David, Dana, & Gabby

Time flies

2011-07-28T22:26:00.003-05:00

As Chalna reminded me today at the pool...my last post was titled "Back to School" and here we are just a few short weeks from starting a whole new school year! Whoops.

I'm not even going to try to sum up all that we did this past year; most of you can probably piece it together from Facebook posts anyway. But overall...things are good. Summer is mostly over and it has been a good balance of time hanging out with my sweet pea, time with friends, visits with family, and a little bit of relaxing solitude.

David still works ridiculously late, and is frequently on call on weekends, but I'm not going to complain about that. He is employed. He is a wonderful dad, and continues to be Gabby's hero. He always makes time for me; he always does little things to show he cares and values me. And as always, he doesn't bat an eye when I do things like leave town solo for a week in Austin to be with family. He works long hours and takes care of Gabby, the two cats, and the absurdly high-maintanence little dog when I can't be there.

Gabby is my little sidekick. I love this age. At times she is stubborn and we butt heads, but most of the time she is wonderful. I love her strong will and her outgoing personality. She is not afraid to say what she thinks, even if it goes against what everyone else thinks. She is a leader among her friends, she has confidence, and she is constantly saying and doing things that make David and I question, "where did this child come from??" She has never met a stranger, and she will talk your ear off if you give the tiniest sign that you are interested. If she has just two pieces of her favorite candy (chocolate), she will offer you one of her pieces, and will do it joyfully. She has a kind heart. She is very serious about her role as "Lilly's Mom" and she takes very good care of her little dog.

There is really no place I can't take her. Aside from the usual playdates and fun outings, we go shopping, we have lunch dates just the two of us, she accompanies me to CVS to pick up a prescription, to the bank, to get groceries to try out a new recipe...she's up for anything. I always call her my shopping buddy (which angers her..."I'm a GIRL, and girls are NOT buddies!") but it doesn't feel like I'm having to manage/babysit a kid; she really is just my sidekick.

Gabby is a social butterfly, and she adores her friends. We have spent time with Finley, Jackson, Olivia, Colin, Luke and Haydn, Ava, Erin, Connor, and Brooke this summer, and Gabby is over the moon happy everytime I tell her about plans we have with friends.

She had her first "sleepover" this summer at Finley's house. The girls wanted to go out for sushi (we may have the only two 4 year olds who regular request sushi dinners) and so we went out to eat and then back over to Finley's. The girls got all set up in sleeping bags in the TV room, but there was NO sleeping on Gabby's end. She practically wore a path in the carpet going back and forth between the TV room and Finley's room, where I was sleeping. I finally just let her in bed with me...and then Finley woke up, and sadly realized she was all alone. So...Gabby slept in bed with me in one room, and Finley slept in bed with Christina in another. Her first slumber party was a FAIL, but we did have lots of fun!

Much of the time in the summer is just the two of us, and there is only so much princess/my little pony/strawberry shortcake pretend play that I can handle. So I am thankful that Gabby loves to play games. Some days we don't even go into the playroom at all. We have started playing cards; I taught Gabby how to play Crazy 8's and Go Fish. We also play Yahtzee, Memory, and The Guess Who Game (my personal favorite). And she is actually really good! I never let her win, yet she still beats me almost half of the time at any game we play.

She is getting SO CLOSE to reading, but she frustrates easily and doesn't want to sound words out. She memorizes, she guesses, she gives up. I haven't pushed it, we just try to do a little reading each day. When she does actually feel like trying, she does great. I am hoping that she will make some good progress this fall when school starts again. She cannot WAIT for school to start. She loved pre-school last year, and did so well. Her teacher was wonderful, and knew exactly how to work with Gabby. She always acknowledged how well Gabby did, but never stopped pushing her, and never let her get complacent. She also did well fostering Gabby's leadership abilities while squelching her bossy tendencies. From our few conversations, I could tell Ms. Tiffany got Gabby.

I completed my first year back in the classroom and am going back for more. It was a challenging year, but I am still happy with the choice I made. I know I was able to do some really good things for my kids this year, but there is still so, so SO much room for improvement. I really struggled at first being new...I just felt so out-of-sorts...not knowing what was going on, not used to the tight schedule, not having a good group of friends, and feeling very disconnected. I was no longer in the loop about district issues, but I was not yet in the loop about my campus. I still feel a little isolated from the district and sheltered in my own building, but at least I no longer feel like a visitor at my own school. I work with some really great people. I finally know every staff member at least a little bit, and some I have gottent to know really well. And the more I get to know people, the more I like them. I know I just said it, but I work with some really great people.

They didn't replace me this past year when I left the specialist position, but for next year, they decided to hire THREE people to work with the middle schools. I was asked to interview for one of the positions...it really would have been awesome to work with two others (and the two others I love, and I would have been so excited to have them as counterparts) and they were being super flattering and it was a total ego boost, yet...I didn't even give it a thought. It may have been a stupid decision to pass it up, but I'm just not ready to go anywhere yet. I'm just getting warmed up.

So....I officially have two more weeks of summer after this one, and thoughts of the impending school year are beginning to creep back into my consciousness. Gabby has 4 days of daycare left this summer, and I will probably spend them all working up at school getting ready. Outside of that, we have a few more playdates scheduled, I have a couple of friends I want to see before summer ends, and hopefully David and I can squeeze in a date night (or two!). And in the meantime, I plan to just enjoy lots of work-free, schedule-free time with my girl :)

Back to school

2010-08-17T19:43:00.003-05:00

I'm back at work! And so far, things are going ok. Granted, school doesn't start for another week, so I still have not had the experience of teaching all day long yet. Here is the good and the bad so far...

The Good:

I am surviving. I don't feel overwhelmed (although perhaps I SHOULD be feeling a bit more overwhelmed). I don't feel overly stressed. Obviously, the hard part hasn't started yet. But previously when I taught, I still got plenty stressed prior to school starting. I am hoping this is a sign that I might make it through the year.
I am feeling energized! Amazingly, although I come home tired, it is just a nice "tired" and not "EXHAUSTED-WORN OUT-BEAT DOWN". It is the tired but satisfying feeling of putting in a full day and feeling like I accomplished something. I've been going to bed at a reasonable time and haven't had trouble waking up early in the morning. Throughout the summer I still did one or two early morning work-outs each week...I think that helped me transition.
I have had ZERO trouble sticking to healthy habits...gym each morning before work, packing healthy food to eat at school, and staying away from treats and goodies that are offered. I got on a really good roll this summer and lost most of the weight I put on over the course of the last year. I've got a ways to go, but I am thinking that teaching will probably prove to be helpful as opposed to hurtful...on my feet and moving all day, no opportunities for random snacking, etc.
My classroom is looking ADORABLE. I have no idea yet how functional it will be, but what started out as a bare and semi-trashy room is now a space that feels like MINE.
We had an informal "Meet the Teacher" night last week for new 6th graders. I met tons of new students and parents that night, and I cannot begin to describe how wonderful an experience it was. My kids are no longer faceless blurs in my imagination. To finally have names and faces and personalities...it cleared my head of ANY nagging doubts I had about leaving my old job behind. Despite spending 12 hours up at school that day, I left feeling so energized and positive. David and I met for a late dinner that night and although I was physically pooped, I was talking a mile a minute sharing every detail of the experience with him, and my mind was just racing with excitement.

