Archive for September, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

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Kate’s First Year Video

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009



Here is Kate’s First Year video created by Dawn and, of course, her beautiful letter is below.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

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Dear Kate,
Happy first birthday sweetheart! I can’t believe you’re one already! What a bittersweet day for me and what a hell of a year it has been for you. I want you to know that I love you and I want you to know (for later) what a special person you are and what you mean to me.

This year has been a little crazy for us. A year ago today you were born by the jaws of life c-section late in the afternoon and you have made our world better every day since.  You are a very happy baby.  You’re constantly smiling, laughing, making friends, charming strangers.  You are the friendliest person I know and you love everyone.  Some day you may judge people before getting to know them and that may make you more guarded but right now you give everyone the benefit of the doubt and you are very generous with your love.  In your heart everyone is good and that is a good way to be.  Your Apoe (grandmother) says you need to be careful of strangers, that you would let a monster hold you, and while both of those are true you are young and it’s good to be kind. 

You are a very determined little girl.  You know what you want and you are going to work hard until you get it.  This is a good life lesson but can be frustrating when what you want is the batteries from the back of the remote.  You don’t talk yet, you only say “da da” and “uh oh”, and I don’t know if you know what either of those mean but you’re a fierce pointer.  You love to point out what you want and grunt at it.  You’re so funny.  Your grunts includes “Eh!” (my favorite), “Wha?”, “Meh!” and “Ugh!”

You’re a climber.  You learned to climb steps and Grammy’s house and you haven’t stopped trying to get on top of everything since.  You like to conquer your toys, any footstool you can get your hands on, and any mole hill you can find.

People tell you that you’re gross.  Well, you are, but I’m hoping it’s a phase.  As a baby you spit up horribly.  You stained everything, it was gross.  You snored, you tooted, you were just a beast.  Now that you’re older you’ve gotten a little better.  You just do different gross things.  Now when you spit up you think you’ve invented finger paint and you’re determined to decorate the floor.  You get mad when we wipe it up.  You eat like an animal!  Food is everywhere.  The floor, your shirt (you have started ripping off bibs), in your diaper, down your back, in your hair… eating is a contact sport for you.  It’s a good thing you’re so damn cute.  I hope one day we can just say you’re messy and not gross.

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You are gorgeous!  Not because I’m your mother – you really are gorgeous.  Everyone tells us.  We say you’re “universally cute”.  I wonder how you’ll look in a few years, though I’m rushing nothing.  Will your hair be black or brown?  Will you always have those killer round eyes and one sweet little dimple (your brother has the other one)?  Will your curls continue to curl or will they be a distant memory after your first haircut?  Time will only tell but you have got to be one of the cutest one year olds I’ve ever known!

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You love music.  Man, do you love music!  You dance to any beat you can find, you clap your hands and grin big when you hear a kid’s song but you’ll rock back and forth to my music too.  Music really does make you very happy.  We’re starting Kindermusik on Thursday, I’m sure you’ll love it.

You’re an explorer.  You need to check everything out.  You want to be held at home because you know every nook and cranny but in public or at a new place you can’t wait to get down.  You’ll crawl through dirt, it doesn’t matter, you need to SEE! 

You’re allergic to dairy.  I really hope you outgrow this.  It will be really sad if you can’t have ice cream.

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You can’t walk yet.  You’re cruising around furniture and you’ll hold our hands to practice but you haven’t stepped out on your own quite yet.  All in your own time.

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You love your brother.  I hope that never changes.  You look at him like he’s a celebrity.  You love to watch him, you love to play with him, and you’re sad when he gets rough.  He’s a boy though, so he’s rough often.  You didn’t care when he broke your arm and you chase after him like it’s a price well worth paying.  Please be sure to always remind him that he broke your arm when you were a baby – especially at his wedding.  Be kind to him, love him like mad, always.  Family is very important and even if he is annoying sometimes he is your brother and you need to look out for each other.

You are my sunshine.  I love you and your brother very much but you can’t talk back yet or tell me no.  You wake up every morning with a smile on your face, just dying to snuggle in and let us hug you.  You always make me laugh and remind me that life is good.  You are an easy baby, even if changing your diaper right now is like trying to nail jello to the wall, you’re very easy going and flexible with your schedule and needs.  I would like to think I know you the best and have known you the longest.  Even when you were bouncing around inside my belly and hiccuping like it was your job I knew you were special.  You have always been very special to me for so many reasons.

You have never been a cuddler.  You never enjoyed being rocked to sleep, you never wanted to be coddled.  If that ever changes I’m here, I’m the one underneath your very cuddly brother.  There’s plenty of room on this lap for two.

