"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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