"I Don't Like Santa Claus"

We had a great Thanksgiving in Virginia at Papa and Gram Coberly's house.  There was turkey eating, playground time, Black Friday shopping, scrapbooking and just plain relaxing time.  Katherine had a ball with Papa and Gram as well as Aunt Carrie and Great Grandma Hamilton.  Ted and I had some rare time to just sit around and do nothing...we actually got a bit bored which felt WONDERFUL.

The Salvation Army was holding a Breakfast with Santa at the local Applebee's this morning, so everyone headed over before Ted, Katherine and myself headed back to NC.  If you caught one on my Twitter/Facebook posts from a week or two ago you'll remember that I was on the lookout for this type of event after recalling my fond memories of Breakfast with Santa growing up. We'll just say that the guest of honor was not impressed one bit with Santa.  She was fine with checking him out from a distance while she enjoyed her pancakes but when time came for a personal hello...

Things didn't go so well.  What the photo didn't capture was her clinging to me before and after her lap time.  She was terrified.  I thought it would be ok if I stood right next to her while the picture was taken.  Not so much.  The lady at photo table was going to give me the picture for free but I made a donation anyways, after all this will join the collection with the Santa pictures from previous years. And as an aside, do you think they could have picked a better spot in the restaurant for the Santa pics???  The Miller Lite sign in the back really makes the picture look festive.

What she did love, from the second she caught sight of it was the "choo choo train".  In fact that's pretty much what she talked about all through breakfast.  "I don't like Santa Claus, I want to go on the choo choo train."  We had to keep assuring her that after breakfast she would get her turn on the train.  It really brighted her mood after the disastorous visit with Santa.

On the way South on I-95 Katherine was pouting in the car.  I asked her what was wrong.  "I don't like Santa Claus." In light of this experience, I think we'll skip visiting Santa at the mall this year. I have a feeling the photo outcome would be exactly the same.

The Chopper

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Pampered Chef party at Adrienne’s house. Up until then I only vaguely knew about Pampered Chef. After the party, well…this may become one of my new addictions. It feeds right into my like the “idea of cooking” but don’t actually cook well self. Truthfully Ted should have been the one at the party with all the fancy kitchen gadgets, not me. But…when in Rome!

After watching the demonstration, eating some good food and checking out all of the gadgets I decided on purchasing The Chopper. Since I’m usually the one that does the prep work in our house, this little gadget will make my chopping and dicing go a lot faster. Plus, Miss K can join in the fun since the blades are completely covered, even when you’re chopping. Everyone else at the party was more versed in the Pampered Chef paraphernalia than I was and the recommendation from the group was, if you’re going to by one thing, make it The Chopper. So I placed my order. It arrived last night!

You may remember the post two Fridays ago in which the dishwasher exploded in one big mass of suds. Turns out yours truly accidentally put in regular dishwashing soap instead of dishwasher soap. After an afternoon of bailing water and suds (with some help from the 3 year old of course…she was the “dumper” meaning she got to dump the cupfuls of water into the sink), things were working just fine. Until this past Friday night when Ted got ready to start up a full load of dishes and found out that it wouldn’t turn on. At first he tried switching off the breaker for it and turning it back on (when all else fails…reboot!) but it was no use. Seems the electrical panel was shot…bye bye dishwasher. We got a GREAT deal on a new one at Sears but it won’t arrive until the 30th, so in the meantime we’re sticking to paper plates and easy to prepare meals that require as few dishes as possible. So you know what this means, my brand new Chopper is sitting, unused on the kitchen counter, taunting me.  Next week buddy, you and I have some serious work to do...

The artiste

Insisted on wearing her painter's hat when she painted.



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K's trip down memory lane

Clearly the baby's toys are more interesting than her own.


Yes, if you look at the mess behind her, I have started sorting. In four months that room will become a well organized nursery once again.
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It's a...

