Ten on Tuesday

My bible study is currently teaching me to have more of an attitude of gratitude and stop complaining. So with that in mind, my 10 on Tuesday will be 10 things I am thankful for this week.

1. I am thankful for a husband who has not shown me one bit of ill will or frustration after I backed into his (beloved) car on Saturday.

2. I am thankful no children were injured during this photo. It was all of their first bouts with a pinata - Don't call DSS yet, we didn't give any of them real sticks to hit it with until other children were out of reach.

3. I am thankful for door handles in our house as opposed to door knobs. I have a tendency to carry more things in my arms than necessary and the handles have proved very "handy" as I use my elbows to open the door.

4. I am thankful for my mom who takes care of Katie every day and often brings her home or picks her up when I have run myself late.

5. I am thankful for couponing websites that helped me score 2 bags of Huggies wipes for $2.50 total when it would have been $8.39 each pack!

6. I am thankful that Katie loves animals and doesn't seem too afraid of them (except for the mechanical roaring Triceratops we've come across at 2 friends houses and the clearance aisle at WalMart).


7. I am thankful for having been able to lose a few pounds allowing me to finally fit back into some more of my pre-baby clothes and even a few that haven't fit for a few years!

8. I am thankful for friends who live in other states that always make me laugh when we talk and always seem to find the exact right time to call.

9. I am thankful for the government's willingness to give me back some of my money I've loaned to them over the past year in the form of a tax return and thankful for a mother in law who is going to help us prepare our taxes as soon as we get our act together.

10. I am thankful for Doug's job and job security...But I wish they weren't sending him to Birmingham for a few days! (OOPS - that was a small complaint/grumble - but I really am so thankful for his job!

This list took way longer and way more thought than it should have...I know that I complain too much - often times because it is easier and funnier to do so. I hope you have an easier time coming up with 10 things from the past week that you're thankful for!

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Katie turned 15 months old on Valentine's Day and after we got to Raleigh that day, I realized I left my camera at home and had to get Melissa to take a few pictures so I would have some of the actual "15 month" day.

When I was going back through pictures of the month, I got to a few that felt like they were taken so long ago! And I realized this past month has seemed so long when I think about it. Katie turned 14 months the day before we closed on our house and when I look back at all that has happened since that date, I can't believe it's only been one month. It's certainly been a fun month as we've settled into our new house, played in the snow, and hosted a few get-togethers. So - on to news about Katie!

 

Katie is still not very interested in food and certainly not any food that is actually good for her. She will eat really well for about 5-10 bites of things and then she'd rather get down and play. Breakfast is certainly the easiest meal of the day. We are working on letting her feed herself so now she wants to grab the spoon or fork and rarely likes to have us feed her anymore. But when she gets the spoon or fork, she usually likes to see how quickly she can use it to spread the food on her tray and then tosses food and fork on the floor. We give her the "all done" sign, she nods "yes" and she's down and out of the chair and ready to play.

 

At her 15 month check she weighed 21.13 pounds (35th percentile) and was 30.5 inches tall (53rd percentile). I'm still not convinced of the accuracy of the height because the measurement on the back of the laundry door that we did measured at 29.5 inches and that was a few days before her appointment. She still isn't saying too many words - although she babbles plenty. But I feel like her cognitive recognition is really good - she knows the body parts on her head (eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, teeth, nose) and her belly. And if you ask her where her [insert body part] is, she points to hers and then wants to come show you your nose, ears, etc...

 

One of my favorite things to do with her these days is play with her wooden Noah's Ark. I need to remember to tell her about the actual biblical story behind the ark. But for now, we pull out all of the wooden animals and lay them on the floor. Then I pick out one of the animals and give it to her and ask her to find the match to it. "Katie, mommy found a monkey. Can you find the other monkey?" Then after she finds it, we put them in the boat! So far, the monkey is the only one of the animals she can pick out by name. But all the others, she can at least match up.

This is Katie in nightime mode - She has one pacifier in her mouth and another in her hand in case the first one should fail (like 1st runner up in a beauty pageant). And of course, bunny is always around when it's time to head to bed.

