My Playground!

Greetings from Massachusetts! As you can tell from all the twitter posts, we arrived about 8:30 Sunday night. The drive with Papa and Gram took a bit longer than expected thanks to a bit of traffic in New Jersey and just before the Tappan Zee Bridge and then the torrential rain in CT. Five minutes away in Suffield, CT we could barely see the road it was pouring so hard. However, our girl was as good as gold for the ENTIRE 14 hour trip. I were amazed, surely she would lose it at some point and declare that she wanted to get out. But no, she happily slept and played with Gram. What a little traveler.

So, you're probably wondering how the bit playset build went. Well, let's just that the 4 hour timeframe given on the box was a bit...off. By about 16 hours. Ted and my dad started Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They continued Thursday night with the help of Ted's Dad. The Papa's got to it bright and earlier on Friday with Ted joining after work. They all finished Saturday morning.Katherine waited very patiently for her "playground" to be finished. However once it was done and we let her loose, there was no holding her back:

My Dad said seeing that run made it all worth it. Here are the three builders with their girl:

Katherine played on her playground for at least an hour before lunch. Unfortunately storms moved in at lunchtime and stayed for the rest of the day. Since we left early the next morning for Massachusetts, she won't be able to play on it again until Sunday (not that she isn't having a blast at Papa and Gram's house!). There are many more pictures to display but they'll have to wait for a future album. I've been remiss in sending out albums lately, I'm working on switching over to Shutterfly where I can have a password protected site linked directly to the blog instead of the periodic email albums. So give a few more weeks and I should have something up with the pictures of this summer.

Almost there

The rainbow and traffic that greated us as we turned onto I-87 to head to the Tappan Zee Bridge.


-- Post From My iPhone

The cake

Third birthday cake all ready for the big party tomorrow!






-- Post From My iPhone

Happy Birthday Katherine!

I asked Katherine how old she was this morning when I called to check in. Her reply? “I’m Katherine.” Last night she did tell me she was 3 (and held up three fingers too!).

I can’t believe it; I can’t believe we’ve made it to birthday number 3. I’ve really noticed over the last couple of months how much she’s grown this year, physically and developmentally. You can have a conversation with her, she’ll do something when you ask her to (for the most part), every day she does something new that makes me go “you can do that now?!?”. Still, she’s got those cute little cheeks, those big blue eyes and the button nose. Our Baby Girl has turned into our Sweet Little Girl.

The big party is tomorrow once Aunt Carrie arrives but we did some decorating last night so that the Birthday Girl would be greeted in the morning. Of course, in the medical odyssey that was Age 2, she woke up Wednesday morning covered in hives. Since my parents were watching her, they graciously offered to take her to the doctor who immediately said it was an allergic reaction to something (we’ll probably never find the cause out according to them) and prescribed an over the counter remedy. Things look much better today. What a way to round out the year. Here’s hoping that Age 3 is a bit calmer in that arena.

The swing set is coming together. The “4 hour” timeframe quoted by the box is a joke. Ted and both Papas have worked on it for 3 evenings in a row, way more than the four hours so far. Still, for the cost, it was worth it. Katherine is beside herself, waiting for the completion of “My Playground”. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for tonight but if not, definitely tomorrow morning.

Since I am taking all of next week off, I am working today. Ted is working as well. Not to worry, the Birthday Girl is in the hands of the Papas and Grams and I’m sure she’s having a blast. Right now I am swamped with the last minute things to get done at work before I jet out of here!

Gearing up for Number 3

Birthday preparations are in full swing at the Coberly Estate. Katherine and I went to Dollar Tree this past weekend for some decorations. I thought the princess themed decorations would be cute considering her recent love of putting on a dress and declaring “I’m a princess!” However, they had “buh-fly” decorations as well and of course they won out. This year, instead of ordering a cake, I decided we would make one and Katherine picked out her cake flavor, frosting, and candles. Papa and Gram Meagher arrived yesterday morning, Papa and Gram Coberly arrive tomorrow and Aunt Carrie joins us on Saturday afternoon. K. is already loving all of the attention.