The Not So Good:

I still have SO MUCH to learn about my new school. It has been ages since I have been a newbie like this. Even at my old job, I was new...but the whole position was new, and my friend Josie was new along with me. So it wasn't like I was struggling to get up to speed with the rest of the specialists...we were the only two specialists. I didn't feel behind; I guess that is the main difference. This isn't a terribly huge problem; it just feels a little discombobulating that there is just so much I don't know about.
There are a handful of people I know at the school, and several who I really like and am looking forward to working with. But I don't have friends yet. And I know in time I will make friends, but for right now, I feel a little sad that I don't have a closeness with anyone there. I bring my lunch every day because when we break for lunch, I'm not included yet in any of the little groups who go out to lunch together. Ok that is not entirely true...I actually PREFER to bring my lunch rather than go out and spend money or eat a big restaurant meal in the middle of the day...but it DOES conveniently provide a "safety net" for me so I don't have to stress over whether or not someone will let me tag along to lunch with them. And yes, I know if I just spoke up and asked if anyone wanted to grab lunch that I would be welcomed, but being the one new kid makes me feel more shy and uncomfortable than I would feel in a group where all of us were strangers.
I have a lot of students. A LOT. My smallest class has 29, and the rest are between 31 and 34. I have NEVER taught such large classes, and I am apprehensive not only about managing them in the classroom, but also about being able to keep tabs on 154 kids as a whole.
Overall, I just hate this whole transition period. I miss my friends from my old job, but I don't have new ones yet at this one. I don't know my way around the building yet. None of my logins for any programs I need to use work, or they all still associate me with my old job so I don't have access to the right things. It takes me twice as long to do anything because I need to ask for help with almost everything. Where something is, who I am supposed to go to, how to use this machine, what the rule or protocol is for something, who gets what...I just don't know any of that stuff!
I feel like I have to perform at a really high level to meet people's expectations for me. That is partly just my own perception, but the pressure feels the same. I know I am a really good teacher, and I know I am coming into this with a lot of knowledge. All that I have learned and experienced in the last 5 years is going to make me 10 times the teacher I was before. But still, it has been FIVE YEARS since I was in this role, and I may be knowledgeable, but I am rusty. My brain is not used to balancing 8,492 things at one time while operating in 45 minute segments of time. I need to feel like I have the time and space to get my groove back, and to find a way to assimilate the things I have learned in the last 5 years into the background experience I am carrying with me from my first teaching job.

Ok so that kind of ended on a negative note, but overall, I feel good about things. I can't wait to get to know my kids next week. I am excited about all of the things we will learn. I actually DON'T feel like my life is ending because summer has ended. I will certainly miss all of our summer fun, but now we are moving on to different fun! And Gabby is moving on to newer and better things too...she will be a pre-schooler in 2 weeks! Preschool this year, Pre-K next year (maybe...or maybe just preschool again, not sure which we will do), and then KINDERGARTEN the year after that! Oh MY...

Summer pics

2010-08-09T11:24:00.008-05:00

Here are the few pics I have taken throughout the summer...

Swim lessons! This is at the end of her second round of lessons, as you can tell by the fact that she is smiling and not crying. It was a really good decision to have her take two consecutive sessions since things really started clicking for her midway through the second class.

She adored those darn diving rings. She spent all of her free time in class collecting them and wearing them as crowns.

Victory! She is underwater! By choice! No tears, just lots of pride. She is so proud of herself now for how far she has come.

This is also quite a contrast to the first few weeks...she is in line to jump, and she is HAPPY. Jumping in was a major source of anxiety for her. She would stand in line and cry, and let each kid go in front of her until it was just her sad self, all alone, crying, the only one who didn't want to jump. Most days she ended up breaking down so bad that the instructor didn't make her jump, or allowed her to hold hands and didn't put her under the water. But look where we are now...

Another victory!!! I never thought I would see the day where she just jumped on in. We still have a long way to go, but she has finally mastered jumping in and going under. Yea, Gabby!

This summer we swam A TON with Chalna and Colin. We met up for swimming and picnic lunches at Old Town, Rosemeade, and Flower Mound aquatic centers. And yes, we dorks have the same swimsuit. And we love it so much that we don't even care if the other one is wearing it...we just both keep showing up wearing our favorite suit.

Gabby had a blast one day going down the slides at Rosemeade with Chalna. Chalna was a great sport...she must have gone down these slides 20 times (while I watched leisurely from the pool below...HA!)

This was Colin's favorite game...giving Gabby a push down the slides.

At first, Gabby was too scared to go down this tube slide. It is a pretty tame slide, and I tried REPEATEDLY to get her to try it, knowing if she would just TRY it, she would love it. She was having none of that. Then hours later, she suddenly just up and decided she wanted to try it (all by herself) and she just marched up there and went! This child surprises me daily.

I always thought she looked so cute standing in line...always the shortest one up there!

Because she is little, she always got all turned around in the slide. Didn't bother her a bit, though! Across the way, there is another similar tube slide, but about 3 times as large and much faster. And they don't allow lap-sitting on that one. I never tried to push her to try that one, but did tell her that she was welcome to try it if she wanted to. She never showed interest, but yesterday we were there swimming with my friend Julie and her two kids (Alexander and Giada). She just looked over at the big slide and said, "Mom, I want to go on that big one over there." And she did! I stood in line with her and went down after her...she did great! I thought she was going to get nervous while standing in line with all the anticipation, but she didn't at all. She didn't request to go down again, but did say, "That big one is FUN! It's so BIG! It goes really FAST! It made me come out the wrong way!" (It did...she came out feet first on her belly!)

Gabby begged me ALL SUMMER to have some friends over for a tea party. So finally one day we invited Olivia and Josie, and Christina and Finley over for tea and lunch. We had the girls come over at 10:30...next time I might need to have a breakfast tea...Gabby was SO excited she could barely wait that long. She woke up asking "is it time for my party? Is it time for my friends to come over?" and didn't quit until they arrived.

Gabby picked out the Barbie tablecloth, pink plates, and pink napkins herself.

Finley

Olivia

Toasting with their raspberry-apple tea

I should have taken pictures of the food before they started eating. I made finger sandwiches (PB&J hearts, grilled ham and cheese, and pineapple-cream cheese), strawberry muffins, mini quiches, and little fruit tarts (mini versions of fruit pizza on sugar cookies). We also had veggies with dip and fruit. It all turned out so cute and the girls had a ball together.

Colin had a super fun b-day party at the pool! Here is Gabby ANXIOUSLY awaiting some cake. I was cracking up...she just happened to be one of the last kids to get a piece, and her expression was priceless as she was watching all of the kids around her get their cake while she was waiting. Reminded me of the scene in Office Space where Milton keeps passing cake to everyone else (although Gabby did indeed get a piece, of course).

Score, got cake!!

I just thought this was cool. We made a birthday card for Pattie. I just wrote Happy Birthday on the outside and signed our names on the inside, and had Gabby decorate around it. Here is how she colored the inside. She loves to color in lines like this, but I thought it was neat the way she designed it symmetrically. She did the pink on the crease first, and then extended out to the left with other colors. Then I saw that she went back to the middle and repeated the pattern out to the right. She is pretty orderly when she colors. Now that she has more control over what she draws, she is very structured about how she does things. Interesting!

And to end things, here is my all time favorite picture. We were shopping at Costco and I was trying on some glasses. So of course, Gabby wanted to try some on too. This silly face just makes me smile.

Say it isn't so

2010-08-06T20:01:00.003-05:00

Today I filled up an entire day with the following:

Working out
Doing laundry
Buying groceries
Playing with Gabby
Preparing dinner

No biggie...but then I had a scary thought. Summer is over in 10 days. In 10 days, I'll STILL need to do most of those things on a daily basis, however I will ALSO need to spend somewhere in the vicinity of 9-10 hours at work every day. And that is assuming I don't have to bring additional work home on top of that. Yikes. That seems utterly impossible to me. It just seems like a cruel and inhumane way to live......how can I possibly be expected to work full time?? And be a parent?? And a wife?? And take care of day to day household stuff?? And still have some time for me?? AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I know it's possible...people do it all the time. A few months ago, I was doing it, and somehow things were just fine. I know things will be fine once I get back into the swing of things, but that is the problem with summer...(WHAT?!? I am complaining about SUMMER??)...it spoils me! It gets me "out of shape" for living my normal life.

Hopefully all my sadness about the impending end of this nice lifestyle I have so quickly gotten accustomed to will not hinder my enjoyment of these last precious few days!

