Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day was pretty low key around here. E. J. had to work, so Kathryn and I did a lot of nothing, which is an activity I greatly enjoy.

I used this picture two years ago, but couldn't resist posting it again. It's of my mom and me on Easter 1985 (I was almost 2) compared to K and me December 2012 (K was 2.5) . I'm so lucky to have the best mom and be a mom to the best girl. Happy Mother's Day, mom!

I'd say there's a resemblance. Luckily, my hair was spared the resemblance of my mom's. 

 Posing with her beautiful package to me. 

My lovely gifts from K: a mold of her hand and homemade lotion. Perfect! E. J. also added a gift certificate for a massage and a K-Cup organizer. I'd say it was a great day.

Naturally, we had to take some pictures to document the day. The outtakes: Apparently I 'hurt her pit' on the left-hand side picture. Oy vey.

 The girl who made me a mom.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you had lovely one.

A Girl and Her Dog

E. J. likes having a dog in our yard to ward off predators. Not people predators, but the animal kind. When you live in the country, you never know what will find its way to your yard, especially in the middle of the night (I prefer not to even think about it).

With our current 'yard dog' nearing the end of her life, E. J.'s been on the lookout for a new puppy. When an acquaintance of ours was giving away free puppies after her dog accidentally got pregnant, he brought K with him to pick out a puppy of her own.

She chose the same dog (a lab mix) three times in a row, so we figured her mind was made up. Once we got home - after some serious pondering - she committed to a name for her dear puppy...

Cinderella.

I have no idea how she came to this conclusion. She's never seen the movie Cinderella nor have we read her a book about Cinderella. But, Cinderella it is.

Although Cinderella will be permanently living outside, we let her come in a few times when she was extra tiny and these two were inseparable.

Welcome to our yard, Cinderella. I think this is a magical fairytale in the eyes of Kathryn.

Happy Heart

I'm still coming down off the high from having two of my favorite people visit us last week. Kim and Andy put up with a total cancellation of their flight to countless delays and topped it off with lost luggage (each piece of their luggage was lost and luckily got back to them safely over a day later). They arrived over 14 hours after they were supposed to, but we were so glad they finally made it.

I think Kim said it best that our visits are even more special now that we have growing families. Speaking of growing families, how great is this documentation three years in the making?

I can't wait to meet their little one due in September and neither can Kathryn. She kept asking Kim when her baby would hatch out.

We didn't do much as far as activities go, but we had a great time just spending time with each other.

What's a visit without a trip to get frozen yogurt? They're two peas in a pod.

One last goodbye before Kathryn went off to school for the day

(Somehow E. J. didn't make his way into any pictures. Oops!)

We're so lucky that Kim and Andy made their way down to Texas to visit us and can't wait to see them again in a few months. Visits from our favorite people are great for the soul.

Too Fast

Life seems to be moving too fast lately and from what I can tell, there's nothing I can do about it. I can't say that things have ever been slow, but I specifically remember in November when I felt like everything was in super fast forward. Maybe it was because the holidays were approaching or maybe it was because I was starting to get comfortable in my new job (read: the work really started piling up) or maybe it's just because that's what life as a mom is like.  Whatever "it" may be, things haven't showed signs of slowing down.

For goodness' sakes, things are moving so fast that K is driving already.

In the midst of moving quickly, our life is still happening.

For Christmas, E. J. bought me a ticket to my first big blogging conference: Blissdom. I know what you're thinking, "Why would you go to that, Barbara. You're not really a 'blogger'?" I know, I know, but it was fun to step out of my comfort zone. I'm not going to do a wrap up of the conference (plus, it's not really relevant anymore since I went nearly a month ago!) other than tell you that I learned some things for my own blog and my day job, but I mostly enjoyed the little escape away from reality and just focusing on myself. I was also very lucky to have the best roommate possible, Lilly at Pancakes and Beet Juice. She's hysterical, really smart and just a pleasure to be around. She's also one of those people who you question if you're "cool" enough to be around - she's that great. I also met a number of other great women bloggers like Jane at The Borrowed Abode and Sean at Average Supermom (whose blog I enjoyed reading so much even before meeting her).

