Thankful

Thankful.  I'm pretty thankful right now for some of the little things in life.  Because like we've all heard a thousand times, it's the little things that count the most, right?

This time of year is especially busy for me, and it's so easy to get caught up in getting work done, coming home, eating dinner, giving Kate a bath, doing housework, and then going to bed.  I hate the days when I do that and go through the day like I'm checking things off of a list.  Done. Done. Done. Bed. Start over.  Those days stink.  We've all been there, right?  Those are not the days and the moments that I'm going to remember later in life.

Even though this season of our life IS busy right now, I think it's important to look for, point out, and be grateful for the little things. So tonight I'm thankful that on the way to church, Kate surprised me yet again with her knowledge.  Since I have zero experience with kids, I don't have any real expectations of what they should be able to comprehend or what they should be able to do at a certain age.  However, I am constantly shocked at the things Kate says and does at the age of 2.5.  At this rate, she'll be doing long division at age 4, right?

Anyway, as we were driving to our Wednesday night service, I asked her what we were going to at church.  Her first response was to "Watch Veggie Tales!", which is true, because they do play Veggie Tales in our church nursery.  But her second response was "Worship God!" and I watched as she immediately looked up at the sky and started saying "Hey, God! You coming with us to church?  Come down from there! Let's go. We're going to your house!"

Of course I laughed at her direct and bossy conversation with God, but then started to explain to her that God doesn't just live up in heaven, He is everywhere and He is here with us.  Immediately she started singing the Love & the Outcome song:

"He is with us, He is with us
Always, always"

I was shocked, amused and honestly pretty proud of her.  We didn't teach her that song.  Maybe she learned it with her Nana, or maybe they sing it at her pre-school.  Or just maybe, she picked it up from listening to the radio in the car.  Who knows, but I'm glad she's learning about God.  And I'm glad we listen to Christian music.  Much better to hear THIS song come out of her mouth than a lot of other stuff that's on the radio these days, right?

So tonight I'm thankful for the little things.  This isn't some huge story that probably means anything to anybody else, but it means something to me. It's one of those memories that I'll (hopefully) be able to remember when Kate is all grown up.  And if I don't remember it on my own, that's why I am writing about it now.  It's a great memory, and it's one of the little things.

Summertime in February

Crazy weather.  That's all I can really say.  Snow last week, and in the 70's this weekend.  Crazy, but I'll take it! And since the weather was so nice, we decided to load up our dogs into the truck and head to my parent's lake house for the day.  So much fun!

My dad hadn't gotten back from hunting that morning, so Kate kept looking for him to drive up.

And was so very excited to see her Pick when he did pull into the driveway!

She is definitely in the "helping" stage, so anytime she sees you doing ANYTHING, she says "I hep you do it!"  One thing she loves to "help" you with is your shoes, so of course she offered her services to Pick as he changed out of his boots. 

And here she is supervising.

She definitely loves her Gigi too!

Of course we had to walk down to the lake.  Kate saw the dogs jumping in and kept saying "I go swimming too!".  Although it was warm, I think we'll wait til it gets a good bit warmer before we stick our toes in the water.

Can't wait til summertime!

Bless Your Heart

Thursday nights are usually ballet nights in our household.  I typically come straight home from work and meet Kevin and Kate at our house.  We usually have about 5 minutes to switch Kate from Kevin's car to mine, and then head directly to Kate's ballet class, which starts at 5:30.  Well today, Kevin and I were pulling into the driveway at the same time, and when I walked over to his truck to get Kate out of the backseat, Kevin motioned for me to be quiet.  I looked in and Kate was snoozing away.  This is so not typical of her at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.  Apparently, she did not take a nap at school today, and Diane couldn't get her to take a nap after she got out of school either, so by 5:30 she was exhausted.  We decided to forgo dance today, and let her get a nap in.  I carried her into the house, dance outfit, ballet shoes, and all... and she slept until 7 o'clock when I decided to wake her up.

We ate dinner and then ran to Target to pick up a few things.  In hindsight, the nap and Target trip may not have been the best idea, but whatever. C'est la vie.  Before we get into the story, let me preface this  by saying that here in the south, you hear the phrase "bless her heart" pretty often, and when it's used, it's not usually a good thing.  Here are urban dictionary's definitions of the phrase:

1. This is a term used by the people of the southern United States particularly near the Gulf of Mexico to express to someone that they are an idiot without saying such harsh words. 

2. "You are an idiot but I like you and care about you so I don't want to hurt your feelings."

So back to the Target trip: Kate does not like to ride in the shopping cart anymore.  She doesn't like to be in the seat, and she doesn't like to be in the big part.  However, she can't be trusted to walk alongside me in the store, so I usually force her to sit in the big part of the shopping cart, while I try to cram all of the items that I'm wanting to buy into the small front seat area.  Well, inevitably, we ran out of room in the front seat for the stuff we were buying, so a few things ended up in the bigger part of the shopping cart with Kate.  All was fine until we got to the checkout line.

