Doggie Kisses

Mini Golf

I cut Katherine's naps out when she was about 2 1/2 because she would stay up until about 10:30 - 11pm each night. Now she goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at 7am. At first I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do but after all of the research that I did, kids just need to have between 11 and 12 hours of sleep. It doesn't matter if they get that amount of sleep, if it is in one stretch or with a nap plus night time.

They are aware at school that Katherine does not get a nap at home. She does have quiet time and for the most part the school does not give her a nap. There have been a few occasional times that she did fall asleep during nap time but yesterday was an exception. The school has nap time (quiet time) between the hours of 1pm and 3pm. After that it's snack time. I guess Katherine fell asleep at 2:40pm and slept for an hour.

When the teacher told me that Katherine took a late nap yesterday, my eyes got huge. I just thought, Oh My Gosh! She is going to be up FOREVER!!

I looked up Pump It Up to see if they had a Family Night. Of course not! That was last Friday. Hummm, what to do now?!? Brett said that he would take her swimming. Then, I had an idea... Mini Golf.

We had a blast! I also "learned" a few new rules that little Ms. Katherine made up:
1. Hit the ball as many times as you need to.
2. When that doesn't work, pick the ball up and move it next to the hole.
3. Sit down next to the ball and knock the ball into the hole.
4. Don't keep score.

At the last hole, the pink ball when into the hole and it didn't come out. Trying to explain to a three year old that we were done after 18 holes, wasn't so easy. Luckily she has Brett's ADD, so her attention was focused on something inside.

All in all, we had a great time. We came home and did our "night time routine" and Katherine went down without a fuss.

It was a fun Family Night and with the weather cooling off, we maybe back. I was surprised how cheap it was. Of course they get you with the arcade inside. :)

Tall Tower

When Katherine's great grandfather came to the United States from Iceland, he worked in a hotel as a bell man. He worked his way up to owning a few hotels and passed the "genes" onto his sons. Each of them own their own hotels as well as share one.

Katherine loves hotels. She calls them Tall Towers. I am not sure where the name came from but Tall Towers have to include a elevator and a swimming pool. If they do not have those two items, they are not hotels. Don't ask why because I cannot get an answer either.

A few days ago, she wanted to play with her building blocks with Brett. She wanted to build a Tall Tower. Hotels are in her blood. Who knows... one day she may own her own hotel. And yes, it will have it a elevator for her and her guests as well as a heated pool.

Bowling

Katherine is an great bowler on the Wii so when we took her bowling for the first time, I wasn't sure how well she would do. She did AWESOME!! She bowled a 117!!

Katherine was invited to Brooksie's 6th birthday party and knew that we were going to go bowling. This was her type of game... new shoes and a pink ball. I don't think that she could have asked for anything more. She got three spares on one STRIKE!!

Woo Hoo!!



At the end of the game, Katherine even received her first trophy. She had to sleep with it that night. It is now sitting on her shelf and she keeps asking when we can go bowling again. I am sure that we will go back soon, it would be a fun family event. I am just not sure if I am ready for a three year old to kick my behind in bowling. :)

My New Challenge

I have a new challenge for myself... learning to cook. I can't find a job if my life depended on it, I can't even volunteer my time ~ none of the charities have called me back. I guess they have enough volunteers with the Disneyland's Give A Day - Get A Day. So, I am going to learn how to cook a real meal.

I have started reading the basics and a blog about cooking. In the blog, I can guess that the lady writing is about my age and she has trouble just like me in cooking. She stated it well...

"My discomfort in my new role was due, in part, to the fact that it did seem so housewifey. But I was also intimidated by the kitchen. I had never seen it as my domain. It was, it seems to me, a uniquely Generation X moment. We Gen-X women are perhaps one of the first generations whose mothers didn’t teach us to cook.
While I was growing up, my own mother had worked hard running our family’s business and was often busy volunteering with civic groups. When she got home, she didn’t have a lot of energy for cooking. Though she’s always been a fantastic baker, cooking didn’t interest her. It wasn’t necessarily a feminist statement, as it was for a lot of baby-boomer women; it was just a fact of life. Mom couldn’t see the logic in slaving to prepare a meal for three that would disappear in less than 20 minutes. And so we ate meatloaf and spaghetti, Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper; we ate pizza out every Friday night."

