Emails from Nanna

Whenever my mom keeps Katelynn, she sends me factual little emails to let me know how things are going. Of course, she understands what it is like to be a mommy and wonder what your child is up to, and whether she is happy. I realized the other day that these emails, when put together, paint a fairly vivid picture of KK's personality. Some of them are pretty darn funny too - at least to me! I decided to include a sampling of these emails here on the blog.
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We didn't go to the pool today. She had a blast there yesterday afternoon. She has finally realized the floaties on her arms will keep her up. She delighted in the feeling of weightlessness that comes with floating about. Shewould lift her legs up and lean back and tell me she was "under the covers." I guess she meant it felt like being in bed.
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KK is the sweetest girl today. No whining, yelling, or complaining. Maybe she needs that passy in the car every time. She gave it to me when we got home, and she has played with playdough, helped feed Ann's deer, fed my birds, ate lunch, and went peacefully for her nap. I don't think I've ever seen her so sweet, at least not lately. Wonder what caused it so we can make it happen again?
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KK insisted we pray at dinner, so we asked her to pray....she decided it in the middle of the meal. She scrunched her face all up with squinty eyes and said, "thank you, God, for everything, amen." At one meal, she leaned out of her chair like a guy would, and let out a huge fart. She's so entertaining. Dad told her when she does that, she needs to say, "Excuuuuuuuuuuuse Me!" So I imagine you'll be hearing that one soon.
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She has decided it would be fun to put things (corn, mashed cracker) up her nose. I swatted her hand for that, which brought on the big dramatic scene, squirting tears across the room, crying for Mommy, etc. You might just want to be aware of it, in case she decides to do it more. She has also decided she loves the cheese from the mac and cheese, but she can live without the mac part, so she sucks the cheese off and spits the mac down her belly. At least that's what she did today at lunch. Maybe it will just be a one time thing.
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KK ate a whole banana with sprinkles, orange juice, and a serving of cauliflower for breakfast this morning.
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If she tells you she had surgery to fix her bad face, she didn't get it here. I don't where she gets some of the stuff she says. She told me she couldn't go out and feed the birds because she had surgery. I asked her what she had surgery for and she said, "To fix my bad face, see.....and then she made an ugly face." Where does she get this stuff?

The Naked Screaming Banshee

Katelynn's tantrums seem to go through ebbs and flows, and they have been at an all time high lately. The morning errands commenced nearly an hour later than planned because she threw such a fit about wanting to watch TV rather than leave the house. She really lost it completely, and there is no point in trying to do anything with her when she is like that. I just let her go crazy and pretend she isn't there for awhile... as much as one can do that when the decibel level in the house is approximately equivalent to a jet plane.

She really just has to let it out for 30 minutes before she will finally calm down enough to have a little conversation and consider getting calmer. By "let it out" I mean run around in circles, stamp her little feet, and throw herself on the floor, all while screaming.

This incident occurred again at nap time, then at bed time. The bed time incident was the worst of the day in terms of raw intensity. I was feeling quite cynical about this journey called motherhood. She ran away from me hollering at fever pitch every time I tried to do anything - bathe her, dry her off, comb her hair, even give her a beloved pacifier! At one point I was chasing her around the house with a toothbrush and looked up at Gene. As soon as I made eye contact with him, the absurdity of the whole situation struck me and I just started laughing uncontrollably. I mean, here I was chasing a little naked 2 year old girl around my kitchen in circles, all while she was screaming like a banshee.

30 minutes of screaming later, plus 30 minutes of calming her down, and she is finally in bed for the night. I survived another day with this kid. Thank you, Lord.

PS. I googled "banshee" and this is what comes up. Disturbing? Yes. Appropriate? Yes.

Beautiful Family

My niece Isabelle has continued to flourish at home, spending her days puttin' on the pounds and keeping her mommy and daddy very busy... and sleepless. Throughout Izzy's long journey, they have been blessed by the beautiful photography of Niji Stanley and his wife Lali. He found out about Griff, Jen and Isabelle through a mutual friend, and then made two trips to the NICU to take stunning pics of our little micro-preemie.

Recently, Niji took pictures at Griff & Jen's home and I had to post a couple here. He was able to capture on film something that is evident to those of us that have visited Izzy at home - she has mommy and daddy wrapped around her little bitty finger! Enjoy...

(P.S. Niji and Lali said it was ok to post the photographs.... don't worry Griff & Jen!)

A Sad Good-bye

Warning: This post contains content that may be emotionally disturbing to readers.

This summer, we have made several family trips to the local gourmet ice cream shops. Mmmmmm... Alas, I have noticed an alarming trend after consumption of these divine treats - a crampy tummy ache that lasts anywhere from an hour to all night long. Ugh.

