Katie's first love

It's official, Katie's in love.  With TWO boys, no less.  When we moved to our new house, I was a little dispointed to find that all of the babysitter aged kids on our cul-de-sac were boys.  That was before I met them.  Or rather, Katie met them.  The boys who live down here are awesome and really great with little ones.  They happily let Katie play with them and patiently respond to her full volume hollering at them to play this or that (repeatedly).  When we, in a rare twist, made it home before dark this evening, and she saw a group of them playing outside (three middle school age boys and two littler ones), she reaaaally wanted to go play with "my friends."  So I let her go and she happily roughhoused on the neighbor's lawn with them for 45 minutes or so.

I found myself debating several parenting dilemmas.  Do I stay outside with her because she is three and she needs to have adult supervision?  Can I leave her outside with the boys who, while responsible, are not necessarily taking responsibility for her?  Would they think to send her inside if they have to go in? Does she know to get out of the street when a car comes yet?  We haven't practiced that much since our old house wasn't conducive to street play.  Do I intervene when she apparently has no idea how to play with others, despite being in daycare?  I pondered these questions as I huddled on the porch in the freezing cold this evening.  I did go inside for a little while when we first got home but I kept getting nervous and looking outside for her.  Fortunately, in a group of 5 boys, she was the only one wearing a bright pink coat.  I'm not used to there being an outside for to her play in quite yet, especially a front yard/flat cul-de-sac/flat driveway so I'm not yet sure how much freedom I can give her.  I also didn't know if I should intervene when she did stuff that I thought sure the boys were going to get frustrated with her about.  I finally gave up and went outside but limited myself to huddling on the front step while she was in the neighbors yard.  I cringed when she started repeatedly hollering at full volume, "ALEX, COME PUSH ME INTO THE POLE."  They were playing a pushing game.  (I decided to have a conversation about play/pretend pushing and real pushing this evening.  We will need it if she is going to hang out with the boys on our street a lot.)  Fortunately I heard, "No, I'm not pushing you into a pole Katie" in return.    She hasn't figured out things like listening to her friends and playing with others is still kind of iffy.  I really tried hard not to get involved so that she would have a chance to learn social skills without Mommy getting in the middle.  It was hard though.  Just one more thing I have to think about and get used to as she grows up to be a big kid.

First meeting with Santa

Two weeks before Christmas, Katie had her first encounter with Santa when Santa came for breakfast at our neighborhood clubhouse. I didn't take her to any of the mall Santa's when she was a baby. We never did that when I was a kid and I never liked the idea of standing in line for two hours for an expensive picture that might not be good. This was probably a good thing because Katie is really and truly terrified of anyone who doesn't look like a normal person.

This should be reassuring, perhaps she won't go with strangers? No, she hasn't met a stranger she didn't like in at least 3 years. She would happily run off with any old pedophile or murderer, especially if they give her candy, specifically chocolate. A person dressed in a costume? A person sized monkey? Her favorite Sesame Street characters live and in person? Run for the hills!!!

We really talked up Santa and meeting Santa and that she would be able to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas when she saw him. She had been talking about Santa at daycare and learning many good Christmas tunes (Rudolph, Dreidel Dreidel, Jingle Bells, and Frosty) for her preschool Christmas program so she had lots of preparation for the event. She remained excited until the moment we stepped into the building with Santa and she saw him through a window about 30 feet away.

Terror struck, she buried her head in our shoulders and refused to go any further. She would only go get some breakfast (in the same large room with Santa) by staying on the far side of me so I would block her from Santa's view. The we had to go eat breakfast in a conference room next to the room where Santa was because she couldn't be that near to him.

We tried everything. I tried walking in the room with her and talking to her, assuring her that Santa was safe. Hysterics. Didn't she want to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas? She wouldn't go within 20 feet of him without crying hysterically and burying her head in our shoulders. I tried talking to her about her friends going to see Santa (after we encountered a family from our church with their two girls). One of the girls even offered to go see Santa with her. Nothing doing...but then she said, "Okay!" and went with the girl...to about 15 feet from Santa. Hysterics again. But, we got close enough to sit on the couch in the same room with Santa, and remain 15 feet away. Didn't she want a candy cane? Well...maybe. Candy is a big motivator for my little sweet tooth. We stayed there for a little while and she watched some other kids get closer and sit on his lap. Finally, after much trial and testing and pulling back, she allowed me to carry her up to Santa and kneel beside him. She spoke to him from the security of my arms, told him she wanted a dollhouse for Christmas, and received her prized candy cane.

Despite Katie's fear of him. Santa decided to get her that dollhouse she wanted and it has been one of the best gifts. She will sit and play with it for quite awhile without adult intervention.

Thank you Santa.

Terrified Katie clinging to Mommy for dear life.

Brave Katie finally venturing over to see the big man in the red suit, from the safety of Mommy's arms of course.

Our first Christmas picture "with" Santa.

Katie has informed us (after a week or two distance from the trauma) that she is going to be brave and sit with Santa "next week." We'll see!

Typical bedtime

Katie is in bed. We think she'll be asleep soon. We sit in the living room while she "sleeps" upstairs in her room.

DAD: [on intercom] Katie, it's time to turn the light off and go to sleep.

K: [in room, through intercom] Ok.

D: Thank you. Good night.

K: Good night.

Five minutes transpires, with the light off.

K: [shouting through air from her room] MOM!!! I can't get my zipper down!

D: [to Mom] What zipper?

MOM: [to K, loud, through the air] What zipper?

K: On my backpack! I can't get my zipper down!

D: [loud] You don't need your backpack to go to sleep. Put the backpack down and go to sleep.