Project pesto

2010-07-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

I have a little herb garden! After wishing I had fresh herbs for YEARS (seriously, probably 10+ years I have wanted to grow herbs) I finally planted myself a little patch. I have basil, thyme, sage, and rosemary. One of these days I want to plant dill. I planted these at the beginning of June, and frankly, I am surprised they have made it this long. I am NOT a gardener, and I really have no idea what to do with plants. When I got these little guys, it had probably been about 7 years since I have planted anything, and I had to call my mom to have her tell me step-by-step what to do. They have not only survived, they have all doubled in size since they were planted.

I needed to use up some of the basil, so I decided pesto would be the easiest solution. And bonus...Gabby LOVES pesto. It is her sauce of choice for pasta (likes it better than marinara, meat sauce, or butter/olive oil) and she also prefers it on pizza over regular red sauce. Every time we make homemade pizza, Gabby always asks, "will one of them be GREEN PIZZA?? Green is my fave-wit." So we always do one with pesto, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese, and pine nuts. THAT is her favorite...she won't eat regular pepperoni pizza, but she goes nuts over pesto, goat cheese, and pine nuts.

She was so excited to make pesto. After breakfast I asked, "Do you want to go swimming first, or do you want to make pesto with our basil?" She totally chose pesto over swimming.

Her job was to pull the leaves off the stems. She was really thorough...even plucked all the little baby leaves.

Posing proudly with her pile of leaves-

She always gets into some sort of mischief when we cook. This time it was picking up flakes of salt that had scattered on the counter top and licking them off her finger. Here she is cracking up while hunting for more salt flakes.

Our beautiful finished product! Tonight we are having linguine with pesto and grilled fish.

And don't you love her sweet little bob?! We finally chopped it off last week. Every time I get her hair cut, she tells me afterwards that she wishes it was shorter. So we went short this time, and she was so pleased. She checked herself out in the mirror all afternoon long. Her friend Gwen was her inspiration...she wanted hair like Gwen's. After it was cut, Gabby was so excited..."MOM! I can't wait to show Gwennie my hair! She gonna be so excited to see my hair! My hair is just like Gwennie's now! She gonna LOVE my hair!"

Summer highlights

2010-07-02T18:07:00.006-05:00

Been awhile, eh? Well we have been having a pretty swell summer so far...can't believe it is almost halfway over already! The first couple weeks of summer are always the best; that is when I am still functioning in turbo-mode from work, which means I am just SUPER efficient...lots of time for doing fun stuff with Gabby, lots of To-Do's getting done, a sparkling house, and still lots of free time left over for me. But by this point in the summer I have downgraded into summer-mode, and this is the time I start wondering how in the world it is possible to work and still get everything done...I start finding that one social activity and one chore or errand can somehow fill my whole day, and the To-Do's keep carrying over day after day. But oh well...the house is a little messier, things are a little slower-paced, and I am again facing dashed hopes of having the entire house reorganized and cleaned out before the end of the summer...but we are having a great time. Some highlights:

Swim lessons! This is Gabby's 3rd summer to take lessons, but up until now they have all been Parent/Child. Well this child is a big chicken when it comes to putting her face in the water. She loves to swim, so long as she doesn't have to dip her face or go under. We started our two week session a few weeks ago, and Gabby was BY FAR the one who struggled most in the class. It was almost painful at some points, and I don't know if there was even one lesson that didn't involve tears. But we did learn that Gabby's skills in debating, stalling, and manipulation were much more advanced that we previously thought, as we saw her continuously try to schmooze/lie/charm her way out of doing things she didn't want to do. Knowing in advance that this was going to be an uphill battle, I had signed her up for two sessions in a row. We started the second session this week, and things are going 100% better. This instructor is much more of a softie, and she doesn't push the kids quite as hard as the first one. On one hand, I don't think Gabby is progressing quite as much as she could have been with the first instructor...on the other hand, she is now BEGGING to go to her lesson each day.

Gabby had her first dance recital earlier in June...a very comical and adorable experience. A bunch of 3 year olds on a stage- TOO FUNNY. At one point in the routine, Gabby departed from all choreography and just spun around and around and around for about a third of the song. One of these days I will get the video posted.

We FINALLY quit using Pull Ups about a month or so ago, and Gabby is quite proud of herself. Since then we have only had one accident...not bad! Every night she gets up to go to the restroom within 30 minutes of going to bed (even though she always goes RIGHT before getting in bed). And then about half of the time she wakes up around 3 or 4 in the morning, but luckily they are quick trips and she always goes back to bed nicely. The other half of the time she just sleeps all night.

We have had some awesome playdates with Colin and Chalna...we have been going to various city aquatic centers, the ones that have great waterpark-ish features that are perfectly suited for young kids. We have had so much fun spending our mornings swimming, eating picnic lunches at the pool, and then coming home for some MEGA-long naps. This week we had to cancel our pool plans because of the rain, so we just met at the bookstore and then went out to lunch. Lunch was a trip...our kids are total comedians. Chalna wrote about the details of lunch here.

We have gotten together with Shashawn and Jackson a couple of times...Bounce U one week and Paradise Pond the next. Gabby and Jackson are really sweet together...unless they are pelting Shashawn and me with dodge balls. Us moms worked up a sweat at Bounce U playing with the kids...luckily at Paradise Pond the two of them were content to just play and play, and Shashawn and I got some time to chat.

We got to visit Melody, Luke, and Haydn last week...while Haydn took her morning nap, the big kids played, and Melody and I just hung out in the kitchen all morning and talked. Very low-key and very enjoyable. One time a while back when I was visiting, Melody mentioned that her house needed to be cleaned but that I was the kind of friend she didn't feel like she had to clean the house for...I love having friends like that...and I was excited to be that kind of friend for her. Anyway, once Haydn woke up we walked down the street to a spray park in her neighborhood, had a picnic lunch, and then let the kids run around in the water. Gabby now wants to know where the spray park in OUR neighborhood is.

I have FINALLY gotten Gabby to willingly go to the Kids Club at the gym with me. This was a major victory...she not only was excited to go, she is excited to go back. Yea! Since I started going to this new gym, she has gone with me one time...and that time they had to fetch me out of the class I was in, not once but TWICE because Gabby was crying for me. Normally I would not have let that deter me and I would have continued to bring her until she was comfortable, but actually prefer working out at the crack of dawn...when David and Gabby are still at home sleeping and the Kids Club isn't open anyway...so I never pushed the issue. I still probably won't take her more than once a week, but it is nice to know it won't be something she dreads.

We got in a car accident this week in the rain...Gabby and I are totally fine, but the car is definitely not (although it is driveable, luckily). We were stopped at a light, and another car tried to pull out onto our street from the parking lot next to us and just skidded right into the side of my car. A 17 year old kid driving his mom's car...no license, and no insurance. FIGURES. Our insurance appraiser came out yesterday and the repair will cost $4300 and will take 9 to 10 days. Luckily I only have to pay a $250 deductible (which I might be able to recover if they get any money out of the guy) and my rental car will be covered as well. Still a big pain, but it could have been much much worse.

We had a lunch date with my friend Mary and her grandson Joshua, who is 10 months old. He and Gabby are daycare buddies, and they kept each other quite entertained. Mary and I managed to have an HOUR AND FORTY MINUTE LUNCH...this Joshua kid is an ANGEL. There is no way on earth I could have had such a long lunch out when Gabby was that age. We were past the cramming-food-as-quickly-as-possible stage, but certainly no where near the eat-with-leisure stage.

I am continuing to be in denial that at some point in the next month I have to set up an entire classroom from scratch, as well as plan and teach a workshop on reasoning with fractions. Summer brain has taken over and I can't seem to get myself to think about work just yet.

Truth be told, I was actually thinking this summer was going to be a bit of a drag. We had to cancel our Gulf Shores vacation, after I spent a lifetime finding the PERFECT house for our us and our families. Turns out it was for the best...our A/C is on its last legs and we are going to need a whole new unit before the end of the year. So, there goes our vacation fund (along with another few thousand dollars...ack!). The whole month of May was stressful for both of us, with job uncertainty for me, major job stress for David, as well as lots of other personal and family issues. I was preoccupied and didn't have a chance to plan lots of fun activities like I usually do. Not to mention, David's work schedule these days is just disastrous. He is rarely home before 8 pm and even then he sometimes has to do additional work at home. Normally we have lots of fun family time together in the summer...it just wasn't going to be the same this year with him being gone so much.

