Reaching New Heights

Katrina seems to be growing taller every day. Unfortunately for me, this opens whole new doors for exploration, literally. All the doors in our house have handles, not knobs, and now that she can reach them she can open every door in the house, including the front door. Fortunately she can't unlock it, so that was taken care of pretty easily. The pantry, on the other hand is a whole other story. It is her FAVORITE door in the house. She opens it 25 times a day. If she stopped at opening I would be ok, but she is no fool. She knows what treasures lie within the recesses of the pantry. Didn't like the lunch mom made? There's pretzels in the pantry. Feeling the mid-afternoon munchies? There's graham crackers in the pantry. Just a little bored and looking for something to make mom's head spin? There's vanilla wafers, you guessed it, in the pantry. I'm not exaggerating, she does it all day long. I take one food item away with a stern no, and she just waits a minute and goes and gets whatever's next to it on the shelf. Then when that gets old she moves on back to her old haunt, the Tupperware cupboard.

She also isn't above attempting the subtle art of manipulation and girlish wiles. How do kids learn this stuff so early? When I catch her doing something she's not supposed to she looks up at me with eyes twinkling mischievously and says in her sweetest most innocent voice, "Hi". I have to hide my laughter behind a stern "Katrina". Sometimes I just can't resist her sweet "Hi" and sweep her into my arms and tickle her until she shrieks.

 Despite my frustration at putting the same thing back in the pantry for the umpteenth time, I can't help but marvel at how big my baby has grown. Part of me just loves this age. She is constantly learning new things, figuring out how things work and how she can maneuver them for her own benefit. She is finally old enough to actually play with Emily and I love watching them wrestle around giggling at each other. I'm probably totally biased, but she is such a smart little baby and I am constantly caught by surprise over the things she can do and understand. I could go on all day, but somebody's in the pantry again.

The Piercing

Emily, a couple of months ago you reached an important milestone in a girl's life. You got your ears pierced. I know this is a somewhat controversial decision. Many parents feel kids should have to wait until they are in their teens before making such a decision. Other parents just go ahead and pierce them as soon as they are out of the womb. Your Dad and I land somewhere in between. We wanted it to be your decision, not something we arbitrarily did to you, but we didn't feel it was such a life altering decision you had to wait to be a teenager to make it. I got my ears pierced when I was two. I begged my parents until they said ok, and though I can't remember it I have never regretted my decision.
 
Anyway after some gentle use of power of suggestion from grandma, you said you wanted to get your ears pierced. We explained that it would hurt, and that you would have to take care of your ears and earrings by letting us clean them and not playing with them. You still insisted you wanted to do it. A couple of weeks went by and you stood firm on your decision. So off we went to get your ears pierced. You was so cute and serious during the whole thing. Of course you cried, but you have been so excited and happy about your earrings and tell everyone about them. You even included them in a self portrait you did at school.
There have been a few bumps in the road, but overall it has gone smoothly. We had two episodes of an earring accidentally falling out and having to put it back in. The first one was bad, I couldn't get it in and it was hurting, but after that it had healed more and it went back in pretty easily. We have been pleasantly surprised by how proud you are of your earrings and of yourself for being brave. You have also shown a lot of responsibility in reminding us to clean your ears. You have even showed added maturity in other areas, like deciding that you are too old to suck your thumb and quitting, pretty much cold turkey. So far I feel happy that we made a good decision, we'll see if you claim we mutilated you or something down the road. :) I love you sweet girl and you are beautiful to me with or without pierced ears!

Contemplation of a Cheerio

These pictures are several months old, but I just love them. Katrina knows four signs now and they all have to do with food, "hungry" "more" "milk" and "all done". That girl loves to eat! I'm glad I pulled out the camera one day and snapped away. Emily never sits still long enough to take these kinds of close ups and Katrina is fast outgrowing this stage too. These pictures make me think of the simple pleasures in life, and how much I love kissing those fat cheeks.



















What are you doing Mother?























 




  




 



 

                                         Milk is umm, umm good

Übergeek

I found this website on the Haragen's blog. Being married to Christoph I always wondered how much of a geek I truly am. I must say I was a little pleased with the results. 51% isn't bad. Then Christoph took the test. Oh my gosh! He scored 93%! They designate that as supreme nerd, while I am only lightly nerdy. Maybe I'm only as geeky as I am from living with him for the past (almost) seven years. I suppose I'll never really know.

My only beef with the test is the designation of nerd. While Christoph and I were dating, he quite seriously informed me that there is a difference between a nerd and a geek. They are not the same thing, as the layman might think. My personal definition is a geek has all the intelligence of a nerd, is perhaps a little more tech savvy, with none of the social awkwardness. So I have decided to change my husbands designation from Supreme Nerd to Übergeek. (Insert cheesy romantic sigh here) My hero!

Five Questions: The Interview

So, I haven't written anything in quite awhile. The biggest reason for this is just that I was just recovering from the holidays and my life went into a tailspin of sorts. It is a self induced tailspin and for good reasons, but has left me spinning nonetheless. To sum it up I got a second job. My work hours have basically gone from 100 hours a month to 160. So, January was interviews and all that goes into being hired (urine drug screen anyone?). February was orientation and my brother-in-laws wedding. March, we had family visiting and Emily and Katrina's birthdays, and so we suddenly find ourselves in April. Ugh. I have so many ideas for posts I felt totally overwhelmed and couldn't figure out where to start.

