This week we had a visit from Tootsie & Pop!! They arrived last Saturday for a week’s vacation…err, well, stay. I’m not quite sure Pop would classify his week as “vacation”.
Ya see, we launched a home improvement project for our week off. Yes, my Dad was aware of said activity prior to his arrival. We didn’t trick him. We choose to believe he “likes” projects. And who are we to argue?? Hehehe Sooo, Stephen and Dad tiled our kitchen and laundry room. It looks awesome! I love it! It was quite a job. I think blood only shed once (in the first 5 minutes of the project); there was no yelling that I was present for; eye rolling was pretty minimal (at least that I caught); and by Friday we were all still getting along. All in all I rate that a pretty successful home improvement project!
Tootsie had the job of entertaining Katherine while the boys (and I at some points) were working on the massive project. Katherine went to daycare a couple of days for ½ a day because we were, quite honestly, terrified that if she stayed home for the whole week this coming week would be a nightmare. (See post from a couple of weeks ago re: her ability to cope with change. Not good. Not good at all.)
Katherine loved all of the attention from her Tootsie. They played with the kitchen set (Tootsie ate a lot of plastic pancake & plastic veggies); read books; watched the kids playing outside; and LOTS of peek a boo. Peek a boo is Katherine’s new favorite “game”. She uses anything at her disposal to play. Walls, furniture, her hands, blinking, paper, you name it. She’s like her Daddy too… She is under the impression that if she can’t see you, you can’t see her. That got Stephen in trouble more than once with his Mommy … we’ll see how far that apple falls from the tree. Hehe
We still don’t have any walking going on, but she does “walk” on her knees. Lazy bones won’t put in the effort to actually use her feet to do it. She will cruise along the furniture but if it’s a long haul (from a 29” tall person’s perspective) she crawls. She has perfected the “mission crawl” – we call it. When Stephen or I go in to pick her up from daycare she’s on a “mission” to get to us as quickly as possible. She drops her head and hightails it across the room to us. She stops about 1ft from our feet and kneels and puts her arms up. You pick her up, she turns around, blows a kiss and waves bye bye to her teacher. As if to say “see ya later peeps!” It’s rather amusing. Makes me laugh every time.
She seems to be settled into her new classroom. We play a little game of trickery every morning when I drop her off to avoid a melt-down – but otherwise things seem to be okay. We are on a waiting list for a new school… Right now they’re forecasting our ability to get in around February. We’re hoping to get in sometime this fall. We visited during the school’s open house and it was awesome. Some of the things I really like about the school: Higher educated teachers; there’s actually educational activities that are scheduled; “transition” actually means something to them – and they do it!; there are little tables for the kids to sit/play at; Katherine dug the teachers from the start. In fact, one of them she went right to. Then she realized I was still standing there and had a “hey wait a second” moment and came back to me.
Katherine’s starting, what we hope will be a brief stage, of temper tantrum. OMG. Melt-down honestly doesn’t begin to cover what goes on. At some points it’s rather amusing (yes, I know that won’t win me a mom of the year award). Lately it’s started because she wants to be carried/held all of the time. Needless to say, that’s not happening. By a long shot. So at those moments she sits, legs out in front of her, head down, arms between her legs – crying… with no tears. She can turn it on/off in a second. If you happen to mention, “look there aren’t even any tears”… magically, they appear. You may say she doesn’t understand that comment. I’d disagree. I think she knows and says okay – if that’s what ya want… here ya go mommy! Now pick me up!!! She’s also started “ankle biting”. This is her clutch to the leg with both arms, cheek against your leg. Sounds cute right? I’ll admit sometimes I do fall for this. I’m trying to be tough though and not let her manipulate me – at 13 months old. If I break now what chance do I have when she’s 13? This is a brief stage right? No, wait. Don’t tell me. I don’t think I want to know.
As for pictures: I’ll admit that pictures from this week are a little weak. I’m not sure what happened. I’m pretty sure Tootsie & Pop got some pictures, but I think most were from their phones. So, I’m posting what I have from the last couple of weeks. As you’ll see Katherine has started experimenting with corn on the cob. (Note: No, she didn’t eat the whole ear of corn by herself. I eat ¾ of the ear and then give it to her… I mean ya can’t waste good corn! That would be blasphemy!)
PS: Tootsie & Pop if you have more pictures send them over!!! :)
Lest we not miss posting the awesome work of Husband and Father
