Pretend Play

Tonight was the best time!  Karina got out her pretend purse (it's really a lunch bag) and wanted her sunglasses and my coat on.  She went to the door and wanted to go outside, but it was after 730pm and she goes to bed at 8, so of course, I told her no.  So instead we pretended to go out.  She brought me a bag to be my purse, and put on my shoes and I gave her my keys.  We pretended to unlock the door and go get in the car (the chair and footstool in the living room).  I put Karina on the footstool and gave her a paper plate to be the steering wheel (yes, we have paper plates lying around the floor of the living room.  She plays with them in her play kitchen which is in there) and I sat on the chair behind her "in the back seat".  She kept laughing and laughing as I showed her how to pretend to drive the car.  I told her to tell me when we were there (at the store), so she did.  We got out and pretended to shop with the little shopping cart and play food my friend Stephanie gave her for Christmas/birthday.  Then we paid for it with her pretend credit card and went back "outside" and got in the car and drove home.  Oh my gosh it was so fun!  She really got it, she completely understood that it was pretend, and when we were driving home, she didn't need me to help her with the steering wheel.  She even got back in her car later and was driving again.  She was having so much fun she didn't want to go to bed!  It was 10 after 8 when I finally got her upstairs.  I try to avoid meltdowns so I gave her a little time to realize that it's time to go upstairs.  She is pretty good if I let her have a chance to finish what she's doing.  I just told her it was bedtime, so she knew she only had a few minutes left, and then once I turned on the light upstairs she was ready. 

I hope we will have lots more fun playing imaginary games like this in the future. 

Photo Catch-Up

So any of you out there who read this blog know how bad I am about posting pictures at the right time.  It's laziness, pure and simple.  I hate connecting my camera and taking the time to upload and watermark everything.  Sigh.  So it doesn't get done too often.  Then, I finally do it and I have tons of things to share.  Not the best way to gain or keep followers, but fortunately, I have some good ones (followers) so you stick it out, he he!

Here are some pictures I took rather recently, of what Karina sometimes does to entertain herself while I'm cooking.  In the first one, she's stacking these little cups I have that came from these awesome fruit-vegetable mixes I get at Walmart.  They have lids and are perfect for all kinds of things.  I love them.  Anyway, she's stacking them.

 The next one, below, she has emptied one shelf of our pantry and stacked two of the sprinkles containers on top of each other.  Check that out.  She lined up the muffin mixes, too. 

Here she is, concentrating on pouring water.  She loves to pour water.  She sat at the table this day for about 25 minutes doing this. 

Here she is playing with her train set in our living room area that we have devoted to her.  We don't have a playroom so she plays here in the living room.  Note the low window sill and abundance of toys for future reference.  She is patting her train.  It is her "baby" for the moment.

 Lambkin rockin' the shades.

Dancing with her friend at church one night.  They stole the show (you can't see the people to the left there, singing.  But they were.)

 Playing with another friend and her aunt.  Karina is sitting with C's aunt Elise.  That's my friend Marie on the right.

 Now she wants to play this game of rolling the ball all the time.  She's playing with Bill in this one.  Note that Lambkin is wearing a diaper.  A purple one, no less; Karina's current favorite color.

Look at this cute dress.  Ignore the black eye.  The dress I got at a consignment shop for $14.  It is handmade and retailed for $68.  It still had the tags on.  Score!  I love this fabric.  The black eye she got when she heard the school bus backing down our cul-de-sac and tripped on her toys and hit her eye on the low windowsill in our living room.  Poor thing.  She was lucky though.  It could have been so much worse.

 At playgroup.  She always goes in this little "house" at least once.  She looks concerned here because another kid is playing with something she was playing with earlier.  (You know toddlers, "If I see it, it's mine, if it used to be mine, it's mine...")

 And yes, she did go down this giant slide, by herself, a million times.

And finally, two gratuitous cute shots.  She looks so old to me here, like a kid instead of a baby.  Sigh.  Growing up.  I kind of hate it.  She kind of looks like she's trying to whack the camera out of the hands of a paparazzi person.

 And here she is in the most recent picture I have of her.  She is posing for me.  I had to take the picture three times, because she blinked and then looked up, and then finally she has a nice smile.  She's wearing her favorite color.  We are on our way to playgroup.  I did notice in the shot where she was looking up that she has Bill's nose. But she really looks so much like me when I was little.  It's kind of amazing.  She is such a good little girl.  She listens really well, even though she's moving into the inevitable "terrible twos" stage and wanting to do things herself.  She is still very affectionate and will kiss me if I mention, even in passing, that something hurts.  She is just the sweetest child ever, and I will never for the life of me know what I ever did to deserve her.