 

She is still in love with the outdoors and I am so thankful for the temperatures warming up so we can be outside more. I need to go ahead and buy stock in Coppertone as I am sure we will go through our fair share this summer! She battles with us when we bring her back inside. I have had to find ways to trick her into it - Lately I've been letting her take Jack's leash and she does a good job trying to walk him. So I tell her we need to walk Jack back inside and she will come in for that. Haha, I outsmarted her...for now. When she does get mad at me for telling her no or at a toy that she bonked her head on, she turns Incredible Hulk on us. She wants to rip something up. The other night I told her no when she was trying to pull the cord out of the laptop and she went to the laundry basket and clenched the sides and tried to turn it over. It was too full to work, which only frustrated her more. She is a hoot to watch! But discipline mode has to kick in soon - really soon.

 

She is getting much more nimble lately too. She is starting to run a bit and has surprisingly good balance as she trots away. She is up the stairs in a heartbeat and unfortunately because she is so good at it, I don't watch her as closely as I should. Nothing bad has happened yet, but I am sure I just jinxed it. She tries to climb on the couches and chairs by herself and the other day at the zoo, she tried to climb in with the goats.

 

I will close the post with a view from the top and the bottom of our little girl!

She has quite the bed head - a trait inherited from my mom's side of the family! It's out of control and the dry winter weather hasn't helped much. She's such a trooper letting me brush or wet it down, but it usually doesn't help much.

 

And finally - here's my little Katie-Lou Rhetton. She loves to stand on her head and has recently started to flip over from this position. We're going to start looking into little tumbler classes at a local gymnastics studio. She will, no doubt, kill me for this picture one day. But I will blame it on Aunt Melissa who actually took it!

We love you Katie and can't wait to see what the next month holds! Sweet Sixteen? We shall see!

If the Shoe Fits

 

Considering these were Katie's feet at 5 days old, I should've known we would go through shoes very quickly. She has very flat feet and apparently they are growing like crazy.

I measured Katie's feet at Stride Rite about 4 weeks ago and she was right at a 4 so I felt good about the fact that we had 2 pairs of size 4 church shoes, 2 pair of size 4 tennis shoes, and one pair of size 4 Keds that go with everything. Nevertheless, I bought a pair of New Balance 5s at a consignment store just to have a pair on hand when we moved up to that size. On Sunday, I had a terrible time getting her red church shoes on and lately when I take off her Nikes, there are indention marks on her feet as if the shoes are too tight. So last night I took her back to Stride Rite and measured her foot again.

She is now a 5 1/2. WHAT??? I feel like such a bad mom cramming her big ol'feet into tiny shoes. She never winces or cries or acts like her feet hurt so how was I to know??? Plus, her feet are so incredibly flat with little to no arch so I don't have the indicator of not being able to buckle or velcro the shoe as a red light that they are too small.

We went ahead and bought her some new Keds that were a size 5 1/2. They look really big because there is so much room between the top of her foot and the shoe, but length wise, they totally fit.

We got all of our size 4s as hand me downs from a friend so I am hoping for more hand me downs soon. But I think her feet are growing faster than the girl who is handing down! The Tot Trade is coming up soon so I will make a bee line for the shoe table and stock up on 6s for the summer!

No wonder she can balance so well and started walking early - she's got an advantage with those feet!

Ten on (FAT) Tuesday

1. I don't participate in Lent, per se, but I think I can get on board with Fat Tuesday. I am craving some good food today. I don't know what I am craving, but I want something that is just scrumptious.

2. My brother, Gabriel, sent Katie (via my phone) the cutest video of the snow they got in Frisco last week. It was so sweet and makes me wish they were much closer. For now, I will settle for playing the video over and over to her.

3. Katie and I went to Raleigh on Sunday/Monday for a quick visit to see the DeVoes. We had a great time and it was really fun watching Katie and Dylan play together. And while they played, I ate more chocolate chip cookies (homemade) than I care to admit.