Have you been waiting in suspense?  I waited to post until we notified the immediate family AND sent out the scanned ultrasound pictures to them as well.  First off, let me say that we were happy and relieved to find out that everything looks healthy and wonderful at this point.  Now without further ado...

Here is the first picture of our little boy!  There was no mistaking it on the ultrasound.  The tech positioned the image and said "Now there's one leg...there's the other leg...and..." left us to interpret the rest.  We were thrilled, not that we wouldn't be just as happy if it had been a girl but there was just something about knowing that Katherine was going to have a little brother.  We showed her the pictures when I got home, she was interested in them for about 10 seconds.  But now when she says she wants to see the baby, I have something show her.

In all honesty this is going to be a whole new world for me.  Since I grew up with a older sister (heck, even the cat was a girl), I'll need to learn all about "boy things".  Ok, yes, I had boy cousins (hey there!) and friends who were boys growing up but it's not the same as having a boy living in your house.  I'm excited for this new experience.

We're still working on the name, don't expect that announcement any time soon.

Pooped

For once a post around here where the use of that word does not have anything to do with a toilet. I have officially hit the wall. The cat woke us up at 5am to go outside (why won’t you be like all the other cats and use a litter box???) and not even 10 minutes later, Miss K walked into our room and declared it to be “wake up time”. Serves me right for ignoring her requests for toast right before bedtime last night. Trust me, that kid will have a full stomach tonight.

Ok, so it’s only a mere 45 minutes before my normal wake up time. But those 45 minutes make all the difference in the world to someone who loves her sleep. Of course, this makes me think of what life is going to be like in our house come April…a thought that I am pushing out of my mind until I absolutely have to think about it. I cruised through this morning thinking…well this isn’t so bad…until about 10 minutes ago when I sat back down at my desk and let loose a big yawn…oh yeah, it is. I’m not the type that can do 30 minute lunchtime power naps either…I’d be out the rest of the afternoon.

Not only is she loving the footie pjs, for the past two nights K has gone to bed with all of her stuffed animals in her bed. And I mean ALL of them. There’s barely room for her. I laugh at this because I know I was the exact same way as a kid, the more the merrier. When I peeked in to check on her at 5am (little did I know) she was using one of them for a pillow.

Tomorrow is the big day! I can’t believe we are at this point already, halfway through the pregnancy and the big ultrasound where we find out just who we are expecting come April. I’m very happy the appointment is in the morning, so that I won’t have to wait a full day in anticipation. Don’t expect a post or a twitter right away though…I think the Papas, Grams, Aunts and Uncle deserve the first notice. Although considering co-workers are already asking me, I may have to move mighty quickly to make sure their first to know. It’s also Picture Day at school for Miss K. I thought that because this new daycare is much smaller, we’d miss out on having pictures taken so I was surprised to see the sign up last week. Here’s hoping for some great Holiday pictures!

She finally let me do it

She requested that her toes get painted "RED!" I was happy to oblige.



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PJ Time

Where have I been? Ok, I will admittedly say that I fell off the blogging bandwagon there for about a week until Saturday’s sleeping at 5pm post (I tell you, I didn’t know what to do with myself Saturday night…I kept thinking that at any moment she would wake up…but she didn’t!). Its not that things weren’t happening cause there was the usual hum drum going on. Maybe it was the five days of cloudy, rainy weather that put me in the non-blogging mood but whatever it was, each day I had a thought of something to write about which I would then dismiss with “Eh, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

So what’s been shaking around the Coberly household? One little girl in a pair of footie pjs. Papa and Gram Coberly got her a pair from LL Bean when they went to Maine this summer. I dug them out for her about a week or two go when the nights started getting chillier. It was love at first sight. Obviously she does not remember that she lived in these things during her first year of life. Not only did she get a kick out of the concept that her “slippers” are attached to the pjs, she can zip them up all by herself! One night she ran up to me beaming with pride to show me that she had changed into her pjs ALL BY HERSELF. It was actually a bath night but how could I ruin the moment by telling her that she needed to take them off so she could get into the tub?