But despite all that, this is turning into a really great summer. David has managed to carve out plenty of time to spend with us, Gabby and I are enjoying all the mother-daughter time together, and we finally hired a housekeeper and a lawn service so we can just relax and have fun on the weekends. Now I just need to start taking some pictures so we can have some documentation of all this summer fun!

More car convos

2010-04-13T18:27:00.001-05:00

In the car the other day, Gabby said something genius and mature that I can't remember. I commented..."you are going to be so smart when you grow up!" And her vehement reply..."NO I NOT, I gonna be a PRINCESS!"
Last week while driving home, Gabby's random outburst was, "Mom...you have big boobs." Ummmm, no clue on how to begin to address that one!
David had to work late last night, so I told Gabby that Dad was stuck at work and she probably wouldn't get to see him that evening before bedtime. She responded, "OH NO!! How is Dad gonna get home from work?" Not understanding, I said, "In his car. He'll drive home." So she asked, "But how he gonna get UNSTUCK??? Should we go help him?"
Yesterday Gabby noticed that between the two of us, there were four hands in the car. So that prompted the following conversation...

Me: If Dad was in the car with us, how many hands would there be then?

Gabby: Ummm...one, two.....three, four.....five, six.....there would be SIX HANDS! Two fo' you, and two fo' me and two fo' dad.

Me: How many feet would there be?

Gabby: One, two.....three, four.....five, six.....there would be six feet TOO! Six hands, and six feet!

Me: How many heads would there be?

Gabby: (thinking, not counting aloud) Three heads! That be for you and for me and for Dad....and if Mimi and Bobba were in the car too, there would be...one, two three...four, five...FIVE HEADS!

Me: What if Aunt Teri was also in the car with us?

Gabby: (without missing a beat) Well then we would be SQUOOSHED! 'Cause there's only two spots in the back with me, those be for Mimi and Bobba, and then Dad be in the front, so Aunt Teri...she'd be SQUOOSHED!

Smarty pants!

Wardrobe FAIL

2010-04-09T18:52:00.001-05:00

Not long ago I thought we had the issue of Gabby's clothing particularities tackled. As usual, I have to eat my words.

We still have "leaving the house" clothes and "staying at home" clothes. However, Gabby is no longer agreeable to wearing anything deemed acceptable when leaving the house. For something to be acceptable, all I ask is that it is A) clean, B) of the correct season, and C) of a wearable size. I no longer even care if stuff matches half the time. Last weekend when Teri visited, she attempted to dress Gabby in something clean, of the correct season, and of a wearable size. There was not ONE ITEM that fell into those categories that didn't reduce her to sad, sad tears. By the time we were able to get her into something, we were ALL exhausted.
Wearing "staying at home" clothes is becoming a full time activity. Gabby wants to change her clothes 97 times a day. It takes her a long time to select an outfit, remove her clothes, and put on new clothes. We are getting to a point where she is beginning to miss out on activities because she is spending all of her time changing. Sometimes we only have 30 minutes of free play time in the evenings after work because the rest of the time is spent eating, bathing, and getting ready for bed. Gabby spends such a large chunk of that time changing out of her daycare clothes into her fun clothes that we run out of time to play.
Pajamas are included in Gabby's favorite "at home" items, but her unwillingness to change out of her jammies is now causing her to miss out on activities. Normally she LOOOOOOVES going to the park. Twice now she has refused to change out of her jammies so that we could go play at the park...she WILLINGLY sacrificed trips to the park because wearing pajamas was more important to her.
I am unable to get rid of (or at least pack up) Gabby's treasured clothing items despite the fact that they are WAY TOO TINY. We have two Hello Kitty shirts that look like they have been painted on her that she cannot bear to stop wearing, and two knit skirts that are size 24 months that are her absolute favorites. At first I didn't care if she wore tight clothes around the house, but now they are so constricting that she can barely even get them on her.
I ATTEMPTED to go with the flow...knowing that she has a strong preference for tank tops, knit skirts, and Hello Kitty gear, much of the new spring and summer clothes I bought for Gabby are tank tops, knit skirts, and Hello Kitty gear. Silly me, these new things are NOTHING like Gabby's favorites. Apparently, Old Tight Pink Knit Skirt = Everything Gabby Wants in Life and More, and New Appropriately Fitting Pink Knit Skirt = All That is Wrong in the World. She now has FOUR new Hello Kitty T-shirts that were intended to replace the skintight old ones...Gabby has found them to be UNACCEPTABLE.
For a brief moment, I thought I had a PURE GENIUS plan to address the issue of the skin tight Hello Kitty T-shirts. She has two Hello Kitty Build-A-Bears, and two tight shirts. So...let's let Kitty and Sister wear the shirts! That way, we don't have to get rid of them, but they are removed from the pool of viable options. Gabby seemed totally on board with the idea, and we both excitedly dressed Kitty and Sister in their new T-shirts. Everyone was happy for 5 minutes. Then, Gabby was ripping the shirts off of the kitties and CRYING for me to help her put one on her (help is needed because they shirts are SO TIGHT that Gabby cannot put them on by herself).

So...looks like we have a little bit of work cut out for us if we are going to keep Gabby's wardrobe preferences from ruling our lives.

Easter 2010

2010-04-08T19:10:00.000-05:00

Our Easter festivities spanned an entire week this year; Gabby got to celebrate at Pattie's with her annual Easter party, and we spent Easter day with David's parents for dinner and playtime. But probably most significant in Gabby's memory is the party we went to at my boss Pam's house. Pam loves kids and always mentions that we should bring our little ones over to her house. We have never really taken her up on that, so collectively, my co-workers and I decided we would ALL bring the kiddos over to Pam's house one day. Pam decided to have an egg decorating party and boy was it fun!

Pam went all out...she had decorations, tons of food, tons of candy and treats, and several egg decorating kits for the kids. She made each child a basket of goodies and had a stack of ADORABLE little aprons for them to wear while decorating. Gabby LOVED Pam, loved painting eggs, loved playing with Olivia and the other kids...it was a great day.

Sweet girl

Gabby and Olivia...double trouble with matching Cheese Faces

Time out...and of course I couldn't resist taking a picture of the poor sad lonely child.

Jackson was spiffy in his hot pink shirt.

Gabby took her decorating VERY seriously.

Craig and Caitlyn

Josie and Olivia. Olivia kept calling Gabby "Gabster" because Josie has referred to her as "the Gabster" before. Gabby was confused...she kept asking, "Mom, why Livia keep calling me, GABSTER??"

Caitlyn is concentrating hard...with a blue dye trickle coming out of her nose.

Two pals, taking a break to enjoy a snack together.

Of course, Pam got into the egg decorating too!

Pop quiz

2010-04-07T06:30:00.000-05:00

Lately my driving time with Gabby has turned into quiz time. Here's a couple of the funnier ones.

Gabby: Mom, can you name something that is GREEN?

Me: Hmmm, zucchini?

Gabby: Nope, it is something on the ground. It's like pointy things. Like carpet. For the ground.

Me: Is it GRASS?

Gabby: (clapping) Yea, you got it! It WAS grass! Good job, Mommy. Ok, now can you tell me something that goes into the toilet that starts with a "P"?

Me: Ummm, is it pee?

Gabby: NOPE! It's something else! Something else starts with a "P"! And this thing is BROWN.

Me: (oh dear...) Ok then it must be poop!

Gabby: YEP! Very good, mom. You do a good job guessing.

***********************************************

Gabby: Ok mom, you guess the princess. This one has yellow hair, I mean BLONDE hair, and it is long, and she wears a pink dress.

Me: Cinderella?

Gabby: (laughing) No, that would be SILLY! Cinderella...her dress is BLUE, not PINK! I trying to get you to guess AURORA.

Me: OH! Ok, give me another one.

