Do you have your Protectors on?

I was sitting at my computer and I kept hearing a "thud" over and over again. I became concerned as we have repeatedly told our daughter NOT to jump from the arm of the couch in her room or I guess I should say... jump off of ANYTHING in her room. We have already made one trip to the ER with a straddle injury from her jumping off of the end of the bed. That was no fun and I'd just rather we NEVER go through that again. So when I walked in to her room this is what I found.

Yes, the lovely couch usually has the blue cover on it. Apparently it had come off with all the jumping. I caught her in mid climb and she slid down on the couch to the position you see above and in the outfit you see. So I asked, hesitantly, "What are you doing and WHAT do you have on?"

"I was jumping, but I'm protected Mommy. These are my Protectors."

Yes, let us look at the complete outfit shall we? There is a helmet, elbow "protector" and my favorite... foot "protectors." The apron was left over from our cooking earlier. That was just added for fanciness.

Now if you people will just leave me alone, I can get back to my work- jumping.
Don't you love the Kleenex box most of all? I did my best not to laugh while she was in the room because she was SO serious about it, like she had spent a lot of time thinking it all thru.

There are some things you just can not make up, for those things we are just glad to have a camera close by.

Is This the little girl I carried?

As usual, this has been a busy week and I realize I have not shared my thoughts on birthday. My girl turned 4 this week. I can hardly believe it. As I am sitting here I find myself humming "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof It is fitting this week. I am thinking back to our first night together in the hospital.
Ok...beside the fact that I am huge...I truly remember thinking my life has just begun. What a sense or before and after that I will never experience again. Life before Kathryn and life with her.
I am amazed watching her as she changes and has become this kid. No longer the little baby, but a child, my dear child. I am listening to her right now as I type, she is in her room singing "Under the Sea" at the top of her lungs and I'm sure she is dancing. She has such joy, she loves to play, loves to pretend and just plain old loves...everything! I love her and I am blessed everyday by her. Some days she makes me crazy, but that is what it is all about. Happy birthday sweetie... Mommy loves you.

Katy Fish

Don't you just love the names your children come up with? Usually when I ask my daughter, "what are you going to call that toy?" Usually the name is something like "salinga or sillywanga or watulla" Very creative, but I know that if it is something I will actually need to remember I ask if we can find a name that Old Mommy can remember. So our new fish is Katy Fish.

On Saturday we took my daughter to Petsmart to surprise her with her birthday present (Today is actually her birthday, I'm sure I'll post tomorrow about that when I have a pictures to share). She has been asking for a fish for a month so we thought we would get her one. Thankfully the helpful Fish-guy convinced my daughter that a Beta fish was the "fanciest" fish there was and much "prettier" than a goldfish. Hallelujah - she loved that! The goldfish requires much more work, he said. Which did not sound good to me. The Beta... hardly any at all. My kind of fish! So Kathryn picked out her fish and was so proud.
When we got home we got Katy Fish all set up. Then my daughter spent the rest of the day sitting by the fish. She brought all her favorite toys down to meet Katy Fish. She even wanted to watch a movie with her new best pal...Little Mermaid of course. But the best was when I saw this.. She was reading a book to Katy Fish. Too cute.

Now... we have already had a few "incidents". She confessed to taking the fish out of the tank and putting her on the table... Oh and did I mention we found some "fin" floating at the bottom of the tank? Not sure what happened there, I believe someone was trying to "pet" her new pal.

Birthday present Extravaganza?

We have had a busy weekend... what am I saying? It is always busy here, this weekend was no different. Can someone out there tell me if you life isn't busy? I'd like to know your secret. Oh, sorry, I digress. So this weekend we had lots of family in town. My wonderful sista and her family were at my parent's house and my husband's sister and her family were at my in-laws home. We live in this sort of triangle. My parents live 4.98 miles NE of us and my in-laws are 4.12miles North of us. It is great, but when there is a lot going on and especially on holidays, we do the "back-n-forth." You know what I mean? I try so hard to be fair and spend equal amounts with everyone and it makes a girl weary. But we had a great time with everyone. Kathryn was really in hog heaven or I guess I should say, cousin heaven. Gracie makes us all laugh and we love to see her learning to walk and discover the world around her. My sister-in-law has triplets who are 6 days older than my daughter. So when we see them it is a whirl wind! They wear me out. I honestly think my sister-in-law is amazing. I feel overwhelmed with my one child and she is this calm presence in the midst of a storm of activity.



June is also busy because it is birthday month. This is the list of birthday's we have beginning at the end of May running through the end June:

my daughter, 6 cousin b-days, one grandma, one auntie, one great-grandma, and great aunt. I feel certain I left something out there... Oh Yes... Father's day is in there too!

That is A LOT of birthdays. Are you hearing me? I went to Walmart on Friday to buy 5 presents and got out of there having only spent $54, and that was with a few non-bday items. I have to say, I was happy with that. I told my husband, we have to add a few line items into the big Dave Ramsey budget for June birthday's next year. I don't know why it surprises me, but it always does.


So we had birthday celebrations all weekend at the different family houses. Now, this is interesting and I don't know how everyone else handles birthday presents for the kiddos. We are trying desperately not to give in and buy everything she asks for or that we see in the store. I watch her in her room with her toys and she can and will play for hours with the toys she has now, so I think, she doesn't need a bunch of new toys. I say all that to say this, I was overwhelmed at the amount of toys the cousins got for their birthday. I felt sorry for my daughter just sitting there watching them open all these gifts. It took forever. I could not believe it. I lost count but each child must have gotten 5-7 things including clothes. My daughter sat there and had this shocked look 0n her face as I guess I did too. Then I started wondering, are we terrible parents because we don't do this? Now, please do not get me wrong, It is there choice to buy these gifts for their children and they have the money to do so and that is great. If you are big present buyers, good for you. I just have a hard time bringing that much new stuff into an already full room of toys that still get played with.


My daughter's bday is next week. This is what she has consistently asked for... a gold fish. Now, she has started adding things to that list after this weekend (imagine that) they include a crab and a horse. The horse makes me laugh, I'm not sure where that came from. But this is what we have planned for and what she is getting: 1. a gold fish 2. a sleep mat for preschool (she has to have this for nap time and we did not have one 3. a new princess gown.

That is it. I know she will be getting other toys from family the few friends that we invited to the bday party.


So... that is what I am pondering this morning, birthdays and presents. I would LOVE to hear from some of you on the child birthday gift situations at your house. Do you go all out or are you birthday present minimalist? I really do want to know so send some traffic here and lets see what the consensus is, shall we?