Dear Kitty Space Cat (KSC) "Casey":

I do not submit to forced cuddling at 2:45am. Knock it off.

Getting my hair cut and highlighted. Strangely I have pulled out more grey hair lately than ever.

Giggle Girls

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Originally uploaded by Spacemama

I love this picture. It's Anna and Paul's PTA's little girl, Lexi. Cuties!

Big GIrl

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Originally uploaded by Spacemama

Sigh....

Recalcitrant? A rant?

A note from Anna’s teacher last Friday:

 

“Anna did not sleep much at nap today (only 15 min). She also had some recalcitrant behaviors today. We tried some new strategies that seemed to work but I would like you get your feedback. If you would call me, or just touch base on Monday…”

 

Paul had to look up the word “recalcitrant” when we got home even though we knew from the context it’d been a bad day. Apparently a bad week for Anna the Toddler.

 

Recalcitrant = Defying authority, hard to control

 

AKA: “Toddler”

 

Well, whatever it was, she’s over it. And I congratulate her daily on exhibiting “non-recalcitrant” behavior for the day.

 

Let’s use her ah-hem “Leadership powers” for good, shall we?

 

This will follow her through college. Muah hahaha…

 

 

Her 3rd Birthday is March 8

And this year, I have already just booked a campsite at Brazos Bend. You know, to make better the plans we had for her second birthday (story here).

Good mommy.

Christmas Tree 2009

Helping Daddy with the train

The train goes around the bottom of the tree. We got it last year and it was actually IN the tree and I just remember having to lift her up over and over again so she could press the button


This year she was old enough to hang the decorations herself.

KSC's first Christmas

The final product 2009

Anna, you're such a big girl! What a comparison to previous years! Here are the photos from last year's Christmas tree decorating: click here. This is your third one (you were 9 months old in year 1, and 21 months old last year. You're 2 yrs and 9 months old now).

You keep bringing home Christmas art from school, including one hand-print Reindeer in which you chose to glue both eyes onto the antler. Thank goodness your teacher labeled the drawing, "Reindeer" so yes, your dad and I could figure out what it was...the red nose helped a little too.

You've started saying the word "STU-pid!" and throwing whatever it is you have in your hand at the time. Not out of anger or frustration, just because it's something new you've learned to do. We're trying to figure the right way to approach this since you don't know what it really means and if we're quiet about it for a few days we're hoping it will go away. There's a fine line in teaching you exactly what pushes our buttons so if we tell you it's a bad word and don't want you to say it, you can find the right instances to use that to your advantage. Even so, we can't help ourselves and a few times already we very directly looked at you and told you not to use that word. So here we go. A little sooner than expected.

Yesterday you skipped your nap due to coughing and were exhausted and hyper and defiant when it came time to put you to bed. Daddy suggested you go read stories in your room in your sleeping bags. I thought it was a bad idea. But it worked and you passed out during the stories, and so did Daddy until I went up and woke him. Then Daddy moved you to your bed.

Now that class is over (poor students have a final tomorrow but I don’t have to proctor it!) I have been able to watch TV for the last two nights in a row! All caught up on some sitcoms (WTH has happened to Scrubs, by the way??? What is THAT about?). Soon I’m hoping to catch up on some of the rest. But there are hours’ and hours’ worth.

My running is back on track after the rough patch I had in November when I traveled so much I didn’t run for about a 3 week stretch. I find that getting back into it isn’t as hard as I feared and it’s a good thing since the Disney Half marathon is coming up Jan 9. On that note, I really can’t wait to get Anna back to Disney this year. She’s still not fully into Disney shows or anything really (a few maybe) but she will have a blast with all the fun rides and shows. And she’s so much more grown up she’s going to be able to verbalize it so much better. It’ll be interesting to see how much she remembers.

When we take her places like this the nay-sayers will comment that she’s just too young to remember so why bother. But the child cited the first snowman doll she saw this year as: “That’s like Nana’s, mommy!!!” in reference to the slew of snowmen my mom always places all over her house, including last year. So she remembers.

She also remembers the Christmas Tree cakes she had last year (those little Debbie ones) and has another round of them this year. The other night as we were eating cheese and crackers, she said, “like in Colorado!” and yes, she was right, it’s like the cheese and crackers we ate together in Colorado.

It KICKS ASS to know we’re making good memories. It’s REALLY, REALLY cool.

So I wonder how much of Disney she will remember since when we left last Jan, she was 21 months old and asking for more “choo-choo and boat.”

These days she is in a great attitude phase. She’s a little big girl, ready to have fun, go places, and do things. She doesn’t really give us much opposition lately. She’s easy in the car. We were at TJ’s house the other night where she mentioned that the phase of the 3-year old is more about the frustration that comes along with wanting to do it all herself but can’t exactly. And it seems like the day after TJ said that, it started. Her biggest grief comes with not getting her 90^th-percentile head (blame Paul) through the standard neck hole in her shirts J Or her socks not going on right. Or whatever. And her favorite phrase is “I want to do it by myself”. There has been this thread all along since about April, but lately she’s telling it to us more and more and it’s really trickling to everything. Which is great. And I mean that only half-sarcastically.