Gabby: Ummm, this one she has black hair. And she wears a blue thing...ummmm, it is a thing....uh, it's like a THING, and it's BLUE...

Me: What do you mean a "thing"? Like, pants? A dress? What is blue?

Gabby: I don't know what you call it. IT'S THE THING THAT HOLDS YO BOOBS IN! (and she covered her chest with her hands, to illustrate).

Me: (rolling) You mean a BRA?

Gabby: Yeah yeah yeah...she wears a BLUE BRA!

Me: Are you talking about Jasmine??

Gabby: Yeah!! It IS Jasmine, she wears that BLUE THING ON HER BOOBS...I mean, that blue BRA. Mom, I LIKE this game. Now I want to be the one to guess so now let's do it backwards.

Spring break pics

2010-03-28T09:18:00.009-05:00

Spring break began with a funny story...

Saturday morning we had dance class right before Luke's birthday party at Paradise Pond. Which meant that after dance, we had to hurry and change clothes and hustle from the studio in Frisco to Paradise Pond in Grapevine. In my efforts to quickly get Gabby changed in the dance studio's bathroom, I dropped her little balled up socks RIGHT INTO THE TOILET (clean bowl, luckily). I knew you had to wear socks at the party, and couldn't remember if they kept extra socks to loan out, so here is how we drove to Grapevine...

It actually was pretty effective...the socks were totally dry by the time we got there. Gross, but dry.

This time I got roped into being the one to climb up with Gabby.

Gabby made a new friend, and no longer wanted me to go down the slide with her. She and her friend went down the slide at least a half dozen times together.

My first time down the super speed slide of death...LOVELY.

Three pals

Here Gabby, you want some of my juice?

Now I will have a taste of your milk.

Birthday boy Luke and his cupcake.

Chalna and me at Safari Park...it is becoming a new tradition for us to meet up for playdates anytime I have a school holiday.

Gabby and Colin and their phones...they had serious business matters to attend to.

Later that week we went to Melody's house to play with Luke and Haydn. Gabby had so much fun playing with all of Luke's toys, not to mention his super-cool games (we are going to have to go shopping to buy some of those games...Melody had some great games for little kids). For the most part Gabby and Luke were able to play nicely together, so Melody and I actually had a bit of time to catch up. Melody and I also have a long standing tradition of getting together during all of my school holidays.

Gabby decided to host story time for Luke, who sat nicely to hear her story. It was ADORABLE.

We went to Freebird's for lunch. Melody bought a brownie for all of us to share, and as soon as she broke it out to split it up, all of the kids swarmed.

I didn't get any other pics of Haydn...which is too bad because that baby is C-U-T-E. She has the brightest smile, and she is one of the ONLY babies who gives me baby-fever. She just has the chubbiest little cheeks, long eyelashes, and that perpetually surprised look...those are all things that I loved about Gabby's little baby face.

Olivia celebrated her 3rd birthday and her party was at a big bounce place. At the beginning of the party, Gabby wanted NOTHING to do with ANY of the slides or bounce houses...they were a little on the big side, and she was not in a particularly daring mood. She spent the first 30 minutes of the party sliding on this TINY little random slide that was no longer than the length of Gabby's body.

I was beginning to wonder how I was going to keep her entertained for another hour, and then they shuttled the group into a second room. That room had all new bounce houses and slides, and Gabby was immediately taken by a MASSIVE slide...it was bigger than all the ones she was scared of in the first room. And suddenly, my child who was too chicken to do anything all morning was leaving me in her dust to go climb up the 40 foot slide. She went down that slide without stopping for at least 45 minutes.

Gabby was cracking all the parents up with her "princessy" behavior. To ride the slide, kids needed to sit on a little canvas mat. The mats were kind of cumbersome to carry, especially for the little 3 year olds...hard to climb up those slippery inflated ladder rungs with a big canvas mat. Gabby immediately decided there was no point in doing work when she could find someone else to do it for her. When she reached the bottom of the slide, she would wait at the side with her mat until another kid came down...and she would just ask the next kid if they would carry her mat up for her. Most of the time she was approaching big kids who were happy to help, but a few times she wound up asking other confused looking 3 year olds who had no idea why they were being asked to carry this random child's mat.

Olivia had a Dora cake to match her Dora outfit.

All of the little girls were requesting chocolate cupcakes with pink icing...luckily there were enough of those to go around! Gabby was quite pleased.

Sean and Christina invited us over for fish tacos one night. While I was definitely excited to get together with our friends, I was exceptionally pumped to finally have a reason to make Pioneer Woman's tres leches cake. Tres leches is probably my all time favorite dessert...I salivated when I first read her recipe online, and then drooled up all over again when Chalna posted about it on her cooking blog. It did not disappoint, and was the perfect ending to our latin-inspired meal.

The whole evening was fun, and with a few particularly funny moments. Finley has a plastic cake with candles in it, and Gabby kept designating it as different people's birthdays. The girls would come out of the playroom holding the cake on the platter, and Gabby would announce..."It's DAVID'S birthday!" or, "It's CHRISTINA'S birthday!" And we would stop our conversations and take a moment to all sing happy birthday, blow out candles, pretend to serve up and eat some cake, and celebrate. Then they would go back to the playroom and we would go back to our conversations. Finley as usual was quite taken with David, and was constantly holding his hand, sitting in his lap, or asking him to pick her up and swing her around. Towards the end of the evening as we were trying to pack up to go, we all wound up with all 6 of us in the kitchen. Somehow this resulted in the girls grabbing some of our hands to hold, and then asking ALL of us to hold hands. Then they wanted to jump and dance...so at 9:30 in the evening, four grownups and two little girls were all standing in the middle of the kitchen holding hands in a big circle, jumping up and down, wiggling, and singing. What a sight. It was one of those scenes that I would have NEVER envisioned prior to having kids.

Finley got a horse for her birthday...and you can actually ride it around the house! The girls had fun trotting around (and bumping into walls and staircases).

They made little window seats so they could sit next to each other to eat cake. My little bird-eater is WOLFING it down.

We had a pizza night! Gabby loves helping make pizza. Her absolute favorite is what she calls "green pizza"...we make it with pesto, mozzarella, and dollops of goat cheese. Everytime we make pizza we always have to make one of them "green". Our non green pizza was caramelized onions, italian sausage, and sundried tomatoes.

One night we met my friend Jenny for dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. Jenny had a belated birthday gift for Gabby, and it was FULL of stuff that she loves...a Hello Kitty backpack charm, coloring book, and notepad, and a thumbprinting art book. Gabby loves Jenny...we were originally planning to meet up several weeks ago but Jenny had to cancel and Gabby was SO bummed out. I love that it is an exciting thing for her to go out to dinner with me and one of my friends.

She spied the gift early on in the evening and couldn't wait to open it up.

Dark and blurry, but I love that cute little smile!

Mid-week fun

2010-03-17T20:18:00.002-05:00

Ahhhh...Spring Break! Gabby and I are having a grand time with each other and our friends. Every time we get in the car to go someplace, Gabby announces..."two girls, goin' on a trip!" or, "two girls, goin' to the store!" or, "two girls, goin' to a playdate!". This originated last summer when Gabby and I took our trip (sans Daddy) to San Diego to visit my parents. Gabby was having some trouble understanding the format of this trip, since we had never traveled together without David. She seemed hesitant to travel without her beloved Daddy, so I presented it to her as a "Girls' Trip", and I think I said something like, "Just us girls, going on a trip together!" Ever since then, Gabby is constantly labeling our Daddy-less outings in a similar fashion.

Today we had a free morning so we slept in, hung out in our jammies, painted pictures (Gabby is very into painting this week...painting is even preferred over Play-Doh), ate a late breakfast, and took a trip to the grocery store. After our shopping trip we came home and made lunch (egg salad...David hates it but Gabby and I LOVE it). Gabby was "in charge of the eggs"...at least, the peeling of them. Gabby likes to be "in charge" of things, like holding the mail key when we go and get the mail, being the stirrer when we bake, pushing the wet clothes into the dryer, etc. Anytime I deem her as being "in charge" of something, she likes to state it over and over again during the activity..."I'm IN CHARGE of da eggs. I peeling da eggs. I'm IN CHARGE of dem." Cute.

