What do we have in common? We moved on up!! Yes, that was cheesy. But so am I. :)
Last week Katherine entered her new classroom. *Drum roll, please* The Waddler Room!!! It is as it sounds. A room of kids between the ages of 7 months and I believe 15-18 months old who are learning to get around. Katherine is currently the youngest member of the class. Which only means one thing: Older Boys. Jacob moved up a few weeks ago and Katherine was very happy to see him again. What Jacob didn't expect, was competition. Within moments of Katherine coming into the classroom for the first time, Ben (new man on the scene) was eyeing her up. Jacob's not sure what to do. Katherine's also been reunited with friend Ava, who she really likes. She's got 4 or 5 new teachers. I feel like a horrible Mother because I can't keep it straight. There are two teachers that work, normally, during the day and then every other day (literally) there's a different teacher there in the evening. MWF seems to be one teacher, T, Th is another. All are very nice and think Katherine's a sweetie. What's not to love, right?
As I thought Katherine started picking up on some of the things the other kids in the classroom were doing. But to my happy surprise it was a good thing that she came home doing - I think it was on the very first day!! She now waves. At everything. Herself, the shelf above her changing table, the TV, the sofa, the fireplace, a chair, the air... you name it. She waves. She doesn't know why she's doing it. Or even when to do it. But she waves. Yay!!! We're trying to teach her now WHEN to wave. She just laughs at me. I think she understands. She's just precocious.
Speaking of precocious. Last update I shared how she was saying mommommommommommom. About that. She'll still say it - however if I say Mom Mom to her she'll say Dad Dad. 15 minutes one day. I kept saying no, mom mom mom. She'd laugh and say Dad Dad Dad Dad. I'm seeing a side of her Daddy coming out. What's up with that??
She is getting to be a pretty excellent hugger!! She puts her arms around your neck and squeezes. She also likes to suck on your neck. I swear, the day I go into work with a hicky and try to explain to everyone that REALLY it's from my DAUGHTER.... Fortunately Stephen and I work together so I'm pretty sure they'll believe me... unless they have heard and believe that story about us on the glass table in our Tinton Falls, NJ conference room, but that's a story for another time. hehehe
With Katherine's entry into a new classroom we thought it only right to take her on a trip to celebrate. Ok. So, really, we just wanted to get away. And you know, when we get away, we try to leave so that no one can reach us. And we've figured out how to do that within driving distance from our house. How excellent is that?!
Last Friday we packed up the truck with our LOADS of "stuff" and headed to the NC mountains. We stay in these cabins that are amazing. They're beautiful!! Amazing kitchens, outdoor hot tubs where you can soak in the jets, stars and the moon. This cabin had a firepit too. Which of course we tried out.
When we go to the mountains we need to not only take clothes, but you also have to take the food you want to eat - or at a minimum figure out what you're going to eat so you can stop at the grocery store on the way in. The nearest grocery store is about 25-30 minutes away. That's an hour round trip. So not quite up the street. And restaurants... not so much so. It's one of the few times Stephen's guanteed a meal a home!! :P Maybe that's secretly why he takes me there?! Huh. And maybe I cook there because there are stainless steel appliances and a solid surface counter top... :P
We drove out on Friday. We left our house at around 9:30am and stopped for breakfast on the way. Actually we stopped several times. The 4.5 hour drive took us about 11 hours. We always say we are going to leave early so we aren't getting to the cabin in the dark and alas, we always arrive after dark. We stopped in Winston Salem at a bakery that makes all of their goodies in an old fashioned brick oven. When we were there they'd just gotten done "heating" the oven. It was too hot so they needed to wait for it to cool down before they could start baking the bread. It was pretty cool! (Or hot, as the case was.) Stephen got some chocolate chip cookies and I some cinnamon rolls. The chocolate chip cookies were the winner between the two.
We walked around Old Salem a bit and enjoyed the little shops and watching some of the people around us. We ended up at the Visitor's Center and the lady in the gift shop was quite a chatty one. :) She told us about her grandchildren, a lady that came in to buy these painted eggs, the kids that all wanted change for a $20, and various other things. As I said, she was a chatter-er. Katherine thought she was pretty funny.
After that we tried to drive straight to Asheville. We stop at the Super-Walmart for the groceries like milk, etc. that we need to get and we always stop to eat at the "Shroon". AKA Work Free Drug Zone. AKA Mellow Mushroom. I love this place. I like eating at the Shroon in Raleigh, but it has NOTHING only the Shroon in Asheville. And when I say this - it has absolutely nothing to do with the food or the menu. It's all about the people watching. It's pretty awesome in Asheville. Where else do you get to see so many hippies in one place?! Bumper stickers above the stove that will have you dropping your jaw. Tights that I have no idea where the ladies even buy them. Hairdos like... well, it's the only place I've ever seen dreadlocks done on (naturally) blonde hair. Excellent people watching. This time was no exception. mmmmm Shroon. Can't wait for it to open in Wake Forest. AmK, I'm still counting on the Krieman's joining us for our inaugural visit. :)
As we drove further and further into the Mountain-ous area cellular phone functionality got dimmer and dimmer. WOOOHOOO We are officially incommunicado. It was quite lovely. The only cell phone that did work, was the Verizon phone. Our Sprint (work) phones only seem to have a connection in the elevator inside our office building, so those phones were gone 90 minutes before we even got to the cabin.