My dad did most of the cooking in our house growing up and we ate a lot of meat a potatoes ~ which included corn in every meal. I don't eat much corn today and I still do not like potatoes. My mom could cook a meal when she wanted too and it was usually outstanding. Growing up, I didn't want to have anything to do with the kitchen because whenever I did try to help, I usually burnt whatever I was trying to cook. I didn't have very good luck.

When Brett and I started to host parties, I got really good at making appetizers. That worked out well because everyone would fill up on those and wouldn't eat much of the actual meal which usually just so-so. There are a few other cooking items that I do pretty well with... turkey, roast beef, tacos and spaghetti. That is about it. Oh, I do make a mean pulled pork in the slow cooker.

I am really tired of eating pretty much the same thing week after week and I don't want to spend the money on Dream Dinners or going out anymore. I am going to learn how to cook. It is an agreement that I have made with myself and I am not going to get frustrated trying.

My Plan:
I will watch a few T.V. shows, use the internet and just try. If I don't succeed, then I will try again. Cooking isn't hard, I just need to break the barrier down that I have built up about it.

So, I will keep you updated on my journey to learning how to cook.

Ms. BJ & Lucky Dog

When the movie Marley & Me came out, I wanted to see it but didn't because I heard that it was really sad. Well, I finally saw it today and I don't think that I would have been able to watch the movie in the movie theater. It just hit so close to home.

In the beginning, Jennifer Aniston's character, miscarried at 10 weeks ~ the same time that I did before I got pregnant with Katherine. It was the same scenario... excited to be pregnant, go to the doctor only to find out that there wasn't a heartbeat. The only difference was that Jennifer had her husband with her and mine was stuck with a mechanical on a small island near Spain. So, I was by myself hearing the news.

When I got home though, I had BJ. She comforted me through the night and the next two days until Brett got home and took me to the hospital for a D&C. I was devastated. It took a year for me to get pregnant in the first place and now we couldn't even try to get pregnant again until all of the pregnancy hormones were out of my body. I had a partial molar pregnancy. Which means an empty egg was fertilized and my body still thought that it was pregnant. So, I got to go have blood drawn every week for the next 8 weeks ~ not fun.

Little BJ was my rock. She was always there for me when I need a hug or a good cry. It's the unconditional love that dogs give to us. It's amazing.

So... we got through that and low and behold the next time that we "tried", I was pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy, little BJ was there for me. I had a really tough time but she was my rock. Crazy as it sounds, she never once jumped up on me (she jumps up on everyone because she is so excited even though she did go to puppy training to train her not to do it) while I was pregnant. I read that dogs can hear the baby's heartbeat.

Thirty five weeks later, little Katherine arrived. We weren't sure how BJ was going to take it since she was our first "baby". She took to it well. BJ is Katherine's "puppy mama". She would not let anyone get in between her and Katherine.

When Katherine was about 6 months old, we walked into PetSmart. There in a corner was a yellow lab giving Brett "puppy dog eyes". We knew that if we ever got another dog, it would have to be a male do. BJ is very much an alpha female.

So, here is this dog waiting to be adopted. If he wasn't going to be adopted that day, he was going to be euthanized. Just as we were going to ask about him, another family took him out of the cage and started walking with him. We thought that our chances were shot. I was kind of happy because I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring a full grown dog into our home with a 6 month old baby. Was that the right thing to do?

Then, the family put the dog back into the cage and walked away. It was a sign for us. We took him out and he was the sweetest dog. So, I ran up to the ATM (they only accepted cash) and we came home with a dog.