That brings us to the interview. Girl's Life, to whom I can only aspire, had this cool posting. It seemed like just the thing to get me going again. Who doesn't enjoy talking about themselves? I have to admit, I was also very curious to see what questions Amy would ask me. They are things no one has asked me before, so any of you reading out there will get to delve a little deeper into my psyche. (Insert devilish laugh here) If anyone would like me to interview them just follow the instructions at the end of the post.

1. What's your favorite line from a song and why?

That's a hard one. My favorite line has to say something cool all by itself, so it's not the same thing as my favorite song. Contrary to what you might think if you heard me walking around humming, my favorite line is NOT Strawbababababerry, Strawberry Shortcake. The people who make that cartoon have an evil talent for writing songs that become indelibly written on your brain. I love a lot of songs for a lot of reasons, but when I really stop and think about it, there can be only one. I first heard this song when I was 16 and I have never forgotten it. The song is Nieve en Verano and it is by Marcos Vidal. It basically talks about how unusual and surprising Jesus was and is. The line is, "In You everything is so sublime and unexpected, like snow in summer". It sounds way more poetic in Spanish. The music is so beautiful and it just instantly paints a picture in my head. There you are, hot and tired and it's another summer day with everything looking dry and dead and then it starts to snow. I can can totally relate that to God and His love. Thirteen years later I can think of that line and instantly remember the tune. It makes me feel happy. On a side note, I tried to find that CD right after I graduated from college and I couldn't find it anywhere. When I was writing this I did a search and it's on Ebay! Yes!

2. If you could spend the day with one celebrity, who would you choose?

Oh man. Maybe I'm thinking about these too much. It depends on my mood. Would I go shallow and just pick someone really cute...or go deep and pick someone I admire? I would be stuck with them for the whole day. :) When I first read the question I instantly thought of a bunch of movie stars, but celebrity could be anyone famous. Hmm. I would probably pick Margaret Becker. I really love the lyrics to her songs and that makes me think she would be an interesting person to talk to.

3. What's the first thing you do in the morning?

Groan. Just ask Christoph. Lately, I just never want to wake up, even though I kinda consider myself a morning person. Then, not to be gross, but I usually drag myself to the bathroom and finish waking up while I pee. If it's a good day step three is take a shower before proceeding to step four which is rescuing Katrina from her crib. On a bad day she is up before me and step four supersedes step three which usually turns into step 20. Because after Katrina comes Emily...anyway you get the picture. I must say, I do enjoy seeing Katrina's sweet just-woke-up smile every morning. That and Emily's good morning kiss are totally worth getting up for. Despite the groaning.

4. What Muppet do you most relate to?

Probably Kermit. Shy and sometimes a little depressed, but still never gives up. Although I feel weird saying that since he's kinda the main character. I don't feel like the main character of anything, nor do I want to be. Still, I can't relate to any of the other ones. It's not easy being green...

5. If money were no option, would you choose to to work at a dream job (with a fabulous nanny at home with the kiddo) or be a stay at home mom?

Stay at home mom in a heartbeat. That is my dream job! It's all I've ever wanted to be my whole life. According to my parents, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I always answered "a mommy". I will embarrassedly admit I was pursuing my MRS degree in college. The nursing thing was just a fall back. It makes good money and has good job security. I wouldn't mind having the fabulous nanny available for the occasional night out or day off though. Sometimes I wonder if I can really do the whole stay-at-home Mom thing. I don't feel like I have the patience to be around the girls 24/7. I tell myself that's just because I'm tired from working. :) I'm looking forward to the day when I can test that theory!

Well, I hope I wasn't too long winded, it's a bad habit of mine. That was fun! If you want to try it follow these directions (as copied from Girl's Life):

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me." Or you could say something about my charming wit, beautiful hair, etc.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

It's 10:30pm and I have a load of clothes to fold. Why am I still typing this?

Happy Easter

We Wish You a Happy and Blessed Day!

More will be coming someday...

Eleven

Here we are, only one short month until your first birthday. I am trying to cherish every second of your last month as a baby. You are crawling towards toddlerhood as fast as your little legs will take you.

This month you went to your first wedding! Your Uncle Peter was married on February 10th, so we had a little road trip down to Woodland CA. You did very well in the car, and were a good girl for the most part. You got pretty impatient during the wedding. Thank God for your Auntie Brooke and Auntie Amy. They were so helpful and kept you entertained by feeding you a banana. Daddy was in the wedding and so was Emily. I was trying to help her make it down the aisle, so I was very thankful that they were willing to hold and entertain you during that time.

You are pulling yourself up to stand now and have taken a few steps holding on to things. You started crawling up the stairs. It freaks me out a bit, but you are very steady. As soon as you decided to crawl up I started working to teach you to safely crawl back down. I want you to be able to navigate the stairs safely. You caught on pretty quick and are loving having more of the house to explore.

You still love to play with your ball toy. You also love to play with anything that Emily is playing with. She has learned to keep her stuff up high.

You have a ready smile and a mischievous twinkle in your eye. Your are babbling Ma-ma-ma now too, but not really associating it with me or Da-da-da with Daddy. I can tell you have a lot to say though and it's going to be bursting out before we know it. You have learned a couple of baby signs, "more" and "hungry" which you seem to enjoy using.

I am really enjoying being your Mommy. You make me smile and laugh and I love you cuddles. Thank you for bringing so much sunshine into our family. We love you!