This afternoon we had a Happy Hour/Playdate with a bunch of our friends...what a combo, huh?!? Did anyone know that Joe's Crab Shack has playgrounds??? Up until recently, I didn't know this extremely useful tidbit until my friend Laura proposed that we meet up there one evening with the kids so they could run around outside. For the life of me, I could not figure out why it needed to be Joe's as opposed to any other patio restaurant. She has talked several times about bringing her little boy up there...I just assumed they really liked casual seafood. Finally she explained that it is because they have an ENTIRE PLAYGROUND attached to their patio...kids can play, eat, run, repeat, while mom enjoys a margarita with friends. NICE!! So today we met up with Laura and Jack, Christina and Finley, Corrinne and Claire, and a friend of Corrinne's. The kids had the time of their lives and played until they were exhausted and totally coated with playground dust.

I love watching Gabby play. Sometimes she gets shy, aloof, or hesitant to participate, but other times she surprises me with her extroversion. Sometimes she just likes to play in her own little world. One minute I look over and she is playing solo in a pile of pebbles, completely oblivious to the world around her. The next minute, I see that she is the life of the party...having somehow inserted herself into a crowd of big kids playing hide and seek, and I laugh as I hear other kids calling her by name, holding her hand, and treating her like their cute little pet. And Gabby just happily goes along with it all, loving the attention.

When we first arrived at the playground, the only kids there were a few older boys...maybe 14 or 15. Two of them were burying the third underneath a pile of the pebbles that covered the playground surface. When they saw our little girls approach, they jokingly said to us, "Hey, they can help if they want..." and what do you know, my little princess just runs over to these VERY LARGE BOYS and just starts dumping handfuls of pebbles on the kid being buried. She just looked so teeny and adorable and it just cracked me up.

Later on there was an older girl who slid on some pebbles and skinned her knee. She was upset and crying, and I noticed that Gabby was hovering around her and the small group of people who were surrounding her. She is pretty nosy (I have NO idea where she gets that from) so it didn't surprise me. Christina and I took a moment to dig around in our purses for neosporin, band-aids, and other first aid things to help out, and by the time we found everything, the group had ushered the girl back inside the restaurant where her parents were eating. So we made a quick dash into the restaurant to see if they needed any supplies, and what do you know...THERE'S GABBY...milling around the table of the girl's family. She just joined in their group and followed them inside, and was making small talk with the girl's mom (who I am sure was wondering where this additional kid came from).

It was a great evening; Gabby and Finley were the last to leave and even then they didn't want to go home. While saying our goodbyes, Gabby actually planted a big huge on-the-lips kiss onto Finley, which was pretty funny given that she usually has a tendency to shrug off all the hugs that the affectionate Finley is always trying to give her.

A great day...I wish Spring Break would never end.

Lazy blogging

2010-03-16T20:32:00.002-05:00

Want to know how we spent our day? Click here...we had a fabulous playdate with Colin and Chalna, and Chalna summed it up perfectly!

Wiggly worm

2010-03-11T19:06:00.001-06:00

Our little girl is in perpetual motion. It's difficult to sit next to her in a restaurant because she doesn't stop moving. It actually makes the meal feel a little chaotic because on the entire side of your body adjacent to her, you just feel CONSTANT MOVEMENT. Shuffling, shifting, wiggling, rearranging, bouncing, leaning, hugging, etc. Nonstop.

It is also impossible to lie down with her in bed, or to let her lie down in our bed (with misguided hopes of getting a bit more sleep in the morning). It is the most unrestful, unpeaceful experience to be in bed with Gabby. She doesn't really calm down until all stimulation (such as a person in her bed) is removed from the room.

All of her wiggles make it funny to watch her talk to my parents on Skype. I always have to be in the room with her because I am constantly having to adjust the camera to follow her. David bought a webcam that senses movement and supposedly tracks the person, but it is unable to keep up with her. Most of the time, my parents just see a blur on the screen when they are talking to her because she moves faster than our network.

I snapped a few photos of their conversation last weekend...

Climbing on the armrest

Spinning the chair and hanging over the seat back

Well this one is interesting.

And these are just pics from the portion of time she remained in the chair...half the time she is dancing around the room and often she just runs out in the middle of the conversation.

February in a nutshell [pictorial edition]

2010-03-10T17:39:00.011-06:00

Pictures, finally!

Last month, Christina and I decided it was high time for a girls' night out, especially since our husbands went on a NEVERENDING movie/dinner date a while back (seriously, they were gone for almost 6 hours). So the two of us plus our other friend Amy went to Ra for sushi while the daddies watched the girls.

Sean and David took them to the mall to play and have dinner. Here they are being silly on the playground.

These two are so cute together.

Here is Giada at her 1st birthday party at The Little Gym. Love that sweet outfit!

Jumping down the air-track

Mmmm, cupcakes.

Finley's tea party...here are the kids decorating their crowns. Gabby is in her fancy ball gown.

Time for tea!

Christina's "staff"...her parents and Sean, serving up the goodies.

Sean serving scones

When my parents came to visit, my mom and David's mom took Gabby to Nokia to see Sesame Street Live. It was a weekday so I missed it, but it looked pretty cool.

Gabby spent most of the time sitting on Grandma's lap, shoveling popcorn.

My mom reported that she did pretty well during all of the audience participation parts.

Reading stories with my dad

I am not sure exactly how this came about, but it sure was funny.

My mom attempted to take a cute picture with Gabby...as usual, she was less than cooperative.

Dinner at Bluefish...they made our Ahi Tower into a heart :) This is probably my most favorite thing to eat, ever.

Gabby ate more edamame than I ever though possible.

Happy 39th Anniversary!

Lunch at Cafe Express with our families

Gabby requested that Grandpa sit next to her...it wasn't long before she had crawled into his lap.

And now we see why...Grandpa has french fries!

Story time again. This book must have been really bright.

For some reason, the cats have been extra huggy lately.

Playing at our neighborhood playground. They walked over every day that the weather was decent.

You can definitely tell she has warmed up to my dad.

The Bobba-Monster chasing Gabby with her scooter

She is getting pretty good!

I love the tiny body with the huge helmet.

Outrunning my parents...quite gleefully, it appears.

Lounge wear

2010-03-09T21:01:00.004-06:00

Ever since Gabby has been old enough to point and grunt, she has had VERY strong opinions about her attire, and she has been very vocal about those opinions. This meant that getting dressed in the morning involved terrible battles.

Luckily we seem to have found a solution. Now we have "leaving the house" clothes, and we have "at home" clothes. Gabby is now much more willing to let me dress her in appropriate clothes when we go places, so long as she gets to wear her own picks for hanging out at home. And if we are just at home, not only can she wear mismatched clothes, but she can also wear clothes for the wrong season, or her old treasured items that don't really fit anymore that she can't bear to get rid of.

On Sundays, the one day when we aren't hustling out the door in the morning, she loves to wear pajamas all morning long. On weekdays, as soon as we walk in the door in the evenings, BOTH of us change out of our "leaving the house" clothes. I go to my room and change out of my work clothes, and Gabby runs straight to her room, slams the door behind her, and raids her dresser. She bounds out 5 minutes later (chuckling, of course) having changed her entire outfit all by herself (and often including shoes!). She tends to destroy her neat piles of folded clothes in her drawers, but she does actually do a good job of gathering the clothes she wore to daycare and putting them in the laundry basket.

"At home" wear varies from day to day, but it is always soft knits, it is often summery, and typically includes one more items that fall into the categories of Pink, Princesses, or Hello Kitty. Shoes are always either her plastic pink sandals we wore to the pool last summer, or an old pair of silver sandals from last year.

Here are just a few examples of Gabby's DIY outfits...

Exhibit A: Tank top, knit skirt, and plastic sandals...three of her regular faves.

