Day with Jess

While Scout was out of town at an Allergy Conference (Mom, he can no longer make fun of you for going to handbell camp!) Jessica took Kate out for a fun-filled morning of pictures, playing at the park, complete with lunch at Chick-fil-a and ice cream! This is a link to Jessica's blog to see some of the pics she snapped that day. Kate felt like the coolest, and the big bonus was that Corey was able to join in the fun. What a sweet gift... it gave me some time to pack for our trip and was such a fun day for Kate. We feel so blessed to know such a gifted photographer who captures the moment and the personality every time. More than that, we feel so blessed to have precious friends who love our children like they do us...

http://503galleries.com/blog/

They had to take Don the cow along... he is about Kate's size and she sleeps with him every night, and every morning drags him down the stairs with her. He was a gift from Brandon and Lauren and it was love at first sight. He is named after Don Haley... After spending a morning with Don (Haley, that is) Kate was smitten and named the enormous cow she received later that day after the loveable fighter pilot.

Em

Yay for a quickie visit from Em...
If we look totally exhausted it is because we were. We kept tradition and stayed up until the wee hours chatting with a glass of wine in one hand and a Cadbury egg in the other, topping it all off with an early morning run (or waddle in our case that morning....)

Kate insisted that only Emily (or "Savvy") could put her to bed.

Carter Caroline is buzzing around like crazy on all fours, into everything and staying nice and busy. She is determined to get to what she sets her sights on, and will crawl right over anyone or anything in her way. Scout and I can't help but laugh when Kate painstakingly sets up a tea party or a game of Memory and Carter comes sweeping in and turns it all topsy-turvy. "Carter, that is unacceptable!" On Tuesday I am flying down to Florida with the girls and we are meeting Scout in Fort Lauderdale to spend a week with Hayes and Ashley, do a quick Disney day, and then head up to Memphis to look at schools and houses. I am crossing my fingers that CC is happy-happy on the plane, and is just tickled pink to sit still for 3+ hours. (Kate, too!) Yeah, I don't think that will happen, either. =) Oh well... totally worth it to visit with the Templetons and soak up some rays!

Bye Bye Paci

I feel like I should take a moment to acknowledge some dear friends who are no longer with us: Kate's PACIFIERS. Those of you who knew Kate as a baby will remember that she was plain old unhappy without them. Period. Since we gave Kate a paci when she was 2 weeks old (it was love at first suck for all of us!) she had not slept for 10 minutes in her life without them... until we tried to take them away about a year ago. Eesh. Scout and I were so pleased with ourselves as we devised the plan for Kate to "mail" her pacis to the Paci Fairy and we just knew it would work, yadda yadda. It didn't. At all. It was the longest 3 weeks ever. In history. Of all time. As the pacifier-less nights went on they grew worse and worse. Our clockwork 14-hour a day sleeper was gone and in her place was a strung out little thing, running on E and completely emotionally undone. As she ran around the house in hysterics I was looking over my shoulder for the camera crews from "Nanny 911" and "Super Nanny." Needless to say, we decided she wasn't ready, gave her the pacifiers back, and loved them more than ever when she immediately was able to rest again. Since then, we have tried off and on to persuade her to get rid of them and a couple times have actually taken them away and every time it is the same story. Those people who say that they will have a few rough nights and then get over it are big liars. I have been fine with the pacifier addiction since our first attempt at removal and just accepted that she may be the only kid at college with a nuk. Scout, however, had her best interest at heart and has been pushing the no-paci agenda as he has noticed a little slant in her teeth and hears his own voice in his head telling him to practice what he preaches to his patients. So, there we were. We sat Kate down a few weeks ago and told her that she would be giving her pacifiers up when we went to Disney World. ...That we were going to leave them at Cinderella's Castle so she could pass them along to babies who needed them and it would be magical and fun and there would be a giftshop trip involved afterward, but that they would be gone. G-O-N-E. No negotiations, sister. She agreed. Scout and I took a deep breath, braced ourselves for what we knew lay ahead, and told ourselves to enjoy the last couple precious weeks of peace. About a week later, however, Kate came into Carter's room and said "Mommy I didn't want to wait for Disney. I am done with my pacis now and I threw them away." She took me by the hand and sure enough, she had thrown them all in the trash can. (Even the ones she hid away!) My first instinct was "Eeeek! It is almost bedtime and that's our whole stash!" But we went with it, and she was right. She was done. Not a peep about them that night and has not missed them at all since. We were in shock. I am continually amazed by how little people know themselves and know their own limits and timetables. She just needed to be in control... wonder where she gets that.

I am glad to document our road to "no-paci-ville" because something tells me that we may need to remember this journey one day...

