Week of Firsts

September 3, 2008

It's been several months - maybe a couple of years - since we've racked up as many "firsts" as Katie has experienced this past week.

Friday - First Haircut: With hair streaming in long curls that ended in uneven, blonde tips, Melissa determined that it was time for Katie's first haircut. This significant event was staged at a nifty franchise operation called "Snip Its." While sitting in the stylist's chair getting her hair combed out, she snacked on animal crackers provided by the shop. The kids there have the option of watching children's shows or playing video games on the tvs scattered throughout the place. After the cut and styling - pigtails! - Katie received a DumDum, a sticker, and a bracelet. Katie seemed to enjoy the experience. Kids' haircuts have come a long way.

From Aug 08

From Aug 08

Monday - First Zoo Trip: Yes, we did take Katie to a rather pathetic "zoo" north of Wake Forest when she was 18 months, but I can't count it as a "first" because she literally had no interest in any of the animals. Her only interest that day was pushing her stroller. I remember walking her up to the lion cage and thinking that she would be gleeful. Nope. She looked at the lion and about three seconds later was indicating her desire to leave. Not so much as a giggle from her in seeing the lion that day.

On this Labor Day Monday trip, I had confidence that she truly would enjoy viewing the animals in the the NC Zoo in Asheboro. While we didn't get to see every animal in the zoo, as a result of the animals propensity to hide in the vast acreage available to them, we did have a terrific, closeup view of an elephant and some elk. In a surprising show of endurance, Katie walked with us throughout the zoo and never asked for a rest or asked to be carried. Some of her favorite attractions in the zoo were posing on various animal statues, playing on the clever playground, and seeing the flamingos and other birds in the tropical bird exhibit. On the trip home, we stopped at Cook Out in Asheboro and let her order the milkshake of her choice. She was excited at the permission to make this decision and chose a caramel fudge shake, mostly because she heard her friend, Laura, say that she wanted one. While she liked the milkshake she had chosen, she somehow ended up with the Oreo milkshake that Melissa and I were sharing. It was a great trip.

From Sept 08

From Sept 08

From Sept 08

Tuesday - First Day of K-4 Homeschool: For the past few weeks, Melissa has been preparing to homeschool Katie. Not only in purchasing the books and supplies that Katie would need for her lessons, but also in getting Katie accustomed to a routine of preparing for daily instruction. The routine included eating breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and making her bed. For the two weeks leading up to the first day of homeschool, Katie was very excited in learning the routine.

On Tuesday, class began. Already familiar with the school day routine, Katie promptly proceeded from breakfast to making her bed. Melissa used activity books and let Katie practice some skills she learned last year, which included writing her numbers and a few letters. Melissa assigned Katie some "homework," which Katie finds especially exciting.

Pictures from her first day in "K-4"

From Sept 08

From Sept 08

Wednesday - First Dentist Visit: I have to admit that this "first" had me the most apprehensive. I had no idea how Katie would react to something as foreign to her as visiting the dentist. Melissa and I have been talking about the dentist for a few days leading up to the visit, and she seemed at ease with the idea, but I just didn't know how she would handle sitting in the dentist's chair with someone poking around in her mouth.

While Melissa endured her own cleaning, Katie sat in the same room and watched children's programming on a tv in the exam room. When it was her own turn, Katie hopped into the chair, let the dentist perform the probing, and even enjoyed the grape fluoride treatment. Following the exam, she was pleased to pick out her Disney princess toothbrush.

Katie didn't just endure the visit, she seemed to enjoy it!

From Sept 08

From Sept 08

From Sept 08

These have been some fun and memorable days for our Tiny Katie.

Impressions

August 28, 2008

The three of us were walking on the sidewalk towards one of the side entrances of our church. Katie dashed ahead of us several yards and approached the greeter, who was manning his post at the door. Melissa and I were too far from them to hear a single word between them. But their conversation looked like this:

Katie: [Inaudible]
Greeter: [Inaudible]
Katie: [Inaudible]
Greeter: [Inaudible]
Katie: Inaudible.....but then "...can I give you a high five?"
Greeter: Sure! Give me a high five. (Which was actually just a standard "low five.")

Then, Greeter to Melissa and me: "She's articulate!"

While we'll never know what conversation took place between them, it's just amusing to know that whatever was said between Katie and the Greeter made quite the impression on him. She's a charmer, that Katie.

Video Game Wizard

August 10, 2008

Taking it easy after a big day at the water park the day before, Katie and I were relaxing and playing one of the head-to-head Sonic games on the GameCube. One of the games she selected involves each player controlling an on-screen character and finding jewels in the game environment.

