Our Weekend

Birthday Party #1:

Katie rides in wagon.  Good.

Katie tries to "cook" with large jugs of condiments.  Bad.

Katie ransacks the utensils.  Bad.

Katie tries to throw a frisbee.  Good.

Katie sticks her hand in the ice bowl and then throws a handful in the community pitcher of lemonade.  Bad.

Katie dances.  Good.

Katie finds a bird bath.  Bad.

Katie runs around a lot.  Good.

Katie grabs a cup, dunks it in the bird bath and takes a sip.  Bad.

Katie tries hot dog and doesn't like it.  Good.

With no cup to be had, Katie tips the bird bath just enough to get her lips to the edge for another sip.  Bad.

The cake is unveiled.  Katie walks up to it and sticks her finger in the side.  Bad.  But funny.

Katie eats only 3 little bites of chocolate cake and about 6 bites of vanilla ice cream.  Good.

Birthday #2:

Katie takes a header out of a sandbox onto a stone patio.  Bad.

Katie engaged with play kitchen for the entire party.  Good.

Katie eats a toddler-sized vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting.  Good.

Katie pokes her own eye on the way home and has a complete meltdown in the car.  Bad.

I think we have another birthday to go to next weekend too.  Sigh.

In other news.....

Katie's been singing the ABC song for a while now.  Most of the time she ends the song like this, "Now Katie knows ABC's.  Next time won't you sing wit me."

Today it ended like this, "Now Strawberry knows ABC.  Next time won't you sing Baby Bell."

I'm trying to teach Katie how to answer, "What's your name?"  Lots of people ask her when we go places.  She knows her name.  She's known it for a long, long time.  But, when I ask her, "What's your name?"  She says, "Macaroni".  She has a nice laugh over this.  

"No, that's not your name!  What's your name?" I reply.

"Macaroni Kid."

Not to say M&M's aren't good, but maybe next time

you'll get a 100 Grand Bar!

Love you guys!

Filmtastic Friday

Light? What light?

Did I say that there was light at the end of the tunnel in my previous post?

Ohhhhhh, I spoke too soon, my fine friends.

Everyone out there has heard of the "Terrible Twos".  But have you heard about the "Tempestuous Twenty Two Months"?

I didn't think so.

Hello and welcome to Tantrumville, Miss.  Hope you enjoy your stay.

We've now experienced two full blown tantrums.  Both have happened within the last 7 days.  I could blame it on the sickness, but I think it's just where she's at right now.

The first one was Saturday night right before bed (and actually lasted until after 'lights out') and the second one was post-nap yesterday afternoon.

Katie was frustrated about something.  She couldn't express what the issue was and it just turned into a screaming/crying bout that lasted about an hour.

An example:

Are you all done with your yogurt?

Katie all done.

(I take the yogurt away)

Katie want yogurt!!!!

(I give yogurt back)

Katie all done!!!!!

(I take the yogurt away)

Katie want yoooooguuuurrrrrttttt!!!!

and on and on and on.  

We moved from wanting/not wanting yogurt to wanting/not wanting raisins, wanting/not wanting to be picked up and wanting/not wanting strawberries.  All of these items were originally requested by her.

Finally, I got her to eat two strawberries.  She seemed content, screamed a little bit more at me and then finally asked to read a Mickey Mouse book.  At that point she calmed down.

It was like night and day.  The tantrum shut off and happy giggly Katie was back like nothing had happened.

I felt like I was walking on egg shells for the rest of the day.  In no way did I want that to happen again.  

Dudes,  I was, like, scared.

Aaaaaaa-CHOO!

Man, I hate colds.  Hate them.  H-A-T-E them.

Katie ended up catching a cold last week.  I can't remember the last time that she was sick.  It must have been before she was talking though, 'cause I don't remember it ever being this bad.  It feels like she spent the entire weekend crying.

Ugh.  It was horrible.  

Most kids are perfectly content to let their snot hang down to their knees.  Not our kid.  If one little droplet of mucus should peak it's goopy head from her nostril all hell breaks loose.  The screaming begins....

"BOOOOOOOOOGGGGIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!" 

Speaking for myself I can say that after about 5 or 6 days of this, I'm pretty tired of it.  I mean, is it okay to be annoyed by your own kid?  Don't get me wrong, I love the little booger-machine, but is the screaming really necessary?

I also have another question:  How do you teach a toddler how to blow their nose?  She can't do it.  I've tried to show her while explaining in detail what I'm doing.  I've even blown boogies out of my own nose without a tissue so she could see them come out.  Did I mention that I caught her cold?

Not only does she not understand how to blow her nose, she won't take a tissue from me to wipe it herself.  WE have to do it.  If she screams, "BOOGIE!" and I hand her the tissue she throws it on the floor and continues to scream.

