Visiting

Dad went off to Canada to surprise Grampy Bear for his 60th birthday, so Grandma and Poppy came to help keep me and Caroline in line. We had a nice visit here and Dad had a great visit at home-- we wished we could have gone, too!

We kicked off the weekend with a late night Friday-- well actually it was a very early Saturday morning. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. ready for Grandma to come get me. And from there I was like a jack-in-the-box and never really slept again. Mom was up with me for most of this and then at 6:30 she handed me off to Grandma and got some more sleep.

Surprisingly I was very good on Saturday. Mom and I went to the grocery store then we all went to a special kid's event at the mall and saw a fun band play, that included one of Mom's co-workers. They were really good and I had fun dancing. I also got to make some crafts and play with sand and fake snow. I got a very messy cookie and talked to a policeman. He asked if Mommy was a fast driver. We said no.
When we got home around 2 p.m. I went up to my bed and laid down without being asked to and had a great nap. That night we went out to dinner at a yummy BBQ place and on the way home we saw a rainbow!

While we were at the grocery, Caroline helped Poppy put up a safety gate at the top of our stairs and did her first real crawls. She didn't want Mom or Dad to feel bad that one of them missed it, so she did it while they were both gone! In other Caroline news, her top two teeth have come in (they are visible in the photo below where she's standing in the pack 'n play).

On Sunday we went to a big park in the morning and enjoyed some playing. In the afternoon Mommy and I baked a strawberry cake that was very yummy (we saved you some, Daddy!) We also went to our neighborhood park after dinner. That visit didn't go so well. I was having a hard time listening and then wouldn't leave so Mom had to carry me home screaming the whole way--thankfully it's close. I am now on park probation.

Thanks for coming Grandma and Poppy! I missed you as soon as we pulled out of the driveway.

Out, Up and In

We had gorgeous weather this weekend, and between assembling things, we really enjoyed it. We finally got our patio furniture (a year late . . .) By the time we figured out what we wanted last summer it was out of stock, so we got with the program earlier this year and ordered it in March. Of course it has been sitting in our garage awaiting some warm weather for a few weeks now, but Mom and Dad finally got it together (literally)! The new grill is a whole other story. It is still in the garage. It is assembled up to step 3c of 20. And the customer support center should be receiving a call first thing Monday morning due to a misalignment problem with some pre-drilled holes. After that, Poppy will probably be getting the next call.

So we haven't grilled out yet, but we did eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on the patio today. Mom and I made blueberry muffins, and even Caroline ate some. Unfortunately, she ate hers inside and it was messy. There were crumbs everywhere and somehow she even had a blueberry stain on the backside of her outfit!

Speaking of Caroline, she has been busy pulling and pushing herself up. We had to lower her crib mattress this weekend (more assembly), which makes Mom sad since the adorable crib bumper has to go. We got out the hippo walker toy, but I confess Caroline didn't get to play with it much. It is amazing how old toys can be fun again when they are given to someone else! Her poor little knees were all red after a long day of army-man crawling around. We ended up putting her in her baby leg warmers, which I think will get a lot of use once it is warmer out.

Caroline has also graduated from her little baby tub and now takes her baths in the big tub. We do it in a laundry basket to make it more managable and you can see I was happy to help out as well. We loved having a bath together and I am looking forward to when she is bigger, so I don't repeatedly hear: "Careful, Katie!"


Grandma and Poppy are coming next weekend and I am already very excited about it. That's all for now . . .

More tights and sweaters

We had another "spring" occasion this weekend-- cousin Hannah's baptism was Sunday. We had hoped to wear some more spring dresses, but once again we needed tights and sweaters to stay warm enough.

We decided it would be easier for our crew to drive to Indy on Sunday morning instead of doing an overnight, and after last week, we knew that we would have a hard time sitting through church and the baptism of 11 babies, so we planned to arrive at the church a little before noon and Caroline and I would put on our dresses there. Unfortunately the church and the ladies' room were quite zooey, so Mom just found a random hallway to change us . . . it felt like a bit of a repeat from last weekend. Kneeling on the floor, yucky diaper, dress clothes . . . but we made it and were just on time for the ceremony.
As Hannah's godparents, Mom and Dad had to sit in the front row with Jen and Buddy and Hannah, and as excited as I was to see everyone, I did not like having Mom and Dad sitting away from me and eventually ended up joining in on things up front. The church would not allow photography during the ceremony, so we don't have pictures of the actual event, but you can see us girls playing together.

Caroline and Hannah crashed into/rolled over each other a few times and of course everyone had to watch out for me! We had fun playing with Buddy's family, too (Hannah's Grandma Marcia is pictured below). Caroline is still busy army-man crawling and is getting faster and faster. She also will get on her knees and straighten her legs and it appears that she is trying to stand, or possible just working on her "downward facing dog" move for yoga class.

Thankfully, both of us slept on our way home, so that made it nice for Mom and Dad. I was a tired little girl despite my faux nap with Grandma. Aside from our adventures to Indy, we had a nice weekend, but busy. Mom saw her college friend Meg on Saturday and I enjoyed YMCA kids day and a haircut.

