Category Archives: Katie
We have bunk beds!
We’ve casually thought about getting bunkbeds for Owen’s room (one with steps instead of a more dangerous ladder) but didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them because we didn’t need them. So one night I happened to see on a Facebook yard sale group that someone was selling a set for a decent price. The bonus was that they were shorter overall so the top bunk was not super high. Long story short, we ended up getting them. It was mostly a spur of the moment decision, but Tom and I both agreed on it so there you go.
Well, have I mentioned that I hate bunkbeds because they’re a total PITA to make? But I thought maybe I was misremembering or blowing it out of proportion and even if it was awful, I’d suck it up for my kid…but holy crap it’s just as awful as I thought.
And.
I thought I’d like that they weren’t full height beds…but holy crap are they low. There’s no way Owen can sleep in there (under there) long term because he can’t even sit up—he can barely roll over. And there’s no way adult guests could fit comfortably in there (when we need an extra bed, we’ve put someone there and move Owen to Katie’s room). And of course that makes making the bed even harder.
So at this point I was thinking we’d made a huge mistake.
But.
Thankfully Tom is handy and he can lower the base of the bed so there’s more room.
Worst case, we take it apart after a few weeks of testing and sell it (hopefully getting what we paid). :/ Best case Owen loves it and we get a lot of use out of it. (Mommy guilt sucks. I’m tempted into things I’d otherwise not be.) And for now, the kids loved playing on it while we were assembling it…
“I can touch the ceiling!”
Bed time!
It’s snowing!
Katie would not be quiet about it snowing outside so of course as soon as I tried to record her saying something, this is what happened:
Katie takes Flight
She loves the bouncy balls (dodgeball area).
She never slows down.
She did try to pick up three at a time but obviously could only do two. 🙂
Katie’s Scribbles
She loves drawing and coloring, but what you see is the extent of what she does. 🙂
Two little dinosaurs getting ready for bed.
I love to see them love each other.
Katie was fake scared of something on TV and she jumped into Owen’s arms. 🙂
Katie found a Lego wand…
And loves Harry Potter… Leviosah!
Stacking and crashing
I’ll take a little girl cuddle whenever I can!
Owen reads for us at bedtime
Baltimore: food, fish, and fun!
Level 8 of the parking garage across from the aquarium. Owen was pretending to swim like a turtle when I snapped this!
On the drive here, I saw that there was a Capital Grille very close by—a restaurant we both miss from Troy—so we decided to eat lunch there! We stopped at Panera first to get the kids a bagel, and then it was a few doors down for our fancy lunch!
The kids enjoyed the bread basket, Tom had a lobster and crab burger with truffle fries (which Katie ate most of), and I had scallops with wild mushroom risotto and a side of lobster bisque (and the obligatory food porn shot with the single lobster piece for mom):
And then on to the aquarium! (We actually bought a family membership because tickets for today alone would have been about $100 and if we want to go again within the next year—which we will!—it would be even more because Katie will be over the “free” admission age—and we got a discounted membership for $155. It also gives us discounts on parking and gift shop purchases.)
The kids spent the whole time running from exhibit to exhibit like crazy people. Pretty much all Owen said the entire time was “COME HERE! LOOK AT THIS! OH WOW! MOM! DAD! COME HERE! DID YOU SEE THAT? LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE! COME HERE! OH MY GOSH! LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE!” Katie was a little less vocal but enjoyed everything but LOVED all the turtles and the penguins and puffers.
The octopus actually looked fake but was definitely real!
Super cool looking star fish! I just want to squish him!
This was the view from about the third story. That turtle was HUGE—probably 6-7′ long. The guide told us she was only 16 years old!
Heading up into the Amazon Rainforest: “It’s raining! It’s raining!” (They had misters at the very top of the escalator so it did feel like it was raining!”)
Owen loved all the escalators!