Exhibit B: Hello Kitty shirt, and OLD pink leggings...they are 24 month and are teeny tiny. They fit her like pantyhose they are so clingy, but she loves them. Everytime I try to pack them up with her old clothes, they somehow find their way back into her drawer.

Exhibit C: another knit skirt/tank top outfit. This one has an additional item...her Hello Kitty scrunchie worn as a bracelet.

Exhibit D: yet ANOTHER knit skirt, and her favorite pink Hello Kitty sweater.

Exhibit E: ANOTHER knit skirt, and a too tiny knit top (it should fit like a tunic) from last summer. She also has on her silver sandals in this picture, but I accidentally chopped them off. She's also got on the HK scrunchie-bracelet, but Molly is covering it up.

And this I just thought was funny...Gabby wanted something (I don't remember what). I told her no, and she was just so heartbroken she had to bury her face in the dishtowel to cry. My poor little melodramatic faker...there were no tears in the dishtowel after 5 minutes of "sobbing".

February in a nutshell

2010-03-08T17:33:00.004-06:00

I've got 30 minutes of free time and complimentary Wi-Fi while Gabby is in her Kindermusik class, so I figured I'd take advantage of the time to catch up!

The last month has been a bit of a whirlwind, at least by my standards. I tend to require lots of down-time and "me" time to not be frazzled. Highlights from the past month...

We spent a Saturday "out west" for a birthday party and to visit friends. Our little friend Giada had her first birthday, and she had a super fun party at The Little Gym. Before the party, we visited Melody, David, Luke, and Haydn since they live nearby. Melody made lunch for all of us (it was DELICIOUS) and Gabby got some playtime with Luke. Gabby is STILL talking about Melody's pink cake balls. After lunch we powered through the afternoon (no time for a nap that day!) and headed to the party...even with no sleep, Gabby had a blast...and no trace of fussiness. Yea! Although, she totally zonked out in the car within 30 seconds of being buckled in.

I had a horribly embarrassing, traumatic, scarring (physically and emotionally) trip-and-fall in the parking lot at work a few weeks ago. I fell off a curb when my heel got caught in a crevice in the median, and I landed on my right knee, which STILL HURTS now, three weeks later. It swelled up like a grapefruit and the last of my massive scab just now fell off. The only positive thing is that I am pretty sure there were no witnesses. No injuries to my actual knee, but it is still bruised. I can't even imagine how ridiculous this fall had to have looked...I landed in a big ol' heap on the ground with my massive laptop bag, purse, coffee, and file folder of papers in a scattered heap all around me...it was all I could do to quickly gather my belongings (and my bearings), hobble over to my car, heave all my junk into the back, and slide my poor, shaky, in-shock leg into the car. I actually had to sit in my car for about 5 minutes to cry for a few minutes (I KNOW, SO SAD!), and to let the searing pain subside enough for me to drive my car. If I am able to live out the rest of my life without another experience like that, I would be happy.

Later that week (once I was walking again) I spent a few days in Austin for a math supervisors conference...our group meets twice each year and I have attended this conference 8 or 9 times over the past 5 years. This will be my last meeting for quite a while...one of the many things I will really miss about my current job.

Our friend Finley had a MUCH ANTICIPATED birthday tea party! Gabby has been wanting to have Finley over for a tea party for AGES, but I held her off knowing that Christina was doing a tea party for Finley's birthday. Gabby was beside herself with excitement over the party. It was a dress up party, and Gabby talked about what she planned to wear almost daily leading up to the party. Christina did such a good job of decorating and cooking and hosting the adorable party.

My parents came to visit for a week, which was just wonderful for all involved. Nothing better than having the grandparents come to stay with us! Gabby is taking more of a liking to my dad, and they spent lots of time playing together. This is in stark contrast to how things used to be, when he would look at her and she would burst into tears.

I'm 34 now! My birthday fell right in the middle of a mega-busy work week, but co-workers brought birthday brownies, cookies, sopaipillas, and other goodies to make the day special. I ended up having to work pretty late that night, but all the texts and Facebook messages that were dinging my phone all day made it a lot more bearable.

The aforementioned mega-busy work week had my colleagues and me working with a consultant from New York who visits us regularly to help us move forward as a team. Each one of us had a turn in the spotlight where we either coached a teacher, or facilitated a team of teachers in a professional learning community. During this time, all of the other specialists and our supervisor observe, the consultant provides guidance, and the whole thing is videotaped so later we can go back and analyze the moves we made and reflect on our skills. No pressure. Wouldn't you know it, my assigned time was first thing Thursday morning, the day after my birthday. Which is why on the evening of my birthday, I was up at a school, sifting through 150 student work samples and planning my PLC. But...it turned out great! Despite the cameras, the audience, and the consultant who was scribing and analyzing my every move, I felt relaxed and comfortable with what I was doing, the teachers were great to work with, and I really felt like it went well. The teachers enjoyed it, and it really seemed like they got a lot out of the experience. My supervisor even mentioned wanting to showcase my video throughout the district. I was FLYING after finishing that morning...a moment when I really felt like I do make a difference in this job. Yet another thing that will be missed!

We "officially"celebrated that weekend with sushi at Bluefish, which has become my traditional birthday dinner locale. Gabby ate about a tankful of edamame, along with some tempura and "CIMMANON" ice cream, but only a few bites of actual sushi. Although, she did try a taste of the ahi tower. She was adorable that night...ordering her own ice cream, "paying" the waitress with her play money, dancing in her chair to the clubby music pulsing from the bar, and being her silly, hammy self. Oh, and it wasn't just my birthday...it was my parents' 39th anniversary!

Sunday we all met David's parents at Cafe Express for lunch. I ordered Gabby a nice lunch of pasta with pesto and a side of fruit...yet she still managed to eat a full serving (or more) of french fries by bouncing around from one grandparent to the next and mooching off of their plates. By that afternoon I was feeling Y-U-C-K-Y...stomach bug! I felt horrible for the rest of Sunday, and part of Monday. I ended up taking a sick day on Monday to recuperate.

Then on Tuesday my parents went back home, and that very same day, my friend Allison came in! She was in town for a super short work thing that kept her tied up in the evenings, but free during the day. So I took Wednesday off and the two of us had a Day-O-Fun...manicures and pedicures, lunch at Tin Star, and shopping at Willowbend Mall. It was lovely. I really do need about 1 day per month like that, just to preserve sanity. It was a little weird to have two consecutive house guests like that, but it worked out well...the guest room was already set up (and my sweet mom washed all their sheets and towels before they left, so everything was all ready for Allison), and it also gave me a fun distraction...it's usually a bit of a downer when my parents go back home, so Allison's visit kept me occupied.

And now....things are quiet again! Nothing huge going on at work, nothing huge going on at home, just our normal day to day stuff. Spring Break is next week and I am just looking forward to enjoying time at home with Gabby, spending a little time with friends, and relaxing.

**I do have pictures to accompany all of the above events, and one of these days I might get them uploaded on here!

Snow day!!

2010-02-15T17:24:00.006-06:00

It SNOWED last week! As in, REALLY snowed...the kind of snow we never get around here. I only remember a handful of days growing up when we had this same sort of fluffy, beautiful, abundant snow...normally our snow days are usually ICE days. I have so many wonderful memories of those treasured few snow days...ruining my mom's cookie sheets by stealing them to slide down the driveway, wrapping plastic bread bags around our shoes and gloves to keep them dry, building snowmen, and spending ages outside but never seeming to get cold or wet. I spent most of my snow days at my friend Allison's house. She lived on the golf course, which was the PRIME place to live if there was snow...we would sled down the hills and sandtraps and spend hours playing together.

Thursday morning it started snowing just after 5 a.m. and it didn't stop for one minute the entire day! David and I both left work a little early, so we still had an hour of daylight to get Gabby bundled up and have a little fun. It was snowing just a little too much for me...I enjoy playing in the snow, but not being steadily showered with it! We built a snowman and played in the backyard. We trampled all over the backyard and had tons of bare patches from our snowman-building, but by the next morning, everything was covered with a fresh blanket of snow again. David had to go into work on Friday, so Gabby and I enjoyed our first official snow day together. I hope she remembers it...because it is probably going to be a very long time before we have snow like this again!