I am forced to face the devastating fact that I seem to be developing some level of lactose intolerance. At least, my body doesn't seem able to handle that super-creamy ice cream served at the shops anymore. So I am giving it up. Sigh.

As a final tribute to gourmet ice cream, I have penned a parting haiku.

Big beautiful scoops
Into my watering mouth
Oh I will miss you

Confessions of a Desperate Mom

I should really be ashamed to admit this in writing... but here goes. I mean, it's only the internet...

Katelynn blows away Oscar the Grouch when she wakes from a nap. She immediately comes out to the hallway/landing area upstairs and cries, whines, and begs to come downstairs - so that she can cry and whine within a much closer vicinity of mommy. It's just a miserable time of day with her. And she can locate me anywhere, the little eagle eye. So what's a mommy to do?

I hide out.

I use the first 1 to 1.5 hours of her nap to do things in the kitchen and living room. Then I make a disappearing act to my bedroom. I put laundry away, clean my bathroom, or - as I am doing now - blog! Then, when the grouch awakens she can have 15 minutes to herself to get into a better mood.

As I write this I hear the whining of "Mommy, mommmmmmy, mommmmmmmmmy..." It's been 15 minutes and she is still a grouch. Duty calls....

Band-Aids

Katelynn has hit the stage where she is always getting bug bites, bumps and bruises from all her rough play. She has also hit the stage where she picks - incessantly - at any little scab she can find on her body. It is pretty darn disgusting.

Like just about all kids, she likes band-aids a lot and especially loves the kiddie band-aids. I'm trying to keep her spots covered so they will actually heal! So far we have purchased Dora and rainbow-sparkle band-aids shaped like hearts. She enjoys showing them off to anyone who will look.

The 2009 Summer Dress

Every year I have to get one great summer dress... see last year's pick here . I have been delinquent this year due to being overly busy and having a toddler who does not do well with shopping at all anymore.

But today I had 30 minutes to speed shop at my favorite store, Ann Taylor Loft, while I was waiting to meet my mom at our rendevous point to get Katelynn from the weekly overnight Nanna Camp. It was a very successful trip as they had a huge rack of final clearance pants and skirts for - gasp - $9.98! Clothes were flying all over that dressing room as I tried things on at lightning speed. I got several pairs of pants, capris, and a cute skirt. I also found my summer dress, pictured here. It was full price, but all that cheap stuff helped to bring down my per-unit price.... good rationalization, huh?!

The Magic Phone

Gene is the technology guru and lover in our household. He calls himself the "VP of Technology" and prides himself on lovingly and thoroughly (oh so thoroughly) taking care of my technology needs.

I must say that I will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to the wonders of the iPhone. I am not sure I would have discovered it on my own; I'm just not willing to put in all the research in selecting these types of products. The Apple store kind of puts me in a funk. But the iPhone itself certainly does not. In fact I would have to say I would rather have my iPhone than the equivalent amount of new clothing. Wow, did I really just admit that?!

I am sure ten years from now I will read this post and laugh at the ridiculous size and elementary technology of this beautiful phone. But for posterity's sake I thought I would list some of the cool things my phone currently does (in no particular order).

• Fast internet surfing
• GPS/ Google Maps
• Stopwatch, clock, etc.
• Camera complete with a pretty decent video camera (now I can at least get some simple videos of KK's antics)
• The Holy Bible with 15+ English translations. Also available in Dutch, Spanish, Finnish, Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese, Japanese and even Arabic!
• To-do list
• Voice memos
• Detailed weather forecasts
• Compass
• Email for all my accounts
• Contacts listing
• Calendar
• Calculator
• Shazam (can tell the name of any song once the phone can "listen" to it for about 10 seconds)
• Secure storage of passwords, identification numbers, etc.
• Flashlight
• List of every pub, restaurant, grocery store, hospital, you name it, within close radius of current location
• Dog whistle
• Unit converter
• Recipe finder
• Ambient sound machine
• Movie showtimes and information
• Facebook application
• Voice recognition for a multitude of things
• Access to endless music library
• Stock history and quotes
• Encyclopedia

Oh, and it makes phone calls too.

Books, Books, Books

Several months ago, it was evident that Katelynn was so tired of her book collection. While it was rather extensive, she had every book memorized. And so did mommy.

So I went off to the library and discovered that I can pull nearly any book from the "juvenile easy fiction" section and it will be a hit. I checked out 20 books and renewed them all twice, so we got to enjoy them for nearly 9 weeks! Out of the 20 random books, I found it interesting that about 5 of them were what I would consider to be "great", 10 were "ok", and another 5 went immediately into the "do not read again" pile. (The pictured book is definitely one of my favorite children's books to date.)

Today I took KK with me to pick out new books. She approached this task with glee. For every one book that I picked out, she was bringing me a stack of 6 or 7. After a few minutes, it was evident we were well over the 20 book goal, and I had to prop her up on the top of a bookshelf to keep her from wreaking havoc on the dewey decimal system. We were in and out of there in less than 10 minutes, and I have to say that Katelynn did a pretty good job with her selections. We enjoyed some new reads tonight.