 

4. In my girl's bible study a few weeks ago, we had to assign ourselves a word for 2010. Mine was FILTER...I need to not just say everything that comes to my mind but really think things through and find the best way to say the things that are actually necessary.

5. Doug and I got to go to dinner (Red Robin) and a movie (Sherlock Holmes) for Valentine's Day. Thanks to Grandma/Grandpa Jones for babysitting.

6. I listed some furniture on Craig's List last week and within 2 hours I had several emails of interest. I sold it Saturday. And the best part is - it doesn't necessarily have to be replaced so it feels just like money in our pocket!

7. I had a very long overdue conversation with a close friend last week. This conversation was literally 4 years overdue. It was a really good talk and I can't tell you how good I felt after opening up to her.

8. The LOST premiere (and subsequent episodes) is on the calendar for Saturday, 2/20. Excited to watch it with our LOST friends (when I refer to them like this in other circles of people, they think I am referring to their religious status).

9. Katie turned 15 months old on Sunday. We have her 15 month well check on Friday (along with a Dermatologist visit) so I will wait for that post when I have her stats, etc.

10. I recently downloaded something for Mozilla that will help with multiple photo uploads to blogger. Hence the abnormally large amount of pictures on the snow post. I think it's going to revolutionize my (blog)world.

Grab Life by the SNOW

Uncle Gabriel sent a fresh batch of snow from Frisco, Texas! It was so much fun. I waited all day Friday at work to see some of the white stuff and it finally started snowing around 3ish. I knew I wanted to get Katie out in it as soon as we got home.

 

We bundled her up and out we went. It was actually coming down in huge flakes and wasn't very dry so we were cold and wet pretty quickly. Katie couldn't have cared less about being cold - she was loving being outside and playing regardless of the conditions!

 

She and Doug did some frolicking too...but finally we had to go inside. It was just too cold for us Southerners.

 

She stood at the front windows most of the rest of the evening watching the snow fall. We promised Katie we'd go back out in the morning.

 

We were out the door before 8am but it was much nicer because the snow wasn't actually falling anymore. However, it had accumulated quite a bit so Katie couldn't actually play in the yard, so we got the wagon out and went for our first official walk in the neighborhood!

 

We are at the back of the neighborhood and there are still so many empty lots. The snow covered all of it and it looked so neat from the road to just see so much snow!

 

We let Katie get out and walk in the street some since it wasn't near as thick there and she had a blast. She just squealed and laughed.

 

She walked for a while kicking up snow and watching Doug make snowballs and through them at the dumpsters.

 

Her footprints in the snow were so cute - They were just long strides as she couldn't pick her feet up high enough to cover the snow.

 

There were parts of the road that were actually icy so it was tough trying to corral her and keep her in the middle of the road (especially as much as I've taught her to stay out of the road).

 

It was a good opportunity to take some nice pictures of the house. We've been so busy on the inside of the house, that I haven't actually taken any pictures of the "finished product."

 

Once we got back to the house, Jack was dying to come outside. The night before, when it was actually snowing, he acted like it bothered his paws so I didn't bother letting him go on the walk with us. But he bolted out the door and did circles in the snow. He also enjoyed trying to get my gloves off!

 

Katie figured if Jack could handle the big snow, then so could she. The two of them danced around for a little while - and Katie did tons of laughing - paying no attention to the cold snow undoubtedly coming up the legs of her pants. We eventually had to take her in when she fell face first in the snow. Again, she didn't even notice how cold she was. She cried when we went inside.

 

While Katie took her morning nap, Doug rolled up a snowman and set him at the edge of the back porch. When she woke up, she put the finishing touches on him. She gave him some eyes, a scarf, and a hat.

 

She still couldn't keep her hands off the snowman and since she wasn't all bundled up anymore, we headed back inside. The sun was shining brightly and the snow was starting to melt. We thought we had seen the last of our outdoor fun.

 

Until we got the Grandpa Jones' house and he had built a 7 foot snowman with eyes, a carrot nose, branch arms, and a bucket hat. He was huge and Katie was thrilled with it! It was a good thing we got there when we did though, because not 10 seconds after this picture - his head fell off!

