Someone is 4!

Posted on February 28, 2010 by kiddiepool

Abigail had a birthday last week. She is very proud of being 4. I guess 4 is eons more mature than 3. We had quite the birthday weekend extravaganza. The grandparents came up for the weekend and we had that party Saturday. On Sunday, a few of her friends came over for a second party. There was lots of high-pitched shrieking and giggling in what was, I’m sure, a harbinger of birthday parties to come.

Two parties meant two cakes. Or, in Abigail’s case, one cake and one pan of brownies.


The week before her birthday, I asked Abigail if she wanted a cake or cupcakes for her
birthday and she started to cry. Through her tears, she got out "But I wanted chocolate
caramel swirl brownies!" So here she is, blowing out the candles on her chocolate caramel
swirl brownies.

She also got a cake for the party with her friends. It’s hard to tell, because it was daylight,
but Cinderella is lit up.

She got plenty of loot from grandparents and friends alike. The biggest hits seem to be the Barbies and singing Hannah Montana dolls she got from friends. We’ve already removed the batteries from HM, because that doll had two volumes: off and 100 decibels.

Other favorites from the grandparents include a doctor kit, which she uses to make house calls and distribute shots with evil glee.

And Uncle Ryan picked a winner when he and his girlfriend found a Mulan dress to add to Abigail’s princess collection.

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Haircuts are fun

Posted on February 13, 2010 by kiddiepool

It was finally time to do it. The fights and screams over combing the snarls out of Abigail’s hair just got to be more than I wanted to spend energy dealing with.

Daddy suggested a Mohawk. Abigail was in full agreement until she saw a picture of a Mohawk. She quickly backtracked.

So we went to the salon and came out with a good final product.

We cut about 3 inches off the ends. Abigail’s first move was to shake her now-lighter head back and forth, making her hair swing. She likes the new length. I like it, too. We can comb it with little fuss and few snarls.

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A little news

Posted on February 8, 2010 by kiddiepool

So there’ve been some things happening lately, and I’ve been a bit busy, but here’s a little news for you all.

We decided to take the plunge again. Sometime around Labor Day, Abigail will get a baby brother or baby sister.

Abigail is very excited to be a big sister. She spent two weeks insisting the baby is a girl, then just the other day told me it’s a baby brother. I keep telling her we’ll just have to wait and see. It’s hard for an almost-4-year-old to understand the wait.

She likes to talk to and pat my belly already and told me it’s already sticking out from the baby. Sadly, the last part is untrue. It’s sticking out just the way it always does, baby or no baby.

Abigail is full of questions: Can the baby hear her talking? When does the baby sleep? What does it eat? Does it play inside my tummy? Can it feel her patting? When is it ready to be born? Can it be born today? How does the baby eat? Is it swimming? Does it like to swim? Can she feed it? Is it dark in there? Is the baby scared of the dark? Will the baby play tea party with her after it’s born? Can she read to the baby after it’s born? Can she swing with the baby after it’s born? And on, and on.

It’s true every pregnancy is different, and I’m experiencing that. I had no problems with Abigail, other than one doozy of a migraine and an absurd distaste for shrimp (normally one of my favorite foods). This time around I’ve spent about the past month dealing with constant low-grade nausea and lack of appetite that lets up once a day or so long enough for me to eat, then returns to tell me I shouldn’t have done that. Hopefully, that will go away soon.

But we are happy and excited and await the day when our family grows by one!

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Water park marathon

Posted on February 2, 2010 by kiddiepool

I always thought water parks were supposed to be relaxing … not something to recover from.

That was before Maura’s birthday party. This year we allowed her to invite three friends from school to have a slumber/birthday party at The Edge in Duluth. I tagged along with my wife to help chaperone the event — but I didn’t know that I would climb a four-and-a-half story structure and become a human torpedo nearly a dozen times in about a 20-minute span.

Each of the four girls wanted me to take her down the Tiki Tumbler, a twisting, turning ride. Maura, the birthday girl, got to go first and then each of her three friends took the ride … in rapid succession. That’s a minute or so to climb 55 stairs and then about a 15-second ride to a splashdown.

By the fifth or sixth trip to the top of the Tiki Tumbler, I was sucking wind, and I used each trip down the slide as a time to rest.

Ramsey and Maura enjoy splashing it up at The Edge water park.

 

Thankfully, the girls — and Ramsey, too — tuckered out midway through the third go-round. I was tuckered out about midway through the first trip to the top of that tower!!

Maura and Ramsey love The Edge, and I’m sure we will be visiting again soon … but not until after I regain the feeling in my legs.