In the game she selected, the characters are running around a small planet, and the jewels are possibly located in the planet's crust, which means the characters must dig down to explore. I'm watching Katie's character, and it's running around and digging all over the surface. Meanwhile, I'm unable to make my character dig down, regardless of any button configurations I attempted.

Finally, I look over at her...

Me: How do you make your character dig?

Katie (monotone with just a hint of annoyance in her reply): Press "A," then "B"

There she sat - at four-and-a-half - showing me up at video games. One day, when it may mean something to her, I'll have to tell her how I was the PacMan champion in my little hometown when I was a kiddo.

Half Birthday

August 9, 2008

For Katie's second annual Half Birthday celebration, we went to what will be the tradition until she tells us otherwise: Emerald Pointe water park in Greensboro. Last year, the temperature was a sweltering 113 degrees. This year, it might have reached 85 degrees at the hottest point in the day. By evening, it was feeling a bit chilly.

I had anticipated that Katie had grown enough over the past year that we'd all be able to ride more than we were able to ride last year, which was just a large raft ride. But she was still several inches too small, so we spent most of our time in the various pools, the lazy river, or the Cyclone.

The day went quickly and Katie seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself. After the park, we stopped by the Cracker Barrel in Burlington and enjoyed a relaxing dinner.

On the long trip home, she fell asleep in the van. Without asking permission to do so. She was THAT tuckered out.

Copycat

August 7, 2008

Katie recently has been enjoying playing "copycat," a game where she repeats the last thing uttered by the other "player."

While preparing for dinner, Melissa made a snide - but funny - comment about me.

Me (To Melissa): You're hysterical.

Katie (Also to Melissa): Yeah, you're a scarecrow.

Melissa (To Katie): You're a hysterical scarecrow.

Me: That's going in the blog.

Handling Disappointment

August 6, 2008

After dinner tonight, I proposed to Katie that we go to the neighborhood swimming pool. She liked the idea, so we changed into our swim clothes and headed up to the pool. On the walk up to the gate, I noticed the far off storm clouds and wondered if they'd present any problems.

They did.

As I was attempting to unlock the pool area door, the attendant stopped me and informed me that she had heard thunder. I would then learn that pool policy mandates that everyone exit the water for 30 minutes from the moment that the thunder booms. Since the attendant had just heard the thunder, we'd have to wait the entire 30 minutes. BOOOOO!

I looked down at Katie standing there in her green floatie, and gave her the bad news. I could see the sad face forming. Doing the time calculations in my head, I determined that even with the 30 minute wait, we'd have a good bit of time to swim if we just waited out the time by watching a movie in the van. Katie liked that idea.

In the van, we watched a Beatrix Potter animation. The 30 minutes nearly ended, I opened her door and we proceeded to return to the pool, which was now vacant. I saw another couple with their son leaving the pool area and asked if we'd be able to swim. Nope. The attendant had heard more thunder.

Katie's disappointment would now be unavoidable.

As she prepared to leave the van, I had to tell her that we couldn't go swimming. Again, the sad face replaced her eager face. But since she had her swimsuit on, I suggested that she and I could play in the sprinkler in our yard. It wasn't the pool, but it was something wet to do on a hot summer night. She was still disappointed, but she handled it much better than I anticipated.

We had a fine time jumping through the sprinkler.

Just Kidding...Really...Just Kidding

July 29, 2008

On their way to beach today, Melissa and Katie stopped by my office. While Melissa was outside preparing for the trip, Katie came up to my office to visit my teammates. I like to bring her up here periodically so she can associate my daily trips to work with an actual location.

As soon as she enters the room, it's like she's "on." She becomes so amazingly charming and has everyone wanting to talk to her. So she made her way around the room, talking to each of my teammates, and then she got to Dawn. Dawn said "So you're going to the beach today?" And Katie responded that she was and that Dawn should go, too.

Dawn responded with "I have to work today, so I can't go. That stinks!"

Katie: "Yeah! It's a stinkin' skunk day!"

Everyone laughed.

Katie: "Nah, I was just teasing. It's not really a stinking skunk day."

Again, laughter.

Katie then seemed concerned that she might have made too much of the "stinking" comment and again said "I was just teasing. It's not really a stinking day."

More giggles, just because she was so cute during all this.

Katie again (more seriously): "I was just teasing about the stinking day."

There was something charming about her concern that nobody continue on believing in the possibility that it was REALLY a Stinking Skunk Day.

Then, in keeping with her tradition, she picked out peppermints from the foam candy bowl next to my desk, and passed them out to everyone.

First Hike

July 27, 2008

Our returns to church over the past three weeks have been great.