 

So our snow day 2010 comes to a close. We ended the night making Valentines for our Sunday School teachers and our friends in Sunday School.

Making it Home

We have all stainless steel appliances - just like we did in our old house...It's nice for them to feel familiar, but even nicer to see my little girl's fingerprints smudged onto all of them. I pretend to be bothered by it in front of Doug and make proclaimations like, "I think they make something specifically for those types of appliances." But I like them - they are proof that we are home.

 

I hate those same stainlees steel appliances for a totally different reason. They don't hold magnets. And the refrigerator is fully enclosed by cabinets so you can't use the side to hang up things like christmas cards, invitations, CVS Extra Care bucks, baby announcements - or even funny magnets. So I found this "Works of Art" clip board to hang on the wall and I love it. I have it in the kitchen so it still has the refrigerator magnet feel behind it and I can proudly display Katie's artwork for her Weekday program. (I would've taken the picture closer, but the paper plate clown really scares me.) I also have the pocket style suede-ish bulletin board thing that I hung on the cabinet next to the fridge for all the other things. The other upside is that the aforementioned fingerprint smudges aren't covered up!

 

Katie loves her room - there is a lot of space to actually be able to play in there and not just use the room for sleeping and changing diapers (her 2 least favorite things). Doug painted it the same color as her old nursery and obviously we have all the same furnitre so it doesn't feel much different at first glance. But keep looking...There's no baby in there anymore who is snuggly wrapped into her Snuggle Me Blanket on her Incline to Sleep wedge. The chagning table isn't packed full of cloth diapers and burp cloths and the boppy has been moved to the top of the closet. It's been replaced by Noah's Ark wooden animals, loads of books, stuffed animals, and Snappy Ducks. Oh and there's an almost 15 month old in there learning to dance. This is her pre-Super Bowl-friends are coming over-I'm so excited-routine. It looked a lot like my pre-Super Bowl-friends are coming over-I'm so excited-routine.

I have looked all over the place for a growth chart that matched Katie's room or matched her personality but I just haven't found one. And they can get pretty pricey. So the other night when Doug wanted to start making a record of Katie's height somewhere, I was bummed because I didn't have a growth chart. But we have a laundry room and it has a door. And now it has it's first tick mark and date on it. And it's in permanent marker so we're staying put for a while.

 

Katie just loved it - She kept trying to look up and see what her daddy was doing and wanted to grab the marker too. After he marked where the top of her head met the door, he let her turn around to watch him record it. Then she kept pointing at it like "I'm famous - my height made it to the door." The next morning when we were getting her oatmeal out of the pantry/laundry room, she closed the door behind us to see her mark again...And just to be sure she hadn't grown overnight, I measured her up against it again!

 

Ten on Tuesday

I borrowed this 'Ten on Tuesday' idea from my sister in law, Melissa. Just some things we've had going on and other random things on my mind this week!

1. My dear sweet friend Elizabeth has had a baby in the NICU for almost 3 weeks. He was born with a diaphragmatic hernia that required surgery when he was born. It has been a really scary time for them as they were diagnosed with this at 32 weeks in pregnancy. He is going home TOMORROW! He has speed raced through the NICU and I couldn't be in more awe of how God has worked so magnificently!

2. I miss those little rolls below. I loved Katie's chubby stage - I loved the comments people would make about her cheeks and arms and legs. She was just so squeezable! She has slimmed out since she got mobile - but I love the memory of the rolls! (Funny how differently I would feel if those rolls were on me!)

 

3. I love bacon but I may be in bacon overload at the moment. I feel greasy. At our recent Super Bowl party, we had Bacon Parmesan crackers, Potato Skins with bacon, Jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon. Let's just say one of the benefits of hosting is getting to keep lots of leftovers. So I have had some of these bacon gems 3 days in a row now.

4. Work is super busy these days. My boss has been asked to teach at a board review course and he has hand written over 3 legal pads of information that I have to turn into a powerpoint and textual handout. I think I may be able to actually pass the boards myself after this.