Serenity, NOW!

Sigh.

Since the cold seems to be on the way out, we went to a farm today.  Katie got to shovel dirt into a plastic bag and plant a seed in it, pet a goat, look at a caterpillar, pet a baby chick, pick some fresh spinach, fall in the mud, go on a hay ride, touch a fresh chicken egg, see a green tractor, and sneak a bite from the leaves of said fresh spinach (not too sanitary, I know).

There's been only a few boogie screaming incidents, just your average amount of toddler whining and quite a lot of giggling today.  I think I see light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Photo Friday

Meet Katie's best pal, Giorgio.

Katie's first taste of corn on the cob.

Katie has recently begun to host dinner parties.  She likes to invite all

of her buddies.  She cooks and serves them a variety of meals

including such hits as: pasta, apple, raisin, meatball

and ice cream.

She is a great host.  She stops at every seat to make sure that 

her guests are comfortable.

A generous portion is served to each guest.

It's time for piggy back rides!

...........................................

SHOOT THE BOOT!  SHOOT THE BOOT!

Ha Ha

Katie cracks herself up.

For example, take this statement:

"Everybody eat a.....OOOOPS."

This was said while feeding her toy animals a fake apple which she then accidentally dropped on the floor.

She laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes over this.  She kept saying it over and over and laughing harder and harder each time.

Today it was the word, "Empty".

She likes to make jokes too.  In one of her favorite books there's a forest scene with a moose, some bunnies, a raccoon and such.  She'll point to the animals and with a sly smile say, "Monkey!" Then she giggles when I say, "Noooooooo.  That's not a monkey.  Silly Katie!"  She does the same thing with the scene in the desert, on the beach and even in Antarctica.

One day she's going to pull on my pant leg, I'm going to turn around and look down at her and she's gonna hit me with, "So, a horse walks into a bar......"   

Some Fun

These past two weekends have been totally awesome.

  

Last weekend, my Daddy and me went to some playgrounds, we went hiking,

we ate pizza and we even went swimming in the backyard.

  

This weekend I met some crabs, slept in a tent 

and did all sorts of neat new stuff.  

Join me as I think back on all this coolness.

Ready?

This way to the Baby Pool!

This is Duckie.  Oh yeah, and these two in the water

are Whale and Jimmy.  They like to hang out in their

big green boat.

We went to the beach.  It was kinda hard to walk 'cause there

were so many slippery rocks. Daddy says that beaches where he comes from have sand.  He must be from another planet, 'cause all the beaches I've seen have rocks.

This is Hermit Crab.  He was kinda shy.  If you held your

hand really, really still he would come out and say Hi.

He kinda sneaks up on you.  When he came out the first time,

I got scared and accidently threw him about 50 feet in the air.

This is a tent.  Daddy set it up while Mommy and I went to

the supermarket to buy "Supplies".  These "Supplies" looked a lot like a 

bunch of wood to me.  What kind of people BUY wood

when there's plenty just laying around?

YEEEEHHHAAAAW!

Here's Cowboy Daddy showing 

Cowgirl Katie some of his famous

roping tricks.

Water.  I need water.

Mmmmm.  My favorite camping food - pasta.

This is hot.  It's called fire. It is dangerous and only Daddy can touch it.

Fire is useful.  You can make marshmallows with it.

According to Mommy, marshmallow toasting is a fine art.

MMMMMMM.  Katie like it.

Here's a picture of Mommy.  She looks tired.  Daddy and her

didn't sleep so well.  Something about me taking up

the whole tent and some noisy people.  Hmph.

I slept fine.

Katie Awake!

Let's blow this joint.  I need me some Cheerios.

I guess the best part about camping is that it makes

you enjoy the comforts of home that much more.

Like having a nice dinner with your friends.

Busy Busy House

The blogs have been lacking.  I know.  It's been busy around here.

We got a big load of bark mulch delivered on Monday of this week.  I've decided to conquer the ever-increasing chaos that is our yard.

I've got guys that come and fertilize (all organic), I've got guys that come and mow/edge/blow (all carbon neutral w/ their solar powered machines), and I've got two hands to do the rest.

Who were these wonder gardeners that owned the house before us?  They must not have done anything else but work in this yard, I can tell you that.  Or they were wizards and used crafty spells to work funky garden magic a la Harry Potter.

So, the process of weeding our garden areas begins.  It's taken me all week, but I have weeded and mulched two areas.  Only about a dozen more LARGE ones to go.  Should take me until August or so.

We also have a gravel driveway to deal with.  Right now it's hard to tell where the gravel begins and the yard ends because there are so many weeds embedded in the gravel.  I have NO IDEA how to deal with this besides digging up all the gravel and just planting grass there.  Now, I just have to figure out how to get a back hoe in here to do that....