Chocolate

It's no secret that I love chocolate.  If I could eat nothing but chocolate and still live, I would.  No kidding.  I was so good and cut back a lot on my sweets and cookies and things after Karina was born.  Stopped buying them, except for M&Ms, which I will NEVER give up.  Recently, my sweet tooth has come back to bite me with a vengeance.  Apparently, it is craving Hershey's Drops.  Oh.  My.  Good.  Sweet.  Hershey's.  I can't stop eating them!  I mean, I REALLY can't stop!  I'm eating them right now!  They're like bigger M&Ms but without the candy shell.  Don't worry, M&Ms are still my One True Love, but these....mmmmmmmm.  So good.  If you like chocolate but haven't tried them yet, be careful.  Maybe you shouldn't.  You might end up like me, buying a bag or four a week.  (very small exaggeration)

Oh, and I didn't get paid or compensated by anybody to say this.  I just wrote it because it's true.  I buy the candy myself, and eat it myself. 

Lambkin is Musical

On Sundays after church, we go downstairs and have Musikgarten.  Karina loves it of course, because it's pretty much the same as her Wednesday class, only it's religious instead of secular.  Today, Karina needed to bring Lambkin with her to church.  If you don't know, Lambkin is her very very special stuffed lamb.  He was given to her by our Musikgarten teacher's daughter, funnily enough, when the youth group had a quasi-shower for me after she was born.  He is the only stuffed animal she will snuggle.  He comes out with us to lots of places, and today, it was church.  When we got downstairs for Musikgarten, I told her Lambkin would have to sit on the couch and watch.  She was fine with that, and there he sat. 

After we had done a few songs, and heard the sound of the cow and horse, to satisfy Peter's request (all week long he demands to hear the cow and horse and to go to Musikgarten and sing), it was time to use an instrument.  Today, it was shakers.  They are little wooden cylinders about two or three inches long and about an inch and a half in diameter.  They have something inside that makes a muted shaking sound that is actually very pleasant.  Linda calls each child by name when it is their turn to choose their instrument from the box (they are all the same, but the kids still get to pick theirs out, as well as one for their mom or dad or grown-up).  When it was Karina's turn, she picked up three.  One for her, one for me, and one for Lambkin!  She put it right in front of him so he could use it, and Miss Stephanie, who was there learning some of the songs, was not allowed to borrow Lambkin's shaker!

When the song was over, and we put the instruments away, Karina took mine, hers, and Lambkin's, and put them away, just like she usually does.  It was so cute.

Here are a few photos of Karina and her precious Lambkin.  To let you know, he is a stuffed head of a lamb with a flat, blanket-like body.  He is a Gund Comfy-Cozy pet called "Lopsy".  He is super soft, and while he may look unusual, she ADORES him.

 This was Lambkin at the Halloween Party.  She's handing him to me so she can play.  (Above)
Below, there he is being dragged around the house.

 Here he is on the rocking chair on our porch.  You can tell his body is flat.

 And now he is relaxing in the backyard on one of Karina's little chairs.  She's laughing because he's in the chair (you can't tell she's laughing because of how I caught her with the camera, but she is).

These images are mine and are not to be used on any other site.  Thanks.

Mixed Emotions

Tomorrow is Karina's allergy appointment.  I'm so nervous about it, and I can't figure out why.  Okay, that's a lie.  I know exactly why.  I am really hoping she will test not allergic to peanuts, but I know she probably won't.  So it's like I'm bracing for the worst, but still knowingly setting myself up for a bigger disappointment.  Plus, I know Karina will be even more scared than she was last time. 

Then, there's the part of me that gets mad at myself for feeling any kind of disappointment at her allergy at all.  I know there are so many worse things that could be "wrong" with her.  I know she could be very sick or have a much more serious condition.  Her peanut allergy has actually been pretty easy to deal with.  She has not had any reactions at all since the one when she was a year old.  We've never had to use the Epi-Pen (thank goodness) or even Benadryl.  So if she is still allergic, it's probably pretty mild (which I think is unusual). 

My mind constantly goes back to other little ones I know or know of who are facing and fighting much more difficult battles.  A little one I know, whose mom I taught with and who is a friend of mine through school, has been fighting leukemia for the last year, not some lame peanut allergy.  And just recently, many of you probably know, little Emily Hubbel from Coupon Mommy of 3 was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma.  Hers is really serious, while my friend's daughter is actually doing really well.  Emily has just recently started her chemo and treatment, so it's too soon to tell exactly what's going on.  Anyway, the point is that I should be so grateful that all she has is an allergy. 

