First Snowman... um...girl

 Here is Katie and my first snowman... sorry, girl.  See the pink hat?  Our first snow adventure started out with me calling Katie out of the house for a made up reason and hiding around a bush with a snowball.

You need to realize that I am not the play in the snow type person.  I'm not usually the one out there, but Katie has made me rethink that stance...a little.  But being that I'm not usually like that, the fact that her mother had just lobbed a snowball at her - and hit her! - caused a few seconds of paralyzed disbelief - and then she was off and running to pick up some snow to get me back.

After we had thrown a few snow balls I suggested we build a snowman.  Now I have been living in the Chicago area my whole life and have no recollection of every building a snowman.  I know, I know - No, I do not know what's wrong with me.  Ask my parents.  I'd tell you to ask my sisters, but the conversation may be a little long.

But we have now officially made our first snow...person...  and we're both quite proud of it.  Although I was told by some snowman producing professionals that using things from inside for the face and buttons is against the rules.  And to that I say..look at that snow face... it's the face of a rebel... can't you see it?

So maybe folding clothes isn't a good idea....

I asked Katie to fold the laundry today.  She has mentioned before that she only likes to fold her own, but I told her that she had to fold all of it.  Then I hear... "Hey look!  I didn't know daddy's underwear had pockets!"

Ummm.....

Yes there is a God - and don't try telling Katie otherwise...

This Sunday we had a new boy come to our Children's ministry, Promiseland.  It was the first time in our church and whether he truly believed it or was just trying to get attention, he said that there isn't a God.  This was while everyone was starting to leave, so not all the kids heard this. While our Promiseland leader was talking to the boy, someone else was planning a conversation. 

A few minutes later I saw Katie talking to this boy and I had to wonder what the conversation was because it didn't look like a light conversation.  At first when I asked her later she said she couldn't remember.  But then I asked her how she felt when he said there wasn't a God...

She blushed and said, "That's what we were talking about.  I was ticked!  I told him that there IS a God!  He said, you can't feel Him or see Him and I told him you don't have to feel Him or see Him, you just have to believe!."

The child's mom showed up at that point so the conversation ended.    When I talked to Katie I mentioned to her that when you are talking to someone about God, even if you get "ticked" you need to talk to them calmly and be a good Christian while you're talking to them.  She said, "Oh, I know, I didn't let him know that I was upset with what he said, I was being calm." 

Gotta love that kid.  I told her I was very proud of her, she handled everything wonderfully.

Fall Days

 Katie and I took a "nature walk" today.  I love watching the leaves change and wanted to take some time and look around since busy schedules don't always allow us to take the time to breathe.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.  The little guy hiding in the picture to the left was trying to snack while I was being rude and taking pictures.  (At least I hope he's to my left. I never know where these things are going to end up when I'm done posting.)

 Katie is sticking some leaves into her pocket. :)  Next time we need to bring a bag.

 Katie showing off some of her choice leaves.  The fawn went on the walk with us.  It made her feel closer to her real home.  I'm not sure, I stopped asking questions a long time ago.

 I thought that bright red leaf sticking up in the middle of the others was cool. :)

My little band girl ...

... at least we'll see. Katie is very excited.  I wasn't really planning on the whole band thing, but according to notes from the music teacher she scored highest in the school on the test they were given.  Now I'm not sure if the only class tested was hers or it was the whole school, I'm leaning towards it was only her grade - but that's still pretty good in my book.

They suggested the clarinet, so that's what we're going with.  Who knows?  She has two great-great uncles that were professional trumpeters so maybe its in her blood. :) 

Lessons start the 29th, I think she's going to have the case worn out opening it to look at the clarinet before that day comes.

My little skunk

Updated with Pictures 

Katie has an assignment today in school.  She has to be a skunk.  She and her classmates were assigned different animals and they are supposed to dress as their animal and then tell the class about them.  She was originally a little upset with the assignment of skunk because she was getting teased.  But after having a talk with her about how much I like skunks (and I do, I just don't want to get sprayed by one) and getting excited about dressing her up, she rallied and even said that she doesn't care what anyone thinks.