I forgot to tell you all that last Friday our little family went to see a performance by Sesame Street Live.  It was Katie's first arena event.  The show was called, "When Elmo Grows Up".  It's funny, 'cause the show wasn't really about Elmo at all.  It was mostly about Big Bird.  I'm thinking that it USED to be called, "When Big Bird Grows Up" and they just changed it to get more parents of Elmo addicts to fork over their mula.

Anyways, Katie loved it.  She was mesmerized for the first 45 minutes of the performance.  She clapped and danced and talked the whole time.  Then they took an intermission.  After that, all bets were off.  Katie started getting antsy and fussy, but she made it through the last 30 minutes without a major meltdown.

As for Huzbend and I, I can only speak for myself, but I rather enjoyed it.  The songs were catchy and it was good to see all my old Sesame Street pals.  I do have to say that Elmo's voice gets really, really annoying over a loud speaker.

Katie is still talking about the show a week later.  She likes to reminisce about how a spider landed on Oscar The Grouch's head at the end of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" number.

Man, you shoulda seen his face!!!!

Reeeeetreeeeeaaaat!

I spent most of the weekend at a gorgeous house on the side of a hill overlooking Puget Sound.  The weather was stunning; Sunny and over 80.  Nice.

Huzbend and Katie had a Mommy-Free weekend.  From what I hear, they had a great time without me.  They went out to dinner, went to a bunch of playgrounds, did some hiking and even broke out the inflatable kiddie pool!

My Saturday afternoon and evening were spent relaxing, talking, eating lots of food and participating in a White Elephant exchange.  I got stuck with the most hideous ceramic clown face you've ever seen.  It is SO going back next year.  After that, most of the others left and four of us stayed overnight.  We played some 'getting to know you games' and had some good laughs. During one of the games, they found out that I like robots.  Alas, my nerd-dom always seems to sneak out.

Sunday was spent on preschool business.  We woke up and ate breakfast and jumped right into some 'Leadership Training'.  Since we're part of the Executive Board of the preschool, we kinda have to act like it.  After that we had, like, an all day meeting with a short break for lunch and a walk.  We discussed preschool policy changes/updates, enrollment issues, preschool seminars, class participant commitments.....phew!

By the end of the weekend, I was comfortable with all the ladies on the Board (there can be men, but we don't have any).  I also felt good that I decided to get in on it.  It'll be a lot of work in the coming year, that's for sure.  But, hey, it's all for the kids.

I can also put it on my resume.  

Heh-heh.  You didn't really think it was ALL for the kids, did you?  

Young at Heart

I was such a Mom today.

I was searching for a 2008/2009 calendar at Staples.  I was holding Katie while flipping through a planner. She kept trying to grab it from me, so I asked her to hold it while I checked out another.

The next thing I know, she's crying, "Oweeeeeee!  Oweeeeeee!  Oweeeeeeeeee!"

There's blood on the cover of the planner.  

The poor kid got herself a major paper cut right on the tip of her thumb.

**NOTE TO HUZBEND:  Please remember this if she starts crying while eating her dinner tonight.  It's not my food.  It's the paper cut.

You know what I did?  OH MAN, this is SO MOM-ISH.

I sucked the blood off her finger and pulled a Band-Aid out of my purse.

A Band-Aid!  I had a BAND-AID in my PURSE.

Man.  Who am I?

When did I get so grown-up?

For some reason I still think of myself as a kid.

Not like a little kid.  Not like Katie's age.  Like, just out of college age; although I am FAR from it.

Everyone around seems so much older than me.  I don't mean the way they look.  I mean in, ahhhhh, what word to use.....presence.  Yeah, that's it, presence.

I always feel like someone's kid that's eavesdropping on a grown-up conversation.

I was recently selected to represent my coop preschool on an advisory committee.  Our preschool is partially funded by a local community college.  There are six other preschools that enjoy this partnership as well.  This advisory committee is comprised of one representative from each of these preschools.  We get together once a month and plan huge All-Preschool functions and discuss/make policy changes.  It's pretty hefty work.

I went to my first meeting last week.  I felt so out of place.  They were all business and I was completely lost.

Because I'm on this committee, I have to go back and report what we discussed to MY preschools executive board.  So, that means that I have to attend their meeting too.  Just call me Mrs. Liaison Extraordinaire.

My first official preschool board meeting is this weekend.  I'm going on a weekend retreat (yep, an overnight) with a bunch of ladies that I've said "HI" to maybe once.  Should be interesting.

Sigh, I have a feeling that no one is going to appreciate my "Spock is my Homeboy" pajama t-shirt.