Since then it’s been no contest when it comes time to pick out her pjs for the night. The hands down winner have been those pjs. In fact, she wants to wear them any time she is in the house, no matter what time of day it is. Most mornings she asked to wear them to school. By the end of the week, it was obvious that those things needed a wash. Tearing them from the grip (or back) of a three year old was a different issue. So imagine my relief when a package arrived from Papa and Gram Meagher on Saturday with another pair of footie pjs in them! Ok, there was some also some boots in there too which caused a good deal of excitement and some stomping around the house but the she laid her eyes on the new sleep and…well…she stripped down right then and there to put them on (It was actually a rare fully clothed moment in the house since we had gone out to breakfast with friends that morning). Never mind that this pair was fleece (others are cotton) and I though maybe a bit too warm considered the temperature outside. They were on and zipped up in a jiffy…and you guessed it…remained on whenever she was in the house this weekend. Having this opportunity, footie pj pair #1 went right into the wash.

The weather finally cleared up Saturday afternoon and she went outside with Ted Sunday morning. I returned from grocery shopping surprised to find them back in the house and a freshly bathed Miss K wearing her fleece footie pjs. Going back outside meant taking off those pjs and she was having none of it, no matter how gorgeous the weather was or how many days she had just spent inside. And I thanked our lucky stars last night when she got too busy chasing Reeses around in an attempt to “play” with her and had an accident (we’ve had a small increase in this lately, she gets too busy and forgets that she has to go). Back into the cotton footie pjs! Phew! Crisis averted!  And thanks to some super absorbent fleece pjs, no mess on the floor to clean up...bonus!

As usual this morning I got told that “Mommy, I NEED to wear my pjs to school…I GOT to!” When I told her that it was against the rules (give me some license here) to wear pjs to school her response was “I want to stay at home!” On one level, I understood where she was coming from…who wouldn’t want to wear their comfy pjs around all day? Any bets on how soon from hitting the door this evening she’ll have those pjs back on again?

Honestly, a toddler/preschooler running around in footie pjs...is there anything cuter?

All tuckered out

After an early wake up and a busy day of playing. It may be 5:00 but she's been wearing her new pjs from Papa and Gram Meagher all afternoon. She's all into footie pjs after she got a pair from Papa and Gram Coberly. She wants to wear them all the time...even to school if we'd let her.



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The line stretched all the way to Terra Haute...

In the whole “swine flu” pandemonium I have been unable to get the coveted vaccine through my doctor or Katherine’s second dose through her pediatrician. On Thursday Wake County announced that they had received more H1N1 vaccine and would be holding clinics for priority groups on Monday. We were lucky that one of the clinic locations was in town. Hallelujah!! I made the executive decision that K and I would start our day a bit later on Monday so that we could head over to the clinic and get our shots (flu mist for K.). Katherine loved that she got some extra time to sleep in and play in her pjs.

I stupidly thought that we would be in and out of the clinic in a jiffy based on my previous experience with her first dose. I neglected the fact that since then the media has been saturated with stories on H1N1. I had planned on leaving the house at 8:30 just in case but ended up getting out of the door at 8:50 thanks to a little girl that would not cooperate with getting ready and had to be sent to her room for a time out. Had I known what awaited us I probably wouldn’t have worried about that time out. We had to park up on the street because the parking lot was full. Line out the door and around the side of the building…all the way to Terra Haute and we were at the end of it (yes it’s almost that time of year again!). It was clear we weren’t getting out of there any time soon. K. sensed right away that something was up and asked to go home. But once we were in the line I made the commitment that we were in for the long haul, for all I knew this may be our only chance to get the vaccine for a while. Thank goodness I thought to bring milk, snacks and blankie, originally meant to appease someone after her dose but suddenly became convenient for passing the time. Twenty minutes in we made phone calls to Daddy and to Gram, heck I would have run down my whole contact list to keep her happy but it was clear Miss K was not interested in gabbing. She brightened up when the little girl behind us offered to share her lacing game with K. Forty five minutes in and I estimated that we were halfway there.

