years, we'll be wondering if she will ever again come OUT of her room.

Mom's Day

What to say about Mother's Day?

I can say that being a Mother is hard.  I work hard every day at it.  It's a hard ass job.

Some days it feels like your soul has been ripped from your body and trampled by a pack of wild boars.

Some days it feels like you're riding on the 'Good Ship Lollipop'.  There is no kid that is or will ever be as cute or smart as your kid.

Motherhood is hard.

I both hate it and love it at times.  I'm hoping that is a normal feeling.  If not, maybe I need some therapy or something.

This years Mother's Day brought with it a cool-ass World of Warcraft T-shirt so I can show off my ultimate nerddom and a new big girl bed for Katie.

Take a peek:

Picked this puppy up at IKEA.  It was not my first choice, but both Huzbend and Katie seemed to really like it.  Huzbend stated, and I quote, "This is, like, the most awesome bed EVER."

As you can see, Katie got her wish and we decked it out in Thomas.

Nap time was quite interesting.  It took 45 minutes to get her to lay down in the bed and fall asleep.  It was like something out of Super Nanny.  She would come out of the room and I would march her back in.  Over.  And over.  And over.

Night-night was pretty much the same.  45 minutes of walking back and forth to her bedroom.  She woke a few times during the night crying or asking for me.  

Then she came into our room at about 3:15am and yelled, "MOMMY.  MY BLANKET FELL OFF THE BED!"  Scared the crap outta me.  Guess I have to get used to that.

Between thoughts of, "I hope her bed is comfortable" and "I hope she doesn't fall out of it"  and "I would have a hard time sleeping if someone took my old bed away...", I didn't get much sleep at all.  

The little bugger in the tummy did not help at all either.  Every night, it's like his own personal rendition of Riverdance going on in there. 

I also get very, very hungry.  There's the 11pm bowl of Cheerios and the 4am cheese stick and banana combo.

This all doesn't make for a very good nights sleep.

I guess that's one more thing I can say about being a Mother.

You don't sleep at all, but you tend to get a lot of thinking done.

Da Potty

As a quick update, there have been no more ER visits lately, at least not regarding any member of our family.

Huzbend took a training ride with one of his pals this past weekend.  The pal ended up with his ass planted in the hood of a car parked in a parking lot.  No lie.  We drove him to the ER.  I guess that might count as a visit.

Anyways, this entry is about the potty.  Katie's potty use has ramped up in the past week or two.

She's been futzing around with 'using the potty' for a few months now.  But, now she wants to wear either a pull-up or underwear all the time.  To date, we've only had one 'hide in the closet and pee on the floor incident'.  But, I attribute that to having too much fun with Daddy and then panicking about making it to the potty in time.

For the past couple of days, I've used diapers just for naps and night time.  She has spent the rest of the day in a pull-up.  

Today, her pull-up was dry all the way from wake up time (7:30am) until nap time (2pm).  She will go and use the potty without any reminder from me.  It's pretty amazing how it kind of just happened on it's own.  I've been trying very hard not to push her and I think my laid back attitude about it might actually be working.

I am not allowed to watch her go.  She likes her privacy.  I have to wait in another room until she is done then she comes to get me so that I can look at her handiwork.  That part is stressful for me, just the thought of the mess that she could create.  But, so far so good.

The only problem that we seem to be having is explaining how much toilet paper she should use.

I walked in on her yesterday morning after she took a poop.  She had a wad of toilet paper wrapped around her hand that was as big as her head.  I explained that she didn't need to use that much.  She told me that it was a big poopie, so it needed a lot of toilet paper.

Later that day, she managed to unravel an entire roll onto the floor.

But, toilet paper complaints aside, her using the potty is a great thing.  She is all into 'being a big girl' right now.  She is so proud of herself when she uses the potty.  We even came up with our own little potty song to sing when she has success.  Sounds corny, I know, but she likes it. Katie then likes to call Daddy and tell him about her poopies while he is at work.  I bet it's the highlight of his day.  No, really.  Seriously.  Wouldn't that make your day? 

There has been talk floating around here about getting her a 'big girl bed'.  She is excited about that too.  She wants Thomas on her bed and on her sheets, she says.  We'll see how that whole thing goes.  I don't think I'm ready to have her floating about the house at 2am when she can't sleep.

So, that's the update.  Potty training is going well.  'Big girl bed' is about to be a reality.  Phew.  Is that too much to handle?  I meant for us, not Katie.

It probably is.