I will not walk on camera, people

This little girl is getting such a big personality. She's got her own taste and interests and she lets you know how she feels about everything. She's a huge cuddler, but she is more than happy to play with Dylan for hours without Mom or Dad. And don't even think about walking by her without picking her up if she has her arms outstretched or you will hear the wrath of Katie. She throws mini tantrums by lying as flat as she can face down on the floor. She'll swat you if she doesn't want what you're offering. She's really sweet and silly and fun.

She's taking even more steps today, but of course she won't perform as soon as I turn on the camera. Even so, she is quite entertaining. Here she is making me laugh until I snort:



And when she gets bored of pretending to walk, she inspects the camera:



Dylan is watching Transformers in the background. He loves the RescueBots. I'm so thrilled that he's not watching Caillou or Barney or the Doodle Bops anymore. Transformers are awesome and I can totally watch this show with him and not feel like giving the main character a noogie.

One step at a time

Maybe I should play the Lottery. I dropped my iPhone in the bathtub yesterday and after I finished panicking and managed to fish it out of the water, I realized that it still worked just fine. The speakers weren't working but that was nothing that couldn't be fixed by wearing headphones. And then this morning I woke up with a fully functional phone. Speakers and all!

What are the odds?

I've been taking way too many baths. Since my father-in-law brought me gourmet soaps and my aunt gave me a heavenly muscle soak, and since I'm already constantly freezing, I take at last four baths a day. Really hot baths.

Since my TSH levels were so damn high as of last Monday, my doctor put me on the fast track to getting them from a 15.34 down to a 2.5 or less by doubling my Armour levels from one grain to two grains. So I've been feeling pretty lousy, as usual, but it's a different lousy. I'm still overly fatigued and pretty much bed(couch)-ridden but now I'm absolutely freezing on top of that. I cannot warm up no matter how many layers I've got on or how many baths I take or how many blankets I'm under. Last night as we watched Dexter on the couch Sean tucked me under my fuzzy bathroom, in a sleeping bag, under a fuzzy blanket, and then he laid his legs on top of mine and I was shaking I was so cold. This will be a huge benefit to me come summertime on those tropical 80° days. I'm constantly on the THYCA forums and "cold" is a pretty common symptom oddly enough so I'll just be glad that it isn't anything worse. Cold, I can handle.

Little Miss Katie Rhea has been trying to walk since yesterday. She's so cautious, unlike her big brother who was plowing through everything at 11 months and climbing up the ladder of our swing set not long after. She has the muscles to walk but not the confidence. You should see how proud she was last night as she kept taking one step and then another step before sitting herself down. Katie does things at Katie's pace.

Here she is taking one small step for mankind, one giant leap for a baby:



Pardon the boys playing football in the background. She's been taking more steps than that but I haven't been able to catch it on video, mostly because I'm busy helping her to not topple over.

It's her party!

Today we celebrated Kate's birthday with our family. Rather than post all of the photos, here's a short video of our day:



Thank you to everyone who came out and made her first birthday extra special. She's a lucky little girl to have you.

My Thirteen-Year-Old Self

My eight-year-old niece Ciara has always been an actress. She has always wanted to perform and has always been the shining star in a crowd.





She recently began taking voice lessons and is showing a huge interest in music. This week she sent me a video performing a song that she wrote (I won't post it because she might want to release it on an album someday) and I couldn't help but smile ear to ear.

She reminds me of me when I was a girl. I loved singing and playing piano. I wrote songs and my family encouraged my talent, always listening, always complimenting my attempts.

When the Oklahoma City bombings happened in 1995 my adolescent mind couldn't wrap my head around such a horrific terrorist attack, and after watching plenty of coverage of the wounded and the dead I wrote a song. I was really into Hanson back then and the chords are pretty much the same as some of their songs, but I felt proud nonetheless and I had big dreams of sending it along to the victims, that maybe the thought that I had them in my young heart would help ease their pain a little.