Well we'll be testing that theory today since this morning I spent about 20 minutes painting her face to look like a skunk, with Cynthia adding finishing touches to the whiskers so I could catch my train. When I asked her what time she would be doing this presentation, she said in Science.  Science is the last thing that they do today.  So my child will be teaching everyone about skunks all day long.  Hmmm.  That may not have been thought out too well.  I hope she doesn't get teased too much.  She's a strong kid, I'm hoping that she has fun with it - and isn't a disruption to the rest of her class!   I did  tell her that  if she didn't want to wear the paint she could wash it off...she has the rest of her outfit ready complete with a white and black boa tail.  

I'll update later with a picture if she didn't back out on the whole thing before they got out the door to go to school. LOL

Back to School fun

Mission Accomplished

Shopping is tiring them out

Dad trying to find the alcohol

Someone is having fun

So today was back to school shopping day with Nana & Papa.  Katie (and Cynthia) were very excited.  I was afraid my parents wouldn't make it through the day without collapsing.

There was only one call for help, of which I did not provide much, so it was a good day.  The shoe salesman that worked with Katie is planning his retirement around the time that she will be shopping for high heels.  He and my father were trying to plan an escape to the neighboring bar while she was trying on shoes.  And my father almost never drinks, so that's saying something.

We are blessed to have such loving and generous parents/grandparents.  We love them!

As I told my dad on the phone today, at least "back to school" only happens once a year. :)

Beam me up Scottie..it's time to escape

This past weekend a very tearful Katie was having a problem with me leaving the house for a couple hours.  When I walked out of her room to head downstairs, she yelled "Mommy" and ran over to the stairs, tears streaming down her face and wrapped her arms around me.  I said "Why are you crying?"  The reply may sound familiar to some of you... it was "I dooonn'tttt knoooowwwww."   I chuckled to myself and said to her, "it's okay, I have those days sometimes too."

Here come the hormones!!!!!   Please fasten your seatbelts and keep your hands in until the ride stops....

No I didn't forget my daughter's birthday....

However, we were on vacation and I did not have internet access.  Well, I did one day, but it was already past her birthday.  We were in the Northwoods of Wisconsin fishing, horseback riding and in general immersing in nature.  With the exception of Katie's DS.  Of course.  See that picture of her with the bunny?  She was in the pen with the bunnies for an hour if not more.  I kept walking away and coming back.  At one point someone asked her if she worked there. LOL  When I walked over to see why she was helping one of the bunnies reach the water bowl.

JC had an interesting time at the wildlife park we went to.  There was a cockatoo, maybe, can't remember, but JC sat down right in front of his cage with his back to him.  The bird came down so it was level with JC.  JC started petting its beak and talking to him.  After a few minutes, JC turned around and stopped paying attention to the bird.  Until the bird said "pretty bird" to him.  Then JC started talking to him again and whistling, which the bird mimicked.  He then tried to eat JC's shirt. LOL  It was quite comical.  JC also made friends with a horse named Tarzan.  He was having a Dr. Doolittle kinda vacation. LOL

I swear she didn't get this from me....

Katie was playing with her barbies and a fairy book she has this weekend and I was joining the game in progress.  I was asking what was going on and apparently the Ken doll was kidnapping the fairies while they were sleeping.  Of course I wanted to know why Ken would be doing such a thing.

Her answer?

His wife said she wanted "more magic in her life" and the fairies were magic so he was kidnapping them.

O.M.G.

Too young for stress

My daughter is a little artist.  I have her artwork all over my office from the times that she's been there with me.  I mentioned to her that some men we're working with right now really liked her artwork and I thought it would be nice if she made some more for me while she's at my office on Tuesday.  She asked me when the men were coming back to my office and when I told her Wednesday I got "I'M GOING TO FEEL PRESSURED!" from her.   

Oh my!  I had no idea asking her to color a couple of pictures was going to be such a stressful request!  But apparently she has visions of a multi-picture display. She's so funny.  Now I just have to make sure she remains calm during her assignment. LOL

I am apparently being replaced

Every once in a while I do something, usually on purpose because I like to drive my husband a little crazy (it keeps him on his toes), that seems to require my husband to ask my daughter what color her new mommy's hair should be.  My daughter typically yells out, I don' t want a new mommy!  Once when he complained that I was being silly and asked her that question she said, "I like a silly mommy."   She's so cute.  I thought.

