Off to see the wizard...

Dorothy Gale all ready for the festivities at school today. The pics are so cute I have to post all of them.










-- Post From My iPhone

Charlie Brown and Jack O' Lanterns

We've been busy getting ready for Halloween.  Tuesday Miss K and I continued the annual tradition of watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" together.  She probably wouldn't have cared one bit about watching it except I spent all evening telling her "We're going to watch Charlie Brown tonight!"  Nothing like pushing something on your kid.  But, just like last year, it was a hit.  And, just like last year, she got quite annoyed when the commercials came on.  I have to admit myself that the commercials were annoying (due to Ted's incensant channel flipping I rarely watch commercials either) but when she announced mid one break that "I going downstairs" where Daddy was playing X Box (NOT a Charlie Brown fan) I almost had a moment...."You're going to miss Charlie Brown!!!!"  Again nothing like pushing something on your kid.  Lucky for me the show came back on just as she hit the top of the stairs...crisis averted.  What's funny is her favorite scenes were Snoopy as a World War I flying ace down behind enemy lines..."He's lost mommy!"  I always considered those scenes as filler.  Not Katherine, she got a real kick out of them.

Last night was Jack O'Lantern time.  I wish I could type out or imitate how she says "Jack O'Lantern" because it is too cute.  Unfortunate I can't but trust me on this one.  Sooooo off we went. I actually had to tell her that it was ok to get messy pulling out the seeds, she didn't seem too into it when she first looked inside the pumpkin.  I know I'm a clean freak at times but really?  No worries though, pretty soon she was digging both hands inside.  Then I came to the realization that after scooping out the seeds that, let's face it,  Jack O'Lantern making is all adult work.  Cleaning out the last of the gunk, drawing on the face, cutting out the face...not kid stuff.  K. stayed by my side, eating an apple, intrigued and asking "is it done?" about... oh.... every two minutes while I wrestled with the knife (during which time I asked myself why oh why didn't I pick up a pumpkin carving tool? I always forget this until I'm staring at the pumpkin with a kitchen knife in hand.)  Eventually she said "Mommy, I work on my artwork while you do the Jack O'Lantern."  She became interested again when it was time to put the flashlight in and test it out.

Pictures...yeah their in the camera at home and I'm here on my lunch break at work.  I feel like I'm always saying this but they'll be coming soon!

So, what's Katherine going to be this year???  Well, none other than Miss Dorothy Gale!  Ok, ok, she has no idea who Dorothy is because I think she's a bit young for the Wizard of Oz but the costume was free courtesy of a blue gingham dress given to her for her birthday by Papa and Gram Coberly (actually for next Spring) and her ruby slippers from Aunt Colleen's wedding.  The only thing I need to scrounge up tonight is a Toto of some sort and we're good to go.  All Miss K cares about is that she gets to wear her ruby slippers again.  Their having a Fall Festival at school tomorrow with tons of activities promised so she'll go tomorrow all dressed up as Dorothy. And then Saturday will be Trick or Treating with Papa and Gram Coberly joining us!

Wedding Weekend

Since this past weekend was just plain boring around house, we'll recap the big wedding weekend instead.  Honestly, Ted and I were recovering from colds on Saturday so we needed a day in our pjs with alternating naps to feel rested for this week.  So it was a good boring but obviously there's nothing worth posting on the blog.  So instead, I'll recap last weekend's exciting activities.  You've seen the train pictures so we'll start at the hotel:

Yup, the bathroom door stopper.  It was springy and she was fascinated not only by the springyness but also by the noise it made when you flipped it.  Occupied her for a good 10-15 minutes, if not longer.  But eventually we had to get ready for the night's festivities.  She did great at the rehearsal and was a trooper at the dinner (Aunt Sue taught her how to apply lipstick.  I don't have a picture but we'll just say that she's a natural). Of course the highlight of her evening was present time!