We took the truck to the mountains expecting there to be snow. I'll say again. Mountains. It's February. What would you expect the mountains to be like? I had Katherine bundled up like an eskimo. Alas, no snow. And not even just no snow... It was 60+ degrees one day!! I was quite bummed about that. But Stephen fixed it for us. He turned the A/C down and started the gas fireplace. Weeeeee... back in business. :) It was a beautiful weekend. Saturday we didn't leave the cabin. We were too busy watching DIY and coming up with home improvement projects to work on. Dad, please bring knee pads during your next visit. Better yet, we'll buy them for you and have them ready! :P I know how you like to keep busy so I'm really just trying to help you. Teehee!!
Sunday we did leave the house. Believe it or not I think it was Stephen that started to go stir crazy. He claims he was just too hot, but I think he had a bit of cabin fever. LOL Literally!!! (I crack myself up.) We tried to go for ice cream, but the ice cream store was closed. It's like the shore out there. Winter time everything shuts down - which strikes me as very weird because again - It's the mountains!!! Wouldn't you think you'd get business in the winter? Very confusing. We instead ended up at TCBY, which was probably better for us anyway. We went with the FF variety so we wouldn't feel AS guilty. Stephen shared his vanilla/chocolate twist Katherine. She really likes vanilla ice cream. She'll eat the chocolate in a pinch, but vanilla seemed to be her favorite. (Cookies & Cream seems to be her overall favorite -- Again something provided by Daddy. *sigh*) Every time Stephen would take a spoon of the ice cream out of the container she'd open her mouth to get ready. Sometimes it was for her, sometimes it was for him. She'd yell a little when it wasn't for her. The yell sounded something like "HEY, what about me over here!!??" I didn't share mine with her because it was chocolate and as I said she liked vanilla the best. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
That evening Stephen decided to go out into the yard and use the firepit. He claims he wanted to build a bonfire like they had in high school for football games. You said something like "Oh Brother" or "Oh boy" or "Oh My" to that I hope. He had a shovel, a stack of wood, a pit and some matches. My guy was on a mission. I started to get nervous when he was walking around the yard picking up shovel fulls of leaves, twigs and such and dumping that on the fire. The flames that shot up after that... Impressive. Not bonfire impressive (sorry honey) but impressive never the less. Katherine and I went outside and sat for a little while, but we got cold. (No the fire wasn't keeping us warm because we had to sit opposite of the way the wind was blowing because of the embers that were flying all around... I'm going for MOY!!!!) After that we came inside and watched Stephen/Daddy continue his shovel plight. He made me nervous I tell ya.
Monday we left the cabin around 10:30am and headed home. Our trip home did not involve nearly as many stops however we still didn't get home until around 6:45pm. The good news was by 9pm we were unpacked for the most part and ready to go for Tuesday AM. As my friend Susan said, those years of traveling every week, are still paying off in our ability to come in and get everything put right again!
Today is Valentine's Day and my sweet husband and daughter outdid themselves. 3 dozen roses (I know amazing, right?!) and a pendant and chain. (Tip for other men out there: Order your roses in early January and pick your V-Day date for delivery. You get cheaper roses AND your wife will never know - unless she suggested it to you!!) I'd sent a link to Stephen back in January suggesting he order me flowers for V-Day then. hehehehe He said that's when he ordered them. My power of suggestion is strong. Yay!! I promise to only use it for good, not evil.
Monday I leave bright and early... actually it won't be so bright ... it'll be rather dark at 6am when I head to the airport for my first business trip since Katherine was born. I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to it. :( I don't wanna go. Can't I just video in? I'd even be okay with the 10lbs heavier look... well, I wouldn't be okay with it, but at least I could be home that night and hug Katherine and Stephen to console my chubby self image on-screen. When I thought I'd be flying back that night and getting in at 1am I was moderately ok with it. Now I'm staying over night - have another crack of dawn flight back. I arrive at around 11:30am and then have a 12pm meeting that goes until 5pm. I had been hoping to go whisk Katherine away from daycare and spend the afternoon playing, but that's not going to happen now. :( Now to figure out how to get the webcam going so I can see Katherine before she goes to bed that night. Must have webcam. I need to see my nugget!!!
Pictures for this installment will be forthcoming. I have to go through them. There are too many right now to post them all. Even I recognize that. :) I'll narrow them down and then post them here.
Pictures posted: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/21409CabinOrBust#