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Circle of life

Posted on January 27, 2010 by kiddiepool

My grandma died Tuesday. She would have turned 93 next month. She enjoyed going south in the winter and staying with her daughters in Mississippi and Florida and always sent craft projects and e-mail to her grandchildren for birthdays and Christmas. And I remember the delicious homemade treats she had ready from when I was growing up.

She was so proud of her family, and loved to spend time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Abigail had a good time playing tea party with her last summer, and I’m glad I’ve got photos to prove it.

This weekend we roadtrip to North Dakota for her funeral. It sounds like many of my cousins and their families are making the trek from their homes around the country as well. And my brother and a cousin are trying to get back from their overseas military deployments, too. Nothing like a funeral to bring a family together.


Abigail and Great-grandma in 2006. Abigail was about 9 or 10 months old.


Four generations in 2006: My dad, my grandma, me and Abigail.


Abigail and Great-grandma enjoy their tea party in a July 2009 visit.

I’m glad Abigail had a chance, even for such a brief time, to get to know her great-grandmother. We will miss her, but she will always be with us in our hearts.

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Dancing Queen

Posted on January 22, 2010 by kiddiepool

Maura still has a lot of elementary and middle school years ahead of her before she can even think about high school, but a few nights ago she made her dancing debut with a horde of other youngsters at halftime of a recent high school boys basketball game.

Maura and other students of various ages spent several hours at a dance camp on a Saturday afternoon, and the kids performed their routines in front of a basketball crowd on Tuesday night while a medley of Michael Jackson classics blared through the speakers.

That’s Maura at the far left, trying to follow a varsity cheerleader’s lead. As you can see, not everyone is on the same page!

Maura and a friend wait patiently for their turns to perform.

 After performing in smaller groups, everyone joined in a dance performance set to Jackson’s "Thriller."

Guess what song has been stuck in my head since then? 

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Is preschool necessary?

Posted on January 19, 2010 by kiddiepool

With Abigail turning 4 in a month, we find a new parenting question ahead. Do we send her to preschool?

Some friends of mine with kids the same age are looking into sending their girls to preschool. They tout the obvious benefits: enhanced learning opportunities and socialization among them. Those are, of course, excellent things to be concerned about.

I just don’t know if it’s necessary for Abigail. She is (according to her pediatrician and the pre-K screening we had last fall) advanced for her age in her language and number skills. And I think she’s pretty well socialized. I rarely get bad reports about her from her daycare teachers and has quite a few friends who run to greet her when I drop her off there.

While I would love some extra "me" time, I enjoy our time together at the park or library, running errands or just staying home. And I’ll have to give that up soon enough when she does start kindergarten.

So, what do others think? Is preschool necessary? What advantages does it offer? Are some preschools better than others?

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She’s 7 already!

Posted on January 15, 2010 by kiddiepool

Time sure does fly when you’re a parent. It’s hard to believe that our oldest child, Maura, is 7 already.

Here are a few pix from her birthday celebration yesterday:

 

This year’s theme was easy to pick … my kids have been "hounding" me for a dog for the past couple of years. Their begging has reached a fever pitch — even their birthday cakes are thinly veiled attempts to badger the old man some more about getting a pooch.

I know this is a losing a battle (I think they need to be a bit older before we buy them a dog, but I’m being outvoted 3-1. Even if I add our cat’s vote, I lose 3-2.)

Maura only had one candle to blow out … and Ramsey made sure to check out the festivities, too. His birthday is next — June 13 when he turns 4!

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Where does the time go?

Posted on January 12, 2010 by kiddiepool

Today, Mike and I have been married for 8 years! Here’s to 10 times that many more.  :-)

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Princess parade

Posted on January 12, 2010 by kiddiepool

We were assembling a box of goodies to send to Uncle Ryan in Kosovo and I wanted to include a picture of Abigail wearing her Belle dress, which she had gotten at Christmas from Uncle Ryan. She agreed, but insisted on also modeling all of her other princess dresses as well. Who am I to turn down a fashion show? Here is Abigail in her complete collection.

                 

                 

             

 

By the end, the idea had worn a little thin and Abigail was tired of changing. But I made her finish anyway. After we were done, she did tell me she was a little sad because she didn’t have a Mulan dress. That got me thinking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mulan outfit, or a Pocahontas outfit. Has anyone else seen either of those anywhere?

And she didn’t mention it, but I’m sure that after we see "The Princess and the Frog" we’ll need to look for one of those dresses, too. 

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