We introduced BJ and Lucky (his new name since he was to be euthanized) in our backyard, as much of neutral grounds that we could. They played and played and played. It was a match made in heaven. As for my concern for Katherine... turns out Lucky is her dog. He would sleep next to her crib and she could take anything out of his mouth.

The only problem with Lucky is that he likes to go out on self guided tours. Not so much anymore but when we first got him, he didn't have any tags and somehow got outside and wandered. We have a huge community and our home sits up right against the desert so I thought that there wasn't any hope. I was wrong. Someone saw us search for a dog and they found him. That kept happening time and time again. Every time he got out, we were Lucky to find him.

He has since not tried to escape so much. We think that the poor dog was abused before and so that was his way out and that is all he knew. Now he knows love and knows that it is okay to cuddle.

So, back to Marley & Me... I cried my eyes out. We have the two best dogs in the world that have nothing but love to share and I know that if and when something happens to them, it will be the hardest day in the world for the family. They have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives and it is something that we will never forget.

Monkey Boy

We celebrated Katherine's first birthday at the Phoenix Zoo. In her goodie bag, they gave her a stuffed monkey. She loved that monkey!! She couldn't go to sleep without him and he got all of the hugs and kisses that he ever wanted.

Being afraid of what would happen if by chance one day, monkey boy gets lost... so we bought a second one. While on a trip to Phoenix (we were living in PSP), we made a stop at the Phoenix Zoo. I picked up one that looked exactly like monkey boy. When we got home, I put it away so that she wouldn't see it.

The only problem with our plan was that the new monkey boy looked really new and the other one looked well used... slobber, kisses, well washed, etc. Anyway, my plan was to wash the new monkey boy to get it looking like the old one but I never got to it.

When we moved back to Phoenix, I packed up the entire house and tried to keep the new monkey boy a secret. That all worked until we unpacked... Katherine saw the new monkey boy and picked him up immediately.

My first thought was, Oh No! But, she held onto him like it was no big deal. Now she has what she calls the "New Monkey Boy" and the "Dirty Monkey Boy". She sleeps with both and gives them both the same amount of love. Both of them travel with us and I am hoping that neither is lost ~ not sure what I would do then.

As usual... it always works out in the end.

Our Little Pilot

Long Beach

For the first six months of Brett's new job, he will be in Long Beach a lot. It has been a bit warm here in Phoenix so Katherine and I joined him on this trip. We stayed on Brett's parents boat and had a fun time.





Katherine loves horses so we decided to take her to Medieval Times for dinner one night. It was a blast! While we were on our way, Katherine kept saying, "Hurry daddy, we need to get there before the castle closes". It was cute the first few times but... then she fell asleep.

When we finally got there, we walked around and saw the horses. She named all of them Ariel (not sure if you can tell who her favorite princess is). We were on the Green Team and our knight was the bad guy. Katherine had a lot of fun cheering for him ~ I think she was cheering the loudest!! All of us had a grand time and she didn't take her crown off until we got home.






We also went to the Pacific Aquarium. At least this time we didn't have to run around looking for Nemo. We got to enjoy and look at all of the fish, sea lions, crabs, lobsters, sharks, etc. As much as we could... I am not sure what is the best day to go there. We have been on a Wednesday morning and it is just as busy as it is on a Sunday afternoon. Nevertheless, we had a fun time!!

Katherine was able to do her favorite activity there, pet the sea stars and the rays.






Finally, I think that Katherine's ultimate favorite part of the trip was going out in the dingy. She loved driving it. Although, when she did drive it, we went in circles. It really didn't matter, though because we had a blast being there.

All in all, all us had a great time. We had really nice weather and got to see family and friends that we haven't seen in awhile. I am looking forward to going out there again but right now if feels good to be home.

Last but not least..

Looking for fish.

Did I Make The Right Decision?

From the time that I was born until now, my mom has been a working mom except for the short time that we lived in New Jersey. She is an amazing mom. Even working full time, she made the time to make it to all of the PTA meetings, assemblies, doctor appointments, and daily gymnastics practices.

