It takes a village and our first bloody accident

I really wanted to share this picture.  One of our neighbors is helping situate Katie on the sled while Jim was shoveling our driveway.  It really characterizes for me the family feel of our new street and neighborhood. All the cul-de-sac kids congregated on the neighboring houses' driveway (which our neighbor helpfully did not shovel) to sled and they had a great time.  Katie, who would usually be very hesitant to participate in something as potentially scary as sledding, watched the other kids and then jumped right in.  She even went fast enough to get some air over the ski bump the older kids put at the bottom of the hill.  In keeping with the friendly nature of our court and the fact that I love to bake (especially to feed people goodies!), I made cookies and Jim and Katie delivered about 6 dozen fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies around the cul-de-sac.  I understand they were quite appreciated.  :)

The other thing that happened on our wild sledding day was Katie's first bloody accident while playing.  It was almost comical to watch.  She had gone down the sledding hill very fast but had slowed down considerably at the end (the "hill" is well designed to allow for stopping at the bottom) when she started sliding toward a woman who was walking away from the house.  Katie wasn't moving very fast by the time they collided but there was nothing we could do to stop it as the ground was solid ice where they were.  The woman went down on her bottom but, since Katie wasn't going very fast, I didn't expect there to be any problems.  Somewhere in the shuffle, Katie's face must have been pushed into the ice because when she looked up, she was crying and blood was coming out of her mouth.  Fortunately, it wasn't much and stopped quickly.  When I looked in her mouth I couldn't even find where the blood was coming from.  When I asked her if she was hurt or scared she replied, "Scared."  A day later, her face is definitely all scraped up with red scrapes on her upper lip, nose, and right cheek.  Jim, of course, happened to have the camera in hand to document the crash.

The air.

The slide.

The collision.

 

 The crash.

 

Are you okay?

"No, Mommy!  I am NOT okay!"  Poor baby. 

Snow 1/30/10

Katie says, "Mommy, the snow has come! Look out the window!"


Hours later we had her fed and persuaded her to put some clothes on so she could go out and play with the neighbors. This is the result:

Singing in the Car

Katie decided to sing a song in the car on the way to Chick-Fil-A for dinner tonight.  It went a little like this:

It started being a song about a robin...that has a nose...who eats (Katie)...named Rudolph...tu tu ta may me mo nu (I'm singing in Spanish Mommy), etc. 

If only I could strap a voice activated audio recorder to the back seat that would capture these moments.

500 in 2010 Update from School

So, since I challenged the staff of my school to do 220 miles before June 6th, I had to organize and track the miles.  I'm keeping it easy and reporting Monday-Sunday, just like we're doing on the bigger challenge.  That way, I don't have to record my miles in 2 different ways and I can pester everyone for their miles on Monday morning when we get to school.  I created a poster to put up on the wall and a way to post the miles so the students and the rest of the staff can follow us.  I put that up today.  I am not especially artistic but it does what it needs to.  Unfortunately for me, only three people have taken up the challenge with me and they are all runners (I can only walk because of a back issue).  2 are training for a half marathon in March.  One is also the track coach.  He's killing me.  I was (and still am!) PROUD of the 10.62 miles I did last week.  I just sigh when I look at the 19 miles he put in.  Ah well, at least I am beating the other two (for now). :)

I'm behind for this week (only 3.4 miles so far) but I still have 4 more days!  Here's to 500 miles.

Hmm, so do I sing the Proclaimers?

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles
To fall down at your door

Or Peter, Paul and Mary?
 
Lord I'm one, Lord, I'm two, Lord I'm three, Lord I'm four.
Lord I'm 500 miles from my home....

The Terrificly Terrible Threes

I am currently sitting downstairs on the couch listening to Jim give Katie her bath and put her to bed.  What I'm hearing: Jim bellowing the ABC song over Katie screaming incoherently as they battle for the position as the loudest.

Gotta love the threes.

500 Miles in 2010

Yes, you read that right.   A friend of mine posted a challenge on her blog.  Walk/run/or ellipse your way to 500 miles in 2010.  I have recently been able to return to exercising after having lots of back pain problems since July 2008 and then some additional health problems this past fall.  I need some motivation to find the time and energy to get moving again.  Since moving farther away from work, it has been harder to fit it in and it just hasn't happened since then.  This challenge was perfect and came at just the right time.

But, I was afraid that I would wimp out and not finish the challenge.  I don't know many people on the list who are participating so I was afraid I might just drop out without anyone paying much attention to me.  So I decided to go public.  I challenged the entire staff of my school to walk/run/swim/ellipse 220 miles by June 6th, 2010.  That is the last Sunday before school gets out for the summer so I'll be able to post the final tallies before the kids leave for the summer.  I'm even going to (gulp) post our weekly totals on the wall outside my classroom to get the kids in on the fun.

No backing out now!

Current totals: Monday 2.0 miles, Tuesday 1.5 miles, Thursday 2.0 miles, Friday 2.52 miles, Saturday 2.6 miles.  YTD: 10.62 miles  Woot!

Christmas...I don't want Santa to come to my house! (sob!)

I have to add to Jim's story of Christmas morning to give my two cents. I was so excited about Katie's first Christmas really being aware of Christmas and the presents. It was going to be awesome, I thought. The days leading up to Christmas should have warned me. She came down with a fever a few days prior to Christmas and had to get regular doses of Motrin to feel kind of normal.

The days leading up to Christmas and Christmas Eve we made a big deal about Santa coming to our house and bringing presents and filling our stockings. They gave her a bag of oats to sprinkle on the lawn to feed the reindeer (we actually forgot to do this because she was too sick to go to church on Christmas Eve and I was singing "O Holy Night" at the 7:30 service. Grandma talked to Katie about waking up in the morning and waiting until she saw light outside to wake up Mommy and Daddy. We thought we were prepared.

Christmas morning she came in to wake us up, not excited as we expected but sobbing and terrified (and feverish). Why was she sobbing on Christmas morning you say? "I don't want Santa to come to my house!" (sob, sob) "Why not, honey? It's fun to have Santa come to your house! He brings presents and fills your stocking with candy. Don't you want chocolate in your stocking?" "I don't want Santa to come to my house!" (sob) "Let's go downstairs and see what he brought you. Maybe he brought that dollhouse you asked for!" "NO!" (Hysterics ensue.)

After a little bit of this, we finally discerned that she didn't want to go downstairs and she didn't want Santa to come to her house because she thought Santa would still BE here. Alas, after lots of reassurance (and time for the Motrin to start working), she consented to let me carry her downstairs to see what Santa had brought her. Once she saw for herself that Santa was not here, she got down from my arms and got into the spirit of Christmas like I had hoped.

It ended up being a truly awesome Christmas, despite its inauspicious beginning.

Next up...present opening and picture overload!