A Princess all ready to Trick or Treat

She showed Teddy how it's done.

Next year we'll have both of them to run after.  I felt like I was running a marathon this year trying to keep up with her.

Happy Halloween

One little boy is ready, big sister is next.


-- Post From My iPhone

Definitely a Future Gamer on our Hands

Mobile and look where he heads right to:



What Mom? I gotta start young.



-- Post From My iPhone

The Halloween Festivities have begun

Visiting the blog expecting to see cute pictures of a little Fairy Princess and her Pumpkin baby brother?  You'll have to wait.  In the commotion to get out the door this morning with all the costumes, treats, changes of clothes and the normal paraphanalia in hand there was no chance to take pictures.  I did snap one of Teddy with his teacher but it's on the regular camera.  Katherine was already engrossed with all of her friends (ALL of whom were various types of princesses as well, except for the boys; they were all ninjas and Army men) when I popped my head in to say goodbye and I didn't want to stir anything up.  So I gave her a quick kiss and hug and reminded her that he fairy wings were in her cubby with a fresh shirt should she decide to take her costume off. She was already wearing her leggings under her costume.  At that exact moment another little girl (a mermaid princess) decided to inform me that..."I don't have any clothes on under my costume!" and proceeded to lift up her mermaid tail/skirt to show me her underwear.  Clearly no modesty around that classroom.  Should be a fun day!

On to a weekend of pumpkin carving and Trick or Treating!  I promise pictures of it all.

Onward and Forward

Last week was a whirlwind of activity, which isn’t really that much different than a normal week around here except that it also involved a trip. Work had asked me to be an agency representative for a presentation at a conference in DC, Arlington, to be specific. Since Ted’s parents live so close I decided that it would be more comfortable to stay there than at the Key Bridge Marriot (which, I might add I’ve stayed at a good dozen times in graduate school since that is where the NSF project I worked on always had their meetings). And there’s no way I can arrive at Papa and Gram’s house without the grandkids in tow! So off we went on my first solo car trip with BOTH kids. I have to admit I was a bit nervous about the 3 plus hour drive, there would be no one to hike themselves to the backseat when Teddy started up or when Katherine needed some extra entertainment. How I totally underestimated my children.

They were wonderful. We left right after lunch in hopes that I could take advantage of naptime for Teddy. I got extra lucky though because both of them fell asleep pretty soon after getting on the highway…and they stayed asleep for the next two hours. I thought there was going to be trouble when Teddy woke up and spit up a little more than usual, in fact it was borderline puke. But it was nothing that a stop at McDonalds for snacks, a bottle and some leg stretching couldn’t take care of. No sooner did we get back in the car for the rest of the trip than Katherine declared “Mommy my tummy hurts.” Uh oh. But I lucked out again, she made to Papa and Gram’s just fine and I don’t think she was ever really in danger of being sick in the car (trust me, I had the supplies ready, just in case).  You saw the pictures of her riding her big girl bike so you know that it was a very successful visit.  The ride home was even smoother than the ride up except for the last 20 minutes when Teddy had HAD IT with being in the car.

Last week was also one of those weeks where I looked at my children and realized how much they've grown.  Obviously having the realization that my baby girl is now riding a big girl bike was huge for me but Ted made great strides as well.  We now have a baby that sits up on his own AND has taken his first steps toward mobility.  He can creep a few inches forward at a time.  He will not be content with that for long.  And I have to say, its made him a much happier baby.  I don't think the same can be said for Katherine.  A mobile baby brother means there's someone who can now get into "her stuff".  The honeymoon may just about be over.

Playing together...

before bedtime and this is the first instance of the two of them playing with the same toy at the same time. Katherine is learning what it's like to share with her brother. She doesn't like it, notice their playing on opposite sides of the same toy.


-- Post From My iPhone

We have a sitter!

-- Post From My iPhone

Riding her Big Girl Bike

At Papa and Gram's house.


"Are you proud of me Mommy?" I sure am!!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Doctor's Office, Take Two

In all the usual commotion around here I haven't mentioned a word about Teddy's six month appointment last Friday.  We get the important stats out of the way first.