There are also little things I do to her just because I believe that part of the job of children is to provide entertainment value.  So whenever I make her a hot dog and cut it up for her, I eat one of the ends.  I don't know what started it, but I've always done it.  It was probably just a way for me to make sure it wasn't too hot at one point, but I've never stopped doing it.  However, NOW she notices.  And it bugs her.  So I continue to do it. ... if you knew my father you'd understand. :)     She will tell me not to as I'm making the hot dogs and I invariably find something for her to do to distract her before I start cutting them up so I can grab one of the ends.

The other day I handed her a plate with two hot dogs on it, sans one end of course, and she marched into the living room (doubles as our dining room at the moment) where my husband was sitting.  She sits down and says "Blond".  My husband, completely confused, asks her what she's talking about.  "My next mommy...she should be blond."      Hmpf.  No sense of humor. :)

Got to love cats

This post is not about Katie, although she loved hearing this story.

This morning at about 3:45 our beloved (JC would say I'm using that word without authorization) and somewhat crazy cat was chasing his ball around our bed.  He likes to play fetch and he'll bring it up on the bed to try to get us to play with him.  If we don't he'll just bat it around the bed and jump all over us playing with it.  This morning the festivities began at 3:45.  I had been sleeping through some of it when I realized that JC had gotten out of bed.  I turned over planning to take the ball and put it under my pillow which is my normal response to this nocturnal activity.  I propped myself up on my elbow and looked at the cat as JC was walking back into the room.

As my eyes fell on the ball, JC said "DON'T MOVE."   I said, "What is that?" (Remember I don't sleep with my glasses on.)  He said, "A live mouse." and proceeded to put his hand over it and scoop it up (he had grabbed his work glove while he was out of the room).  

You know, my other cat, my mouser, used to kill the mice.  I wish that she had managed to train this one before she passed last year.  One of my first thoughts when I knew that we would have to put Tigger down was "who's going to catch mice".  Apparently I should have been more worried about who was going to KILL them.  (By the way, my house is not overrun with mice, we ususally get one a year.)

Fun way to start the day! 

She's not as smart as I thought...

I'm just kidding, my child is quite smart.  However, I assumed that when she figured out that the tooth fairy was not real she would keep it to herself until she was out of teeth. LOL    But after Church today she turned to me, and proving that she had been thinking of other things during service, said "So if Santa isn't real and the Easter bunny isn't real - does that mean that the Tooth Fairy isn't real either?"

I tried to get around this, I truly did.  I himmed, hawed and tried to change the subject but Katie can be very persistent.  When I finally couldn't take the pressure anymore I gave in and admitted the truth.  Then she started to discuss how WE were giving her the silver dollars (or half dollars, I can't actually remember)  and how when she lost her next tooth she would get ANOTHER one.  I looked at her and said, "Not if you tell Daddy you know about the tooth fairy."  She stopped dead in her tracks, looked at me and said, "Please don't tell him I know."   There's my girl.  That's what I thought was going to happen. LOL  

So everyone - ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh   :D

New Year's Eve 2009

Okay, I'm usually a very good planner. And everything did eventually turn out for the best. However, we did get off to a rocky start new year's eve. Just as we were going to head downtown to the Intercontinental Hotel for dinner and their NYE party, I read the confirmation. Which said ROSEMONT, not Downtown Chicago - it actually did say Chicago/O'Hare but the driving direction was to Rosemont. I think that may be where my online confusion came from but I'm just guessing.


So after a quick call to verify and another quick call to Keith (pictured above) and his girlfriend MB to let them know what happened we spent a few minutes rearranging dinner reservations. Everything turned out great - better for Keith and MB since they were going to drive in from Algonquin. We had a great time, heard a good cover band (okay, not sure how many of us thought they were good - but I did), saw the Gin Blossoms were also good and entertained ourselves people watching.


Meanwhile at Nana & Papa's house... apparently Papa fell asleep and Nana had to stay up with Katie. Poor Nana. She didn't sign up for that.


Hope you all have a Happy New Year!