And I AM thankful, but at the same time, I'm still a mom who wants her daughter to be in perfect health.  I can't help it. 

So I'm still, perhaps stupidly, crossing my fingers that they'll do the scratch test on her back tomorrow and there will be no mark.  Nothing.  And then they can do a food challenge, and she'll inhale half a gallon of peanut butter and laugh about it.  Sigh.  But deep down, I think that won't happen.

What a Fun Day!

Today was a great day..  First we went to a birthday party for a little sweet baby girl who turned one.  Her older sister is Karina's friend E.  The birthday party was fantastic.  It was small, only about 6 play-age kids, plus the birthday girl and another little wee one.  That was great.  E has a big wooden backyard playset/gym with a slide and swing, and sandbox underneath.  There was a ladder or a rock wall to get up to the little clubhouse, so Karina needed help getting up, but she loved sliding down the slide.  She also loved swinging after she saw her friend E swinging.  In fact, whatever E did, Karina wanted to do.  That was adorable, I thought.  Then later, E's mom hooked up their inflatable bounce house.  Karina did not want to go in it.  I kept asking her, and she kept telling me "no".  Finally, I convinced her to try it, and once she got in it, she loved it.  I think she was nervous about the other kids in there at the same time as her.  She got to run around with no shoes on and watch the dog chase the ball.  She had the absolute best time, and was completely wiped out by the end of the party!

After her nap, we headed up to my dad's house.  We had never been there, so it was about time we finally got over to his new place.  It was a shame we had to go there so late, because after dinner, Louise really wanted to show us around, but we had to take Karina home.  I had even forgotten about daylight savings time, so now I wish we could have left a bit earlier.  But we'll go back again soon; it wasn't as far as I thought.  Karina really enjoyed playing in the backyard and especially on the ramp to the big garage/shed my dad built (almost completely by himself!).  She was ready to go home, though, she kept grabbing my hand and saying, "home, home, home".  It was neat because she's never said that before, but it was kind of sad, too, because I didn't want my dad to feel bad that we had to leave.  It was a good but very busy day.  Tomorrow will be another busy one!

Shrove Tuesday at Church

Tonight at church they had a pancake supper for Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras.  I had forgotten about it until my mom called.  Let me back up.  First, today, we had a wonderful playdate with a friend of mine who brought her daughter over to play with us.  Little C was so much fun, although Karina did not particularly enjoy sharing her toys at first.  But my friend's sister came, too (she's visiting from France) and Karina loved being the center of attention a lot of the time.  At one point, C brought a sippy cup to Karina and held it for her to drink from.  She kept doing this because she was not allowed to drink out of them herself!

Okay, on to the evening.  My mom called and wanted to know if we were going, so we decided to go.  Karina likes pancakes, and it meant I didn't have to cook.  Always a plus!  We got down to church and the first thing I noticed when we parked out back was that the alarm was going off.  I figured they burned some pancakes (that is what happened).  So after a minute or two, it stopped, so Karina and I went in.  Our pastor pulled up as we were going in, so I wasn't too worried.  When we park out back, we have to walk down a long hall through part of the school portion of the building.  As we were walking down this long hall, the alarm went off again, right in our ears!  Karina started screaming and crying, and I couldn't pick her up to run out because my hands were so full.  So I kind of pulled her along the hall to get out the front door quickly to get away from the noise.  Poor baby was just crying and crying.  She finally calmed down and we went back in.  The alarm thankfully did not go off again (but the fire department did show up).  We went downstairs to the social hall and picked a table.  As we sat there waiting for my mom, they were putting up a few decorations.  They had hung some beads on the wall clock, which caused it to fall off the wall, crash!  Poor Karina.  She didn't like that, either.  Finally pancakes were served, we ate, and Karina wanted to get down.  She walked up and down the social hall, laughing and watching me to see how far she was allowed to go.  Then they started some entertainment.  Our organist had four people there to sing some broadway tunes for us.  They were really good, and Karina was enjoying it.  She was standing by my side while I sat at the table with my mom.  We were at the very front so we had a good view.  Then we noticed that Karina's friend E and another girl I didn't know were dancing just behind us.  I showed Karina and asked if she wanted to go dance with them, and she did!  She went right over and E danced with her and hugged her.  Karina danced and danced...the girls totally stole the show!  Finally, there was a pinata for the kids, and Karina got to try whacking it!  She hit it three times!  Then she picked up some of the candy that fell out even though she can't eat any of it.  She kept trying to put it in her mouth with the wrappers on!

It was a really fun night, and I am so glad we went.  Oh, and to top it off, we had a great view of the space station and space shuttle passing right overhead! 

