JTOK Chatter > Page 279

Katie is one smart cookie.

Posted on by

Today I took Owen’s backpack and put it by the laundry room so I would remember to take out his sheets and blanket to wash. Before I knew it, Katie had grabbed it and was putting it where it normally goes by the front door on the hook.

Last night, I had Owen set up their Playskool Christmas village toys underneath the tree. Before he could even finish, Katie was taking the pieces and putting them back in their storage box.

She also knows that the remote control goes in the top drawer. It used to be when we left it out that she would grab it and run off with it…but now she opens the drawer to put it away.

And the other day she scared the bejesus out of me—she was standing at the top of the stairs and started down by herself. Forwards. Without holding on to anything. 😐 I just about plowed Owen over trying to get to her before she went tumbling down the stairs. She has no fear. So now you just have to hold her hand and down she goes…she’s too short to reach the railing and has no interest in going down backwards or on her butt.

And of course, she knows to go to the back door when we talk about going outside…and to go to the front door when we tell her it’s time to get Owen.

I guess 13 years was a good run.

Posted on by

20131206-113424.jpg

I am just stunned at how it happened! I was sliding the screen door open and my hand got wedged between that and the sliding glass door. It barely even rubbed. It was obviously enough for me to notice, though, which I’m glad I happened to look down because that’s when I noticed the missing diamond (it was in the tracks).

And I’m pretty sure this isn’t a wait-while-they-fix-it fix. It’s a tension-mount, which I remember them saying was a much more rugged setting…and hence more difficult to fix if it did come loose (and I specifically remember them saying if I ever needed it resized, they’d actually have to melt the gold and redo the entire ring…or something along those lines).

Like I needed this to worry about right now.

Presenting the Christmas tree!

Posted on by

I thought I’d record Katie’s first sight of the tree, thinking maybe it would be something super cute.

Ha. She got me. Little stinker couldn’t have cared less. 🙂

Then it was off to pick up Owen from school…and I decided to record him, too, sure he would be WAY more excited since he’s been asking about the tree. I love the ornaments he names. Excuse the messy house. 🙂

Then it was game on: Katie vs. the tree. I showed her the bear first, thinking “Oh, she knows how to kiss, I can get this picture super easy on the first try.” Ha. Right. She liked it but didn’t want to get near it to kiss it. I’m sure she was just overwhelmed by (in her mind) all the fun things to play with.

2013-12-05kids064

2013-12-05kids065

2013-12-05kids066

Her shutting the gate because I had left it open. 🙂

2013-12-05kids071

Playing with the light cord.

2013-12-05kids072

2013-12-05kids073

Owen was EXCITED to put ornaments on the tree. SUPER EXCITED. He kept saying “Mom, I like putting ornaments on the tree. I hope Santa likes them!” Of course he still put the first 10 ornaments in the same one-foot section…I had to gently guide him to the rest of the tree. 🙂

2013-12-05kids074

Sparty was the first ornament she snuck out of the box!

2013-12-05kids075

2013-12-05kids076

2013-12-05kids077

2013-12-05kids078

2013-12-05kids079

2013-12-05kids080

2013-12-05kids081

2013-12-05kids082

I am pretty sure this mouse elf was the same ornament Owen first grabbed off the tree when he was her age!

2013-12-05kids083

2013-12-05kids084

Watching the bubble light!

2013-12-05kids085

She kept going back to the bear and finally just grabbed it off the tree and hugged it!

2013-12-05kids086

And kissed it!

2013-12-05kids087

And carried it around with the mouse.

2013-12-05kids088

Then tried to put it back—in the right spot!

2013-12-05kids089

Owen hung it up…then a few minutes later she went back and grabbed it again.

2013-12-05kids090

2013-12-05kids091

Our stealthy shooter. 🙂

2013-12-05kids092

Overall, Katie didn’t do too badly. Of course, I did have to keep saying “Gentle! Gentle!” and telling her the ornaments stay on the tree. She would start to take one off, look at me, I’d tell her, then she’d put it back, smile, and run off laughing. Stinker. It’s going to be a rough few weeks as I surely don’t have enough “No no, Katie’s” in my daily life as it is. 🙂

Owen just kept saying how much he liked Christmas and the tree and the lights and the ornaments. 🙂 He knew there were more ornaments left, too, and wanted to put them up. So, we put up the rest of them after Katie went to bed. I think Owen has inherited my love for Christmas…

Saved by a friend.

Posted on by

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the lights up this year…it’s hard enough to do inside stuff…but outside stuff? Requiring a ladder and four arms? Plus the tree? Ugh. I had managed the mantle and was just going to plod along as much as I could during Katie’s naps and possibly skip the outside lights…until Owen asked when we were putting them up because he liked them. Cue mom guilt. So I posted my lament on Facebook and a friend graciously offered to help (they’re moving soon so aren’t decorating this season). Boooo for them moving, but woohoo for her offer to help!

But what a debacle. (Granted, a minor debacle or two in the grand scheme of things, but still a debacle typical of my life.) My friend is now the outside proof that STRANGE THINGS really do seem to happen to me.

