It’s so great to see you again!

Happy Fathers day to all of the great dads out there! I am really honored to know so many wonderful men who are enjoying their “dadness” & especially my wonderful W who is the definition of a great dad. W & I enjoyed a nice lunch out sans kids with two other neighbor families at Dunderbaks. Then we came home & W napped and now we are headed over to a neighbors for swimming and steaks. Does it get any better than that? Nah

Those of you who travel with kids are probably aware that Wendy’s is giving out karaoke cd’s with 4 songs on them. We have a couple but for some reason, K was struck by “Reunited” by Peaches and Herb. So we listed to that about 20 times on the way home with the requisite sing-a-long during our 2 hour drive home from Lake City yesterday. That was fun.

So to relieve ourselves of ever hearing that song again, we let her take the cd into her room where she can sing-a-long-all-the live-long-day for all I care. Then Woody got the camera. See for yourself but don’t say I didn’t warn you. LOL

Big girl here we come

Katherine started Kindergarten today at a new charter school. Granted, they didn't think it all through (like the traffic getting in and out was awful as this parent pointed out) http://imagineschoolslol.blogspot.com/2008/08/death-defying-traffic-on-sr54.html
but I think they are doing a great job with the kids.

All in all Katherine had a great day and according to her, only had to use her magic rock one time when she "got a little sad". I made one for Lauren and Katherine for when they go to school. A little rock with lips on one side and a heart on the other. They watched me kiss each rock 100 times and give it bear hugs. They can hold the rock when they need me but I can't be there.

Lauren is still crabby and fighting daycare but there's no choice. I start my new job next week so she will have to adjust..or not...I suppose she could just make us all miserable each and every morning. BAH!!

Today K asked me what ducks do when it rains. What an odd question!

Woody is still in Vegas on vacay and TS Faye is on her way so my plans for a whole week with the kids at school to wrap up my MAXIMUS work and Daisy Scout plans for next year, are shot. School is cancelled due to weather on the second day. Pitiful!!!

Oh well. We will get by.

It's the most magical time of the year

Today, Santa visited Katherine's school. She sat on his lap and asked for a stuffed owl and a robot Katherine and Robot Lauren. She was explaining it to Lauren and said that when santa brings the robots, they can each have a playmate who is a robot them and they won't fight anymore. Then she said "and when the batteries run out, mommy will just put new ones in! Welllll....maybe" So, do you have the scoop on robot kids? If so, please sharefor right now, my mantra to katherine is "go ahead kid and dream the impossible dream"
This morning, we made gingerbread cookies. We are having our annual cookie decorating party tomorrow afternoon and we're expecting 11 kids. yikes!

Last night, while I was changing the 3rd poopy pull up of the day, I said "Lauren, it would make a great Christmas present for mommy and daddy if you used the potty instead of a pull up". About 20 minutes later she calls me and I follow her little voice into the bathroom where I find her perched on the edge of the potty going poop. She woke up dry this morning and ran to the potty and went 1 & 2 so now she's in big girl panties. She's had two small pee accidents (which really kind of stinks since the dryer is broken and the repairman isn't coming until MONDAY) but no poopie oopsies.

Besides that giant breakthrough, we also went to our Daisy Meeting. One sign that you may be a little too into Project Runway? When you decide that giving 5 & 6 year old kids wrapping paper, tape, ribbons and tinsel and give them 15 minutes to design an outfit. We had a blast.

Katherine is one smart Cookie...maybe a little too smart

Today in the car she says "mom, what happened when Santa was a baby?" I said "hua?" And she said "I guess no one got presents when grandma was little because a baby can't drive a sleigh right?" To which I said "ummm, honey, I think it's a family thing. Santa's dad did the job for a few years, then when Santa Jr. grew up enough, he took over and his kids will take over for him." At the time, I thought this was a pretty clever answer (right up there with "Trolls and Giants only live in Ohio so there is nothing to be afraid of here if Florida) but now I'm convinced that she just stopped asking questions because she didn't want to see me sweat anymore.

Oh, and Ohio people, you can forget about us ever going there again. I don't know why I didn't pick a state where we don't know anyone....like Montana. Ohio was just the first state that popped into my brain.