When we hit the door of the room, K definitely knew that something was up…she’d been in there before…and it wasn’t pretty. It didn’t help that we would hear the occasional cry from a little kid. Next thing we knew we were filling out the paperwork and waiting for our turn. K went first. I honestly thought the flu mist would be easier than the shot for her…I think it’s a toss up. Once she was on my lap, she knew what was going on and smartly curled up in a ball and buried her face in blankie. Unfortunately that meant we had to pin her down…never a good thing…me with her arms, one nurse stabilizing her head and the other nurse giving the dose. Screaming and crying ensued…then the “I wanna go home!” Stickers did not soothe her this time around. She did get a kick out of watching me get a shot though… “Mommy, you’re not crying!” However, she refused to hold my hand for moral support…pin me down and shoot some stuff up my nose, you’re on your own with this one lady.

So an hour and a half after arriving, we were out of there. I decided to see how she would do at daycare since I’d rather not take a full day from work if I didn’t have to. We’ll just say that drop of was rough…R.O.U.G.H. Probably the worst it has been in a long time, especially at this school where we get a smile and a wave most days. The teachers assured me she would be fine and she was. In fact I left her crying with Ms. Wanda on the playground and by the time I went back through the building and out to the front I didn’t hear her crying anymore. The day end report was that she had an excellent afternoon.

All I can say is…boy am I glad that’s over with!!!!

Surprise!

Look at what I just found. Might be time for a new dishwasher. Miss K is more than happy to help with clean up.


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Bibbity Bobbity Boo

Some of you have seen my Twitter posting from two days ago. I assure you that everything is fine, especially on the baby front. Sorry to be short on the details but I have some boundaries in terms of what I am willing to share on the Internet and that is one of them. I probably shouldn’t have even done that Twitter posting but I was upset at the time and I did what I could. I am happy to supply more details for those that are curious on a one to one basis.

Ted’s grandparents sent Katherine a musical Halloween card that plays the above song when you open it. K loves musical cards and this one is a hit. Last night, after about the umpteenth time of her opening the card and swaying to the music; I asked if she would like to watch the movie that that song comes from. Yes! So she settled down in her chair to watch Cinderella. Up until now, Katherine has not really been into all of the Disney Princess stuff and I’ve been kind lax in picking up the movies as they come out. I think that may be about to change and I’ve got some catching up to do (eBay anyone?).

K wholeheartedly got into the movie. She loved the mice. She exclaimed that it was “not nice!” that the stepsisters ripped Cinderella’s dress. When the clock struck midnight and Cinderella raced from the ball as her coach turned back into a pumpkin and her dress turned in rags, I turned towards K to see that tears were streaming down her face. She was sad that Cinderella had to leave the ball. She crawled into my lap for the rest of the movie and I had to assure her that everything would be ok in the end. She cheered on the mice when they got the key to let Cinderella out of the tower. Then when the movie was over she burst into tears once more…because she wanted to “watch Cinderella again”. I promised her we could watch it today when we got home.

After the movie, we climbed up the stairs to get ready for bed (ok, I carried a crying little girl who wanted to watch Cinderella again upstairs). To lighten the mood I let her watch Backyardigans on our bed while we talked and read books. We have some wedding pictures hanging up in our bedroom. When Miss K saw them, she exclaimed “Mommy, you’re a princess!” “Daddy’s a prince!” She wanted to know where my princess dress was and I told her it was packed away in Mommy and Daddy’s closet. “Can I see it?” I told her that when she gets older she could see it and maybe get a chance to wear it. She liked that response but I didn’t even want to think about our little girl getting married someday.

I’m starting to feel little taps in my belly that I am sure cannot be gas, every so often when I least expect it. Someone is saying hello!

I am almost done with the October picture album; expect it on the picture site in the next day or two!