After returning home from Blissdom, it was back to reality in full force. After a day at work, I picked up Kathryn and we went grocery shopping before heading home. Towards the end of our shopping trip she told me her tummy was hurting. We made a trip to the bathroom. Nothing happened. As I was placing the groceries on the conveyor belt, I looked up just in time to see K spew vomit everywhere - on the grocery store floor, herself and even on some of the groceries. Thankfully, the cashier couldn't have been more patient or kind and made a stinky (literally) situation much less traumatic. It was actually her first time to throw up from being sick. Ah, memories in the making.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and E. J. came home with the great news that he was promoted at work. I'm so excited and proud of him - this is long overdue, in my opinion. It does come with a new schedule that isn't exactly family friendly (I'm essentially a married, single mom most of the time) but we're making it work.

And then Easter crept up on us.

  Just us girls on Easter while daddy was at work.

I can't say that we're any different than any family. Life is just busy. I just finished three really stressful weeks at work (hello? Seriously lack of blog posting) and although things aren't suddenly less busy, they're not as bad. On the bright side, we have lots of exciting things to look forward to in the coming weeks and months (visits with family and friends), which couldn't be at a more perfect time.

Weekend Warriors?

I use the term "weekend warriors" loosely because I don't think we're at that status just yet, but this weekend and last we've been creeping into our own version of weekend warriors. I've been stepping out of my comfort zone even more and taking these weekend warrior projects...outdoors. GASP! If you were to describe me, I don't think the word "outdoorsy" would ever come up, but I'm okay with stepping outside of my comfort zone, occasionally.

For example, our yard has been bugging me lately. I decided to implement a "Yard Day" initiative since it was getting to be too cluttered for my taste. Oddly enough, the spruce-up ended up being pretty fun and productive.

Each of us had our own ways of "helping"

See the pile of crap that E. J.'s hauling off? Pure happiness.

On a side note, Kathryn and I also made a trip into town that same day for her first haircut (really just a trim, but we made sure it was documented).

With "Yard Day" behind us, Kathryn and I took on part two: landscaping. E. J. worked this weekend, so it was just us girls taking on the landscaping around the front porch.

The poor porch needs some personality and filling around it. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff, so I'm learning as I go.

My helper

 Some before and after. Eight shrubs planted and four more to go.

We did it!

The part you can't see? Me, hobbling around thanks to some really sore arms and legs. But on a great note, we were able to get some major quality time outside while the weather was beautiful (and tolerable...unfortunately, summer will be here before we know it).

I think we're slowly earning our weekend warrior wings.

Another Check Mark to the Milestone List

Remarkably, it's been over a month that Kathryn has been going to school diaper-free and since then, she hasn't had a single accident. After the first week, her teacher sent her pull-ups home. It's official, she's potty trained! Another milestone to check off, and this is a big one. As of the last couple weeks, she even wakes up with a dry pull-up. There have been a couple middle-of-the-night wake ups when she'll come in our room and let me know she has to go. 

Never did I ever think I would be so excited about bladder control, but both E. J. and I are so proud of her. You'd think that we would notice a huge difference in our checking account now that we're not buying diapers, but I haven't noticed. At all. Funny how that works.

Her independence has been shining through as well. She hasn't shown much desire to pick out her clothes (which makes the morning routine a whole lot smoother for me, while it lasts) but she does want to put on her clothes all by herself. However, she's a girl after my own heart and is specific about the shoes she picks out each day.

The "Terrible Twos" haven't really been a thing in our house. Sure, she has her moments, but she snaps out of it in no time. Really, she's super quick to get over almost any tantrum or devistation that a nearly three year old experiences.  She's an easy going girl. But, it's no secret that the Threes are supposed to be worse than the Twos.  So maybe we're really in for it or maybe she'll continue being a pretty easy kiddo, as "easy" as kids can be. I should clarify, this parenting gig is still a lot of hard work....

and totally worth it.