5. I am way behind on all of my favorite shows. I am trying to catch up on Hulu with some of the shows that got left on Doug's parents DVR and then will catch up on our DVR. Still haven't watched the premiere of LOST!

6. Every single morning for about a month now, I play 2 songs on the way to work. Technically it's 4 songs. It's the songs from the mash-up episode of GLEE. It's Halo mixed with Walkin on Sunshine and It's My Life mixed with Confessions. I play it beyond loud so that I can sing and not have to hear myself.

7. I've been reading scripture at my church during the service prior to the sermon. It's been fun to do (I love a stage and a microphone) - but it's been strange seeing the worship service from a production standpoint. There's a lot that goes into it@

8. After 5 years of marriage - this is what Valentine's Day sounds like in our house:
R: Katie, do you know what Sunday is?
K: (no response, she doesn't talk)
R: It's Valentine's Day! So let's go to WalMart and buy some Valentine's for your weekday friends and Sunday school teachers.
D: Sunday is Valentine's?
R: Yeah, but I won't be here - I'm going to Melissa's after church.
D: Ok.

9. I miss my dreams. No, not some sad line about missing my dreams in life - I have a lot I never could've imagined. But I miss dreams at night. I can't remember having dreams for a while now and I only really realized it because one of my co-workers has been having lots of dreams and I am jealous. Am I just too tired? Sleeping too hard? Maybe I will try and eat something really spicy kind of late tonight...I hear that makes you have weird dreams.

10. I wrote thank you notes for Katie's birthday presents...I am so bad at thank you notes so I was already doing them a few weeks later than I should - I wrote them on the way to and from my last trip to Raleigh (around December 5)...I just found them - all of them - in a bag over the weekend.

Jump Around

We didn't do much actual jumping, but we had fun anyway! It's still been really cold and rainy here and Katie has just been dying to go outside. So for a little change of scenery, I took her to a new place near our house called Bouncerific. It's a very scaled down version of Monkey Joe's but perfect for a 14 month old. Katie was pretty intimidated by the bounce houses and it didn't help that I took her on the most difficult one to begin with. OOPS! My mom took her back the next day and she said she was much more comfortable then. At least she got out of the house and got to explore a new place!

 

There was a dress up area complete with fun hats and dresses and boas and a really big pair of King and Queen chairs. Katie "sat like a big girl" and loved it. (That's what we say to her to get her to sit on the bottom step so we can put her shoes on.)

 

There were fun riding toys and rocking horse type things which were much more her size and comfort level. There were also some fun puzzles that required her strictest of "concentration" faces. (Notice her super cute new bow - it's shaped like a frog - I couldn't pass it up and she actually keeps this one in!)

 

Each bounce house had a slide on it and that was by far her favorite part. We would slide down together and she would hold on to my legs (she was sitting in my lap) really tightly and just squeal. Then at the bottom, she would want to climb back up the slide - but it was too slippery!

 

We had lots of fun - just me and Katie - literally we were the only people in there...I asked the owner if they had had good business and she said it had been great so I am guessing Thursday at 5pm just wasn't their busy time. I hope they continue to do well and stay open because it's nice to have so close to us for rainy days or special treats!

Why Haven't I Heard From You?

I feel like people are anxiously awaiting a new post about the house and the big move which begun well over 2 weeks ago. I am so sorry to disappoint (and perhaps I'm being vain that people are waiting on this) but things have been so busy and so overwhelming. The closing on the house went off without a hitch and in a matter of about 45 minutes, we were homeowners once again and subsequently broke.

I took the next few days off of work and tried to get all of our utilities and things sqaured away...TRIED is the operative word here. Doug used the week to paint the garage floor and walls, Katie's room, dining room, and bonus room. Thanks to Barret for sacrificing his time and his beloved paint brush to our cause.

