Someone's Three

Katrina Bee, you are three. My happy little go-lucky girl. You are growing so fast. How can it be possible that you are turning into a little girl right before our eyes?

This last year has been a busy one for you. You learned to use the potty. You started preschool. You figured out how to amuse yourself while your big sister is away at school. You got a baby brother, who you love to pieces. You have risen to every challenge and embraced each one. You bring happiness to everything you touch.

You keep us entertained with your mis-pronunciations and unique view of life. You are a busy little girl. You love to explore and work to understand the world around you. You climb and get into mischief much more then your older sister ever did.

This year you developed a love for drawing and coloring. Your favorite thing to do is make "projects" and use copious amounts of paper every day toward this end. You have not lost your love of babies and playing dress-up. If anything it has only grown.

You are still my little snuggle bug. You love to be cuddled and always want me to sing to you as you fall asleep for your nap. You can not be without your blankie. It is a strong bond.

You have a strong love for food that has not abated with age. You especially love anything sweet. You always want to know if you are going to get dessert. It is so wonderful that you are not a picky eater and love almost anything I give you. You also love to help. You especially love to help in the kitchen, but you are willing to help just about anywhere. You are so good at getting things for me when I have my hands full with your little brother.

You are a smart little girl and are doing wonderful in preschool. You know your ABC's and can distinguish all of the letters by sight. You know your colors, shapes and numbers too. It's good that you're smart because you are also tall. You are consistently above the 90% on the growth charts. That, combined with how well you speak and express yourself, makes people think you are older then your actual age. Even your Dad and I make that mistake sometimes! We find ourselves getting frustrated with some behavior and thinking you are too old to be acting that way! Then we realize, "Wait, she just turned three, she is supposed to be acting that way!"

Sweet Katrina, the last three years have been so much fun. Being your Mommy is an adventure. I hope I can help you keep your love of exploration, I hope I can teach you when to blaze forth and when to use caution, without being fearful. I hope I can foster your servant's heart, using that spirit to teach you important life skills and what a gift helping others is, and not squelch it with my impatience. I love you! Watching you grow up is so much fun!

Six Years

*Editor's note:  This post was slated to be published closer to March 29, 2009. Unfortunately due to scheduling constraints there was a delay. I hope this in no way affects your enjoyment. Stay tunned for further postings which are also past their deadline.

Emily Marie. I'm not sure who told you it was ok to grow up. Last time I looked you were still a sweet little toddler, now suddenly you're a sweet girl, not even a little girl anymore. Almost all traces of your babyhood are gone and sometimes I can even catch glimpses of the woman you will become. The chubby cheeks and tummy have faded into long thin legs and a gentle smile. I can't lie and say I don't feel a little sad that my baby is disappearing, but how sad can I be when the girl you have become is so wonderful? There are so many things I love about you. Your sense of humor, especially the glint in your eyes when you are being subtly funny. Your love of learning and of teaching others what you have learned. Your compassionate heart. Your gentleness with your baby brother. Your loyalty to your friends. Your creativity. Your love for your little sister.

I still see little girl wonder in your eyes. I'm glad about that. I hope you can hold on to that wonderment for the rest of your life. You have learned so much this year. How to read, how to write, how to add and subtract, how to speak Spanish. You've learned how to ride the bus and find your way to your classroom. You've learned more complex conflict resolution skills. And you're starting to learn piano. You absolutely love to pass all your new found knowledge on to Katrina.

You still love to play dress-up. You love to draw and color and all kinds of crafts. You still hate to perform in front of people. You don't like change. You prefer to have plenty of warning about activities so you can have time to think through how things will go. When you need to make a decision, you carefully consider all your options. Sometimes you take things a little too seriously.

I love you so much. I hope I can teach you to take life as it comes. To cope with the unexpected. To be flexible. I hope I can help you hold on to your creativity and believe in yourself. I hope I can help you understand how amazing our God is and how much He loves you. I hope you will always trust me, even though I make mistakes all the time. I hope you never doubt my love. The last six years have had their ups and downs, but through it all you have been a gift. I can't wait to see what the years ahead have in store.

Disneyland!

So, as I mentioned we went on a trip to California a week ago. Christoph had to travel down there for work. Since his plane ticket and the hotel were paid for, we started talking about taking the whole family down. After checking out ticket prices, the trip quickly morphed from maybe, to definitely, to definitely and throw in Disneyland. We were all very excited.

So, off we went. It was a very fun, very exhausting trip. I took advantage of Christoph being at work all day to catch up with friends. It was soo nice to hang out with them, see their kids, have our kids play together, and just talk. Then of course there was Disneyland!

Disneyland was a blast. So, having lived previously in Southern California, I've been to Disneyland before. However, I must say, going with kids is a whole different experience. As an adult, if you go on a low traffic day and are hardcore you can see and do Disneyland in one day. With kids, you could go for a week and not run out of things to do. Out of necessity, the pace is so much slower. Plus, they care about the experience, not just the rides. So, I was a little caught of guard at how little we did over the span of two days, but at the same time I didn't feel ripped off at all. It was so great. The girls absolutely loved it and they had such a great time. And we did do a lot! Katrina says her favorite ride was Dumbo. Emily really loved Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
You can see more pictures on Flickr, just click on the picture. We came home exhausted since we were up late almost every night and the kids weren't being very cooperative about their naps, but it was worth it. I would do it again in a second. Lisa, Heather, Amy, it was so great to see you guys. Thanks for hanging out with me!