Then it was time for the 4D Spongebob movie ($5 extra per person of course!). We couldn’t take pictures during it, but it was AWESOME. I hadn’t been to a 4D movie since Honey I Shrunk the Kids at Disney probably 20 years ago! This production had bubbles, rumbling, lightning, wind, snow, and jellyfish tickling our legs! 🙂 OWEN LOVED IT…but was confused when it was over so soon because he only knows movies to be LONG.
And then my favorite exhibit—jellyfish!
Owen had a bit of a meltdown after our trip through the gift shop because everything he wanted was either too expensive or stuff we just didn’t want to get (he just didn’t need MORE cars or stuffed animals or a $30 T-shirt or cheap plastic toys). We offered a handful of different items (books, a Lego-ish type shark to build, etc.) that he could get but he didn’t want any of them and was just in a total snit about it. We explained he didn’t need to get a surprise every time we went anywhere and we did have limits on what he could get, and if we was going to act this way after a big day full of special things, then we just wouldn’t do stuff like this anymore. By the time we walked back to the car he apologized. 🙂
Katie was out before we exited the parking garage:
On the way home we both decided we didn’t want to cook dinner, so we were going out to eat. The place we wanted to try at the mall had an 1:30 wait—NO THANKS!—so we went to a 4-star Yelp sushi place across the street where we were the only patrons! The kids made do with rice but balked at the shrimp and veggie tempura we got them (who doesn’t like deep fried anything?!). Owen made a puppet out of the bag from the chocolate we bought earlier:
And then after a whirlwind day…we finally headed home.
No school, the Pentagon, and an award!
Tom was scheduled to receive an award at work (the Meritorious Service Medal) and we had decided we would ALL go, which meant taking Owen out of school. Since Tom knew he’d get the rest of the day off, we decided to make a special day of it and do something really worthwhile of missing school—take the kids to Baltimore to the National Aquarium!
A family selfie before we headed out:
Thank heavens for the HOV express lane—this was the standstill traffic on the way into DC (well worth the few bucks it cost us):
Then we had about a 3/4 mile walk in to the Pentagon from the parking lot. Yeesh—Tom has to do that twice a day. Tom was obviously already cleared, but the rest of us had to go through a metal detector and get wanded. Then once we were inside the Pentagon, we had to walk clear to the other side. With my horrid sense of direction, there’s absolutely NO way I would not get lost if I was on my own.
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. 🙂 There were lots of wide open hallways and empty corridors with nondescript doors and exiting one ring to cross a “street” to get to the next ring. And while logically I know the Pentagon is HUGE, it didn’t seem as huge as I thought it would (if that makes sense).
And then we were in his office. No windows in the whole thing, of course, and a tiny cubicle:
Before the award ceremony we had a brief meeting with Tom’s commanding general (the Senior Communications Officer of the entire Marine Corps) where he met me and the kids and had a few get-to-know-each-other minutes. Owen was really great with him and shook his hand and answered questions.
Then it was off to the conference room to wait. The kids had fun checking out the big room and seeing themselves on the big TV:
And as more and more people filed into the room, Owen got more and more shy and hid behind me the entire time. Katie was shy, too, but at least sat quietly in a chair.
A coworker of Tom’s offered to take pictures so I wouldn’t have to worry about it so that was nice (even though I hated to give up control).
The general welcomed everyone and jokingly asked what time people were thinking of leaving and there was a pregnant pause while no one said anything so I piped up “9:07” (implying we’d be leaving as soon as the award ceremony was over) and everyone laughed and the general said Tom was welcome to leave and go celebrate and everyone else was to leave at noon. 🙂
The kids with free reign to run through the halls on the way back to daddy’s office:
The view as we are leaving Tom’s ring and heading directly across the courtyard to the other side to exit the building and head to the parking lot (this is where it seems much smaller than I thought it would be):
Letting Owen ride the escalators on our way out (since he loves them so much):
Then Tom gave us a mini tour of the food court area, some of the shops on that level, and we stopped at the chocolatier for some yummy treats! Then it was the long trek back to the car!
Then it was an hour’s drive to Baltimore for the next part of our adventure…
Morning hugs and a selfie!