Kate, you’ve given me the opportunity to experience everything exactly opposite from your brother (from pregnancy, to birth, to nursing, to temperament, and so much more).  You have made  so many of my wishes and dreams come true.  I wanted you for so long and now that you’re here  I want nothing but the best for you.  I have so many hopes and ideas of what I would like you to become (nothing specific - just independent, successful, self assured, deliriously happy….) and I would do anything for you to make your dreams come true as you did mine.  I would like to believe we’ll always be close, that you’ll always need me, and that you’ll always want me around.  Looking back on my relationship with your Grammy though I am sure there will be times that you don’t feel all of those things at once and you don’t believe me.  But know, my dear daughter, that it is true, and it always will be, the absolute unwavering certainty that I LOVE YOU.  Please know how truly special you are to me now, and always. 

All my love,
Mom

P.S.  I cried on the exam table the moment we found out you were a girl in my 12th week of pregnancy.  I will likely bawl like a total baby at your wedding.  Please invite me anyway!

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Happy Birthday Mushy!

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Magical Birthdays!

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Hello Internet Friends.  Why do I always feel like I’m apologizing for being absent?  My computer died – hard.  And as soon as it went and was replaced my monitor followed suit.  So now I am writing to you from a gorgeous new computer setup and I’m able to upload photos FAST! 

Unfortunately I’m behind in my updates, and boy have we been busy, but hopefully I can catch up and post more often.

In August Walter turned the big 4-0.  Two days after that I turned 31 (I’m officially “in my 30′s” and feeling old).  To celebrate we took the family to Disney.  For support we brought my mom.  We had no idea how the kids would handle the heat of Disney in August.  I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge, but we had a blast, and mom got to squeeze in some relaxing while we checked out the parks.

Thanks to our great friend, Lauren, we got to stay at the Swan Hotel.  It was so great being a short boat ride to Epcot!

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At the hotel they had a dreamy restaurant.  It was outdoors (ick) but it was so beautiful and the food was amazing!

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The comfy seating got two thumbs up from Noah!

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And the rest of the property was equally as entertaining…

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And beautiful…

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During our stay we only made it to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.  Both were incredibly hot!

Noah, who used to love giant characters, was pretty lukewarm about the whole thing this trip.  We even did a character breakfast and as far as he’s concerned, the highlight was the bacon.  He seemed to love the Under the Seas and Spaceship Earth (the big Epcot ball ride) the most at Epcot.

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We were at Epcot on Walter’s actual birthday.  For his birthday I gave him smiles.  Lots and lots of smiles, and patience.  If you know me and you know how I feel about heat you know this was an amazing gift and very difficult to deliver.  It came naturally to Kate though.

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And I also bought him dinner.  We left Kate with my mom at the hotel and went with Noah to Coral Reef, the restaurant at the Living Seas in Epcot.  The view was incredible, the drinks were delish, and the food was amazing!  It was a great dinner!

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Afterwards we watched the Epcot fireworks then went down to the boardwalk for ice cream and people watching.  It really was a magical day!

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Magic Kingdom was a little more fun for the kids since its pretty much geared toward them.  We didn’t have a lot of time but we enjoyed the time we had!

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Noah got a water bottle/fan/squirty thing that he is obsessed with.  He sprayed everything, and I mean everything, but at least it kept us cool!

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We rode Winnie The Pooh…

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And then Noah and Walter went on the Barnstormer, Noah’s first roller coaster!

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He loved it!

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And of course we went to see Mickey and Minnie.  Again Noah really wasn’t interested but Kate was in love.  She was so excited, I thought she was going to take her first step into Minnie’s arms.  She was also a huge fan of her giant ears!

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And of course we had to hit up the gift shop so Kate could get ears!

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And since we were so close we took a little detour to go see my Aunt Love and Uncle Kenneth.  They just finished renovating their new home and it’s amazing!  It was quite a project for them but I can’t imagine it turning out any better.  They really put a lot of work into this house that they decided to buy as soon as they saw the view from the front door!

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Noah says they have good taste in furniture too!

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We also took the opportunity of being with family to use the facilities!  Noah had a flood accident the first night in the hotel.  His poor monkey got soaked and was in desperate need of a bath!  Luckily we were able to make that happen.  Noah insisted on supervising the whole ordeal though!

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Here’s that view from the front door (looking in).  Let’s pray the hurricanes stay away!

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The kids made themselves at home.  Unfortunately the home wasn’t made for them.  I’m still so sorry about that figurine that Kate wanted to play with!

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Wordless Wednesday

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

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