But I’m new at figuring out how to tell a toddler to keep trying, you’ll get it, just keep trying! Would you like help from mommy? No?! In the heat of the moment, that doesn’t help at all so this morning I offered the shirtless Anna a hug and a breather so we could start again. So like I’ve learned starting 2 years and 8 months ago, we’re entering a new phase with new tricks.

It is really cute watching her carry the umbrella all on her own while I get soaked in the cold.

Why isn’t she learning letter recognition yet at school? I think she’s ready. I’m going to work on that. At home. I think she’d love it.

Also I bought a big old container of cookie cutters in lots of different letters and shapes. So I think we need to make cookies sometime when I’m not feeling lazy or tired. Maybe next week. Just a few more nights of TV for me! ;)

For a few nights this week, she’s had a bad cough which worsens while she’s trying to sleep (Paul has it too). I think it’s getting better. This year, I gave her the Buckwheat honey like I did last year. She begged for more. Last year she wanted to vomit. Funny how things change in a year.

And this time next year, she’ll be almost 4.

Actual text message from Paul when I was in Paris:

 

“Anna told daddy while playing w/toys this am: daddy this the earth, holding a small globe, states I live on earth and the moon. Daddy someday I’m going to the moon”

 

 

 

Renaming the cat from KC (Kitty Cat) to KSC (Kitty Space Cat which is also the Kennedy Space Center in Fl). Still pronounced Casey. COOL, NO? YES.

Teaching Anna to say, “You think it’s boogers but it’SNOT!”

Today I had to do jumping jacks in my bikini top in front of co-workers.

I forgot I even had a bikini top.

I was a test subject for an experiment that is performed on ISS. An astronaut who was training on the procedure used me as one of his practice subjects.

He was very friendly but his hands were cold.

And frankly there’s no good way to ask your co-worker to take your top off.

I am refraining from jotting down the clever and funny one-liners I had in my mind the whole time.

Man my job is fun!

Christmas Chapel Photos

Blogger finally let me post some pictures...

Anna was chosen to be an "usher" and hand out little angel gifts because of her "outgoing personality". Do they really mean bully?

You have to admire a preschool teacher who can wear those kind of boots!

Anna and Ryan. Ryan was a baby with a HUGE HEAD. He's grown into it.

On the stage. They shook their jingle bells. Nobody sang ;)

testing photos via email

 

 

An early Christmas Miracle

...and no, it's not about the snow we received in Houston today.

It's the fact that Anna kept her angel wings on long enough to get through her very first Christmas chapel/singing/thing. This was yesterday.

Too bad Blogger's not letting me post any photos today! Must be something wrong with the website. I'm going to go post them all to Flickr and if you want to see them, you can click on the top right corner of this blog on her Flickr pictures and see them all.

Thanksgiving

I'm delinquent on Thanksgiving, I know. We're on to Christmas. And Blogger decided I can only post 2 pictures today. I guess it's being a scroodge. As soon as it lets me, I'll post more.

In short, we drove 10 hours each way to Arkansas to visit Paul's extended family. The last time we made this trip Anna was about 7 months old. And teething. We'd just gotten the Jeep so that was what we drove down. This time we just got the Lexus and so the ride was so darned comfortable and fun it was unreal. This truck has everything. Anna even watched her own DVD's with the toddler headphones we bought her. Amen.

We did have lots of potty stops which is a "yay! Boo!" situation but otherwise I'd swear this child had never raged against any car seat in her life.

What. A. Booger.



In fact on the whole trip you'd swear she was the most pleasant, agreeable big girl you've ever met. Naps and bedtime were a breeze, she playned nicely with her cousins, she obeyed and even wore her jacket and her clothes and never car seat raged and you'd swear she was "practically perfect" (sorry, too much Anna Poppins on the road). I think she was just so happy to be out of routine and doing something different she forgot to be rotten. She was honestly a blast to be around.


She kept asking where we are going to be sure we were still on track for Arkansas. We figured it was her version of "Are we there yet?" At one point in the long car ride she said, "I don't WANT to get out of the truck!" WTF??


Dear child, just know when the car seat phase starts up again, this time there'll be no doubt it's just you being defiant. Me = no pitty.

Anyway, she had a good time with the family and then when we got home, Paul's cousins from Michigan were on a road trip and so stopped by for a few nights. Again, she had a blast playing with their kids and I was reminded why I only have one.

After everyone left and te realization of "normalcy" set in, the Time Outs ensued and we're back on track with the terrible twos. She's not exactly TERRIBLE but she's not the "practically perfect" big girl we had for the last week or 2. But like all that is toddler, it all comes in phases. And overall she's still a cute little package of "pretty darned cool kid".

It's these phases of 'practically perfect' happy Anna that make the 'booger' phases so much harder to take. Weeks at a time!