My grandmother saved the lyrics and somehow I still have this paper half a lifetime later, stowed away in my piano bench.



Embarrassingly, I recorded it this morning in my pajamas so that you can hear what it sounds like.



I didn't go on to write many songs, but I did go on to take eleven years of piano lessons, learn guitar, sing in countless professional choirs, and tour the world performing with some of them.

I can only hope that my niece sticks with it and continues to keep her heart in music. And as for this proud, proud Auntie, I will be there with her every step of her journey, listening to and encouraging her. Perhaps proud is an understatement. I'm pretty much beaming for her.

Happy birthday, Katie!

One year ago today, Kate was born. 4:33PM, weighing 8lbs 6oz. She was born on a Tuesday, full of grace. She hasn't stopped smiling and bringing unmeasurable joy to all she meets since.

Grandpa called and offered to take Dylan to school for me so that I could spend the morning with the birthday girl. So she had cupcakes for breakfast!



I took a bunch of photos.








She took a bath.






And Mama pushed her luck a little trying to get Kate to sit still for photos of her wearing a dress, it was way past her nap time.







Kate spent the rest of the day with her grandparents, reading her new books (thanks, Aunties!!) with Grandpa and shopping for a birthday present with Grandma.



Kate picked out a fancy mathematical doll called an umizoomi that sings about shapes and measuring things. I had no idea what to get Katie but she saw this doll on the shelves and reached for it and hugged it, so a $30 mathematical doll it is! But she seemed to like the free balloon from Toys R Us better anyway.



We just had a special birthday dinner, while wearing party hats, and Kate and Dylan are enjoying another birthday cupcake. They have bedtime in twenty minutes. I have a feeling there will be a lot of laughter coming from their room tonight.

Happy birthday, my sweet, sweet baby girl.

The last day of babyhood

Today began with a crying Kate at 5AM, followed by the news that a good family friend has passed away. It continued with an entire cup of coffee spilled on the couch, a snow storm, and running out of paint after painting half of a wall. And then Dylan finger painted on one of the dogs. But all and all we still had a really fun day filled with laughter. And playing in buckets.



Poor tolerant Dylan:



Today is Kate's last day as an eleven-month-old baby. Tomorrow is her first birthday. I'm desperately sentimental about such a big milestone. I don't remember feeling this sad about Dylan turning one, but I'm sure I did. I've been busting my butt to give Kate a really sweet first birthday party. I did the same for Dylan but we had his first at his favorite park and it was so windy and cold and rainy that my plans to decorate the gazebo were completely scrapped. I know that a one-year-old doesn't care about what kind of party they are thrown, but this means a lot to me to make it really special for her.



Here she is dancing a bit:



And talking:



I just looked back at Dylan's photos from the day before his first birthday. He seems so much bigger. He was walking by then. Look at this boy!!! Oh, I love him so much!



As sad as I am for my baby to grow up, I will be so glad not to have to photograph her everyday for her 365 project. I may not take a single photo on Thursday just to feel rebellious.

My Fussy Valentine

One of Kate's top teeth has popped through the gum today so she's been extra sore and quite cranky. We played with snow when we woke up hoping that eating some would give her some relief. She didn't feel like smiling.




Dylan ran into his playroom and found a funnel and shoveled the snow into his cement mixer. He was thrilled that he thought of the idea and was highly entertained until his Tupperware of snow almost completely melted.



And when he was done he asked if he could do one of his favorite activities. Googling "trucks" and telling me that he wants pretty much all of them. Not the toy version, mind you, the reeeeeaaal life-sized trucks.



By ten Kate was insistent on taking a two-hour nap on the couch.



Can you see her? Me neither. She's under the green sleeping bag. Every time I uncovered her she hibernated deeper under the blanket.

She was much happier upon waking.