All Snug

Watching Cinderella before bathtime.



-- Post From My iPhone

Big Girl Room

It was a busy weekend around here!  Of course there were all of the Halloween festivities.  Things started off with a party at school for Miss K.  I was sorry that this was the first year I missed the class party, I was busy graduating from Leadership DHHS, a leadership program for Department employees.  We were supposed to graduate last Spring but due to budget cuts there was a temporary hold on the program.  But no worries, Papa and Gram Coberly were on their way down and they picked her up near the end of the festitivies.  She came home with quite a stash!

Ted and I decided to paint Katherine's new room on Saturday since there were people here to entertain Miss K.  She had expressed an interest in "helping" us paint her room which I thought would not be the best move if we wanted to keep the carpet nice and the woodwork white.  I picked up the paint that morning at Home Depot.  There I am carrying two gallons of paint over to the register (we were covering a dark blue with a very light minty green, two gallons were needed!) when all of the cashiers exclaimed "What are you doing carrying that?  Where's your cart?"  Uh, didn't need one, only buying paint.  Not only did they get me a cart, they INSISTED on lifting the paint cans and putting them in the cart for me.  "What would your husband think if he saw you doing that?"  I mentioned to them that I lift a 30 plus pound three year old all the time, trust me a paint can is lighter.  But here's the kicker, do you think one of those cashiers (Who in case you are wondering, were all female and I'm guessing had no kids.  The guy who mixed the paint with kids of his own had no problem watching me walking away carring two gallons of paint...he's been there, he knows not to mess with a pregnant lady) offered to come out to the car with me to help me lift those precious cans into the car?  Nope!  So I'm not sure what that exercise proved, except to make them feel better.  Out of sight, out of mind I guess.

So anyways, Ted and I made quick work of putting two coats of paint on the walls.  And wow is it a bright minty green.  I would consider repainting and toning it down a bit except Miss K picked it out herself from all the samples we brought home and she LOVES it.  Absolutely loves her new room.  Isn't a girl allowed to have her room be the color that she wants?

Katherine has really gotten the hang of this Trick or Treating routine.  She woke up Saturday morning asking if it was time to go yet and dashed out the door Saturday evening.  Thanks to school she had a well rehearsed speech..."Trick or treat, give me something good to eat...Please!"  Except when she got to the door she got a bit of stage fright and only seemed to manage a thank you after the candy was placed in her bucket.  Oh well, at least she got the thank you in.  We thought she would get tired after a few houses but oh no, we did the majority of the street before she wanted to come home.  And as usual, she was enthralled with the concept of the candy but hasn't been too enthusiastic about eating it, even though multiple efforts have been made at tasting it (see previous post).  She does like the lollipops and we had to ration those yesterday.  It almost seems crazy to ration lollipops for a kid that NEVER wants to eat sweets but we felt that 3 or 4 lollipops in a day was more than enough!

The final move into K's big girl room happened yesterday and I think we are all quite pleased with the results.  She has already spent hours playing in there.  I am thrilled that the toys are out of the living room and the downstairs looks more like a place to hang out rather than a play room.  I am amazed at the amount of things we were able to put in her new room without it looking crowded.  Her kitchen set, little people playsets, stuffed animals and a few other odds and ends are all in there.  And if we added some shelves to the closet there would be even more room.  I am so happy we decided to move her into there instead of keeping her where she was and turning the former guest room into the nursery.  We kept the toy box, puzzles and blocks and her table downstairs.

So what's next in the big Room Rearrangement?  Well a little break until we find out just who we are expecting come April, so I can decide whether that room will get repainted as well.  I also need to sort through the toys and move the more baby toys into the nursery.  Plus with the Holidays approach I might take it easy for a bit and relax.  After all, we're on the homestretch now as far this goes.  But then again...who am I kidding????  I'm sure I'll be back at it this weekend.

She wasn't born yesterday

Try to ration my Halloween candy will ya?



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