Valentine's Day

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind as I returned to work after being out with the flu for nearly a week. Work is always busy, but especially last week while I tried to play catch up. I had to work yesterday too for an event, so a one-day 'weekend' doesn't quite feel like enough and I'm already dreaming about 5 pm on Friday.

With Valentine's and a crazy work week, I wasn't really on my A-game in the mom department. I baked cherry chocolate chip cookies for Kathryn's class on Valentine's Eve, packaged them in a regular Zip Lock bag and wrote a Valentine's message with a Sharpie on each kiddo's and teacher's bag in her class. 

There was nothing cute about them, but Kathryn was the only one who handed out homemade Valentine's, so I should get some mom points for that one, right?

Valentine's Eve, in her favorite nightgown from Nana

 All ready for her Valentine's Tea Party at school

E. J. and I were really excited because we had the rare opportunity for a night out, which also fell on Valentine's Day. We went to a Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen concert, which was great!

After work I picked up Kathryn, we made our way home and immediately dropped her off at my in-law's house. The concert started at 8, so we had to leave right away, eat a quick dinner out (I timed it, we ate in 11 minutes flat) and then made our way to the venue.

Speedy Valentine's dinner - can't go wrong with TexMex

The concert got out right after 11 and you would have thought it was four in the morning by the way I felt. We were home at midnight and sleeping by 12:30 am, but I'm so glad we were able to go!

My tired eyes tell the whole story - I'm not cut out for late, work night activities anymore that occur after a full day of work 

We left the concert right away, in fact the lights were still out and in true Barbara fashion, I missed two stairs and totally ate it in my heels. Thankfully no one could see my face, so I was completely anonymous after the embarrassing fall. But, I did get to take away a pretty awesome cankle and a nasty black and blue. This is the third or fourth time I've done this to my left ankle, so it's not exactly as strong as it used to be. (And after looking at that link, I realized I used "in true Barbara fashion" in 2010 too - see, it really is a thing. I'm terribly clumsy).

Despite the minor injury and lack of sleep, it was a great Valentine's Day spent with my loves. 

Coming Back to Life

I can't believe it has been over three weeks since my last post. For the last two weeks, our house has been plagued with sickness (thus far, E. J. has been able to dodge all illnesses. Lucky dog.).

It started at the beginning of last week when I got a call from K's school that she was being sent home with a fever, which was on top of the cough that she already had. We were lucky to get into the doctor's office, despite it being really late in the day (4:30 appointment - we were finally out of there at 6:30).

Since Kathryn has been a regular at the doctor's office since August (coughs, fevers, ear infections) she's pretty well known. She received the VIP treatment that day. The nurses made a sign for her on the exam room door.

Luckily, she's been free of ear infections for the past two months and it turned out to just be a regular ole' cold. Lots of rest and three days at home after finally being fever free, she was back at school.

Next up, my turn. I ended up having the same cough last week and that escalated over the weekend. I had a sinus infection that made me feel like my head was going to explode every waking moment. Getting to sleep was a near miracle due to the intense pain.

I ended up going to the doctor at the beginning of the week only to find out I had the flu, bronchitis, a sinus infection and then later in the week, a stomach bug as well (which I think may have just been part of the flu).

Just a few days before I went to the doctor, E. J. and I realized we were mistaken that Kathryn hadn't received her flu shot. I had her at the doctor's office with me, so I asked if she could get her shot while we were there. Kathryn is very comfortable with our doctor and the entire time was asking him if he was going to look in my eyes, my nose, my mouth, listen to my heart - the works. He said he was going to leave the room while he was still the good guy and have the nurse come in to give her the flu shot.

Naturally, she cried a bit after her shot and was still a little weepy when we were on our way out. Our doctor saw her and offered a lolly pop for her bravery. Of course, she accepted the lolly pop and added in a "You got me Dr. 'insert our doctor's name here"...meaning "you really tricked me and caught me off guard with that shot". When did she turn 25?!

My world for a week

The flu is no joke (and no, after years of getting the flu shot, I never got around to getting it this year). I can't recall ever being this sick (there were some deep, dark moments), but I guess that's what the flu will do to you (every single, freakin' symptom of the flu!).  It wasn't until this afternoon (10 days after I started feeling sick) that I'm actually feeling like myself again.

