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.

I've neglected my blog.....again.

Last week, Cuzzin' Joey came for a visit.  He brought along his MaMa, DaDa and Granma too.

We had a whirlwind week of touristy type day trips.  The Aquarium, The Market, The Farm, The Space Needle, The Fair, The "Other" Farm.  Phew.  It was crazy.  There's loads of pics over on Flickr for you to peruse.  

Ooooooo, fancy word that is.  Peruse.

This week has been filled with meetings.  We had orientation for preschool on Monday night.  I had to talk about my board position in front of 60+ parents.  My hands shook, which in turn made my voice shake.  Totally embarrassing.  After that, I had to talk to my class about Katie's allergies.

Then on Tuesday I had another meeting for another preschool organization.  I'm the treasurer for this group.  Sigh.  It's kinda like I'm doing office work now and not getting paid for it.  Who's bright idea was that?  Oh yeah.  Mine.

I am happy to report that Katie has poopied and pee-pee'd on the potty.  It's not as great as it sounds, she's done it one time each.  So, I think it's time to get serious about the potty training thing.  I went out and bought a book as I have no idea how to get a person to WANT to use a toilet.  As we all know, It's not the funnest thing in the world. You gotta sit there and wait.  Not one of Katie's finer skills.

I will leave you all with this.

After contemplating for two years, I have figured out why having a C-section delivery is totally awesome.  Hear me out.

Katie showed me her belly today.  She wanted to see my belly.  I obliged.  I had pulled my pants down far enough for my C-scar to show.  She pointed at it.  I told her, "That is where you came out of my belly when you were a baby!"  She replies, "Katie was in Mommy's belly.  When I was a baby!"

How about that?  I can SHOW her where she came out.  There is actual proof that she came from somewhere.

Gimme a break, alright.  It's a stretch, but I'll take it.

Katie:  Um, dude?  What's that smell?  

Joey:  I don't know.  Smells like poopy.

Katie:  Come on, man.  Fess up.  That was so totally you.

Joey:  Nuh-uh.  Whoever smelt it dealt it, kid.

"MY BRAIN HURTS"

P.S.: This is an obscure reference to Mr. Gumby of Monty Python Fame

Bideos

Katie go camping.  And Mommy.  And Daddy, too.

Eat marshmallows.  

Go to the beach.

Throw rocks in the water.

Sing Happy Birthday.

Eat cupcakes.

Open presents.

More.

Katie sing A, B, C's.

Silly.

Howdy

I have no idea what to talk about.  

You stop writing on these blog thingies and you kinda forget how to do it.  

Where do I come up with all the crap that fills these pages?  Man.  I have spewed a lot of crap onto these pages over the past two years.

Oh yeah.  My blog is two years old....and so is my daughter.  

Katie turned two on Friday.  We had a little birthday playdate at a local playground with all her pals.  Much fun was had.  There was sliding, swinging, sand shoveling, wagon riding and snack eating.  This was all topped off by a solid round of cupcake eating.  

Here's a shot showing Katie and two of her buddies munchin' some birthday snack.

These past two weeks have kinda been a blur.  We've taken over 400 pictures so far this month.  I've downloaded most of them to Flickr, in case you wanted to see them all.

Granma came for a visit two weeks ago.  We had a lot of fun dragging her to playgrounds, hiking to a rocky beach and visiting the zoo.  She was able to witness this Katie First:

"Ice cream fall on ground...."

Last week Huzbend had off from work.  We did an overnight camping trip at an awesome island campground.  It was really nice, except for the screaming toddler camped next door and his evil dog.  

Katie, being ever-friendly, decided that she had to go visit our neighbors.  The dog was hooked to a tree.  It wasn't big, just ugly.  It came up to about Katie's knees.  The owner warned me that the dog hadn't had a lot of exposure to kids.  Katie, of course, wanted to hug it.  She bypassed my block and the dog jumped up on her.  I put my arms out to block him and something scraped my arm and my purple "Katie" jelly bracelet (kinda like a Livestrong bracelet) fell to the ground.  The damn dog bit it in half.  Friggin' dog.  That was my FIRST EVER MOTHER'S DAY PRESENT.  Stupid dog is lucky to be alive.  If he had gotten Katie instead of my bracelet......

Annnnnnyways, we had to ride a ferry to get to the island.  Katie was so excited to be on a boat. 

Camping also means yummy all-you-can-eat pasta.

Followed by all-Mommy-can-eat marshmallows.

In total I think we toasted about a dozen marshmallows.  But, now that I think about it, if I added all her bites up Katie ate about one whole marshmallow.  Hmph.  I gotta get myself back on the treadmill.  Damn.

The rest of last week was spent relaxing.  We did a short bike ride to go eat some Indian food. Huzbend napped.  I baked cupcakes and made goodie bags for the birthday party.  

I wanted to send out thanks for the birthday gifts for Katie.  She loved them all.  Really.  That's not a lie.  She has played with every single one of them.  We ended up getting Katie play kitchen.  Here she is preparing one of her specialties.....

We did a lot more than that last week, but I just can't write about it all.

I will end with this statement: Having a two year old is awesome.  

Alright, not all the time.  Especially when she's answered "NO!" for the millionth time or when she's decided that hitting you is great fun.  Sigh.

What I mean is, she can have conversations now.  Her imagination is fantastic. She makes stuff up all the time.  She's even started making up her own songs (okay so the songs just repeat the same word over and over, but come on, it's still cool).  And, man, she does the most hilarious stuff sometimes.  Like this..... 

