Pictures

As usual I am woefully behind on pictures.  I feel like I have been behind for a good year or more, probably back to when Teddy was born.  At first thought it was the second child syndrome, that we just haven't taken as many pictures of Teddy as we did of Katherine.  Then I realized it was less about that and more about technology.

Believe it or not just six short years ago when Katherine was born smartphone were not commonplace.  I know, I'm scratching my head too...how did I even get along without my iPhone?  Right before Miss K was born Ted and I purchased a very nice HP digital camera.  Part of my insistence for purchasing that little camera was because it came with a dock for the computer.  Simply plug the camera into the dock and viola! the pictures were automatically uploaded and placed in a fold by month taken.  Simple and easy.  It made doing monthly picture albums out to friends and family a breeze.

Enter the smartphone. Right around the time we announced that Teddy was on his way I got my iPhone.  And wow, picture taking got all that much easier.  No need to carry the camera around, just whip out the phone.  Unfortunately picture uploading was not as easy.  Not that it's hard but no more automatic filing by month taken.  And there's three different cameras to upload from, two iPhone and one digital camera (at some point we upgraded from the HP camera but we don't use it nearly as often as the phones).  The end result is hodgepodge folder on the computer titled "iPhone" photos that needs to be manually sorted.  Say it with me now...ugh.  I don't even want to think about the 600+ pictures that are still on my phone.  You better believe I've been procrastinating on this task...for a whole year.  I've been procrastinating on this blog post to explain myself for probably the same amount of time.  I even hesitated to take a few pictures because I knew it would be one more to add to the pile of ones I hadn't dealt with yet.

I'm figuring with all this new upgraded technology, I'm missing something right?  There has to be an automatic setting that I just have turned on that would make this job easier?  There's no way that the technology got better and the ease of use got worse.  All you people who are more tech savvy than me, help a girl out.

The bright light in all of this?  I just read that Shutterfly (where we have our picture site) bought out Kodak Gallery (where we used to upload and create albums).  Supposedly they are in the process of transferring all of the pictures over and they will notify users when they will be available through Shutterfly.  So at least there's one task that will be taken care of for me, right?

Carolina Beach

Our first official family vacation is in the books.  Yes, we have traveled a lot but this was the first time a trip did not involve a visit with relatives.  Ted and I wanted to start a yearly family vacation tradition.  We thought a couple of days at the beach, the kids first time seeing the ocean, would be a low key way to begin.  We headed down to Carolina Beach on Sunday morning, an easy two and a half hour drive from our house.  The trip was just the right speed for the kids.  Here's some memories that I'll keep tucked away in my mind for years to come:

• Katherine singing along to Adele's Rolling in the Deep in the car on the way down.  She's begun to sing along to songs that she recognizes.  Right now she doesn't care that there's other people in the car listening to her.  She belts it right out.  I hope this innocence stays around for a while.
• Both kids laughing as the waves rolled over them.  Overall, they both preferred the hotel pool to the beach but they did spend a good hour each day in the sand.  Hopefully as they get older they'll enjoy the ocean more.
• How good they were.  We had no expectations for this trip, if anything I thought it would be exhausting chasing the both of them around.  But save for the minor mishap here or there they were great.
• The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.  They LOVED it.  They saw fish, alligators, sharks, stingrays and turtles.  Teddy got all excited over the "shaaaaahhhhks!" Apparently, his New England roots run deep.

A few pictures:

Happy Birthday Ted!

It's the big three five for Ted today! Unfortunately when I looked on my phone for a recent picture, this is all I got (compared to about 600+ pics of the kids that I need to sort through).

Happy Birthday!

Jump a rope

Remember the little girl who would break down in tears when trying to "jump a rope"? What a difference a month or two makes.

Pondering

I have been pondering about this blog post for a better part of a week or more.  Working through different sentences in my head.  Not that that's going to make this any better of a piece of literature.  But then, if you came here for great literature, proper grammar or good spelling you're about to be horribly dissappointed.

Hey there!  Long time no see.  As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm also staring at the "Wake County Public School System 2011-2012 Traditional Calendar" which is pinned on the board next to my monitor. It's about to go in the trash because this year is done. We dropped Katherine off this morning for her last day of Kindergarten.  Let me repeat..last day of KINDERGARTEN.  This is hitting me today.  For some reason if you say your child is a kindergartener is makes you feel like you still have a bit of your baby there.  We're only one year removed from preschool, they don't even sit in rows of desks yet.  But as of this afternoon, we'll have a budding first grader in our house.  That doesn't sound babyish at all.  And honestly, she's not, she's a little girl.  But wow, where did this school year go?  I'm not sure I'm settled into the whole elementary school routine yet and here she is finishing the first year of it.  About time I start getting with the program.

I took this picture this morning on our way out to the car...I didn't realize she blinked.  I wanted to get a shot of her heading off to her last day of school just like we have photos of her first day.  She has grown!  Katherine now has quite an opinion on her fashion choices and these days she seems to be preferring skirts over shorts.  Which is why she went "hiking" with us over the weekend wearing this:

That is her favorite outfit right now.  Top and skirt don't match one bit but she doesn't care. I let her wear it on the weekends because really, how many years of your life do you have to truly wear whatever you want no matter if it matches or not?  That's right.  And just look at that cuteness happily standing next to his big sister!  Those little legs kept up with her the whole day.