I started a list of her favorites, in case I ever want to check them out from the library again.
You can find it here at Amazon Listmania in case you are interested in some good reads for your little one!

This Little Piggy

Recently, KK saw me touching up my pedicure and excitedly asked me to paint her toes as well. "Mommy, paint my piggies!" I hesitated; I was not so sure how it would go. I told her she would have to sit very still, and then watch a TV show while they dried.

She agreed, and I was amazed how still she was. It is hard to paint such tiny toes, but they did look really cute when they were done!

KK's First Catch

We spent the last several days at "the Ranch" with our pals the Clarks. Usually we cram everything into a weekend, but this time we planned a 5 day trip and it was great to have all that time in the peaceful countryside (despite the 100+ degree heat).

This was the first trip that KK was old enough to understand the concept of fishing. Every day she was very excited for the fishing, which we usually did in the evenings. She caught several fish with some help from daddy or "Uncle Calvin" (who told her it would be a good idea to kiss the fish before throwing it back, which she promptly did.... ugh). Gene taught her the word "slimy" awhile back and she exclaimed to us:

"Mommy and daddy, it's a BIG SLIMY FISH!"

11th Anniversary

Last summer, we won a great prize at an Aggie event - 2 nights at the 4 Seasons Las Colinas. We saved it until last month and stayed there to celebrate our 11th anniversary. We had a beautiful room overlooking the golf course. We generally enjoyed sleeping in, going to the gym every day, and relaxing by the pool.

We decided it's the "little things" that make a resort like this so special and thought we would make a list so we don't forget our fun weekend!

• The ice cold towels scented like almond that are delivered pool-side and stairmaster-side
• Eating breakfast on our great balcony
• Warmed up syrup for pancakes
• Ice waters with lids delivered while working out
• The shower in the spa that had about 6 huge shower heads
• Having cushy pool chairs "made up" for you the moment you arrive
• Delicious smoothies and daquiris delivered poolside - no fake fruit or flavorings in these! (Passion fruit was my favorite)
• Premium bath products - always a hit with me!
• Big fluffy robes and towels
• Awesome bed with puffy down pillows and comforter
• Eating breakfasts like "French Toast with Spicy Banana Compote" - mmmmm

Chillin'

Gene has dealt with back issues on and off for many years now. Recently he had an "episode" and had to spend several days on his back, on a pallet in the living room. He had a full set up going on, complete with remote controls, computers (yes - plural - as you can see from the pic!), beverages, phones, etc.

As you can see, Katelynn observed her daddy and decided it would be a good idea to emulate him. One day when he got up to hobble to the bathroom, she decided it was time to take over what looked like a pretty good spot.

Water Girl

Katelynn certainly did provide me with some beautiful photos the evening she decided to joyously immerse herself in these bubbles while in the tub. Swimsuit season had not quite yet arrived, but these shots made me eager for our pool days and to enjoy my water bug.

Since these pics, we have been to the pool several times. We have had a great time, but I have been struck by how she has changed from last year. She had zero fear last year and wanted to go down the slides and play with the water squirting apparatuses over and over. And over. She was not old enough to do the slide herself, so it was quite exhausting for me, the mommy.

This year, she still loves the water but has a new apprehension. She could do the slide by herself now but she won't! She could run through most of the kiddie area on her own, yet she clings to me. For some reason, fears have set in.

Is it normal child development, or is it that somewhat whiny cartoon kid Caillou ? He sure is scared of everything! Maybe it's time to delete that show from the DVR...

Phrases, Phrases

Katelynn is certainly a little sponge these days. She is constantly cracking Gene and me up with her chatter. There is so much I should be writing down on this blog that I forget by the day's end... it is just one thing after another!

One trend I have noticed lately is her use of funny little phrases. She has given pretend baths to both her Nanna and to me, and then said "Now you're cleeeeaaan as a whistle!"

Then a few days ago, Gene took a turn a bit fast (not a rare occurrence!) and she exclaimed "That was too close for comfort!"

Izzy Goes Home!

My post is delinquent, but I still had to devote a post to my beautiful niece Isabelle Eden.

She went home on Saturday, June 20th after 16 weeks and 2 days in the NICU. She is doing well and Griff and Jen are dealing with the normal lack-of-sleep issues that come with many newborns. She went home on oxygen support and they are working on weaning her off of it.

Griff and Jen have both penned many beautiful posts at both Izzy's Caringbridge website and now at their new family blog. So I won't even try to do better! Visit their sites and see how long you last without bawling... they have been a beautiful example to me of strength and love through an extremely difficult trial.

I love you Griff, Jen and Izzy!