Nostalgic and looking back again

Slightly nostalgic tonight after talking to some of my clients today about Brooklyn. Yesterday I said I was going to show you our Christmas cards, but I’ll space that out a but because I decided to go back to our last day in Brooklyn at my parents house. I was thinking about my Aunt Mary, who along with my Grandmother deserve a special post. Of course that led me to think about leaving Brooklyn or when my parents left Brooklyn to move to NJ. That house saw many strong women in our family. The generations the house has seen. The amazing views while sitting on top of the world on what was called Tar Beach. The hardest part of any move is saying goodbye to friends.

Now I am off to bed perhaps to dream dreams about 60th Street, I still miss it, although I love having my parents near us. That street, that house will always be with us.

Preparing for Christmas Card and way behind....

Oh boy is this weekend going to be busy! As I said yesterday I’ll be at work for the next two days. That’s a lot of time away for Katie, but hopefully I’ve prepared her enough and we won’t be back sliding. She knows that Saturdays are always Daddy days, but that has not stopped the anxiety this past month when I’ve been away from her. Hopefully Daddy will keep her busy again like he did last weekend.

Of course this means that Paul doesn’t get any downtime over the weekend either. He has to finish up our Christmas Card so I can get it off to the printer. We also still have to get our Christmas photo of Katie and Riley to get that ready also. Maybe Sunday evening when I get home. If our cards go out by Christmas week I always feel like we’ve accomplished something. Oh well I guess that’s what happens when you live with an artist who paints your card each year. You know that’s what I’ll do this weekend, I will give you our past Christmas cards.

So let’s start with the year before Katie came home, Christmas 2005

Another busy one....

I think it is the season of busyness, is that even a word? If it's not it should be. Any way I am about to work both Saturday and Sunday, followed up by Tuesday and Thursday so that I can have off on Saturday the 12th. On that day Katie, Paul, myself, Grammy and Aunt Ria are going to be going on a train ride with Santa! So Mommy has to prepare for and see a lot of clients between then and now. I can't wait I think it is going to be fantastic to begin this tradition for Katie.

Today I also went back to the pulmonary specialist for a follow up. She told me that she knows why I had so much chest pain. One of the last times I was there she ran blood work on me and it came back that I had Coxsackie virus. I thought only kids could get it, but no adults can also. So between that and the costochondritis she said it was no wonder it seemed like a heart condition. Thank God it wasn't. Still some lingering issues but that should all go away with time and I have to wait to go back to kick boxing, which I think Paul is happy about. ;-) At least I know I wasn't crazy with all that.

Running around some more this afternoon getting different errands done that I can't do on Sunday. Katie was a trooper the whole day till the end then we had another case of the serious sillies. It's like that meltdown last week allowed her to come to a different level again and we are in a better place emotionally. Still trying to control, just not as aggressively. And I have been able to get to a better place emotionally with her, more calm.

Tonight pizza for dinner, work, Survivor, now more work. Katie put her head down and was out in 5 minutes, gotta love that. Hopefully that will last until after 5 AM.

And now I'm going to suggest that you check out some more serious cuteness with another Katie go check this out and smile.

Shopping.....

Today was busy! I tried to get a bit of work in while I had 2 hours alone with Katie at school. Working both days this coming weekend has me a bit behind the eight ball. We also had OT which Katie has not been to in about 3 weeks since she was so sick. After that we picked up my mother to go shopping for Katie’s Christmas dress. Of course first stop was the food court. The last thing I do when I am shopping for me is eat first but when you are four it’s all important to eat first so you are happy.

I don’t know if other Moms have this at all but I have a very opinionated little girl when it comes to clothes. If she does not like it she will not wear it, so she was part of the selection process. Boy does my girl like party dresses. She also had her heart wrapped around a blue dress. Not sure where that came from because I don’t put her in much blue, ok, maybe that’s why. So Grammy & I hunted up a ton of dresses, I think she tried on a dozen, not kidding, with no complaining. I chose to use my mom discretion and eliminate most to leave Katie with a choice of four dresses, two I loved, two I liked. She chose one red, that I loved and one blue that I liked. It’s a beautiful dress I just never think of blue when it comes to Christmas dresses.