Just A Few Pics

I don't think I've shared any Karina shots in a while.  Here is one you'll love.  You see those little red circles?  Those are rubber stamps of buttons that I got at my last stamp club with Steph.  Karina saw me opening them and wanted to play with them.  She decided that the buttons were reading books, so she got out a book for each button and opened it up.  Now Karina is reading with the buttons.

Here is her quilt, almost finished.  She is pointing to herself because she wants me to take a picture of her so she can see it on my camera.  This is what she does all the time now.  I did finish the quilt and she sleeps under it every night now.

Not sure if I shared these last two already, so sorry if I did.  You'll just have to look at her cute face again!  This red dress is the one she had her 2 year old pictures done in.  I just love it on her.  It's the only time I ever paid full price, with no coupons or anything, at Gymboree for a dress.  I love their clothes, but I can't usually afford them at regular price.  But I had to have this dress for her.  I'm so glad I got it because her portraits turned out phenomenally good.  I could have bought every single pose.

This is Karina watching Elmo and Sesame Street.  She is almost in a trance.  This is what scares me about kids and TV....they seem to fade out of reality.  I definitely look forward to Sesame Street nights, because I get a bit of a break--no demands on me--and I get to snuggle up with her at the same time.  That is the best part.  She's so busy now that she's a Big Girl that she doesn't cuddle much anymore.  She's in a toddler bed, too, so that means no quick hugs while putting her into/taking her out of her crib.  Sigh.  How did she grow so big so fast? 

Birthday Party

Today Karina had a birthday party to go to for a friend of hers from playgroup.  It was a pool party at the local YMCA.  I was a little skeptical about how much fun it would be.  After all, a pool party for a 2 year old?  But it turned out to be a really fun time!  When we got there, there was the usual birthday party chaos, and then we had some snacks and cake.  The whole time, Karina kept saying "wawa" and "pool".  She was so ready to go swim!  We had talked about going to this pool party birthday party earlier that day, and I knew she was excited.  She even had her new water shoes on that we got at Children's Place yesterday.  Purple, of course.  She was purple from head to toe today!  Finally after cake, it was time to put on her bathing suit and get in the water.  She could barely contain herself.  This Y had a kids' pool, which went from 2 feet to 3 and a half feet, so it was perfect.  Karina kept wanting to go to the deep end without me holding her.  She didn't seem to understand that the water was getting deeper.  We got her to float on some of the pool noodles and then finally, after swallowing water a few times (ew, yuck), she figured out that she could not stand up in the deeper parts of the pool.  She was happy to splash around, float, pick her feet up and squeal crazily, and play on the steps.  She got to talk to her little friend the birthday boy a few times, too.  By "talk" I mean look at him, be next to him, and say  "Hi" about four times.  Two year olds don't talk much. 

It was a really great party, and I'm so glad we were invited.  Even though Karina's nap time was somewhat interrupted, it was completely worth it.  Plus, while we were there, we found out they are moving out of the US in June, so I was really bummed about that.  But I was very happy that we went and I hope the little guy had a great time at his party!  I can't wait to talk to his mom on Monday at playgroup.

Celebration of Life

I think I have mentioned in the last month that my youth group was doing a big dinner for the seniors in our church to thank them for all their support of the kids.  We do the dinner every year, and it always has a different theme.  We make lunch, decorate, and provide entertainment.  This year, the kids chose the theme "Broadway".  As in ALL of Broadway!  It actually turned out to be one of the best COLs we've ever done.  We got so many compliments on the food, entertainment, and decorations!  It was really gratifying, considering Kelly and I worked our tails off for a month getting everything together!  We even shopped for the food on her birthday!

Here are pictures (I know, actual pictures!  On MY blog!!) of some of the event.

Each table had a theme of a different broadway show.  Here is The Wizard of Oz.  We have a witch hat and a bunch of memorabilia that came in a box set of the movie that Bill bought for Karina and me.  I don't know if you can see the little brown dog figurine, but he came from a dollar store and looks just like Toto.

 Aladdin.  Just an extra table because it was awesome.

 Beauty and the Beast.  One of our other youth leaders brought in the rose in a glass dome.  There's Karina's talking teapot.  We also used some books, a puzzle, some candles, and a booklet.  We took the crown out.  We had put that down when we were desperate for some decorations, but one of the kids brought some more so we didn't need it.

 Cats.  We used dollar store cat figurines and some actual broadway memorabilia that Kelly and I had.

 Grease.  I made fake records and we used some toy cars, sunglasses, combs, and two mini poodle skirts I made from felt.