We're getting more words little by little.  I wouldn't describe him as a talker just yet but he is able to get his point across about what he wants fairly easily.  A man of few words, if you will.  Ask him a yes or no question and he'll response with a high pitched "uh HUH!"  What does he put his "oose" in?  A "up"  (that's juice and cup).  We've got "Daaeee" and "Mama", "Katherine" is challenging him.  And we even have "paweee" (potty) and he will sit on it.  He's been successful in that effort twice, one at school and once at home, although we all pretty sure we caught him at the right time.  Right now he's getting the order of things out of whack, meaning he goes in his diaper, walks in to the bathroom, flushes and then sits down but we're pretty sure he'll figure it out all in due time...afterall the kid's not going to kindergarten his diapers is he?

What is it with tailpipes around here???

My kids just seem to love the tailpipe from my car.  This was from the week before last.  There's no paniced post here because luckily the car was completely cooled.  The kid stuck his whole arm in and I didn't know it until I saw his sooty hand and elbow.  And how nice, he stuck a piece of sidewalk chalk in at the same time.  That's Ted trying to dig it out.  I was sure we would be googling "Chalk in tailpipe" to see what awful things would happen to the car if we weren't able to get it out.  Do you honestly think we're the only ones whose kids did this?  I don't think so.

Ted was able to get it out.  There's been no repeat performance.

Watering Cans

Wow, you don’t do a blog post for almost two weeks and suddenly the whole Blogger user interface changes on you. What’s up with that?

Lately I've been wondering which kid is the two year old in our house and which one is the five year old. We’re working on sharing with your sibling, not taking something just because you want it and not yelling at each other. Except we seem to be working on it with the child who I thought would have the concept somewhat down by now.

Yesterday was a hot one around these parts. After dinner Teddy went outside and of course some sort of water play was desired. I grabbed our big green watering can and the little man busied himself with watering our new azaleas (and soaking himself in the process). When Katherine came out you can guess the first thing she set her sights on. That watering can was suddenly a hot commodity. And in her mind it was time for her to have a turn with it and the only fitting way to acquire said watering can was to snatch it right out of her little brother's hands. You would think that it would be Teddy we would have a hard time getting across the concept of sharing because let’s face it, two year olds aren’t even aware that the term “share” is in the English vocabulary. But Katherine has a mindset around the house lately that if she wants it, it’s hers. No matter if someone else is using it (or if it isn't even hers to begin with), once she requests a turn, the item must be relinquished immediately and her turn begins as soon as she says so. Oh and her turn lasts as long as she wants it to. And if she doesn’t get her way, my GOD the whining and crying and kicking and screaming and fussing and failing on the floor (or ground in this case) that ensues because life is SO UNFAIR and you’re not bowing to my commands! Each and every time it happens I’m floored because…seriously?!?!?!...how old are we right now? I know the look I give her doesn’t help matters in her eyes because I am sure it is a look of surprise and disgust at the behavior.

So anyways back to the watering can. By this point Katherine had pretty much snatched it away from Teddy and the poor guy was just standing there not sure what to do but knowing that he didn’t feel all that good about the situation. I figured I would save the day by grabbing our other watering can, the one under the kitchen sink for house plants (we have one house plant). It was smaller and perfect for Teddy. Two kids, two watering cans…there…done. So off I went, grabbed it, filled it and offered it to Teddy who happily went back to his watering activities. Take a guess at what Katherine’s reaction was. Yup. That green can got tossed aside without even a passing thought, suddenly this one was the hot commodity (really???? We’re talking about a bunch of old watering cans here). I held firm. As far as I was concerned Teddy’s was off limits; she would have to use the green watering can that she wanted so badly only moments before that she felt the need to take it from him. You made your bed sweetie, now time to lie in it (I didn’t say that but I was thinking it…cruel of me?). Cue meltdown in 5…4…3…2…1…

The funniest line? “That watering can is MINE…I’ve had it FOREVER!!!!!!” Ok: 1. Seeing as we have only ONE house plant and I had to dig it out from the way back of the kitchen cabinet, I’m fairly sure this is the first time you’ve seen it. 2. Um yeah, Mommy purchased that watering can when I was in HIGH SCHOOL. How it’s still around, I have no idea, but I think if anyone had a right to ownership to the thing it would be ME. You need a better definition of FOREVER.

Truthfully, I’ve had it with this type of behavior around the house. She doesn’t act like that in public, at school, or with other family (that we know of). I’m sure in her perspective we’re always reprimanding her (at least I FEEL like I’m always reprimanding her) instead of her brother because…well…her brother doesn’t seem to be behaving like this lately. This is surprising, because I would expect that behavior out of him and not her. Consistency is one of the hardest things about being a parent but Ted and I are trying our best to hold the party line, we aren’t putting up with bratty (there I said it) behavior like that. I know in a lot sibling rivalry instances its best not to interfere and let them work it out but I’m not going to stand there while she is being downright rude to her brother. Or to us. But sometimes a feel like all it’s doing is turning me into a screaming maniac; I need a more effective technique.  What really gets her is when I tell her that Teddy is acting older than her.

Of course it could always be worse…can we see how in a few years, he is just going to up and wallop her when she tries to pull that behavior? Oy, that will be a whole new situation to deal with.