The Pokey Little Katie

Today was my first day to leave the house since SATURDAY!
Of course the first place I went was Hobby Lobby!
(they have some Christmas stuff out by the way!)

Sunday morning I was all ready for church and I was getting Katie dressed. She must not have like her outfit, because she poked me straight in the eye with her little pokey finger!
It hurt, but I didn't think it was a big deal...except it was!

It swelled up immediately. I couldn't drive to church (Marcus was at work). I had to have someone cover my Sunday School class, BECAUSE I GOT POKED IN THE EYE!
That was an embarrassing conversation!

Do you like this picture I tried to take of my injury?

I was raising my forehead trying to open my eye up.
dork!

My eye was nearly swollen shut, the lens was scratched and it was really painful, it triggered a migraine and then made me feel barfy.

THANKS KATIE!

Today is the first day with out a headache, and my eye looks pretty normal now.

I have a point...
Marcus was getting me Coke Slurpees almost everyday, because they are THE BEST relief for migraines. The mixture between the caffeine and coldness is so healing. PLUS they are delicious.

Anyway, I was excited to find these at Sam's today:

I wish they had Coke, but Dr. Pepper works too. Plus, he IS a doctor after all. All the other flavors will be yummy for my non headache days!

And I have been trying to get my hands on one of these puppies too:

It makes any drink slushy. It's MAGIC!
I NEED one!

I am going to make Katie watch me eat popsicles and drink my slushy magic while she eats carrots and drinks plain non-slushy water!

Just kidding, we've made up by now.
Do you know how many times I have accidentally whacked her head on the door jam?
I think we're even!

Thankful!

I'm so thankful to live in America!
I am really thankful for soldiers that have died for our country.

And I am also thankful for all the soldiers that are willing to die for our country too!


It's extremely humbling.
And I am grateful!

My Flower Girl Graduated!

My niece, Jennifer, graduated high school!
She is Marcus's sister's daughter. So I inherited her when she was 5 1/2 which is perfect flower girl age!

My other 13 year old niece made this cake!

We took Katie to graduation and sat WAAAY in the back, because we're no dummies!

This was our view:


Katie loves to clap and cheer!

She stayed in her seat for about 2 minutes, then needed to wander. So we were smarties for sitting in the back. AND my thighs got a much needed work out too!

We partied the rest of the day:

I got Jennifer this cute purse from The Gypsy Butterfly:

Along with some $ of course! That's really what graduates need!
I got her the purse to hold all the moolah she got!


Katie had a grand time and skipped her lunch and just ate cake!

That made for an exciting afternoon!

I'm so proud of my niece! She is an amazing girl. I can't wait for her to get to experience college! And I want her to meet her husband soon, so Katie can be HER flower girl!

Friday Night Fireworks Are Back!

We love Friday Night Fireworks at Grapevine Lake.
They have them every Friday night at 9:30 from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend!

We have been going for several years, so we weren't going to let a kid stop our tradition. We just put Katie down for a nap later in the afternoon, so she could last all night.

It worked out fine and she had a great time playing in the back of the truck, with the dogs, while we were waiting for the fireworks.



Here's Katie last year at FNFW. She's almost 11 months.


Now 22.5 months:

Still waiting and doing a little jig:

Yeah! Fireworks!


At the beginning Katie kept saying, UH OH! Oh Noooooo!

After about 5 minutes of thinking the world was blowing up, it then turned to "Oh so pitty!" (pretty for those of you who aren't fluent in toddler)

I think we have her warmed up for next Friday night!

Lucky Girl

Marcus took Katie outside to play after dinner while I tried to clean up this pig pen!

I heard lots of squealing...from both of them!

I captured some pics through the window.

They chased each other around the tree. Blue had to join in too.

Then there was a wrestling match:

And Katie demonstrated how she can go up and down the stairs with out holding on!

I still have a pig pen, but at least I captured some memories!

Big Girl

The day after Katie's Wub got "broken", I took her to pick out a new toy.
The girl needed some joy in her life and this mom needed to relieve some guilt.


I have found that mom guilt exists even when you are doing the right thing. I experienced mom quilt the day of Katie's birth and it's reared it's ugly head multiple times since!

We settled on the bubble machine and it's been lots of fun!

Here's a snippet of the joy it brings!

Katie's been sleeping great since her wub got cut off. She still tries it all the time and has gotten a little sad about it. We both miss the crutch it was for soothing her, but it's been OK. We still let her carry it around and take it to bed. It's the long goodbye!
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Katie's last day of school was on Thursday.
Here's the tiny baby on her first day of school. We had to wake her up:



And we had to wake her up on her last day of school too! One of my proudest parenting accomplishments is teaching my daughter the art of sleeping in!


The first day.
Daddy had to help her stand, because she wasn't walking on her own yet.
That came about 2 weeks later!



The Last Day, with a different backpack.
Do you remember the back pack scandal of 2011?
I DO.
Out of 6 girls in Katie's class, 3 had the same back pack!

The first day of school:
heart breaking.