Aunt Colleen gave her a genuine pair of wooden shoes.  Just think of the noise these things are going to make on our kitchen floor.  And we all know for Miss K the amount of noise will be part of the appeal.

Saturday dawned with wedding preparations!  Miss K. was not going to be left out.

Aunt Sue gave her a manicure as well!  After some quick clothes changes (and an attempted dip in the hotel pool with Papa, too cold)...it was time for the Big Event!

There she is!  Yup she held those flowers up like that the whole way down but that was ok with all of us...she made it down the aisle and was an angel for the whole wedding.  We'll skip yours truly since I don't have decent picture to show (seriously, I'm not just saying that) and get right to the bride and our dad.

Great picture of the bride and groom cutting the cake.

As I said before, Miss K. was all about the band.  She loved the music. She also loved hanging out with my uncles.  Here she is with my Uncle Paul (L) and Uncle Bob (R).  In case you can't tell, their my father's brothers.

And here she is dancing with Daddy!!! I love this picture.

There was another little boy at the wedding so of course there had to be the classic, let's get the two kids dancing together moment.  The little boy was quite impressed with Katherine but I don't think she cared all that much.

There's alot more pictures including the views from the hotel room, wedding guests, and lots of dancing but I'll save all that for the upcoming October album.  But as you can tell, we had a fabulous time!

This one's for my sister

The avid knitter in the family (along with my Grandma). Take a look at this:


Yes that is what you think it is, seeing as this is my 2nd pregnancy I have no shame. But look closer...someone has handknit little covers for those stirrups so that all the poor pregnant women do not get cold feet! Even tied off with a little bow at the bottom...how thoughtful!
-- Post From My iPhone

Printer?...What printer?

If you’ve been reading my Twitters over on the right there you noticed that we had some printer issues at work. I’d like to plead the fifth in terms of actually saying who caused the problems but I will say that it involved a box of labels and a task that was supposed to only take about 15 minutes. As my boss Phil said, its times like that where you could kick yourself for not delegating while the delegating was good cause once things start blowing up there’s no way anyone is going to touch your delegated task. But why would you delegate something that would take mere minutes four hours to accomplish?

This week was all about catch up both at home and at work. There’s something about being away for a few days that throws you a bit out of whack. For us it came in the form of laundry. For the life of me I can’t figure out how a long weekend away translates into four loads of laundry when you return since we packed very lightly and didn’t really wear any more clothes that we would have if we were at home but there it was on Monday night. And Tuesday night. By Wednesday evening I was bound and determined to finish it all so that we did not have face evening number FOUR of folding and ironing on Thursday.
Katherine settled right back into her school routine as if she never missed a beat. Yesterday at pick up she reported that the whole class received a time out for not listening. I guess there are good days and bad days, sounds like yesterday had its moments.

I went to my monthly OB appointment this morning. All is well! AND the next appointment on November 19th is the big one! Yes folks, we will find out the identity of baby #2…place your bets now! K. said last night that she would like a baby brother (!) and this morning reported that the baby was going to get bigger and bigger and grow as tall as Daddy. People at work are pretty much voting that it’s a boy, although there are a few black sheep in the bunch who are convinced it’s a girl. I have absolutely NO intuition this time around about what it is. Honestly I can’t believe that this moment is right around the corner, is it just me or is this pregnancy flying??? Hopefully I’ll still be saying this in months 8 and 9 when I’m as big as a cow and have about had enough.

I received pictures from my Dad this morning in my email inbox of the wedding so I need to work on a post this weekend. There are some real cute ones in the bunch. If anyone else has pictures, send them on! Other than that I think we’ll just be relaxing and doing some more of that catch up. This includes prepping one Big Girl Room for painting next weekend. Katherine is chomping at the bit to move into her new digs. I picked up a pumpkin for Miss K. last night (unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be making it up to the farm this year) so at some point between now and next weekend we need to make a jack o’ lantern.

Third Time's the Charm!