The swingset is…still in the box. I had hoped that some work would get done this past weekend but it didn’t happen. So tonight we’ll probably mow the grass in preparation and then crack it open to start itemizing all of the parts (or Ted will mow while I itemize). I am really hoping the 4 hour timeframe given by the company is true. Katherine is beyond excited for her “playground”.

I still can’t believe that our little girl is turning 3 on Friday.

Katherine's Creations

Katherine has discovered my iPhone. Stupid me thought she wouldn't figure it out. Ha! She said to that. I've downloaded two apps for her, toddler shapes and doodle pro. It keeps her occupied on the car ride home. Check out her creations, there are clearly artistic aspirations there!






-- Post From My iPhone

Making Dinner

Katherine has become quite a collector and everything eventually winds up in that basket up there. Take a close look, you'll hair bands, barrettes, Little People, slices of play pizza, various pizza toppings, cupcakes, buttons, tools and a few more things I've forgotten about. She put that together while playing in her kitchen and she refers to it as "dinner". I'm guessing it's a casserole of some sort. During the past week more got added to the pot.

If there's one task I am sick of doing around here it's sorting. What a thankless job because as fast as I organize it, it winds right back in the dinner basket. As I type this in a nice clean, TV room, I can hear her in her room taking stuff out of her closest. She's supposed to be in bed. Excuse me one second...

Ok, where was I? Right. Some of you might say not to bother, if she likes to put all her eggs in one basket, go with it. But being a stickler for organization (ok, ok, anal retentive), I just can't do it. That mess bothers me. Plus I feel like she needs to learn that every once in a while we've got to clean up. The past couple of times I attempted to sort that basket I was literally kicked out of her kitchen ("Mommy, don't touch my stuff! Get out!"), so I had to resort to stealth sorting. Tonight, however, she was a bit more complacent about it, not thrilled mind you, but willing to at least go with the flow and participate a little bit.

I have this weird feeling that I was the same way at her age.

Playing with Scissors

We’ve been doing some arts and crafts activities with Katherine in an attempt to reduce her weekend TV time which lately has meant watching The Tigger Movie and Winnie the Pooh’s Very Merry Christmas (“My Other Tigger Movie”) over and over and over. We've done painting, playdough and cutting and pasting. This weekend K. insisted on trying the scissors herself. Now, much to my amazement, they have done cutting at school, I was shocked one afternoon, a number of months ago, to walk into the two year old room and find one of the teachers cleaning up a table full of cuttings… “We’ve been working on our fine motor skills!” Wow, really?? Scissors at TWO? You people are brave! So when K. grabbed the scissors Sunday morning I tried my best to stay calm and supervise instead of grabbing them from her with a “Mommy will do that!” She didn’t do that bad except for the fact that our scissors are not made for little hands therefore she had trouble opening and closing them once she started cutting. She also insists on holding them upside down but hey, it does get the job done for her. And in case you’re wondering she does a good job of keeping her fingers out of the way.

Ted and I decided that if she was going to be doing some cutting at home it would be best to get her own pair of scissors…blunt tip scissors. And while we were at it, we could restock our arts and crafts supplies. K. was thrilled with this idea. Off we went to Michael’s where I attempted to sneak a peak at the scrapbooking stuff before picking out K’s scissors (the nerve!) She held that little package of scissors (with a purple handle) all through the store and then spent most of the rest of the afternoon cutting up her “Cut and Paste” book. No pasting was done. Our TV room floor is a mess and Katherine is very happy with “my scissors”.