The last day of school:
Eating a snow cone with her one true love, Gunner. She talks about him ALL -THE -TIME!

We will miss Katie's teachers, Ms. Eydie and Ms. Becca. They took great care of her!
And I will miss having Tuesdays and Thursdays to get stuff done!

In the meantime, I will enjoy my kid, because I know it will feel like a few seconds and then she'll be in kindergarten...hopefully WITH OUT her wub!

The Day After

Thanks to all of you who prayed last night that Katie would sleep!

She slept the whole night!
And she is currently napping now...without her wub!

It made ZERO sense for me to cut her wub last night. I really wanted to wait until after school was out. AND Marcus wasn't even home!

The plan was to do it next week. I loved all the advice some of you gave me, by the way. Thanks for that. I just knew I couldn't take wub away from her. And I was afraid of "giving" it to another baby or to the paci fairy. I just didn't think she would totally understand that yet.

It's crazy, but I just felt like God was telling me that tonight is the night to get rid of wub. Like I said, it made no sense to do it last night. What kept going through my head was "To trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding" Proverbs 3:5.

I didn't understand it, but I wanted to be obedient. There are a couple of other times in my life that God spoke to me and it didn't make sense at all. I got the very same heart fluttery, nervous feeling last night.

I put Katie to bed and she cried the saddest cry you have ever heard. I let that last about 30 minutes. And then I went and got her. The first thing she said to me was, "wub's bwoken" in the most pitiful voice. Then I was just as pitiful, and cried too.

We watched cartoonths for about an hour, then it was time for bed.
Then the sad crying and screaming happened again.
THEN I turned to my friends for prayer... and she was asleep within minutes.

Thank you God!

I am sharing all this to preserve our memories, but also it might be an encouragement to others as they try to give up their "wubs".

And as a side not to all the mom's with thumb suckers...I was a thumb sucker until I was 5! My mom said I could go to Toys R Us and pick out whatever I wanted if I didn't suck my thumb for a week. It totally worked and I thought it was the greatest deal EVER!

I took this video of Katie right when she realized wub was broken.
Since Marcus was at work, I wanted him to be apart of this big milestone.
I was using my best "sing songy mommy voice" and trying not to break down!

This video goes on for awhile. I stopped it right before I said, "do you want to put him in the garbage?"


If your kid is 7 and still uses his/her pacifier, you won't hear any judgement from me! Do what is right for you and your kid. This is just what was right for us...and I still think it's sad and I hate it!
Being the grown up is HARD!

Wub Is Broken

Right now all I can hear is my baby crying and screaming that her wub is broken.
And now my heart is broken too.

I have a back up that I am itching to give her right now, but I am trying to stay strong.

I was going to wait until the last day of school to do this, but I just felt like tonight was the night.
I hate it.

I know in the whole scheme of things this is NOT A BIG DEAL at all, but to Katie it's everything. Will you please pray that she has some peace and is able to fall asleep quickly and for the whole night long?

Thank You!

Now I need to go blow my nose and wash all this mascara off my face!

22 and Wub

Katie Belle is 22 months old today!

Tonight she was excited that her daddy was making bacon.
I got my Mother's Day breakfast for dinner tonight!
I didn't want to eat a big breakfast yesterday morning and then go to church and wear spanx for 3 hours! Can I get an Amen?

Katie waited patiently for her bacon and "eggths"!

She thoroughly enjoyed them along with the pancakes too!


This baby is a joy and a blessing and always has us laughing!

I love that she will cuddle on us and watch cartooths. I know that won't last forever.


Katie has the best memory and knows her letters, colors and some numbers.

She loves music, books, dancing and coloring. She is so good to put all the caps back on her markers and then put them away. Her "clean up" gene didn't come from me, but I appreciate it!

This is the same girl one year ago at 10 months!

ugh! It's kind of like the Twilight Zone, when I look at pictures from just 12 months ago. Things change so fast!

I just adore her chubby hand print.
She made this at church yesterday:

And this cute pencil holder is from school:

I wonder how my mom would feel if I gave her something with my hand print on it now? I guess we can find out at Christmas!
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Katie's last day of school is on Thursday. Our plan has been to get rid of "Wub" her pacifier after school is out. It BREAKS MY HEART to even think of that! She didn't become attached to it until she was about 16 months old. Now she wants it almost all the time, especially when she needs some comfort. I hate taking her comfort away.

And I am not one to feel pressured by time lines or what other people say. Marcus and I just feel like it's time to give it up. We can tell that her teeth are changing because of it too. Again, that's not a huge deal to me either. It's just time!

I think my plan is to cut the end off a little bit so it won't feel the same. I like that idea better then taking it away from her, because let's be honest people, I would cave in about 2 minutes. Honestly, probably less. She doesn't understand why she can't have Wub.
Oh my goodness I could cry just thinking about it!

The thing is, Katie didn't care about stopping breast feeding, or stopping the bottle either. I guess I'm the real baby here!

I would love your suggestions or stories on how you took the pacifier away!