When Katie had that dress on she was twirling around the dressing room “like a Princess” saying that she needed her Prince. My mother just about fell off the bench when I gave Katie a quick life lesson, Princes are nice, but not necessary, you don’t need a Prince to save you, but they are fun to have around to play with. Same thing when I tell her pretty is good, smart is better.

Home we came armed with our dresses and treated Daddy to a fashion show. Ready for bedtime and crashed in five minutes! Power shopping at four is hard work but well worth the it. Today I hope is one of the days that Katie will long remember, shopping for dresses with Mommy & Grammy. As for me I crashed on the couch & dozed off but am now ready for bed, hoping everyone sleeps all night.

Happy December!

I've stopped counting now, it's December! Just wanted to give a quickie post since I'm running out to work shortly after leaving Katie with one of her favorite people in the world, my neighbor JeanMarie. There is nothing like the peace of mind that you have when you can leave your child with someone and not worry. Not that I don't think about Katie when she's not with me, I do, however, I don't worry when she is with JeanMarie. This woman is incredible with Katie. I know I've said this before here, but we haven't seen JeanMarie in about 3 weeks with all the illness in our house. Katie is happy, I'm happy.

Writing this month has become a habit so I'm going to try to keep going with it and build on my habit ;-) I will leave you with the completed family portrait that Katie did a few weeks ago and I never posted the finished product.

Day 30 I made it!

30 posts in 30 days, you would think I would have something slightly profound to discuss today. I do. Laundry! Seriously.

Why does it multiply and never go away? Why is it that Katie & I generate most of it? I don’t mind doing the laundry or folding it as much as I hate putting it away. I can have piles of it, all clean mind you in a laundry basket for days and days. It doesn’t seem to get into the drawers, shelves or closets unless I either do it right away. See the problem with leaving it in the basket is that it all gets messed up again so to put it away you have to refold everything in the stinking basket. The way I do it then is to put the basket up on the bed so I can then make piles of like items and then I can just scoop up a pile at a time and get it all away. Don’t even get me started on socks or the basket of socks that I have to match & put away. I LOVE when all the laundry is done. The only problem is that having it all done lasts about 1/2 hour. There is no basking in the doneness of laundry.

Onto the past 30 days and writing. I have found a voice inside of me that I am just tapping into. It is giving me an outlet to my life with all of it’s ups & downs & in betweens. The biggest compliment I have received is that I have people reading what I am writing. Having some of you ask me to continue just makes me smile. Last night I was talking with my niece Ariana who told me that my blog has become part of her nightime reading. That’s a pretty big compliment.

So yes, the 30 days are over, however, I’m not. I don’t know if I will manage a post every day, but I am not willing to let myself be lost again. Perhaps what I write about Life with Katie and her Big Yellow Dog will mean something to another parent going through similar issues.

Day 29 Christmas Tree

When I got home from work last night Katie was in the window & I could see she was darting around. Usually Katie hides when one of us comes home so we have to find her. Her hiding places are typically under a blanket in the middle of the room, I’m sure she’ll improve with age.

Last night however, she was at the top of the stairs bursting with excitement. I was trying to figure out what the heck Paul did to block the bannister, usually you can see the living room as soon as you enter the house. He rearranged so that he & Katie could put up the tree! Anyhow, it was up, Katie (wink-wink) did it as a surprise for me & I loved, loved, loved it!

Today we put the “circles” on it which was interesting. The first Christmas with Katie was when she was home six months. I had just started my new job, she was in daycare, Paul was working the job from hell and we were cooked. My decision that year was to put up a small tabletop tree that I didn’t need to do anything to. Our second Christmas we invested in an artificial tree and I bought silk balls from Target to let Katie put them on & off all day long. Last year we got a little more adventurous and put up some of the glass ornaments that we have. We only lost a few ornaments and no one got hurt, Katie or Riley. This year we are putting up most of my ornaments. The ones from Paul’s mom will remain boxed for another year or two. Some of those were from his grandmother, so we are talking over a hundred years old. I’d rather keep those safe for now.

One of the things that struck me when I was briefly sitting on the couch watching Katie put up a few “circles” was Katie’ height. We have a picture of Katie putting up the silk balls ( I posted it a few days ago) and today looking at the ornaments. Wow my beauty has grown up!