Last week, Melissa and I served as Sunday school assistants to Katie's class and were especially pleased at how well she now tolerates the other children. While she still resists being as social as we'd like her to be, we had the opportunity to note that at least half the class of 4-year-olds were equally resistant. One shy boy, Will, found the courage within himself to approach Katie on several occasions to talk. During craft time, he really wanted to sit next to her, but no seats were available. He actually looked sad that he had to sit at another table.

This week, from what Katie told us upon picking her up, her behavior continued to be exemplary.

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During our recent nightly walks, Katie asked if we could venture down the neighborhood dead-end road in to see where it goes. She was ready for adventure! The paved road turns into a red clay path immediately following the sign reading "Future road extension." The path is short and straight but seems to plunge immediately into wilderness. The path is at the corner of the neighborhood, and with no busy roads nearby, the sounds of cars and children are quickly silenced. We walked no more than a quarter mile into the woods, but Katie loved it and wanted the two of us to camp at a clearing where we had stopped. I convinced her that we should return home after informing her that her Mommy would miss us AND that the bugs would bite us all night as we lay on the muddy earth.

Two nights later, she wanted to hike again. On this trek, we took a different path beyond the "Future road extension" sign. Again, she loved the experience of walking through the woods.

For today’s Sunday afternoon activity, I had the idea of the three of us hiking the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Trail in Cary. As a seasoned backcountry hiker, I don’t care for the park's wide and professionally mulched trails, but for exposing Katie to a more authentic hiking experience, I figured it would be perfect. We chose the Swift Creek trail, which measured .8 mile. She was so excited to be hiking in “real” woods and took off running. If there was any wildlife in the park, we never had a chance for spotting any, what with Katie running and yelling enthusiastically for virtually the entire distance. I had envisioned showing her different trees and woodland trivia. But that didn’t happen. She just wanted to RUN!

Katie seemed to enjoy the experience and was exhausted by the trail’s end. I was pleased with the budding nature-lover aspect of her personality.

Vacation with Grandmommy and Papa

May 22, 2008

Sometimes email from family best captures Katie's day. This one I received today from Grandmommy:

Good morning,

Katie only slept until 7:30 am this morning. She got up happy and ready to go. She did not want any breakfast food so i offered her popcorn or ice cream. She chose the ice cream. Said she could have popcorn as a snack.

She really has been as perfect as a little girl could be. This morning we are going to the aquarium and then back to the beach. She said it is a lovely day to go to the beach.


Grandmommy gets right to the good stuff, I would say. Ice cream for breakfast. At home, she wouldn't get a bowl of ice cream until she ate a good dinner.

She's never going to want to come home.

And from Grandmommy later that evening:

She has just been completely enjoyable. She eats like a horse after the beach. Tonight I made the tater tot casserole and she dug in. I forgot the applesauce so after dinner, I mentioned that I was sure she would like some ice cream when papa and I have strawberry shortcake so she needed to eat her applesauce. She ate it in about 1 minute. We are having big fun. Hope you all are not too sad without her.

End of Her First School Year

May 20, 2008

So yesterday, Katie finished her first year of preschool. There's still two more days in the session for the other kids in her class, but Katie, Grandmommy and Papa have some beach plans in mind.

The year started off rough for Katie. She spent the first two or three months learning how to behave around other three-year-olds and how to follow directions and instructions from someone who wasn't her mommy or daddy. The initial months were especially difficult for Katie and for her mother and I, too.

After three really tough months of hearing from her teachers about Katie's struggles to adapt to the ways of a classroom, Melissa and I were a millimeter away from deciding that she just wasn't ready for preschool, and we nearly removed her from school. But we gave Katie one more - just one more - chance to show us that she could make it through a school day without fussing or having a timeout.

One school day in November - or maybe December - with both of us thinking that day would likely be her last until the next school year...she did it. She made it through the day without a fuss. Without a timeout.

And so Melissa took her back on the next school day to try again. Again, relatively good behavior.

Suddenly, the days with pretty good behavior continued to mount. And then she started to make it through her preschool day with actual good behavior. And the days of Katie's much improved behavior turned into weeks of improvement. And then it was the end of March.

The end of March witnessed the beginning of Katie's perfect school behavior. Whatever turned off - or turned on - in her brain at that time finally allowed her to breeze through each school day. We found ourselves counting consecutive days of perfect behavior. No fussing. No timeouts.

By the time she finished up her final class yesterday, we counted five consecutive weeks of perfect behavior. In fact, in the final couple of weeks of the school year, both of her teachers praised our daughter as having transformed into an "enjoyable" and "sweet" preschooler.