What would a weekend be without some swimming? We went multiple times on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday morning however, we woke up to find the ring at the top of the pool deflated. Seems that is has a small leak. No problem, we’ve got patches…except…we’ve got to find where the leak is. Obviously submerging the ring is not the answer, the pool water will flow out. I did a visual inspection and I didn’t see any huge holes, so we’re looking for a tiny one. I’m thinking some soapy water and a paint brush might do the trick, if I paint around with the water and watch for bubbles. My first place to look is going to be the seams. I’m also thinking that going around the seams with a tube of seam sealer might be the best thing to do anyways. Then if its still leaking at least I know its not the seams. We really want to keep this pool for next year too, so I’m determined to find the leak. Any other ideas are welcomed! Of course with highs at 100 over the next two days, I’m thinking we may just blow the thing back up twice a day and wait for some cooler temps before we sit in the sun leak hunting. UPDATE: since I wrote this post this afternoon I very easily found the hole in the pool! It is all patched, the pool is full and we are back in business!

Katherine's First Rainbow

We had a storm right as we arrived home. When the sun came back out a rainbow appeared! Katherine was fascinated.

Hot Dogs and Bitty Kitties

I am way overdue on a post. Over the course of the last week or so lots of cute little things would happen and I would think…oooo, gotta write about that. Of course, time would slip away from me and no post would happen. I’ve also realized that I haven’t put out a photo album in ages so I need to get working on one of those too. So, you’re only gonna get the highlights this time around. But their good highlights.

Last Wednesday the parents were invited to lunch with their kids. There was no other place I’d rather be. The president was speaking in Raleigh that day and my big concern was that I was going to have problems on the beltline as his arrival time was coincided with my departure time from work. When Cheney was here, they shut down the beltline while the motorcade went by. The direction I was going was no where near the direction he was going but you never know what path they’ll be taking. My daughter is more important than the president any day of the week in my eyes. Katherine was beyond thrilled to see me and after the initial “oh, we’re not going home right away?” we settled down to a lunch of hot dogs and baked beans. Every so often K. would look over at me and just smile. I knew that while it was nothing fancy, she was thrilled that I was there. After lunch, we went home and went in the pool. Nothing better.

Katherine and I had a wonderful day on Friday. I decided that in lieu of having her glued to the TV for the better part of the day that we would venture out and check out a few stores. First stop though was the tailor’s to drop off her flower girl dress for Aunt Colleen’s wedding. She was all too happy to try on her “princess dress” so that it could be marked for alterations. Then it was off T.J. Maxx, Kohl’s, Tar-jay... I didn’t have anything in particular in mind to buy so we took our time walking around. Katherine was so good that I told her she could pick something out for herself when we got to Target. This is the first time I have ever let her do this and boy did she get a kick out of it. But first we hit the Starbucks for a quick snack. We split a vanilla cream and a piece of lemon pound cake. Mmmmm. “Mommy, we’re having snack together!” Then on to shopping, where K. spotted the dollar bin. Sweet! I wasn’t even thinking of the dollar bin when I told her she could pick something out. So she actually walked out with a couple of things, since it only cost me a few bucks. As far as she was concerned they were treasures.

You may have noticed the twitter about the kitty. An adorable kitten has taken up residence in our front bushes. Word on the street is it followed Buddy home. I thought Reeses was tiny when we got her, this cat is even smaller. All of the cats that we are aware of in our neighborhood are fixed so unfortunately we think someone dumped a kitten. We tried to get a hold of it Friday night with no luck (Buddy however came right over to help me search). I thought of putting food out for it but I’m not sure it could eat regular sized cat food (it’s THAT small) and we knew that Buddy would just consider that a free meal. Our next door neighbor (Buddy’s owner) is on the look out for it too (and leaving food out), our overall goal is to get a hold of it so that a vet can check it out, give it the shots it needs, spay/neuter etc… Ted and I aren’t sure that we want another cat but I don’t think I could give it away after it chose the front of our house as a new home. This morning it was hiding in the vine on the front porch. We’re hoping over time it will get used to us so at least we can grab it. Our neighbor also mentioned that you can get a trap from the humane society. I plan on checking that out and possibly talking to our vet. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a picture soon too.