First.

We plugged the lights in before we got started and they worked. By the time we got to the end, they were out. Huh? We look again. Yep, out. This can’t be, we think—we both saw them lit. RIGHT? Maybe it was the extension cord? We tried another. Nope. The outlet? Nope, another item plugged in and worked fine. Reset the outlet. Nope. Tried about six rearrangements of extension cords and direct into the outlet and…nothing.

WHAT. THE. HELL?

We took a step back off the porch and—AHA! It was only the last 4′ of lights that were out—the section right above us that we were looking up at. The rest were on. But seriously? They were brand new expensive LED lights last year. GRRR. So our options were to leave them as is or restring the whole house again with some old-school multi-colored lights that are many years old that were just extras. And I’m sure you can guess what option I chose. I couldn’t leave the mantle garland uneven…you think I’m leaving up lights that have a section burnt out? 🙂 So we restrung the whole house (at least we had the system down by then!) and I chucked the “old” ones.

Second.

This one should really be filed under YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I wouldn’t have believed it if it didn’t happen to me—but I had photo proof and a friend watching. So there.

I think it was actually quite impressive:

20131205-160208.jpg

Yes, that’s a light completely wedged in the sole of my flip flop. What? How? I mean really? I was just walking along and it got jammed in there. JAMMED. Like we needed to use pliers to get it out—and of course it broke. Which meant I had to take a light out of an extra string of all-blue lights. And then we had to replace a few other burnt-out lights with…blue lights.

20131205-160308.jpg

Fixing the dips.

20131205-160337.jpg

20131205-160406.jpg

By the time we got to the end of the house, we had enough extra to put on the bushes…except we noticed that most of them were burnt out as well. Ugh. By that time I was burnt out on lights myself so I just let them hang down the side of the house and that was that!

Then Ruth, saint that she is, asked if there was anything else I needed help with. Well, I said, we could put the tree up… So we broke open two wine coolers as our celebratory drink after the escapade that was putting up the Christmas lights (plus we were both sweating from doing the lights—it was 72°!) and put the tree together and decorated most of it! (We left the bottom undone for Owen to finish.)

20131205-160741.jpg

I can’t begin to thank Ruth enough. Really. She helped me not lose my shit when all kept going wonky. If I had been doing it by myself, the swearing would have been in utter frustration instead of in humor. 🙂

As soon as she left, someone was already making herself at home.

2013-12-05catundertree

And her sister checking things out, too. Thankfully, this is as much interest as they both show.

2013-12-05catsundertree

The stockings were hung…

Posted on by

The first attempt…

20131205-100302.jpg

And the stockings drive me nuts. Does anyone have stockings that hang correctly? This is our third set that hang sideways. Why is it so hard for manufacturers to comprehend how a hook will make it hang? This irritates me EVERY year.

So I posted exactly that on Facebook…and my friends came through with ideas!

But first, the kids seeing them for the first time:

2013-12-03kids048

So…my second attempt, complete with curtain rod! Perfect!!

20131205-101058.jpg

Well, the stockings were perfect—but the garland needed adjusting. There’s no way I could live with the garland like that. Looking at it all day every day. /shudder

So, the third and final attempt:

20131205-101810.jpg

And that’s as good as it’s going to get this year!

Owenisms 31

Posted on by

Owen: Mama! Watch me! He runs around the living room moving his feet really fast.
Me: Wow, that’s fancy!
Owen: Yes! Do you know where I learned it?
Me: No.
Owen: Galloping school!
Me: Galloping school?
Owen: Yes, next door to my school!

Owen just came up to me and said “You don’t smell like the queen.” I had to think a minute. Oh! Yes. He was quoting A Bug’s Life. 🙂 Then he says “You smell like a mom.”

Our neighbors put up their Christmas lights. Owen noticed them at night when they were all lit up.
Owen: Mama, look!
Me: I know—aren’t their lights pretty?
Owen: Yes! Mama, when are you going to put our lights up?

I hung the stockings while Owen was at school today so told him there was a surprise for him at home.
Owen: What is it?
Me: Go look around.
Owen: THE STOCKINGS!!
Me: Is that a good surprise?
Owen: Yes. Where are the two reindeer?
Man he has a good memory. I usually put out two silver reindeer…and he knew they were missing!
Me: They’re still in the garage.
Owen: Mama, you have to put them out.

Surprise mystery trip!

Posted on by

I had dropped Maggie off at the groomers so we had about 45 minutes to waste after picking Owen up so I had planned to take them to the playground.

Me: Owen, we’re going on a surprise mystery trip!
Owen: TO THE BEACH?!
Me: No.
Owen: To the mall?
Me: No. Just wait. We’ll be there in a minute.
In line at the light to turn, he knows where we are!
Owen: THE PLAYGROUND!

He’s now tall enough to reach the bar without jumping! It was just this summer when he couldn’t reach!

20131203-204305.jpg

20131203-204412.jpg

20131203-204432.jpg

Ohhh crap. More toys.