We painted a bit, made Valentines for Daddy, ate lunch, and Kate tried a sippy cup for the first time. She seemed quite proud to be drinking like a big girl.



We did a bunch of projects after lunch. I rearranged our bedroom. If I think to take photos later I'll post them. I'm a moron for doing it by myself. Yesterday I could barely walk. Today I felt pretty good so I decided to move a giant dresser, loveseat, and bed by myself. Way to take it easy. Also, two pieces of advice for those of you who are in the market for new furniture: never buy black, every little particle of dust shows up on it and you'll be forever dusting to keep up, and don't buy a canopy bed if you have dormered ceilings. Ours are barely dormered, slanted just about a foot, but it severely limits where I can put the bed and our taller furniture. If only I knew then what I knew now...

Here's a video of Dylan singing the opening to Garth Brook's The Thunder Rolls:



He's been so good today. Not perfect, but he's having to show lots of patience for being stuck at home with a mom who is too busy doing house projects to play with him. He'll be glad to have Sean home soon so they can play soccer in the basement.

And now that Kate's medicine has worn off, she's back to feeling miserable.





I'll have to run to the store to get her some more. There's no way I can expect her to go through this pain of teething without some sort of relief.

We'll be celebrating Valentine's Day tomorrow by stocking up on a ton of candy on sale. I can't wait to get stockpiles of chocolate. Happy Love Day, all!

Little Valentine Man

Today was Dylan's Valentine's Day party at school. He couldn't wait to go. Possibly because he heard that candy would be involved. The kids were instructed to wear white and red. Dylan requested to wear his dressy shoes and gel his hair.



He was also excited to present his teachers with the cards he made them.





Dylan spent nearly an hour making these fabulous cards for his teachers and he showed great patience as he traced his name and the teachers' names on the front of the cards. Dylan is a lefty and neither of us has figured out how the heck a lefty holds a writing utensil just yet.

D came home hopped up on sugar and very content. We dumped his cards on the table and read them together as Dylan scouted for candy in his pile of valentines. I had forgotten just how exciting Valentine's Day is when you're a child. So special.

We rushed outside after Kate woke up from her afternoon nap because tomorrow is calling for a big storm and we wanted to play on the swing set while we could still hobble through the snow.



Kate was able to try out her new-to-her swing.










It's half an hour before bed and the two peanuts are playing with a bucket of snow in the living room. They love to play with snow indoors. I think Kate's about to get her two top teeth, they are bulging pretty hard and she's chewing on everything.

So here in the north we are used to this kind of snow, but my heart is with all of my friends down south who are experiencing some crazy weather. Lots of people are stuck in traffic as motorists aren't prepared for this kind of weather. The Governor of North Carolina said today during a news conference, "Don't put your stupid hat on." I've got my fingers crossed that the power stays on for everyone, nothing is harder than freezing in your own home.

And just for fun, I love this picture:



The entertaining result of taking a three-year-old boy's photo as he rocks away on a rocking chair.

Weeeeeeeee!

This is a short video of Katie getting her hair dried after her bath tonight. She's too funny.

First pickle

Today was a day of a few firsts for Kate. She ate her first pickle--and loved it--and also had her hair blow dried after her bath, which she also loved. She's have a rough time with a double eye infection and yada yada, we're all still sick around here. This was yesterday:



You know something is wrong with Kate when she's not smiling. She's a happy baby. She was looking a bit better today and we played in the snow in the house yet again. We tried to go out in the yard but the snow was up to Dylan's knees.









Kate and I went shopping this morning for a few birthday presents for her. We bought her a dress for her party, a Little People princess castle, a swing for the swing set, and a new coat. And a friend of ours brought her a bunch of clothes and books today so she had a ridiculously fun day. Dylan loved her castle so the two of them sat around playing with that for a bunch of the day.

Here's a video from the other day of Kate playing with her walker. Pardon the living room mess and my pajamas, this was the end of a very long snow day.



And now it's the weekend. Finally.