I'm SO happy to be feeling like a functioning human and join the living once again. Now my next challenge...work. I haven't been in nearly a week and I'm a little scared to find out what this week will be like as I attempt to "catch up".

Kathryn's really into doing "cheers" lately with her glass at dinner, so I'm going to throw out a virtual cheers: Here's to a VERY healthy rest of 2013 and that Kathryn's mommy makes it out of this work week alive ;).

Shifts

It's no secret that having a child means constant shifts and changes in your life. With Kathryn closer to a three year old than a than two year old, those changes are certainly in full effect.

The biggest shift is the potty training adventure (I guess you could call it an adventure?). After months upon months of K being more than capable of going on the potty, there has been a huge shift in the past week and a half.

It's been over a month that K has been consistently going on the potty at home and then less than two weeks ago we got the great news that she FINALLY went at school after being afraid for months. Woah. Big news in our house.

In the last week she's been progressing like crazy. From no longer using her training toilet and insisting on using the grown up one (with the help of a training seat on the toilet) to wearing her big girl undies this weekend with no accidents. Tomorrow is a big day for her as she'll wear her undies to school for the first time (with a couple changes of clothes, just in case).

Although temporary, another shift in our house is quite literally E. J.'s work shift. He's back to the day shift, which means his 12 hour days fit more in the "normal" business hours, allowing us to have dinner together and we are awake / sleeping during the same hours. 

It's 100 times better being able to eat dinner together, have daddy around for story time before bed and having my husband around in general. It gets old really fast having completely opposite schedules.

We've had good shifts in our house lately, really good. With that, I leave you with a look inside the last two weeks.

I have a confession: I'm the mother of a hoarder

 Her latest obsession - police cars. Getting to sit in daddy's police car = highlight of her week

 No nap means you fall asleep while eating dinner

 Hat day at school

Dressing up has become a thing lately. It's amazing how she decided to do this on our own without me suggesting it. It's just built in her little girl nature.

 She adores being outside

 Moments before I got an unwanted, cold shower. I should have known better. Anything for a cool picture, right?

A Cozy Weekend

Friday was a particularly rainy, chilly (well, chilly by Texas standards - only in the 40s today) and gloomy day, which can only mean one thing: it was my favorite kind of day. I'm not sure what that says about me, but I love the days that tend to be the least favorite days of others, as far as the weather goes. Besides the ideal whether conditions, Friday also started the weekend of Kathryn one-liners that I needed to write down.

Before we left the house to start our Friday, Kathryn told me "Mommy, I love you more than hugs and chocolate". She loves those two items very much so that put a huge smile on my face and my heart.

And then they just got better the rest of the weekend..
"Stop. Take a deep breath and relax. That's how you be a star, Mommy."
"I'm going to space, Mommy. I won't be long."
"Sometimes, I think I'm a genius." (after deciding her baby needed a Band-Aid).
Me: "What would you like for breakfast?" K:"It's a simple decision. I want a cereal bar".

She kills me.

It was E. J.'s weekend to work, so Kathryn and I stayed at home the entire weekend and only went outside a couple of times to play. Otherwise, we stayed cozy inside the house. There was a lot of movie watching, staying in our jammies (all day), playing and cooking.

Mulled cider and freshly made chocolate chip cookies

 My bow tie shrimp scampi

Earlier this week, I saw The Pioneer Woman's recipe for Perfect Potato Soup, but as I started making it a decided to change it up a good bit. I packed it full of veggies (and topped it with a little cheese and bacon for good measure) and turned it into Potato Chowder. E. J. was a little skeptical at first, but after he took a bite he told me it tasted like Thanksgiving and was impressed with my creation or rather, recreation? Anyway, it's a keeper!

My least favorite line of the weekend was Kathryn's response to my question from today "What do you think we should do today, little Bug?" "We should clean, Mommy". Despite my displeasure, I did some cleaning too.

And now it's time for me to call it a night and rest up for a full week back at work.