 

We moved in the next weekend, again with tons of help from friends and family. We seriously had 9 guys helping and it went super fast. They got the Uhaul loaded from storage and unloaded at our house in less than 3 hours. I tried to make them all stick around for lunch but most of them left to go back home to their families. So once they left, it was time to start unpacking boxes and I feel like I've barely made a dent in things. WHY, you ask? Because we have a one year old. A very busy one year old. Everytime I turn around, she is into something different. I spent uncountable hours putting shelf paper in all of the cabinets and Katie opens all of the ones on the floor and pulls it out with this look on her face like, "Mom - did you know this brown rubber paper was in all the cabinets...It looks much better on the floor - and by the way you should sweep the floor." The kitchen was a totally daunting task - so many different types of things to put away and decisions about where to put them. At one point, I was putting spatulas and wooden spoons away and looked down to see Katie with a large kitchen knife and a pair of scissors in her hand. I tried not to act like it was a big deal because I was afraid she'd fight me for it - so I just quickly diverted her attention to this baking pan - where she decided to sit and try to scoot around the room - buying me some more time to quickly get knives and scissors put away.

 

Diversion has certainly been the name of the game while trying to get things put away. I have put a stash of Katie's toys in each room so that wherever I am in the house - she can try to find something to play with and be content. But she seems to find something other than her toys to play with. Or she finds something from her infancy that she's long outgrown. She has thoroughly enjoyed her aquarium bouncer again - she sits in it like a recliner and props her feet up on the fish and rocks, rocks, rocks. She cries to be put into the jumperoo so she can bounce and listen to the music. This has actually worked in my favor if I need to make a quick haul upstairs and don't want to worry about her following me or trying to carry her too. Here she is relaxing in her infant bathing tub - again - she thinks it's so cool to have a chair that fits just right to her size. She climbed in and out of this thing several times so I finally put it away in her closet - where she soon found it and climbed back in.

 

I promise she's not being neglected - but the attention she is getting is certainly in spurts - and we're finding new, funny things to do to entertain her since we are not quite all settled in and our resources are limited without all of our stuff in it's place. Here is one of the makeshift dress-up outfits she's been in. It's an apron of mine and a large amount of toole tucked into the neck of her shirt - coupled with some nice ravioli stained cheeks. The toole was laying around our old house for years and we used it as packing supplies for lots of breakable things. So it's now been put in a dress up bin for her because she had so much fun being a bride! Notice how long it is - it has draped itself down the hall and through the dining room and around the paint buckets. Not sure how she didn't fall or spill any of the paint!

 

So we are trying to get settled and do a little more each day but there is still lots to do. We hope to have most of the house in working order as we are hosting our annual Super Bowl Party this Sunday...It's all close friends coming so they will certainly understand.

I will now leave you with a "By the Numbers" on my efforts at getting utilities and other specific things established at our house.

5 - appointments/visits from various Time Warner people to get the cable installed in the house. 5 appointments with 2 hour windows.

89 - the number of dollars I was charged by Time Warner for this installation. I called to have the fee waived which they surprisingly agreed to - but when our first bill arrived, the fee was still there.

4- number of security system solicitations we had in a span of 2 days.

2, 2, 2 - visits, phone call, email to the US Post Office to find out why they couldn't find us to deliver our mail. On the 2nd actual visit (after 2 phone calls and 2 emails), I got it resolved. Now I need to go by Fire Department, Police Station, and Ambulance dispatch to make sure they know where we are in case of emergency.

15 - the number of dollars charged by each county agency to transfer an account to our name - Water, Sewer, Electricity, Trash/Recylcling. The same fee is also applied to set up a new account with each of these places.

5- the number of houses that have to be occupied on a street before SCE&G will put a street light there. Not fun for the first people on a culdesac. It's dark and scary.

13 - number of days until our 30 day walk thru with the builder to let him know that the keys don't work for some of the deadbolts and the air makes a weird sound when it turns on/off.

So please forgive me for posting so late - I promise to have some more pictures up after the house is Super Bowl ready!

And I know that all sounds like a lot of complaining - but I couldn't be more thankful to be in our house - I am greatful to everyone who helped us move in, family who housed us while we built, family who bought and hung blinds ASAP in the house so we could feel safe. I know we are so blessed to have our house and I am excited to start making it our home and making memories together!