About Our Katie » May 2007 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

< > May 2007

Mon, May 28, 2007 1:00 PM
On Saturday, Steve, Katie, and I went to a pool party/cook-out at our neighbors' house. (They recently installed a very nice inground pool.) We arrived at about 3 and Katie stayed in the water almost continuously until we departed at 8. Along the way, we had a slight scare (probably our most frightening parental moment she since nearly choked on that Outback Steakhouse coaster way back when). Katie had gone in the water with me for quite a while, and then with Steve for a spell. Then she went in with the other kids while we were both sitting outside the pool. She had on her arm floaties and was also in one of those rafts that babies/tots can actually sit in.

I was watching her closely and saw as soon as she capsized (I think she was trying to get out of the raft). I immediately (and, I think, calmly) said, "She just went under" as I got up to help her. In that split second, one of our neighbors noticed Katie's legs perpendicular to the water and proceeded to scream--which prompted Steve to leap like a cat from his chair into the pool, creating what another neighbor later called a "human tsunami." (He might be an old dad, but the man can move darn fast when he wants to.)

At any rate, Katie was fine but certainly shaken up. She sat on my lap crying and getting calmed down for a few minutes before going back in. She played and swam happily for the rest of the night. And when we got home, she took her bath, had a snack, and promptly conked out on the couch.

But, interestingly, she thought and talked about what happened a LOT yesterday. In fact, if she brought it up once, she brought it up 15 times. At one point, she and I were in the backyard having a snack on the chaise lounges. She asked me to sing "Baa Baa Black Sheep," but I barely made it through one verse when she cut me off.

"No ding. Tawk," she said.

"Talk? OK, what do you want to talk about?" I replied.

"I ball down, go boom... go UNDER!" she said, eyes wide.

"I know you did. But Mommy and Daddy came to get you."

She paused as if to reflect on that and then said with great sincerity, "Ganks."

She also wanted to talk about how David, a little boy her age who lives just across the street, also got trapped under rafts and had to be "rescued." She brought both incidents up multiple times before bed. So far today she hasn't mentioned it, and so I'm hoping she won't continue to dwell on it. While I want her to be aware that the water CAN be dangerous, I don't want her to have nightmares about drowning!

* * *

In other holiday news, Katie (and Steve and Danielle and I) enjoyed this year's Memorial Day Parade in Doylestown. Katie was much more aware of everything this year--from the loud gunshots to the free candy. I posted photos in the May album.

Comments:
Katie: I can just see all the other kids sputtering and chocking as they try to recover from Steve's massive wave.

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Fri, May 25, 2007 6:40 AM
It was earlier this month that I was awakened by a fully dressed Katie. Ever since, she's stuck to the same routine. After she wakes up, she gets out of bed, removes her pajamas and Pull-up, and then proceeds to get dressed.

Steve is usually long gone by the time Katie gets up, so it was just the other day that he personally witnessed her antics. He watched her briefly from the hall then came back to our room.

"Does she always do that -- just get up and get going like that?" he asked.

"Yes, I said. EVERY DAY."

He pointed to himself and beamed, "She gets that from me." (No duh!)

At any rate, although I definitely don't always like her wardrobe choices, it DOES make my life easier not having to dress her (or knock heads with her over when and how to put on clothes). Perhaps the funniest part about her routine is her shoe selection process. Katie LOVES to wear flip-flops and sandals, but she knows those are against Elbow Lane's safety rules. She also knows she CAN wear open footwear to gym class on Saturdays. But she can't yet keep her days straight, and yesterday I walked into her room and could see she was flustered. She was dressed, except for her bare "beet."

"Go gym day?" she asked me with a very intense expression.

"No, not today," I replied.

"'K, I wear djews, go Eb-low Lane," she said, speeding back to her shoe organizer, where she took down and put on her new favorites: white Mary-Janes that were recently handed down by Adriana and Lindsay.

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Fri, May 18, 2007 11:00 PM
We interrupt this blog about the hairball toddler for a very important announcement: Today Danielle was graduated from Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania. She now holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications--and has some extremely proud parents and stepparents!