 Hairspray (we had some other decorations that we added after I took this picture).  Those are ceramic, old-style TVs I found at the dollar store.  Don't they look retro?  And there are two blue kids' wigs.

 The King and I.  I was so afraid we wouldn't have enough for this table to decorate properly, but we ended up with tons, thanks to my mom.  There are some fans, a shawl that's actually from China but still looked good, and some photos from different broadway versions of it.  Too bad you can't see the little elephant figurine that is my grandmother's and came from India. 

 The Lion King.  You can see the stuffed lions, and the things from Africa are Kelly's.

 My Fair Lady was another one I was worried about not having enough for.  It turned out fine, though.  We used fake flowers (from my wedding; yes I had fake flowers.  I got to keep them that way.), two porcelain dolls that are mine, and a little bag made from my mom's old wedding gown.  There's a story behind that, too. Allow me to digress if you will: she is divorced.  She had the bag made for my first wedding and I used it before the ceremony.  I got divorced.  My brother got married and his ex-wife used the bag and got divorced.  When Bill and I got married, I did not use the bag.

 Oklahoma!  Straw hats, pretty obvious.  Oh, and there are two ceramic or porcelain dolls, too.

 My favorite, The Phantom of the Opera.  In my opinion, the best broadway show ever.  Got some fake roses, some masks, some broadway memorabilia, and I found the black box at Target, put one of Karina's tiny stuffed monkeys on top and gave him her little Musikgarten finger cymbals to wear so the box could be the famous music box from the show. 

 I made these broadway star posters for each youth member who participated.  It says their character and what show they were in. 

 One of the girls didn't get her picture taken, so she didn't have her photo on her sign. 

 

Serving

 Crazy kitchen!  I hate being in there, I am always in the way somehow.

 Here I am as Christine Daae from The Phantom of the Opera (sounds like die-ay).

 Me and Kelly.

 Kelly in character.

 One of the girls in character.  She's Nellie from South Pacific.

 Two of the girls as Thoroughly Modern Millie and Dorothy.

 One of our leaders as the sultan from Aladdin.

 Our entertainment included a special guest singer.  This young lady is not a member of our youth group, but is a student in the Sultan's class.  She filled in for another girl at the last minute and did a great job.  She sang a song from "Into the Woods". 

 These are two of our girls doing a Rockettes number that they choreographed themselves. 

There you have it.  I'm so glad it's over, even though it was fun and successful, I was exhausted afterwards!  A whole year til the next one....

Train Set

For Christmas my dad gave Karina a small wooden train set.  It's the kind with the little wooden track pieces that fit together, such as the popular Thomas the Train style tracks have.  Hers is not Thomas, it's an off brand, but she doesn't care (and neither do I).  She has enjoyed playing with it, but the track configurations were pretty limited.  There were only 2 straight pieces of track, so you pretty much had to make an oval.  Last week, while we were shopping at our local big box store, I saw that in their clearance section they had add-on sets of wooden track just like Karina's.  $7 a box was tempting, but I didn't think Karina played with her train set enough. 

Today we were back doing some grocery shopping, and I went looking for them.  The last few days she's been carrying the little train cars around, so I thought it might be worth getting a box.  Lo and behold they were reduced even further to only $3 for a box of 25 pieces!  I got two boxes.  Each set has a bunch of straight and curved pieces, as well as two ramps, a bridge, and four support pieces. 

After her lunch, I wanted to pull out the pieces and make sure they worked with her set.  Not using my brain, I started messing with the train set at about 1230...and her naptime is 1.  I'm a genius, what can I say!  She was ecstatic over the hills we made.  She kept squealing, "Up, down!" and she played with the set until I finally made her take her nap at 1:30.  I told her when she had 10 minutes and 5 minutes left, and then at 1:30, I said it was naptime and she crawled right into her bed. 

We had to take the train set to my mom's today after she woke up from her nap.  As soon as she woke up, she wanted to play with it again.  I'm so glad I got the additional track for her!

Big and Little

Karina notices everything that is big and little, and they are always Mama and Baby.  Cars, toys, spoons, anything she sees.  Monday it was the cars in the parking garage at playgroup, today it was the utensils.  Her trucks are Mamas and Babies, too.  She has a bunch of Chuck trucks, and some are bigger than the others. 

I am really proud of her for knowing all her colors!  She knows all of them, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, brown, and black!!  I think this is insanely advanced and I don't know how she knows them, but she does.  She is proud, too, because she always tells me the colors of things she sees.  She also really likes to tell me what color she wants to wear each day.  Usually it's 'burpa' (purple). 

My girl is growing up!!