Photo Shoot

We took Kate to Shaw Nature Reserve last Sunday to do her one year pictures that we have been meaning to do for, oh... about 4 months!!! It was her 16 month birthday and we were LONG overdue!

It started a little rocky. Before one photo was snapped, she took a spill on the concrete walkway, skinned her knee, and hit her little forehead. She screamed LIKE CRAZY!!!

We went on to this house they have on the premises there, skinned knee and all. It adds character to the pictures, right??

Then, we played with some rocks and sticks. I use the term "we" very lightly. More like Kate brought us sticks and rocks.

We went inside the house and it was a really neat "museum" like place. Lots of photos and information. The kicker was that at each little station, there was a telephone that you picked up, pressed a little button, and it told you about the pictures you were looking at. Could that be ANY more up my little girl's alley? A phone?? Buttons to push?? Someone actually talking to you on the other end?? She was in toddler heaven!

That picture makes my stomach do flip flops... she is getting so big!







After all the indoor fun, we headed out to the back porch.



That sign will eventually be edited out...

... kinda like her skinned knee was in this picture.

She got a little silly when Daddy was asking her to look at the camera.

I just LOVE the look of this porch in the pictures. Very classic.

























We brought along her little rocking chair. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do with it, but at any rate, it lasted all of about 2 seconds. With all the room to roam, she was NOT going to sit still in a chair for any amount of time.

After another tumble on the concrete, we put her shoes on and held hands just in case.

And, of course, we had to stop and investigate everything.

Hey Mom and Dad, I found a rock!!



Wanna see what I can do with it???



JUST KIDDING!



And, she really was! It's a fun new game she made up... I call it Fake Out. She pretends to put stuff in her mouth, watches me go crazy, and then runs away as fast as she can, squealing all the way. I'm sure that was a run- on sentence, by the way.

After all of the exploration, we took her down to the water.





















If you are still looking, WOW! You must really love us... that was a lot of pictures!

Birthday Wishes

Here's Kate giving a BIG birthday shout out to her Great Uncle Stuart, 2nd cousin Tyler, and her Mimi.... who all have birthdays this week!!!

Reunited

I have a friend from high school, Trisha, who I hadn't seen in a LONG time!! Like 4 years long time. We talk on facebook now and then, and after Megan had Baby Allie, finally decided we all needed to get together.

She came over a couple weekends ago and brought her little girl who's not so little anymore. Georgie is five and a half (she made sure to throw the "and a half" in there after I asked her if she was five).

Megan brought Allie and it was so nice for all of us to sit around and catch up.

It's weird that next year, we will have been out of high school for TEN years. It doesn't seem possible. It's even weirder that we all have kids now.

We used to make Spice Girl videos and hang out in each other's basements. Now, we have real lives, real responsibilities (other human beings), and real worries. It's crazy what a difference ten years can make.

Tuesdays

I used to like Tuesdays. Tuesday was our night off... home together with nothing to do. Now, Mark works late on Tuesdays and doesn't get home until 7.

I pick Kate up from Miss Marilyn's and then, I have to get creative about what we do. It is SO hard to keep her happy, keep the house clean, cook dinner, all while waiting for Mark to get home. I seriously don't know how single parents keep it all together. You are my heroes!!

It's like she knows Daddy is coming home soon, and on Tuesdays, she has to wait so long for him to show up. It makes for a whiny, cranky girl. Not to mention she tears the house APART and I am just one person chasing after her.

All that to say, Tuesdays stink for us.

So, I came up with a plan. All of my "running around" will be done on Tuesdays. Kate LOVES being out and about, waving at strangers, and pulling things off the shelves. It's a win-win situation. I get my stuff done, she's happy, and I don't have to worry about getting through that crazy time of the day waiting for Mark to get home to HELP US OUT!!! I plan a simple dinner that can be thrown together and we just eat late that night when Mark gets home.

This past Tuesday, we had a bunch of stops to make. We got stuck in the rain at Target, so we camped out at the Starbucks for a little while and split a chocolate chip cookie.

And, here she is on the way home from that trip.

Pay special attention to the details: a bulging diaper, no shoes or socks 'cause she pulls them off the minute she gets in the car, her carseat straps that are still loose from the winter coat days, and her disheveled hair... but, she's just chillin'.

How that is comfortable, I will never know!

This Tuesday, we are heading to the Washington Riverfront trail to do some walking... the weather is supposed to be GREAT this week!!

I think Tuesdays are looking a little brighter around here...

A Beautiful Day

That picture was not from our beautiful day today, but HOW could I resist posting it?? That was during our "living room picnic" we had last night.

We were blessed with temperatures that reached 80 today!! It was such a nice break from the weather we have been having. All day at work, I was SO ready to come home and play outside.

Once Kate and I got home, we both changed clothes and headed outside. She LOVES being outside... and she loves rocks! We spent a good hour walking the cul-de-sac picking up rocks and throwing them down.

She wandered all over the front yard, investigating some bird poop on the box thingie (that's the technical name, anyway).

She was less than pleased when she tripped and fell onto the crunchy, dead grass. Spring, PLEASE come soon!

She wandered over to the neighbor's yard and we played on their swingset for a little bit.

This is the look you get when you say, "Say Cheese!"


Here it is again.


And, again!


Oh, and here's what happens when you let a one year old use the camera on your phone.

After that, I found a couple little plastic shovels from some beach pails and Kate dug in the dirt for awhile. She also "shoveled" the trees and whacked me in the back of the head a few times with her crazy little shovel.

Then, we sat on the front porch and waited for Daddy to get home. I got hit with that dang shovel at least three more times!!

Now, this one... oh, this is one of my favorites.

She just looks so grown up with her little legs together.

Hope your day was WONDERFUL!!!

Old Pictures, and a Few New

Last week, while looking through my iphone pictures, I happened upon these:

This is what our fun Monday night get togethers look like!

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but craziness took over and we were left with no time.I am hoping for a relaxing weekend with not much to do.

Tonight, I am celebrating being DONE with the Balanced Literacy class I was taking. It was practically every Thursday night since about October, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity (our district pays the tuition for us to attend this one class through a grant they received). It was a little rough on our schedule because I wasn't getting home until 7:30 on Thursdays, but we made it work. So, yay... it's OVER!!

I am realizing how RANDOM this post is, but that's what happens when you let a week go by with no updating.

OK, let's swtich gears here.

I wanted to share with you Kate's mad obsession with the computer. Any computer.

Many a tantrum is thrown around here when she is not allowed to play with it. Occasionally, we let her play these little toddler games, watch Handy Manny on disney.com, or just type in regular old Microsoft Word. She can get a little crazy and start pounding on the keyboard (hence, my missing Caps Lock key). But, let me tell you, that laptop is her main squeeze. She would be content to spend her whole day with it.

Here's evidence of just how happy it makes her...

I mean, seriously...HOW can we say "no" to her????