We are keeping busy with Christmas stuff. I've been a wrapping madwoman, but all of my shopping is DONE! Woody is going to love his gifts and I can't wait to enjoy some time with the girls playing with their new stuff. I got some really cool stuff for them this year. Stuff I used to love like the original colorforms, lite brite and art stuff.

Katheirne has earned her first patch for Daisy's (for learning the girl scout promise) and we are now working on our first petal which is for Honest and Fair from the GS Law. I'm wracking my brain trying to come up with crafts/games...anything to teach honest and fair. any tips?

Lauren is doing ok. She's getting a little sassy lately but she's been doing great about going to sleep like a big girl. That's so nice since it means that Woody and I get an extra hour or so to ourselves each evening.

We have a very busy month with a couple of parties at friends houses, a GS party, carrolling at the Veterens home with the Daisys, my annual cookie decorating party (whould'a ever thought?) and of course Christmas. Mingled in there, my mom and step dad are coming down for her second opinion at Moffit and we will be going to Tallahassee right after Christmas to visit with my Cousin and his famly. It will be a short visit though since we are having a big NYE/Birthday/Anniversary party on NYE. I'm looking forward to having a sleepover with our friends and celebrating such a bunch of stuff.

Great Convo I overheard

Katherine: Dad, are mermaids real?
Woody: Yes, they are real but they are dead people.
Katherine: why are they dead people?
Woody: They just are. They are dead people that....
Me from the other room: MERMAIDS WOODY! Not MUMMIES!
Woody: Oh, no, those are not real.

I then roll my eyse and wonder how scarred my children are going to be from these seemingly insignifigant conversations that we get all wrong because we are busy. Granted, her pronunciation is a little off so she said "muhmehs" but I totally knew what she was saying somehow. I wonder if "fluent in Katherinese" would help if I added it to my resume.

Whoops!

With all of the birthday stuff and surgery for Katherine, I totally forgot to upload the pictures to my webpage for August. It's done now and I also added September photos.

Things are going well around here. The kids are testing us right now but I think we are getting a handle on it. Other than that, we went to Busch Gardens today and it was nice. Katherine is finally tall enough to ride the River Rapids so she went first with Woody then twice more with me. We all got soaked.

She's eating better now too. The dr. who took out her tonsils said "they were huge and chronically infected. She will probably sleep better now and eat better too". Granted, I thought her was nuts but so far, he's right.

We let Spot and Louie go last week. I found a beautiful golden tree frog on our screen and Katherine decided she wanted to have him instead of the lizards. She gave the lizards hugs and kisses and released them into the wild of our front lawn. She's figuring they will stick around and say "hi" occasionally. If I were them, I'd run far far away...quickly! So now we have a golden frog in the terrarium. I hope he eats crickets since that's all the reptile food I have right now.

Katherine is healed and back in school so we are all getting back into our routine. It's so much easier around here with a routine. Everyone, including me, was off of their game for the last few weeks.

We are working on getting Lauren to sleep in her sisters room. So far so bad. It's not going well at all. But, last night I was rocking her and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She started whispering it while pretending to be asleep. It was too stinking cute for words.

I may actually miss rocking my babies to sleep. If you'd asked me that two years ago when I was still rocking Katherine to sleep on a regular basis, I'd say you were nuts. Now, there is an ache in my chest when I think of them both going to bed with no help from us.

Oh gag! Retch! Barf!

Katherine is recovering from having her tonsils and adenoids removed. I was cleaning out her room yesterday in preperation for the fall garage sale when I found a sippy under her bed. Figuring it was just a water sippy that fell, I plopped it on the counter to be taken care of later, then I promptly forgot all about it.

This morning, I'm emptying the dishwasher and re loading it with all of the mornings dishes. Part of that job is emptying all of the assorted sippies. I grabbed an innocent looking elmo sippy with a pink sparkley lid and dumped the contents into the sink. Instead of a rush of fluid, it was a solid mass of what I can only assume had been chocolate milk at one point. By the time my brain had processed the above info, the smell hit me and I ran gagging from the kitchen with the water still running in the sink and the stinky clod of funk blocking the drain. I returned shortly with a turtleneck pulled up over my nose and mouth (and sprayed with perfume as an added defense to the stench) and cleaned it all up.

This does not bode well for the rest of the day.