Yes, that IS a pillowcase and she was running just before I took this picture.

She also makes you see the world in a different way.  You get to experience the world "for the first time" right along with her.  Us grown-ups are so jaded and programmed.

A guy came to clean our furnace today.  I opened the door and the first thing he said was, "Good morning.  Well, you just don't see 'em THAT big everday," and he pointed off to the side of the door.

I was holding Katie and we leaned out to see what he was talking about......

This sucker was huge.  He could sit comfortably in my palm for cripes sake.

My gut reaction was, "Must kill it.  Will have heartattack if it moves."

Katie says, "Spider!  Spider wants to eat apple."

I think he was big enough that he might have been able to.  In, like, one bite.

Katie wanted to keep going outside to look at him.  So, I obliged.

I didn't want her to see me kill him.  She wouldn't understand.  Besides, I had no good purpose for killing him besides making myself feel better that he was no longer on the planet or the side of my house.  So, I left him alone in the hopes that if he was the spider that I think he was (I did some spider research online) he would eat the other giant spiders that were out there.

When we left for grocery shopping he was still sitting outside our front door.

When we came back, he was gone.

Gulp.

We're Still Here

Now, don't go gettin' your panties all in a bunch.

We're still here.  It's just been busy is all.

Last week, Granma came for a visit and this week Huzbend has escaped from the Evil Empire to enjoy some R&R.

I'll fill ya'll in soon.  I promise.

I will say this about these past two weeks; we've gone a lot of places, ate a bunch of marshmallows and we've taken 300 pictures since Aug. 1st.

'Nuff said.

Later, dudes.

Yes.  She's one of those kids.

You know the ones.  

They're responsible for ruining lunchtime.  They're responsible for the demise of classroom birthday cupcakes.  You can spot them by their medical ID bracelets. 

Sigh.

Katie's allergic to peanuts, AND soy, AND eggs.  We're to avoid any products containing these things as well as cashews, pistachios, sunflower, safflower and flax.  We also have to be cautious of sneaky tree nuts, menacing mangoes, and other leery legumes.

She didn't test positive for any airborne allergies though - grass, mold, trees, etc.  But, the doc checked out her nose and said that it definitely looks as if she has some sort of hay feverish thing going on.  She also has large adnoids, which causes her to snore.

So avoidance is key.  We're to limit her intake of these things as much as we can.  I guess the more exposure they get, the greater the reaction can be.  We have to go back in October for a follow-up visit and more testing.  I guess some sort of blood test to check levels on all the offenders.  Hey, did you know that there is EGG in a flu vaccine?  They have to do a special test on Katie to make sure that she won't have a reaction to next years flu vaccine.

After we left the appointment, I went searching for a whole wheat bread that had no high fructose corn syrup and no soy in it.  Um.  Yeah.  I finally found an organic loaf for like 6 bucks. I got it home and Katie ate it up.  Then I read the info. packet that the doc gave me and remembered about the sunflower/safflower thing.  The bread had both of those oils in it. Dammit!

So, I did pretty good absorbing all the info at the docs until they told me about the EpiPen.  We have to carry a set of two EpiPens with us at all times in case of a severe allergic reaction.  Then it sunk in that there is the possibility that if we didn't react fast enough that Katie could die if she ate a stupid peanut.

Stupid peanuts.

Katie is big into "sniffing" things.  

I took out minced garlic from the fridge yesterday....."Katie sniff it!"

I bought a tomato...."Katie sniff it!"

I guess this is partially because of me.  Whenever I use a spice or cut into a vegetable or fruit, I ask if she wants to smell it.  She says, "Yeah."  Then I say, "Okay.  Take a sniff."

So, Daddy sits down the other day to put on his sneakers.

"Katie sniff it!"

He holds out his sneaker.  She takes three or four little sniffs, looks up and says....

"Smells like poopy".

Go fly a kite, will ya?

Howdy.  Last week was pretty busy.

I had a Mom's Night out.  Huzbend pulled some overtime at work.  We had a playground play-date with our preschool buddies.  We payed a visit to the farm to learn about bees and pick yummy raspberries.  And, to top it off on Friday, we went to the playground and followed that up by eating Katie's favorite food, "tikka".

Saturday we went out and got ourselves a new camera.  Is niiiiiiiiiicccccce.  The camera we selected came in various hip colors.  We decided upon a very posh poopy brown color.

Sunday we drove on down to REI for some post-birthday spending.  Katie had a good time playing with her pal, "OWL".

"OWL" likes to go for rides in boats.

After our trip to REI, Huzbend decided that we were going to fly a kite.  

Tired of watching him try to get the kite to stay in the air, Katie wanted to give it a try.  Since she couldn't run fast enough to keep the kite in the air, here was the solution that we came up with.......

We took turns.

Right before we left, a good gust of wind blew in and Katie was finally able to fly the kite herself.

I am sorry to say that after our happy fun time kite flying, our afternoon quickly took a turn for the worse.

On the drive home, Katie puked up her entire lunch.  She then began to leak snot out her nose and sneeze uncontrollably.  That was followed by wheezing and lots of crying.  We believe it was an allergic reaction to a small nugget of Clif bar she had eaten a half an hour before we left.

We got her home and she fell asleep.  As she slept, she broke out in hives and her cheeks turned a splotchy bright red.

All in all, the reaction lasted about 4 hours.

Called the doc today.  They're going to get her an appointment with an allergist ASAP so that we can pinpoint what might have caused that reaction.  Our guess is either nuts or soy - both of which were in abundance in that Clif bar.  I'll keep you posted.