Weight: 17 lbs (40%) (I'm finding this percentage hard to believe...he sure feels bigger!)
Height: 26.5 in (50%)
Head Circumference: 44 cm (55%)

Seems our little boy is just about average for everything right now.  But we all know he's an above average kid at heart and to show it, he charmed the pants off of everyone in the office.  Smiles and laughs all around.

Katherine came along for the ride in hopes that her seeing the doctor's office in a non-threatening situation might quell her fears.  Mission accomplished...almost.  She did GREAT through most of the appointment, in fact while Teddy was getting weighed on the baby scale she got right up on the big kid scale to get her height and weight done too.  She got an absolute kick out of being the "big sister" so much so that I think I may schedule a group appointment for her five year checkup, which will occur at the same time Teddy is due for his 18 month check up.

The kicker came when the nurse notified me that they had received their shipment of flu shots in the week between the two kids appointments.  Since Katherine was there, did I want her to receive it at the same time as Teddy?  I hesitated until the nurse informed me that Katherine qualified for the flu mist this year. I decided it was worth a shot.  Of course, Miss K immediately started whimpering.  She calmed down during Teddy's checkup to the point that I foolishly thought, maybe we will get through this unscathed.  Cue the nurse (same one as the previous week I might add) coming in with Teddy's shots and Katherine's flu mist.  Let's just say it went A LOT better than the week before but it did involve the nurse putting Katherine on her lap, pinning her legs down and hold her arms down to get it in.  Katherine was upset for about 20 seconds afterwards but I think something clicked with her that, hey, that didn't hurt a bit!  That and there was a trip down the hall to the treasure box to get to.  But the time we left the office, she was happy as a clam.  They need to make all vaccines in the "mist" variety. Teddy's shots were a breeze compared to what I went through with Katherine last week.

Do I think this quelled her fears? Probably not. But it's a step in the right direction.  I think it's going to take many more visits like this before she views the doctor's office as a much less scarier place.

First ride in my big boy car seat

Look at all the space I have now!



Katherine wanted her picture taken too.



-- Post From My iPhone

I got corn in my unnawear...

I guess a post about once a week is all I can hope for right now.  Our weeknights are so crazy, that it leaves little time for blog post, no matter how many ideas I have floating around in my head.  We've had a busy weekend around here with a visit from Papa and Gram Meagher.  I'll get to that at a later post. I'm not here to talk about this weekend rather give the exciting highlights of last weekend.

Things began at pickup on Friday afternoon where the teachers asked me to feel Teddy's lower gums.  Ha HA!  That mysterious tooth had finally decided to make an appearance.  I literally lept for joy right there in the room.  The first tooth always seems to be the toughest for them and I was thrilled it was on it's way.

On that high we rushed home, finished packing and hit the road for a weekend at Papa and Gram Coberly's house.  The big plan was a trip to one of the local farms on Saturday to pick out our Halloween pumpkins.  The one we picked was small but it was also a real working farm with horses and other animals.  Katherine got up close and personal with the horses.

And Teddy enjoyed his very first hay ride and trip to the pumpkin patch. We picked out two great pumpkins for the kids.

Wait!  Why is there only one kid in the pumpkin patch???  Because our four year old absolutely refused to get on the hay ride that took you there.  Yup, the one reason we were there was a no go as far as Miss K was concerned.  The tractor was just too big and too loud for her liking.  So she stayed with Papa and Gram while Ted and I took Teddy on his very first hay ride.  So where did Katherine spend her time? Here:

That's her in the corn bin.  She was perfectly content to spend her entire visit playing there...and she did.  In fact when we left, we had to shake all of the corn off of her.  Little did we know the cracks and crevices where it had gone.  When we arrived back at Papa and Gram's after lunch I was getting her ready for a bath (the kid was filthy from all that time in the corn bin) when she announced "Mommy!  I got corn in my unnawear!"  She showed what can only be described as a LOAD of corn.  In fact, I have no idea how she sat through lunch and according to Ted's parents fell asleep on the trip back to their house.  Picture the sand butts that little kids have from an afternoon at the beach and you'll get the picture of how much corn was dragging down her "unnawear".  We all doubled over laughing.

And I found a kernel of corn in the washer after every load of laundry we did this week.

It will be a mental image every time I look at corn from now on...corn butt.

Why we can't leave food outside for the cat

Our cat is too much of a wimp to chase that thing off our deck.


-- Post From My iPhone