As we started unloading groceries and miscellaneous items into the conveyor belt area, Kate turned to me and said "I'm all wet".  I looked down at her and sure enough, she was all wet.  She had opened a bottle of Rid-x (septic tank cleaner) and spilled it all over herself, and on the stuff in our grocery cart. 

I immediately picked Kate up, put her on the ground and Kevin and I started cleaning her up.  The cashier handed us her big bottle of hand sanitizer and some paper towels and we got everything off of her.  We told Kate where to stand and said "don't move" as we turned our attention to cleaning up the floor, the shopping cart, and the items in our cart.  Well apparently the cashier had put the opened bottle right on the other side of the conveyor belt area where we had told Kate to stand, because the next thing we know, we turn around and Kate had the bottle in her hands AGAIN and was proceeding to spill even more on the floor and get it all over herself again!

Bless. Her. Heart.

That's all I can say.  And apparently, the cashier thought the same thing.  I sent Kevin outside with Kate to get her out of the way, while I finished cleaning things up and paying for our items.  As I was running my card and putting things into our still-wet shopping cart, the cashier kept laughing and saying over and over and over: "Well just bless their heart."  Not really sure if she was talking about me and Kevin, or Kate, but I think the phrase pretty much fit us all tonight. 

Y'all.  When I say this kid keeps us on our toes, I'm totally not kidding.  There is no telling what she will do next.  She is a sweet, funny, crazy little mess, and I can still hear her in Target saying "Issss o-kay! Issss o-kay!" 

Snow Day- Round Two

We just had snow here in SC a few weeks ago, so I was pretty surprised when the weather men (and women) started calling for snow again earlier this week.  And then, they were updating their forecasts to call for a 100% chance of snow over a two-three day period, with accumulation of up to 12 inches!  Y'all. This NEVER happens where we live.  

I'll be honest, I wasn't totally excited for it.  First, this is a busy time of year at work, and second, I didn't want to be stuck in our house for up to a week.  Our area doesn't have the capabilities to deal with snow, so we just end up stuck. 

Anyway, Kevin and I (and of course Kate) stayed home from work Tuesday - Thursday while it snowed and sleeted.  We didn't get anywhere near the foot of snow that they were calling for, but we did get quite a few inches (guessing 3-5).  Luckily, Kate did pretty well being stuck inside and we were both able to get some work done while she was napping and/or watching movies. I'm proud to say that she can now sing the Jonah song from Veggie Tales by heart. :) 

So instead of writing a whole lot about our snow experience, I'll just share some of the pictures.  Kate wasn't feeling well on Thursday, which was the main day we tried to take her outside, so you can see that reflected in her face.  She was feeling better by Thursday evening, so we took her back outside then.  I've got too many pictures for one post, so those will have to be shared tomorrow. Here we go...

  

Check out those South Carolina snow boots...

Kevin got Kate with a snow ball.

She was not impressed.

But Max and Cooper sure loved it. Kevin would throw them snowballs and they would leap into the air to catch them.  Of course, the snowballs would bust apart as soon as they hit their mouths. The boys loved it!

Two Point Five

Our kid is 2 and a half years old today...  2.5!  Craziness. Just when I think she is so full of personality, she kicks it up a notch and shows us just how much more personality she has in her little body.  She says things we never thought would come out of her mouth- either the words themselves shock us, or the attitude that she says them with.  So since I haven't done a run-down on Kate for my own documentation purposes in quite a while, I figured that this 30 month update was a good excuse for one.  Like in the past, I think I'll just list them out. Here is what Kate is up to.

• Can sing the ABC's all by herself. 
• Can identify the following colors:
• Red
• Blue
• Green
• Pink
• Purple
• Orange
• Yellow
• Black
• Brown
• White

• Can count to 29 (with a little help on 14 and 17).  This one actually surprised me.  I worked hard on getting her to 10 a while back, and then I would just keep going.  One day she said eleven on her own. And then 12.  As far as I know, neither Kevin or I had worked on her with this so I'm sure either Diane or her teachers at school have.  So the other night when I asked her to count as high as she could and she went to TWENTY NINE, I was pretty shocked.  Like I said, I did have to help her with 14 and 17 but whatever. 

• Can identify the following shapes:
• Square
• Circle
• Heart
• Triangle
• Loves music and singing.
• Has an attitude like you wouldn't believe.  When Kevin or I threaten her when she's misbehaving and ask if she wants a spanking or to go to time-out, she cuts her eyes at us and says "I don't care."  I'll be honest.  I really didn't expect that response from our 2.5 year old.  From our 12 year old, yeah, but not 2.5! 