Remembering

At the end of January we traveled down to California. More about this in a little bit. While we were there I stopped by Forest Lawn where Christoph's grandparents are buried. It was an unplanned trip, but we were in the neighborhood and I felt compelled to stop. I mean, we aren't in that area very often and it seemed wrong to pass up the opportunity. Of course, explaining what I was doing to the kids was a little more complicated.

I mean, what do you say...This person who was related to you, but you have no memory of, is dead and buried here and we're stopping by to visit? I mean the whole concept of visiting a graveside is a little strange. Especially for a Christian who knows that it's just the person's body and they're nowhere around. So, that got me thinking, why did I feel the desire to stop at all?

I think the reason is because I know how much she meant to Christoph. She played a huge part in making him who he is and I know he misses her. She was kind to me and I know she would have loved to meet her great-grandkids and hold them and spoil them. So, we stopped. We left some pink roses because pink was her favorite color. It was nice to sit on the hillside for a minute, look out over the city and tell my kids a little about their great-grandmother and what a neat lady she was. Nana, you are not forgotten.

Beezie Says

My little Beezie-girl is growing so fast. Although she is only 2 and 3/4 years old, she is now wearing size 4T! She has so quickly moved from sweet mispronunciations like "chlocalate" and "falowler" to speaking in complex sentences. Now the funny things are her random associations. If you want a doozy of a non sequitur just ask her any question beginning with "Why". Although she does still ask for "tessert" and "cimanin toast". Anyway, before they are lost from my mind forever I thought I'd share some of her recent funnies.

Just right now she was eating a mini-snickers when she looked at me with her brow furrowed and said, "You have to watch out for seeds in this." Not so much a fan of the peanuts apparently.

Katrina has a soft green blanket with silky around the edge. She is very, VERY fond of this blanket. She will take it everywhere we let her. Yesterday I decided it was past due time for it to get washed. I may have previously mentioned the time I carelessly grabbed it from her and threw it in the wash. She screamed her head off for 20min without stopping-no exaggeration. Since then I have bribed her to put in in the wash. Yesterday however, she was having none of it. She would just look at me and say "I want my blankie" and THEN KISS IT! After some attempts at negotiation, I finally just took it and threw it in the wash. Fortunately the tears were short lived when we started reading some stories. After I took it out of the wash and gave it back to her, she grabbed it and started kissing it and saying, "I love you, I love you," then she looked at me and said, "Thank you so much for getting me my blankie out to the wash. I love this blanket." Sheesh

Katrina has never sucked a thumb or a pacifier, but ever since she was little she takes the edge of her blanket and pats it against her lips. We were sitting at the table together and I absently started tapping my mouth with the fuzzy zipper pull on my sweatshirt. She looks at me and says. "Mommy, is that zipper your blankie?" I was taken totally off guard and responded, "No, it's just soft, want to feel it?" After solemnly touching it she states, "My blankie is very soft."

I was sitting in a chair playing with Micah and Katrina comes up and informs me, "Micah is hungry. He wants to eat from your booboos." Umm, he hasn't nursed in over two months, I somehow doubt he suddenly has a hankering. But, thanks anyway.

As I was changing the sheets on her bed she came up and asked if she could help. I basically blew her off. She stands on the edge of the bed and says, "When Daddy is making the bed I say, 'Can I help you Daddy?' and he says, 'Yes you can Katrina.' My Daddy is so, so nice." Um, point taken.

The other day she wanted to make a project and I randomly grabbed a church bulletin and cut out all the leaves on the front, which Katrina then proceeded to glue to a piece of paper. Cheesiest craft ever. A few days later it was sitting on the table and she sees it and says, "Remember Mommy when you cut out those leaves for me and I made a project for you? You are so nice, Mommy. I love you. I want to give you a kiss." Nothing like being appreciated.

She is such a little sweetheart, even when she's driving me out of my mind. Love you Beezikins!

December Twenty-Fifth

Christmas Day! Well, I couldn't choose just one picture for today. I wish you all a blessed and belated Merry Christmas! I hope it was a wonderful day, surrounded by those you love. May God bless you in 2009!

December Twenty-Fourth

I was hoping to take a picture of Emily singing in the Christmas Eve program at our church, but we weren't supposed to use flash and I didn't get any good ones. She did a wonderful job singing her little heart out. This was one of the most hectic Christmas Eves I can remember. Usually we stay home and spend lots of time with family, but Emily REALLY wanted to participate in the Christmas Eve service, so we worked it in. Somehow there were a hundred little things to get done during the day. In the evening my in-laws came over and sung carols together while I made dinner. It wasn't quite the traditional Italian feast I grew up eating, but it was still Italian. Then we dashed out the door for church, enjoyed the service and came back to our house for dessert.

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of opening one present before bed. I loved this tradition when I was a kid, so I've carried it on with my own kids. The presents from mom and dad aren't under the tree until Christmas morning, but there a still ones from kind friends and relatives to choose from. It gives a little foretaste of the next day's delights. I love this picture of Emily. You can see the anticipation and excitement filling her eyes.