We returned yesterday midday from a very successful trip to the Big Apple. Ok, so it was cold and rainy all weekend but the fam was in a good mood and we all ate, drank and made merry to celebrate Colleen and Sven’s wedding. And I am thrilled to announce that in her third run as a flower girl, Miss K. not only made it down the aisle but was an absolute angel the entire weekend. As usual, she charmed the pants off of everyone. I think if you asked her, her favorite part of the wedding was dancing to the band, she was the only person out on that dance floor the entire time. And when the music would stop she would put her hands on her hips and stare at the band, next song please! As the evening wore on, it was clear she was fading but stubborn as she is, she wouldn’t miss a minute of time on that dance floor. When the band took a break, we saw it as our cue to make our way to the door.

So I’m sure now you’re saying, ok Beth I wanna see some pictures of all this cuteness, where are they? Well, Ted and I were so busy with Miss K and doing our part in the wedding that we didn’t take any (unusual, I know!). But, have no fear, plenty were taken and I am begging those of you who did take them to send them my way (you know who you are!). My dad has already promised to send his so pictures will be coming in a future post! I’ll recap the highlights of the weekend there because, hey, it’s always better with the pictures.

The “choo choo train” was a great success. I will say that 5 hours is a long ride for a three year old and yes she was ready to get off long before we did but overall she did well and she got quite a kick out of it. We had to wait for a bit at Fredericksburg on Friday morning during which time, two freight trains and a commuter train went by. She loved it. Ted and I were pleased as well; the ride was definitely shorter than it would have taken to drive it. I had all kinds of plans for twitters and posts during the ride. Heck, I brought magazines, books, all kinds of stuff thinking that I would stay occupied. I forgot two things: 1. I was sitting next to a three year old who wanted my undivided attention. 2. I get motion sickness and as smooth as the train ride was (for a train), we were still moving. I have found when I am pregnant that I am a bit more sensitive to it as well, so no texting or blogging for me. So the iPhone occupied Ted instead.

The meltdown happened on the train ride home. After a jammed packed weekend of family and events Katherine was ornery and a bit tired. She needed to nap on the train but she fought it for a while. The train left Penn Station at 3:00 and from then to almost 5:00 she squirmed in her seat. Ted was sitting in the seat in front of her and while the seat next to him was empty we let her go back and forth between us. But then someone sat down beside him and she needed to stay in her seat. She was not pleased with this turn of events. There ensued a minor meltdown as she told me… “I neeeeeeeeed to go sit with Daddy!” She tried to squirm around me, push me, and finally sprawled out on the floor at my feet (digging her out of there was fun). We became one of those families with the screaming child. I knew that the major reason for this behavior was that she was exhausted. I tried my best to hold the line with her and Ted turned around a few times to tell her to sit down but there was only so much we could do in a confined space other than repeatedly put her back in her seat and tell her no. Eventually Ted reached over the seat and grabbed her and sat her firmly on his lap to convey that the squirming and screaming was over. Of course I had the immediate thought that the screaming paid off for her because in order to keep her quiet, she went and sat with Daddy. Just as I was having these bad mother thoughts, the woman next me not only offered her soon to be empty seats to Ted but leaned over to me and said “You’re a good mother…your consistency was amazing.” Wha???? Here I am thinking that because we caved we were awful parents. I sat for the next few minutes and thought, maybe we’re not so bad at this parenting thing after all. I’ve found that parenting is a day to day thing. For every day you feel like you’re the Parent of the Year there’s about 10 more where you feel like you’re going by the seat of your pants (if only the kids knew that!). In the end I think we’re all just trying to get through the day with more smiles than frowns. At that moment, I needed to hear someone say that we’re doing alright.

Twenty minutes after that a much calmer Katherine came back to her seat, put her head down on my lap and fell fast asleep. She slept for the majority of the rest of the trip.

Almost to Fredericksburg

And someone is tired from a busy weekend.



-- Post From My iPhone