• Loves, loves, LOVES books and stories.  Just tonight, she "told" us her very first story.  Kevin asked Kate to tell him the story of the 3 little bears and it went like this:"One pun time (this is how she pronounces it) there were 3 big bears like a mermaid in the water. And then there was an octopus. And then Jonah took them to the Golden Palace."I think we're getting quite a few stories from different sources mixed together: the traditional 3 bears story, Jonah from the Bible, and Disney's Sophia the First. We're working on our imagination over here. 
• She's so much fun and even though we're definitely in the midst of the terrible two's with tantrums and constant battles with a strong-willed toddler, she never holds a grudge for being disciplined and will say "Sorry. Love you.", and give you a big hug as soon as her punishment is  over. 

• After getting out of her crib 3 times over the course of just 2 days, we decided that it was time to make the move to the big girl bed (and room!)  She's done pretty great with the transition, although we do have to go into her room a time or two at night to remind her that it is bedtime, not playtime. 

• We're also in the process of potty training (still).  I feel like this has been a never-ending thing, but we may have had a breakthrough this week. She FINALLY used the big girl potty and ran into the room where Kevin and I were, yelling "I did it! I really, really did it! I'm so excited!"  We were pretty excited too. :)  We'll see if it lasts. I'm hoping we have one potty trained and out of diapers before we get the next one!
• She loves Disney's Frozen, Tangled, Cinderella, Lion King and Jungle Book. 
• She would watch Little Einsteins all day every day if we would let her.  She can even sing the entire theme song by herself.  

Happy 2.5 year birthday, Kate!  

Adoption 2 Update- Homestudy Approved

I've been pretty quiet again on the 2nd adoption front, and mostly it was because I was so discouraged with how long it was taking us to get through the home study portion.  I totally understand WHY it was taking so long.  There were staffing changes with our agency, then there was Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, and things just took longer than I had hoped.  Knowing WHY things were taking longer didn't make it any easier though.  To me, waiting on the home study part just might be harder than waiting for a baby.  At least when you're approved and waiting, there is the possibility of being chosen.  But while you're going through the paperwork and red tape, and waiting for your agency to process everything, you know there is no chance that you'll be matched yet.  Ask me that in a year and see if I give you the same response though.  So like I said, I was frustrated and discouraged.  And then this happened...

Yay! Now, Kevin and I are officially waiting to bring home Kate's baby brother or sister.  Lots of people have asked if we have specified anything, and the answer is no!  We haven't specified gender or race, and would be perfectly happy with any baby that would be placed with our family. We're just excited to another baby to the mix. 

So that's where we are right now in our adoption.  Our online profile has been posted and there is nothing left for us to do but wait.  We have no idea how long it will be.  We could get "the call" tomorrow or it could be over a year from now.  Only God knows the answer to that one, so we just have to trust in His plan and perfect timing. And so for now, we wait! 

The Day A Little Snow Shut Down the State

Get ready for a picture overload, because on Tuesday, it snowed in SC.  That's right- snow!  It seems like we used to get at least one decent snow a year, but in the past few years we really haven't gotten much of anything.  And when I say "decent", I mean a few inches.  To those of us in SC, even a few inches of snow is a ton and shuts the state down.  We're not prepared or equipped for snow, and why should we be?  Snow is NOT typical SC weather.  Just a few days ago we got snow, and as I sit here typing this, it is 65 degrees outside.  So snow is pretty special, and this one was even more special because it was Kate's very first snow!  Of course I had to document it, so welcome to my picture overload...

So first of all, I was at work when it started snowing.  Where I sit is not near a window so I was really surprised when some of my coworkers said it actually was snowing.  Typically, when the weather people actually call for snow, we don't get any.  Since they were calling for us to get 1-2 inches, I honestly thought it would completely miss us! But it didn't.  Kevin called me a little while later to ask when I was coming home.  It didn't look bad where my office was, but he told me I should probably get some stuff to work on from home and come on ahead.  I'm definitely no snow-driver, and I definitely didn't want to be on the road at the same time as a lot of other non-snow-drivers, so I came on home.  After I finished up some work, Kate's Nana came over to take her out in the snow.

I wouldn't say Kate LOVED it, but she didn't hate it either.  She wasn't a fan of the snow being all over her swing-set though and spend a long time "cleaning it off".

The boys were big fans of the snow.

Side note: Kevin and I have always called Max and Cooper "the boys" when we are referring to them.  We'll ask Kate if she wants to go outside to see the boys, and she's really picked up on what we've said.  Now, she puts her own little spin on the phrase and I think it's giving me a glimpse of what our life is going to be like in 10 years.  She'll look at me and say "Mama, let's go see ALL THE BOYS."  The first time she told me that, it took me a few minutes to realize she was talking about Max and Cooper, and I was wondering where in the world she learned that from!