I had a rough week sleeping (still up at 10 p.m. on several nights), so Mom and Dad had to phase out Easter candy after dinner. We also instituted the new lights on reading time until 8:30 and lights out and lullaby CD after that. Since I like both I stay quiet in my room to maintain these priveleges, and keeping me quiet and in bed seems to be the key to getting me to fall asleep. These steps combined with ignoring my calls for someone to come upstairs for any of the following reasons:

• back hurts
• need Kleenex
• feet are cold
• lips are dry
• finger needs bandaid
• book fell on floor
• sick
• various potty excuses
• thirsty

On Friday Mom and Dad had to ignore 20 minutes straight of "my feet are cold" . . . "my feet are very, very cold" . . . and eventually "my feet are freezing." Now, before you think my parents are mean, please be aware that I am very capable of reaching into my sock drawer and putting on my own socks-- in fact this is one of my favorite nap time activities, and I have even been known to put on three pairs of socks! We seemed to have made a big improvement in a short time, so that is good.

Yum-- Candy!!!

Despite some very un-spring like weather, we enjoyed our Easter activities, which began with Dad finding a Lion's Club chocolate Easter bunny for me-- a tradition that he used to enjoy with his Poppy from Parsboro. Dad was as excited as I was about it and when we showed the package on our online video conversation with family in PEI they instantly recognized the box, too. I've made a good dent in it and am looking forward to eating "the clock" which is what I call the Lion's symbol.

Caroline and I enjoyed being funny in our bunny ears and on Saturday afternoon we dyed some eggs. Unfortunately we got a faulty egg kit and our eggs were hardly turning colors. Despite directions to the contrary, Mom added some vinegar to the dyes and we were able to salvage the eggs. Of course, I didn't really care one way or another as the project was fun and messy and my hands turned blue.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner and as we were trying to get ready and out the door we had one of those incidents that you can only laugh about. Mom went to change Caroline, who had a very messy diaper, and since she is very squirmy during changes we ended up with a huge mess (we'll spare you the details, but my description was "Ewwww poopy!") Anyway, the situation necessitated a quick trip to the tub. Dad finished cleaning up the diaper situation and then held Caroline on the sink while Mom filled the tub. Mom looked up and exclaimed "She's peeing!" which made Dad move to hold Caroline over the floor (instead of the sink which was just inches away). So then we had pee all over the place, too. Good times, good times. You can all be thankful that we did not photographically document any of this!

Sunday morning the Easter bunny left me a clue and one toy for before church, but we didn't get our baskets until after church. My clue was a peep (which I now refer to as "clues" when I ask for more) and I got another furniture set for my dollhouse. It now has more furniture than our real house. This kept me busy while everyone got ready for church. Caroline and I still got to wear our Easter dresses, despite the snow flakes flying through the air (none stuck). We were a disaster in church: Messy diapers (and this time in a white dress with a potential brown out situation); spilled Cheerios; multiple potty trips . . . This quickly reminded us of why we don't make it to church as often as we should! After church we found a few eggs outside, but the Easter bunny thoughtfully hid most of them inside and then we got our baskets. We both got lunch boxes with our names on them and Caroline got some Baby Einstein DVDs and a book and toy, while I got candy and a big princess stamper kit.
Later in the afternoon we went to our friend's house (Joy and Chris) for dinner and had a terrific time, as usual. I was very well behaved and only got as silly as the grown-ups did. I had a terrific time eating cherries with the ladies as they finished dessert and screaming as Chris chased me around the house. I asked if we could go back for dinner on Monday night!

And on a less cheerful subject, Grampy Bear had an MRI this week and did not get the news we had all hoped for. You can read his update on his blog (http://barryl.blogspot.com/) and feel free to post a comment even if you don't know him personally or only met him when he was the "Dancing Queen" at Mom and Dad's wedding. They could use the thoughts and prayers!

Poppy's Birthday

The week started off warm and springy and I dove right into my new warmer wardrobe. On Monday after school I wanted to splash around in the backyard in my rainboots, but as you can see I did not want to get my skirt wet, so I just held it up in a very lady-like fashion. Thank goodness for bloomers!

On Friday we were off to South Bend to celebrate Poppy's 60th birthday. It was a very long drive, but I enjoyed myself with my new DVD player for the car, four movies to pick from AND a milkshake from Old McDonald's.

Saturday was gray and rainy-- not nice enough for Dad and Poppy to golf. But Mom & Dad got to go to the store together and finally found a new patio set and grill that they both liked. We will get them this week . . . in time for the forecasted snow!

Saturday afternoon Aunt Sharon came over for Poppy's birthday dinner to join us for his requested meal: Bruno's pizza and chocolate cake. We were not permitted to do anything beyond this, so we worked with what we had and got a "60" put on the pizza in pepperoni. We also broke out the candle that we saved from Grandma's birthday (much to Poppy's dismay), but the cake and ice cream were delicious. And I asked for seconds on frosting. After dinner Poppy opened his gifts. Along with some of his favorite treats, including cashews, we got him a gel-filled ant farm-- such a traditional 60th birthday gift! Poppy has to send away for his ants now so that he can get started. Grandma is not too happy about having ants in the house! Aunt Sharon and I had a terrific time playing and I hardly gave her any breaks from Strawberry Shortcake and coloring.

Caroline was scooching around like a maniac after everyone's shoes. We really have to pay attention to see what she's up to and what she is going after.

On Sunday morning Grandma and Poppy had a little Easter egg hunt for me, so I am all warmed up for next weekend. They hid jelly beans in the eggs and I managed to sneak about 27 more than Mom said I could have. Thankfully, this did not get me too sugared up for the drive home. As usual, I was entertained by packing them up in a basket and carrying them around. Mom and I even took them for a walk on the golf course.

We're looking forward to Easter at home, although the weather doesn't look like it is going to be very nice. I have been dying to wear my Easter dress, so we will have to add some tights and a sweater.