I was getting Katie out of bed and had her on my lap when Owen came running in and gave us both a big hug. I took the opportunity to also snap a quick selfie. 🙂
The bane of my existence.
Owen’s socks don’t look much better.
Owen reading to Katie!
There was no school today due to expected bad weather so I was cleaning and organizing the kids’ rooms while they played. Then Katie wanted me to read her favorite story (If you take a mouse to school) and Owen volunteered!
Remind you of anyone?
This is how I found Katie when I went to wake her up.
Costco Couch Crazy Hair
This is what happens when Katie has to get out of the cart to sit on the floor model couches at Costco because Owen is also doing it…and she rolls around and gets all static-y.
Katie is 2 years 6 months old today!
I found Owen’s old MSU jersey while digging through Katie’s closet—and as soon as she saw it, she wanted to wear it. 🙂
Katie was 2 years 5 months old last month!
I can’t believe it. I took the picture last month, edited it, cropped it, and put it in our holiday letter—but completely forgot to post it!
Funny faces with daddy
Daddy couldn’t Skype on duty so we texted funny faces instead!
She’s a stinker!
I was on the phone with Tom when I walked into the kitchen and saw this:
She had dragged the chair over to the counter to do who-knows-what!
New tank inhabitants!
The tank has slowly been getting up to speed and we finally decided it was time to add some more life. Unfortunately, Petco screwed up the order and what we were supposed to get Tuesday (when Tom was home and could handle everything) we didn’t get until this morning (when Tom had overnight duty and couldn’t handle anything). I managed, but it wasn’t in my comfort zone (I’ve acclimated fish before, but not saltwater ones)!
One of my favorites was a sea star… Unfortunately he arrived in less-than-stellar condition and we aren’t sure if he’s going to make it. But, he’s so cool…as soon as I put him in the tank, he burrowed into the sand. From sitting on top to completely buried took about five minutes!
And I had forgotten how cool feather dusters were, too:
And some corals…
And the kids’ favorites—the clown fish!
Or Nemos as Katie calls them: Katie was excitedly showing them her Nemo: “Look! They’re the same Nemo!”
And another favorite, the anemone:
They are intelligent creatures. I put him in the tank where I wanted him to be—where I’ve circled in the photo below. It was a nice little shelf in the current where I thought he’d look great. But he had other ideas. When I came back to look at him about 10 minutes later, he had flipped himself off the ledge and was upside down in the sand! I figured I’d help him out and flip him back over and then just leave him for Tom to deal with when he got home. The next time I came back and looked at him, he had scooched across the sand and wedged himself under the rocks (where he then stayed)! Simply fascinating.
After everyone is settled I’ll actually clean the glass and try to get better pictures!
A fake Katie tantrum
I don’t even remember what it was about. I think I refused her a snack.
Princess Sleepwear
She wanted to wear her princess dress to bed…
“I love you Owee.”
Being studious!
Owen was working on homework so of course Katie had to come up to the table and do something too.
I wouldn’t let her go outside to play with Owen after school.
Owen was playing by himself and
A. I wanted to give him that autonomy and
B. I can’t trust him to watch her (and I didn’t want to go outside yet again).
She was not happy.
Katie in the snow!
As soon as we got back from the bus stop, Katie wanted to go play in the snow. So I got out her new snow pants, bundled her up, and let her go! And man was she cute!
She loved brushing the snow off the car!
And then she laid down and did a snow angel all by herself! I didn’t prompt her in any way and I have no idea where she saw this!
She had no idea it was an angel—she liked “making rainbows!”
Then I got out the sled and took her on a few slides down the sidewalk and then the street—and WOW did she love that! (So our hilly street is good for one thing!) Of course it was exhausting for me hauling her back up the hill, but we did it about 5-6 times because she loved it so much. 🙂
Coming inside—100% adorable:
Our first snow!
It looked a little bright outside when I got up this morning…and lo and behold it had snowed!
Owen was excited looking out his window and this is him excitedly showing Katie in her room when we woke her up.
On the way to school!
She LOVES the snow!