Thank God for a great finish to Katie's first school year.

Don't Tempt Her

April 2, 2008

A few days ago, the three of us ventured up to the neighborhood Wal-Mart for some evening grocery shopping. Leaving Melissa in the grocery section, Katie and I wandered the store where we quickly ended up near the toy section.

Me: "Do you want to go look at the toys?"
Katie: "Yes, but I don't want to look at the Pet Shop toys."
Me: "Why not?"
Katie: "Because I'll only want to buy some."

Sonic

March 13, 2008

Three or four weeks ago, I bought a used Nintendo GameCube on Ebay. My thought was that it would be nice to have the system in the van for long trips. I wasn't even thinking that Katie would have an interest in playing it. Soon after it arrived, I ordered Mega Sonic, which contains seven Sonic the Hedgehog games. On the day that the Sonic games arrived, I popped the disc into the GameCube just to be certain that the GameCube worked. Katie watched me play a couple of minutes of Sonic with interest but didn't ask for a turn to play.

The next night, she did.

And she's been captivated with the little blue hedgehog ever since. In fact, she now includes Sonic as one of her pretend characters, along with Ariel from Little Mermaid, and a made-up "Kelly" bluebird.

When she pretends to be Sonic, I get to be Tails the fox.

We let her play a few minutes of Sonic each night. It's surprising how much of the game strategy she has picked up in such a short amount of time.

Tonight, while Melissa went grocery shopping, Katie and I had a great time playing Sonic on the Gamecube. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable evenings I've spent with her in a long time.

Things She's Said

February 25, 2008

Last weekend, Katie stayed with my parents so that Melissa and I could host a fondue dinner party. Katie was out in their sun room and noticed a family portrait of Mom, Dad, Steve and I when I was 16ish (i.e. all of us were much younger):

Katie: "Nana. This picture is old. You need to sell it."

Is it obvious that she's growing up in an Ebay culture?



Then, last night during dinner at a new Chinese buffet restaurant, I was eating my hot & sour soup and decided to be hyperbolic:

Me: Whoo! This soup is so good! I think I want to marry it!
Katie: No, Dad. You don't marry soup. You can't kiss it or hug it or dance it around!

Awakenings

January 14, 2007

Katie has been getting up during the night to potty for the past couple of months. Once she eventually made the decision to do it, she virtually mastered this new skill with only the occasional accident.

Up until a few days ago, Katie would awaken Melissa every time to ask for permission to use the potty. Melissa, being a nice mommy, never refused Katie's request. So since Melissa always grants permission for Katie to use the potty, Melissa started giving a nighttime lecture in which she would repeat "And remember, if you have to go potty, you can just get up and go. You don't have to wake up Mommy to ask for permission." In time, Katie learned to get up and go on her own without permission.

But did the awakenings stop? Nope.

The new routine metamorphosed into something like this:

Katie gets up. Goes to the potty without first asking for permission.

Then...

Katie: "Uh, Mommy?"
Melissa (groggy): "Yes?"
Katie: "Is it OK if I flush? Is it going to bother you if I flush?"

Little Gamer

January 13, 2007

A week or so ago, Katie told me that she wanted more games. In particular, she wanted a Hi Ho Cherry-O! game, like the one the kids were playing at one of the recent Christmas parties she had attended. And, because it's now a quick trip (2.6 miles away), the two of us went to the Wal-Mart and purchased that aforementioned game, plus a Chutes and Ladders game.

I had never before played Chutes and Ladders. Amazing, I know.

Back home, we broke out the Cherry-O game and played it again and again. She loved it. I then convinced her to give Chutes a try, to which she agreed. We played it a couple of times, but she didn't love it like Cherry-O.

For the next three or four days, it seemed like we were in a Cherry-O marathon. With some tweaking of the rules to benefit Katie, she regularly kicked our tales.

Then, Melissa suggested that we give Katie's newly acquired UNO game a try. Even though the game was the children's version, I thought she might still be a bit too young for it. But after reading the modified rules, it seemed that she might just be able to understand it.

Turns out that I underestimated her. Turns out that Katie LOVES Uno.

We play a version of Uno that is undocumented in the official game rules. After dealing the cards, we play with them face up on the table. Yep, as in everyone can see everyone's cards. It has taken Katie a few days to understand some of the most basic game concepts and strategies, but as she becomes better at comparing her hand with the discard pile - which dictates how the game is played - then we'll graduate to actually holding the cards.

Barely inside a week of gaming, the Cherry-O marathons have been replaced with Uno marathons, but the three of us are having a lot of fun sitting around the kitchen table and doing one of the things that happy families do.