The short time that she did spend at home with us, it was incredible. We played games, she helped out with my brownie troop, she made our Halloween costumes and also made a playhouse for us out of our moving boxes.

Being a little girl and seeing this, I always thought that if I were to have children, I would want to stay at home. As I got older, I changed my decision after seeing how successful my mother was at her job, that I would want to be like her ~ a working mom.

When Brett and I finally made the decision to have children, we decided that I would stay at home during my maternity leave and then go back to work. As many of you know, pregnancy and I didn’t get along ~ it just wasn’t for me. At the end of a tough 35 weeks, we had our healthy, beautiful daughter, Katherine Anne.

As my maternity leave ended, I went back to work. I had a very understanding boss that allowed me to work from home and when I needed to go into the office, I was able to bring Katherine. This worked out until Katherine was about six months old. At that time she was mobile and I wanted to stay at home with her.

Making the decision to stay at home with Katherine was the best decision that I could have ever made. We had good days, great days and some not so awesome days. At the end of the day, I do not regret my decision.

As time went on, we moved to the Palm Springs area when Katherine was 14 months old and I enrolled Katherine in gymnastics and swimming. From those activities, we made some good friends and through those friends, we made even more friends.

We went to play dates, hosted play dates, went on tours, met up with friends for lunches and dinners, Disneyland, Sea World, had fun parties and became closer to our friends. As much as we loved being with our friends out in Palm Springs, we were missing our house out in Phoenix. It was a very tough decision but when Katherine was three, we made the choice to move back to Phoenix.

Katherine had a very hard transition… different house, new room and missing her friends. She kept begging to go to school so I toured many different schools. I finally found the right school for her.

The first week of preschool, Katherine couldn’t wait to go. She was so excited and had a fun time ~ singing, dancing and doing artwork. Then week two came around and she didn’t want to go back. It was tough as a mom seeing her cry when I dropped her off. I would call the school to make sure that she was okay. After a little crying, she was fine and played with her new friends. I called my friend Tami to see if I made the right decision in putting Katherine in school and she said that everything Katherine was doing was completely normal.

I had to step back and look at the situation… she stayed at home with me for the past three years. For many of the days and weeks, it was just Katherine and I considering Brett was gone a lot for work.

Katherine was used to staying with me every day, all day long and here I was changing her environment and then changing our daily routine. I had to be patient and know that it she would adjust and it was going to be a good thing for her.

So once she became accustomed to the change, I started to look for a job. Being successful in the past, I didn’t think that it would be that hard to look and find a job. Boy, was I wrong. As of right now, I have sent out at least 35 resumes, if not more, for executive admin (a previous position), admin, receptionist, part time work and even temp work. Nothing. I even call to volunteer my time and I still haven’t received a call back for that one either.

So here I sit without any call backs. Oh, I did have one call back from the school district but I have to take a typing test, math test and spelling test (not sure why spelling, spell check ~ duh) even before being considered for an interview. They also requested more paperwork from me. I got all of the paperwork together, put it in a manila folder with my name on it and got all dressed up and took it down to the office.
While waiting to turn in the required paperwork before taking my tests, I overheard the receptionist on the phone with someone. She said, “We have about a 100 applicants per posted position and we interview only 3 people. Sometimes we interview 5”. Wow!! I have a 3-5% chance at being called for an interview!

This is a little frustrating for me but I am sure something will come up. Right?

So here I sit… no job and Katherine isn’t happy when I drop her off at school (she stops crying when I leave so I think it’s a ploy). Driving away, I cannot help to think if I made the right decision to stay home with her ~ out of work for 3 years and she is used to being with me all day, everyday.

At the end of the day, I know that I did make the right decision for us. I will never get back those three years and I have enjoyed every bit of them (even the hard days). She is my little buddy and the right opportunity will come along at the right time. As before, I just need to be patient.