I've posted an album of photos from the day. But, please, don't tell Katie. She hates to be left out of anything--especially anything that involves Dee! :-)

Comments:
Katie H.: Sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate!! Go Dee, I'm very proud of you...from hamburger flipper at Micky D's to this...the sky is the limit!

Sarah: Congratulations Danielle! What a great accomplishment. You look like you're on cloud 9!

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Thu, May 17, 2007 9:15 AM
I've been under the weather, in one form or another, for over three weeks now (which, incidentally, explains the dearth of new photos on this site). Anyway, seeing how lovely the weather was yesterday morning, I decided that perhaps some good old-fashioned exercise might help. So I loaded Katie and her "lunt-bot" into her blue stroller and walked to Elbow Lane.

The fresh air and physicial activity did me some good, and Katie must've enjoyed it, too. At 6:50 this morning, she appeared at my bed side, fully dressed (of course), and ordering me around: "Get UP, Mommy! Put on lure clohtz! I ready walk goo!" When I reminded her that she needed to eat something, she said, "I don't want bet-best! I go goo!"

Of course, the earliest she's allowed to arrive at school is 8:00, and therefore the earliest we can really leave is about 7:45. So I had to stall for over 45 minutes--making beds, doing laundry, packing her lunch, and even brushing her hair. At one point, she earnestly informed me, "I need a lollipop bor my tummy." She's gotten big on this whole "I need such-and-such for my tummy." I gave her yogurt instead.

Anyway, when it was finally time to go, she insisted on taking her pink umbrella stroller and (I think this was her plan all along) pushing rather than being pushed. She's VERY big on pushing her own stuff. She does the same thing all the time in stores. If I so much as LOOK at a shopping cart she's pushing, she barks, "I DO DAT"! Sigh.

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Mon, May 14, 2007 12:00 PM
On Saturday after gym and bagels, the three of us went to Target to pick up a few things. As usual, Katie had her own agenda, which mainly involved singlehandedly maneuvering one of those gigantic carts with seats for two kids. This was a slow and painful process for Steve and me, and we kept trying to hurry her along. Finally, when she had reached her limit with us, she stuck out her pointer finger, furrowed her brow, and barked at her dad, "WAIT! Go beach?!" It took us a split-second to realize she was parroting back "Capisce!?" That's Italian slang for "Understand?" or "Got it?" It's also something Steve says to her all the time. (Other oft-used phrases she has adopted from us: "Das aww-right," "Toad-jew," and "No way!")

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Fri, May 11, 2007 9:00 AM
Katie woke me this morning by quietly offering me the bottle of water that was on my nightstand. When I opened my eyes, I saw her standing there, fully dressed for school. She had taken off her PJs and her bedtime Pull-up, put on panties, a pair of black pants, a T-shirt, and flip-flops. She was ready to go!

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Wed, May 9, 2007 10:30 PM
We had a great time during our long weekend in Florida with Gran and Paw-Paw. Katie spent a lot of time in the "bwimmin' pool," enjoyed her first trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom, and racked up quite a nice size-eight shoe collection courtesy of her grandparents.

Although we talk about Florida all the time, on this trip we realized that she thinks Florida is quite literally the clubhouse in our development. When we'd return to the development, she'd greet the building: "Hi, Blorida!" Meanwhile, she calls our unit simply "Townhouse." As we headed to the airport, she sang, "Bye-bye, Townhouse! Bye-bye, Townhouse!"

At any rate, she's become quite a little travel pro. (This was her fifth trip to Florida and, I believe, her tenth roundtrip on a plane.) When we boarded the various shuttles, she strutted up to the busses with her Minnie Mouse suitcase on wheels, popped down the handle, and hoisted it right up to be stowed. Even the crusty drivers had to chuckle at her.

She also did well at handing her own boarding passes to the gate attendants, but she melted down both times when she had to hand over all her possessions (especially her "droller") for the security screening. She didn't calm down till everything was back in her care.

Aside from being a bit tired, she did great on her first day back at school. But this morning, we seemed to have some post-trip fall-out. When I went in to greet her, she sat up in her bed and demanded, "I. Want. DADDY. I. Want. DADDY." I kept explaining that he was already at work, but she had an answer for that: "Daddy come home get me! Daddy come home get me!"

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates