Monday, August 23, 2010

I'm a Winner! (But I still don't have the mad skillz of a photographer. Oh well.)

This is a long post but I find that I'm a pretty wordy poster.  Just ask my mom... she stood for about 5 minutes tonight listening to me tell a story that would have been about a minute long if I had just gotten to the point.  Which I never seem to be able to do.  This post is evidence to that fact.
~~~

So, remember this post?  Where I won some excellent gift cards?

Well, a few days ago I got an email from Chocomize for my custom chocolate bars (I can't wait to use this!) so I knew it wouldn't be long and was waiting in eager anticipation.  Because on Thursday I came home and found an envelope from Dumb Mom... my giftcards had arrived!  Along with this card...


This cute, creative card with a really nice note inside!  I was just thrilled to have won the contest... I didn't expect to get a card *thanking me* for reading her blog, and for entering the contest too!  And I know, from reading her blog, that these are her actual kids.  Which means that she probably took this picture herself.  And had it made into a card.  And, well, I was impressed.

Katie and Jake don't usually cooperate when I want to take a nice picture of them together like the one above, and my photog skills aren't very advanced so I can't even make them look like they are sitting nicely so this kind of snapshot will probably have to wait till they are older... or until Jake is old enough to bribe (even if Katie is in a diva mood and doesn't want to be photographed, she will usually cooperate if I promise her a few extra minutes of extra play time before bed... or a marshmallow).

But I do have these pics... (and when Katie is older, like say in her teens, I'm sure it will be fun for me to pull them out and reminisce about these younger years... and wish for them back.)

Katie was playing with cans.  Please don't ask me why.  I don't know.  I unloaded groceries and they were on the table... and then they were hers.
 Katie was playing with these and wanted me to play with her, so I did.  Although let me tell you... it's tough to play when your "person" is a can of soup.  So the name I chose for my can of soup was... wait for it... it's so out there you won't believe it... Soupy!

And when Katie asked what the cans second name was (because don't cans have two names?), I picked Cassandra*.  Katie liked the name so much, she started to use it too and her can was dubbed Cassandra Soupy.

This is kind of my "go to" name.  In my stories, if Katie doesn't want the character to have the name Katie, I use Cassandra.

Oh, and yes, she's wearing her Halloween princess costume.  And crown.  And probably her "tall shoes" too.

Jake loves to climb on Katie's bed.  He climbs up onto the foot board, then onto the bed, then he slides off and does it again.  And again... and again (sorry, couldn't resist).  
 This is how *my* pics turn out... a gifted photographer I am not.

Jake gives hugs.  First he hugs, then he hangs on to you while he goes limp.  Katie usually ends up falling down. Yep.  It's funny.

Got home from work one day and Katie came out to see me... wearing *my* "tall shoes".  I wore these to work one day last week and wore flip-flops home... and Katie grilled me on the where-abouts of my tall shoes.  I have to hide my shoes from my 4-year-old.

Jake likes to color.

He likes to color and I like triangle shaped crayons.  They don't roll onto the floor and under the table.  Whew!  (There's still no special crayon that won't color on the floor though.  Wish they would get going on inventing that one.)

Grammy was watching a video on my phone.  The kids were sitting with her so sweetly.

Till I took the phone so I could get a picture.

More coloring.  Notice the location of all of the crayons?

Yep.  Katie still has a problem with that one word... the really tough one to pronounce.  Oh, yeah.  SHARING.
She also told me to stop taking pictures... she was too busy working.

Jake.  Just watching TV.  Oh, and John's legs.

Me and Katie stopped at this house on our walk the other day.  I love these flowers.  But not enough to grow them in my yard.  Although with the big hit that was the summer garden, maybe I'm ready for these next year.

THIS is another example of what happens when I try to get them to sit still for a picture.
Oh, Katie got dressed in a purple and yellow flowered shirt and matching purple pants.  This was a complete outfit.  But she must have thought it needed a little extra... something... because she decided to add this denim dress and her yellow "tall shoes".  She's already got her own style and it's looking better than her mommy's.  Sad but true.
Awww.  Another hug!
Katie is giving Daisy a kiss goodnight.  Daisy is a electric keyboard nestled lovingly on the pillow and snuggled under Katie's princess blanket.  Jake is the blur in the foreground.
Reading with Jake.


Katie doing "exercises"... that's why her arms are blurry.  She was moving them around.


Jake really likes to read.  He'll come over with a book and you better take it because he's going to either drop it on your lap or wave it around near your face just before he climbs up for a story.  And setting it aside while he gets comfortable is better than getting tapped in the face with the edge of a book while he settles himself.  Voice of experience here.

That's all for now.  I'm going to call it a day.  And it's been a pretty good day...  No one got time out, no one got hurt (although Jake did get his leg stuck between the wall and the top rail of Katie's headboard... and I can not figure out what he was doing to get stuck that way) everyone liked the dinner I made, and both kids were asleep by 9:30.  In my book, that's a pretty good day.

I'm posting this later in the week and today was still a good day (even if it wasn't the good day I posted about above).  No one got time out, John made steaks for dinner (and cleaned up), Katie and Jake played outside a bit before bed (and Jake only got a little hurt after falling off of the scooter John was pushing him around on), and I did my workout early.  

We had a good evening after "Mean Mommy" put in an appearance to put away toys (and when I put them away, they go away for awhile, usually after I ask someone to pick them up a few times and get no response) but once Katie was reminded that she didn't do it when asked, she got over it.  It didn't hurt that we started scavenging in the kitchen and spotted cucumber slices on our salads just begging to be eaten!  

Katie had fun playing with grandpa and grandma for awhile tonight and I was glad it worked out since our schedules are pretty opposite all week and she thinks her grandma and grandpa are extra fun.  

This week we've got two play-dates at Donavan's (one is during a Pampered Chef party and I'm hoping the kids behave themselves!), Jake has a well-check appointment, and it's Katie's last week of summer pre-school and they're fitting in two field trips instead of one.  Busy busy busy.

Oh, and Jake apparently does know the word "mama" but chooses not to use it but tonight he was a little tired and as I picked him up to put him to bed, he clung to me and put his head on my shoulder and said "mama" and no one heard it but me... let me tell you, it was the sweetest moment of my evening.  I'll have to try coaxing it out of him more often... maybe Costco sells marshmallows in bulk?  I had better check because as bribes* for Katie and Jake, I might be needing more.

*Okay, so the kids don't get marshmallows that often.  They're mostly for me and have replaced chocolate chips as my "food drug of choice".