A couple mornings ago I opened up the fridge to get breakfast ready and noticed that Kate's Disney princess sandwich container was in the back. Curious about what I put in there and forgot about, I took it out to inspect. When I opened it up I found a half-eaten valentine's heart lollipop, 4 pieces of shriveled-up edamame, a few grapes, and some various pieces of crust from old sandwiches. Standing there with Carter Caroline on one hip, Kate asking for breakfast, and my eyes not even quite open yet, I just had to bust out laughing. Kate has clearly been taking morsels of food that she has not finished from her meals, putting them in tupperware, and storing them away in the back of the fridge. ...Not the most exciting story (my apologies if you are actually reading), but something I want to remember because it just sums up Kate's presence around here these days. Moments like these are happening all the time, when I realize that our little three-year old is trying to figure things out on her own and is so desperate to be independent. That little plastic container of old morsels instantly gave me an image of Kate - while I was likely tied up with Carter or on the phone or somehow unavailable - pulling a chair from the table over to the cabinet, climbing up on top, looking through the cabinet for the special princess tupperware container, tucking away the 4 grapes that she did not want to finish, tugging away at the fridge until it opened, and moving things out of the way until she found a good spot for her leftovers... totally pleased with herself that she wrapped up the meal on her own.

Our little preschooler has been walking the line between independence and dependence for a while. In so many ways she is desperate to be independent and accomplishing everything solo, and in the next minute she is doing baby talk and asking me to pick her up. I have really been hanging back lately and letting Kate work things out for herself... at least, I've been trying. No one has ever accused me of being patient and I am trying to not jump in when Kate is trying to figure out her shoes or is stopping to notice every detail on the way to the car! She is really becoming a little person all her own, but this week her teacher called from school while I was out and said that Kate was feeling sick and asking for her mommy to come pick her up. Of course I was driving like a bat to get to her school and was happy to rush in and scoop her right up. That is pretty peachy, too. I guess we are all caught in the middle somewhere. =)

Watching her from a distance as she tries to figure things out and take care of herself makes my heart flutter with joy and ache all at the same time... when I peek around the corner and see her concentrating so hard on getting her own toothpaste out of the cabinet, or wait in the driver's seat while she tries to buckle her own carseat, or see her taking charge of her own space and managing her own daily routine, my heart melts with how hard she is trying and how fast she is growing up! I am just so thankful that I get to be here to live in the moment with my gals, and I pray that I would always be thankful, even when we are having a 20+ diaper day, when Carter is putting everything in sight in her mouth and screaming for attention, and Kate refuses to wear shoes and will only answer to "Dora."

Little Miss Independent is also done with napping, so we have given her the option of "room time" instead, and she just plays in her room by herself for a couple hours. It gives her time to decompress - which she really needs - and it gives our days the structure that is so good for everyone. (Including mommy!) The only thing is, most days she is still wiped out and needs to sleep. So when she feels drowsy, she has started getting herself ready for a nap: she climbs up on a chair and gets PJs out of her top drawer, puts on a Pull-Up and then pretty much falls asleep in the middle of play. I never know what to expect and often find her sprawled out in the middle of the floor on top of toys fast asleep, dressed like Tinkerbell and snoring on a pile of toys in bed, or sometimes curled up in her blue chair. I walked into her room last week and she was naked, putting on a Pull-Up and some different clothes. "I forgot to wear a Pull-Up for my nap, and I had a little accident. But it's ok, Mommy, it happens."

Dancing Queen

...All in a day's work as a 3 year old.

The little things...

The main reason I started this blog (besides having a place to share pics with the grandparents!)was so that we and the girls could look back on it and get a glimpse of the every day stuff around here. I know that for the big things like vacations, parties, etc, we will have plenty of pictures and memories to hold, but what I wish I had now is better memories of the day-in, day-out things from when Kate was just a wee babe. The little things. Sometimes it is hard to realize in the moment how the tiring, repetitive things that go along with having little ones are the things that are so sweet and precious, and they pass by so quickly!

So in that spirit...

Julie H. told me once that on road trips they just try to keep their eldest happy, because then she keeps the baby happy. So true... of road trips and life! Carter loves Kate and perks up right away when she hears her voice. If Kate walks in the room Carter is too busy studying her every move to eat or anything else... she wants to be right in the middle of whatever Kate is doing. Kate gets the easiest giggle from CC for sure! Kate is precious with her (when she slows down long enough to notice her) and definitely likes to be the big sister... it reminds me slightly of Lenny from Of Mice And Men at times, but she is learning! ...And Carter is getting more sturdy in the process!

Kate is really into dressing herself these days. You never know what you are going to get. Is it bathing suit day? 3 shirt Friday? Who knows! I am usually in absolute favor of a little self-expression through wardrobe because it is one less person to dress, and hey, we are picking our battles. As long as she is warm enough (we have been around and around about wearing a bikini out in February) then whatever... so she has definitely worn PJs to school before. Yesterday morning I was in Carter's room getting her dressed and diapered when Kate walked in, fully dressed, ready for school. But today it wasn't a ballerina outfit or one of the put-together ones that hang in her closet. She picked it out on her own and looked about 16 years old. It made me smile, and gave me that parental heartache that makes you want to stop time. Maybe it was because she had on jeans and she rarely ever wants to wear jeans, I don't know, but she just looked so old! How do I have a preschooler already?! Anyway, I grabbed the camera to capture the moment but Kate wouldn't stop posing and stand still. (Ah, the threes.) I never did get a "normal" shot... but these are more normal for us than anything else, I think!

Everyday one of my favorite things is going in to get Carter Caroline when she wakes up from her naps. It is so funny to open the door and see that little head pop up from over the side of the crib. She gets so excited when someone comes in she usually lets out a big laugh and does a full-body shake. (Think, someone doing "the worm.") So today, I brought my camera with me when I heard that she was awake and cooing.

Pee-Pie!