K: MOM, I can't get my zipper down!

D: Put the backpack down and go to sleep or I will take it away from you.

M: Put the backpack on the floor and go to sleep.

K: I think I got it!

K: I got the zipper down!

D: Good night.

Then we see her throwing it over her shoulder as if heading to school, then climbing in bed and trying to get comfortable with a backpack on her back. Alas, it must not have been comfortable.

2008 Photobook is coming!

After a year of effort (and not having time) the 2008 Christmas photobook is finally off to the printers! All of our immediate family will be receiving one as their Christmas present (from last year, sorry for the delay). Click on the link to check it out for yourself. Not all of the images were coming up online when I clicked on it but most of them were. I am presently working on the 2009 photobook and hoping it won't take a whole year to put this one together. Click or copy and paste the link into your browser to see.

http://www.mypublisher.com/?e=OHm3Q8zJl3RJoHhgWnIWtSUmkj8DwuVO&s=fb

Anything but Santa!

This morning, Katie was afraid to come downstairs because Santa might still be there. She cried with the same fear she shows for other people-in-suit characters like mascots and Chick-Fil-A cows. After several minutes we convinced her that Santa had come in the night and left already, so she came down to find that he'd brought her a doll house - just like she asked for! :-) We kept her busy opening presents all day. What fun!

Related: Coming for You!

Sooo tired...

Last night Jim helped me get some paperwork done for school and we were up way too late. The week before Christmas is always hectic at school. I was supposed to send out interim grades last week and still have a huge stack of papers to grade. No interims. Of course, I am trying to finish any units that I was doing because the kids will never remember what we learned before the break. So I am rushing to finish and creating tests and...grading them. Then I managed to really tie myself in knots by deciding to get LEP plans done for two grades this week. Should have done one grade per week and should have waited until after Christmas. I was feeling guilty because they should have been done awhile ago but really, it wouldn't have mattered if I had waited over the break.

So last night I was so tired that I only vaguely woke up when Katie crawled over me to get into our bed last night. Usually she asks and we both wake up. She might have asked last night, but we were both too tired to wake up to answer. So she took it upon herself to come into our bed. I am on the side farthest from the door but she always comes to my side to crawl in. The good part about that? Some special snuggling with my little one. The bad part? A little one who usually wants to pat my face and love on me while I am trying to sleep. Fortunately, I was too tired to wake up. She probably tried patting my face but since I didn't engage, she went to sleep. I took her back to her bed at 5:30 so that she would sleep while I took a shower since she doesn't need to get up quite yet. I carried her back to bed but she was wide awake. i don't know why I bother. She hasn't slept through me carrying her since she was three months old and at 42lbs, she's heavy! She did go right back to sleep in her room after I laid down with her for a minute and at least she got another hour of sleep while I dragged myself into the shower and put on my good face for school.

Time for bed...

Coming soon...Katie's first trip to see Santa.

Chick-Fil-A

I love Chick-Fil-A. I am so glad that these restaurants exist today as an alternative to McDonald's. While I grew up going to McDonalds and going out to eat there was a huge treat (along with Little Ceasar's Pizza Pizza!), as an adult, I feel McDonald's leaves a lot to be desired. The hamburgers taste...weird. Like the meat is not really what it purports to be. The chicken nuggets, once my favorite food has paled in recent years. It began when my older brother, an assistant manager at a McDonald's, brought home several LARGE bags of frozen nuggets that were apparently past the date that they were allowed to be served at the restaurant. While I loved to eat chicken nuggets, they were mostly a vehicle for their sweet and sour sauce and we didn't have any of that. My mother valiantly fried them at home on our stove...every third day for a year. At least, that was what it felt like. And ketchup just didn't cut it. I was so excited to go to Germany the following year, thinking that I would escape the chicken nuggets. After all, I was in another country! Surely I could eat German food and not McDonald's! Alas, my host mother took us (my host brother Mark and I) to the only McDonald's in town every Thursday for lunch. It was her treat, to herself and us. She didn't have to cook because my host father had a Rotary meeting for lunch and Mark could eat as many 99 cent hamburgers as he could stomach, which, at 14, was a lot. The few times I have eaten at McDonald's since high school, the nuggets have made me sick to my stomach.

But, I digress.

I thought sure that, as a parent of a young child, I would have to return to McDonald's because, I mean, how could we avoid happy meals and play areas?

Then Chick-Fil-A came along. They make good food. Chicken nuggets that don't make me sick. Meat that I can identify. Children's meals with fruit and milk and toys that are fun and educational like books, sticker activities and the like. They even give you free stick on place mats so your child can spread their food on the table and it doesn't immediately pick up the germs of the last 85 children who sprayed swine flu there. There are two near us and they both have playgrounds.

We've always liked to go but it may become a regular weekly event for us. We were having trouble figuring out Tuesday night dinners. I have choir practice at church at 7. Now that we live 20+ minutes from church, it seems silly for me to come home from school, eat dinner, and then drive all the way back to school to go to church. But I still need to eat dinner and it is more reasonable for me to get Katie from daycare because it is close to school and church and not our house or Jim's previous job. Well, it turns out that Chick-Fil-A has kids night on Tuesdays. Kids meals are free with the purchase of an adult meal. They have crafts and, of course, the play area. Now I pick Katie up, meet Jim at the Chick-Fil-A near church, have dinner, spend a little time as a family and Jim takes K home while I go on to choir. Jim does the bedtime routine and noone has to worry about doing the dishes after 9pm when I get home or after wrestling Katie into bed.

A win-win for everyone.

Katie hard at work on this week's art project on kids night...

...and eating her absolute favorite food in the world.