Today I packed up the kids for a trip to work to attend a baby shower for Jacob, Rachel's soon to be here baby, and another co-workers baby. The first step was to get Katie up out of bed and dressed and ready. She wasn't crabby which was really good! I thought for sure she would be because she got to bed so late last night but she did great! Jacob was ready in about 15 minutes and off we went. Only 7 minutes later than I had planned to get out of the house! We got there at around 11:00 and I managed to get Katie out and Jacob in his stroller without any trouble. The only problem I ran into is that I forgot I would have to park at a meter! Luckily I had $1.50 so that was good for an hour and a half. Mom saved the day by putting a few more quarters in while I was at the shower. We sat and visited until 1:00 and opened gifts - I didn't expect that... I thought we would have some good treats and call it a day but ended up getting some very cute things! After the shower, we went to grandma's office to say hi. Katie was very excited to see her, she was trying to pull me out the door at one point during the shower so we could go to grandma's office! Grandma got to show off her grandkids and then it was time to get going. We headed to the elevators to make our way out to the car when... disaster struck, or so I thought. Katie was walking off of the elevator and her new bracelet she had gotten from grammy and grampy fell off her wrist. Gulp. I heard a clink... clink........clink clink as it fell to the bottom of the elevator shaft. Gulp... again. Imagine my surprise when she didn't react at all! So we went on our merry way. Whew! Got to the car and got everyone/everything loaded up. Everything was fine until grandma said goodbye to us and started to walk away. Katie was not happy about that. She wanted grandma to come with us. I told her that grandma had to finish working but she just didn't seem to care and she cried and cried. So I did what any smart mom would do... I called grandpa to ask if he wanted us to come to his work for a visit. We got the okay so I asked Katie if she wanted to go home or go visit grandpa at his work. Of course she wanted to go see her "umpa" so we did! We spent about 2 hours there too and had a nice visit and a nice walk through the new cafeteria and buildings. Katie had a great time with her grandpa but eventually it was 4:15 and we had to leave! Katie told us she wanted to go someplace else now. I told her we were heading home... she wasn't happy and told me again that "I want to go someplace else mommy!" but finally realized that we were going home. I was very happy that there were no tears this time!

Back to work tomorrow. :( I'm not unhappy to go back to work, I just wish I could do it at home or maybe take the kids with me? Nah, that probably wouldn't work. Jacob's toots can be pretty stinky and Katie isn't quite tall enough to reach the files. Maybe we'll win a contest or something for a million bucks so John and I can stay home together with the kiddos and live a life of leisure.

Mommy needs to slow down sometimes.

Katie usually plays really well just by herself with whatever random toys she pulls into the living room so she doesn't really need a lot of close supervision or attention. I usually holler for her when it's gotten too quiet and I can tell by the tone she uses when she answers "what?" how much I'll like what she's up to. If it's kind of a quiet, unsure answer, I know it won't be good. If it's cheery and upbeat and she says "what mommy?" then I'm usually pretty safe. If not, she might be tearing pages in a magazine or opening a juice box when mommy told her she couldn't have one till dinner! It's usually the cherry and upbeat "what" which is really lucky for me!

Well, today I was trying to prepare for her party. Jacob had finally settled down to lay on the floor on his play mat after a fussy morning so I thought I could get some stuff done for her party when Katie very sweetly asked me to read a book to her. I told her I was trying to do stuff but we could have reading time tonight... and she said "Please mommy!? Will you read this book to me?" How could I say no? I would hate for her to think that it was more important to me to work on her birthday preparation than to spend time with my baby on her birthday! So, we ready two books and she was ready for me to be on my way. It was nice to sit in the sun and see her smile and hear her laugh at the book we read together and it was good for me to slow down... I hope I showed her how special and important she is to her mommy!

Here's Katie reading a book to her baby doll!

Katie knows what she wants!

Katie and Mommy went to Costco yesterday. When we were done, I asked her if she wanted to go to McDonalds and she said yes. She told me that she wanted apple juice and I told her to tell the lady who takes our order at McDonalds so she was planning to do that. Well, then I thought about it and realized that I didn't really want McDonalds again so I tried to get her excited about another place. That was a no go... she was pretty adamant that we go to McDonalds so she could get her juice. I drove around near Costco a bit to see if there were any other restaurants I could talk her into and she told me "Mommy, I want to get out of here. I want to go to McDonalds. Let's get out of this place." It was so cute. She kept telling me that she wanted to get to McDonalds and when we back tracked to Costco, she said "This place again? I was McDonalds." So we went to McDonalds!

We were playing at home later and she held her hand over her eyes and told me, "Mama, I don't got eyes, just a nose and a mouth!" Ha!

Katie and the big birthday

It's been two months since we took Jacob home from the hospital. I think back to that day and I'm still amazed that we were entrusted with this tiny little baby. He seemed so fragile and needed so much. He still needs his mommy and daddy but he's not so fragile anymore! He's doing so well and growing so strong. He's started to smile and gurgle at us, and he watches Katie play - just staring at her. He still isn't sleeping more than 2 or 3 hours each night but I just keep telling myself "this too shall pass" and it helps. It helps me to remember that I'll be looking back at this in a year and I'll be sad that he's not the tiny baby he once was. On the other hand, I'll be much more rested!

Katie's birthday party was tonight. Her birthday was great! She woke up at around 10 a.m. and I went into her room to open the shades and sing her good morning song and she got dressed and we had breakfast. She wanted oatmeal and I was going to have eggrolls which she decided she needed too. So, she had a bowl of oatmeal and 2 mini eggrolls. Yum. Just kidding - ick! Then we cleaned up our mess and she played. Daddy got up at around 2:00 (he was on baby duty last night so he earned a nap today) and soon left to pick up balloons and the cake and I tried to get the table and dishes ready. It was not easy. Jacob was a little fussy and needed to be held, which was hard to do while I was trying to fold laundry and pick up toys! Daddy got home with a helium tank and he got the balloons ready while I started dinner prep. Grandpa and Grandma watched Jacob and Katie watched daddy blow up the balloons. Everyone arrived at about 6:30 and Katie was so excited that she had presents that I think she thought it was time to open them... she started with grandma and grandpas gift but luckily her grandma caught her and stopped her! She reminds me of her grampy... every Christmas he seems to have his gifts half opened by the time it's his turn to open! John grilled hot dogs and I made mac and cheese. Mom made a really good pudding salad and beans. Great food and a fun time! Katie opened gifts and she loves everything. Then we had cake. YUM! Everyone left at around 9:30 p.m. but Katie was up till about midnight playing with her toys. She fell asleep holding onto a small bag that came with a tiny puppy in it. I had to really work to get it out of her little hand... her fingers were closed tight around the handle!

Tomorrow we're going to a shower at my work for Jacob and some coworkers who are expecting or have had babies recently. Then on Thursday it's back to work for me!