Posted on by

As if the kids didn’t already have enough toys—and with Christmas right around the corner—I unearthed two big boxes of Owen’s old toys that I’m guessing we put away for Katie…or maybe just put in boxes temporarily because ironically, I had been wondering where some of the things had gone to…

Of course I can’t let Owen see them because he’d HAVE TO keep them all. But I can’t just get rid of everything because there are some good toys in there… So I think I’ll wrap up a few for Katie and hand pick a few for Owen to have. His school might get some donations as well.

20131202-205216.jpg

It’s been a tough five days.

Posted on by

Sick and cranky kids, Owen’s poop issues (a clean out), obviously Tom being gone on a holiday, me now starting to feel sick—all on top of the normal everyday stuff—and after some random unimportant thing (like Katie reaching for the Kleenex box for the 23rd time) I kinda lost it. I really try not to do it in front of the kids, but it just happened.

Poor Owen was like “Mama, are you okay?”

I told him I was—I just really missed daddy and it was really hard work taking care of everything by myself while he was gone.

He came over and hugged me and gave me a kiss saying “It’s okay mom.” Then told me he was going to read me a happy story.

/bawl

Post-Santa Pictures

Posted on by

I can’t accept failure…so I had to try again. 🙂

First outside (cute but NOT my typical perfect shot—at least you can see the whole outfit):

20131201-202835.jpg

20131201-203042.jpg

“Come back and sit down, Katie.”

20131201-203141.jpg

And then I tried inside again but it still wasn’t happening so I didn’t get THE shot today. Oh well…

Our first picture with Santa!

Posted on by

Over the years we just never cared about getting the picture with Santa. I hate crowds and I hate holiday crowds even more…so we just never did it. Then, once Owen was a bit older, we tried…but the commotion was too much for him and we had to leave before Santa even arrived.

Fast forward to this year and he’s showing A LOT more interest in Christmas—like things he wants and asking about Santa—so I thought I’d have to try this year (of course, the year Tom is gone). Thankfully, the local autism society planned a sensory-friendly event at the mall (two hours before regular pictures with Santa started) and we were first in line!

2013-12-01kids002

2013-12-01kids003

2013-12-01kids004

2013-12-01kids005

2013-12-01kids006

Owen was good at being patient (just asking a handful of times how many more minutes) and overall it was easy peasy! Of course Katie wasn’t her normal smiling self, but I was just happy she wasn’t snotty and/or screaming and/or wiggly and actually looked at the camera. I think they only took four pictures! Owen was great, too—and was EXCITED to see Santa. (Last night when I was telling him about the “mystery trip” to prepare him, he asked if it was the real Santa or a pretend Santa. I had no idea where he got the idea of real and pretend, but I told him it was a pretend Santa because of course the real Santa was getting ready at the North Pole. He accepted that.)

Of course the picture packages are a complete racket—but I ended up with a $40 package because it came with a $20 Shutterfly credit. I could have gotten cheaper packages but they only came with $10 Shutterfly credits so it was cost efficient (for me) to get the bigger package. So I will have actual photos to mail out this year. 🙂

2013-12-01 Santa kids photo Jacksonville Mall

On the way out, Owen wanted to ride in this kiddie car. I just happened to have the required quarters, so I said okay.

2013-12-01kids009

As you can see, Katie lasted about four seconds…and Owen only lasted about three more. 🙂

Today was a Facebook day.

Posted on by

Nothing really blog-worthy happened today…but I did post a few things on Facebook that I thought I’d share here:

Up today? Toy Story. Both are fully entranced. Unfortunately, we only got to see about 10 minutes of the movie before our network decided to flake out…and an hour of messing with it did nothing. Which leads to…

I am so sick of our worthless wireless network that there just might be 500 yards of ethernet cable running through the house when Tom gets home.

On the best of days, I don’t have the energy for two sick kids (with one super snotty girl). On a day like today when I am feeling exhausted and headachy, I REALLY don’t have the energy to be up and wiping noses every two minutes. But when you can see the snot fly through the air during a sneeze…you can’t really ignore it. At least Owen can (mostly) do his own and can kind of help with Katie…but I still need to intervene a lot.

Aww crap. I just realized Katie is likely teething. It’s about the age and would explain the extra chewing and slobber. Yeah, you’d think I would have thought of that before now…but no.

I’m so glad Owen didn’t want to take a nap today so that he could fall asleep on the couch at 4:45. 😐

20131129-211703.jpg

And I just had to be a mean mom and wake Owen up from a nap. I just couldn’t let him take a long nap at this time of day when his bedtime is 7:30…because I am NOT giving up my nightly alone/me time if I can help it. Especially since I want to go to bed early since I’m not feeling the best.

How can one tiny girl produce SO much snot?!

Of course the best time to find out the humidifier in your kid’s room is dead is at bedtime. GRRR. Unfortunately, this means a trip to town—since it’s the weekend, Amazon wouldn’t get here until Wednesday…and with a coupon at BB&B I can get $10 off. Blurg.