Hard at work, playing with her beach toys in the snow.

Also hard at work...he was WAY too serious about the engineering of Mr. Snowman!

I had to really dig to find snowman materials. The eyes are shredded wheat, the mouth is a bent Airhead left over from Halloween, and we actually did have a carrot for the nose. And whoops, we forgot to give him arms.

Mr. Snowman and his Mini-Me

Drying out Gabby's sock mittens (we could not find ANY of her mittens!) by the fire

Friday morning we made snow cream:

It was goooooood...

Mr. Snowman didn't survive the night very well. Here's Gabby, getting ready to put him out of his misery for good.

Watching as she makes tracks in the snow

We have NO snow pants, just multiple layers of regular pants. They were completely soaked through when we finally came in, because Gabby kept wanting to totally sit in the snow.

EVERYTIME I looked over, Gabby was eating snow.

She just kept shoveling it in.

We attempted a snow angel...as you can see, it didn't quite turn out.

Busy bee

Help, help...I can't get up! HA!

David and Dana...possible overkill

2010-02-14T21:34:00.006-06:00

My hubby and I have been together since December of 1997. We had 9 whole years together before having Gabby, but our lives were not nearly so well documented back then. So in honor of our THIRTEENTH Valentine's Day together, here is our Pre-Baby pictorial history.

This is our FIRST cute picture together as a couple...February 1998, at On the Border in College Station with a bunch of college friends for my 22nd b-day.

All dressed up, getting ready to go to my friend Chesney and Bob's wedding reception...June 1998

In San Antonio at the St. Anthony hotel; we took a little Memorial Day weekend trip...May 1999

Our first apartment! We had just moved in together into what I thought was THE NICEST and MOST LUXURIOUS apartment in North Dallas...August 2000

Happy New Year! Big family trip to Las Vegas; we had just gone to see Wayne Newton in concert...my grandpa treated us all! December 2000

Tacky tourists at Bart and Gina's halloween party...October 2001

Just married! Our dinner "reception" at Valentino's at the Venetian...December 2002

Dinner with the family on NYE, same Vegas trip when we got married...December 2002

In San Diego at my sister's rehearsal dinner...August 2003

Going out in San Antonio, the night before Bryce and Erin's wedding...August 2004

Pulp Fiction- our best halloween costumes ever...October 2004

Christmas in San Diego...December 2004

Hosting a luau themed wedding shower...May 2005

We might both be intoxicated in this picture; Morgan and Shannon's wedding...July 2005

At a wine bar in San Antonio for Erin's surprise b-day party...August 2005

White trash halloween party...October 2005

Christmas in San Diego...December 2005

Dinner at Gloria's in Dallas with Bryce and Erin...January 2006

Vacation in Kauai (I'm about 10 weeks pregnant!)...June 2006

Luau in Hawaii with Teri and Brandon...June 2006

Dinner at Mi Piaci for Erin's birthday (wearing one of my FIRST maternity outfits)...August 2006

And that's our lives before Gabby! I love seeing how we change through the years...some old pictures make we want to CRINGE, and others make me jealous of how cute my former self was! Our poofy hair cracks me up...I had some out of control BIG HAIR, and HOLY COW did David have a lot of hair back then! It was also funny when I discovered the large number of these pictures that came from Erin-centered events...I see the girl MAYBE once or twice a year, but I guess David and I tend to take cute pictures when she is around!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone...and especially to MY Valentine!

Snow cream!

2010-02-12T10:30:00.004-06:00

Our Kindermusik teacher, Miss Jeanie, sent us this recipe last night. We tried it this morning...it was pretty good! And there is actually enough snow outside that you can get some nice, clean-ish snow to use. Here is her email:

Growing up in Kentucky we often had snow, much like today's snow here in North Texas, and as long as it was at least 4" deep you could count on one thing --- my dad would make snow cream! He grew up during the depression, in Apalachia, and making snow cream was something they looked forward to as an economical way to have a sweet treat. My own children grew up with snow cream and I thought you might enjoy making it tonight with your children! Go outside with a big bowl and scoop up clean snow from the top, don't let your spoon/ladle go deep enough to get down to the grass. It takes just a few minutes to have so much fun! Don't eat it too fast or you'll have "brain freeze" as it is very, very cold!

Use approximately 1 gallon of snow to 1 cup of sugar to 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Then stir in 1/2 - 3/4 cup milk til it's the consistency you want. You can put the leftovers in the freezer but it's not as good as when you eat it fresh!

I made half a batch, although I still used about 1/2 to 3/4 cups of milk. You could also use half and half or sweetened condensed milk...you won't need sugar if you use the condensed milk. It tasted like fluffy, slushy, soft serve ice cream...not bad! Gabby loved it.

Try it before the snow melts! If you don't, you might have to wait another 30 years before we get enough snow to have the opportunity again!

Do not disturb

2010-02-09T18:41:00.001-06:00

Gabby's latest thing is to require "privacy". This stems from the many pooping issues we had a while back. Because of these issues, David and I got in the habit of hovering just a tad too much when Gabby was doing her business. We'd be leaning over her little butt on the toilet, watching to see what was going to come out...the size, the shape, the consistency (too loose...ease up on the Miralax, too hard...more Miralax). Once your child has to have suppositories and an enema, ensuring that their poop is normal becomes highly important.

Apparently, all that attention made Gabby a little uncomfortable and she started putting her hands behind her booty to cover up the toilet, telling us to "stop watching! I don't want you to see!" Which eventually evolved into, "Mom, can I please have pie-vacy?" So now when she uses the potty, she asks for privacy, and we wait in the other room until she calls that she is ready. Sometimes this takes up to 10 minutes...I'll keep calling out, "You ok? Ready yet?" And she'll respond, "Nope! I will call you! I will call you when I am finished!" And sure enough, a million years later she'll call out, "Ok mom, I'm ready for you to wipe me!"

Her privacy requests have now extended to other situations. When we get home in the evening Gabby RUNS to her bedroom and slams the door. If I try to go in, she blocks the door..."MOM! I need PIE-VACY!" Typically she is changing her clothes, and she will come bursting out a few minutes later in her favorite at-home attire. Other times, she asks for privacy to keep me from seeing her do something she KNOWS she isn't supposed to do...like empty out an ENTIRE dresser drawer to find one particular item, or taking underwear out of the dirty laundry because it is pink and has Hello Kitty on it and she wants to wear it again. She shrieks, "Don't come in! I need pie-vacy!" as I see her frantically trying to mask whatever mischief she is in. Her devious streak is definitely beginning to show!

Car convos

2010-02-05T18:02:00.002-06:00

Gabby sneezed all over herself in the car the other morning, and called for a tissue. I reached into the center console to grab one, but my hand landed on a fast food napkin I had stashed in there, so I just handed her the napkin instead of rooting around for the Kleenex. Gabby looked at it and said, "HEY! These are the same kind of tissues Daddy has in HIS car!"
Last time my parents visited my mom said, "What choo talkin' bout, Willis?" to Gabby on a few occasions. So now, Gabby will very regularly answer us by saying (in a very slow and pronounced manner, which makes it even funnier)..."Whaaat are yooo talking a-bout Willis?" followed by giggling..."Mimi calls me...WILLIS! Hehehe..."
Earlier this week in the car, I was flipping through the stations and Gabby suddenly called out, "MOM! Go back to that DANCIN' song!" Given that what I had just scanned through included a few commercials, some talking, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, and "All the Single Ladies" by Beyonce, I deduced she must have been talking about Beyonce. So I flipped back and asked, "is this the song?" Gabby said, "Yeah, this the DANCIN' song." I had no recollection of us listening to this song together, much less dancing to it, so I asked, "Have you heard this song before?" Gabby- "Yeah, I like this song. I like to dance to this song." Me- "When have you danced to this song? Have you heard it at Pattie's? Or in dance class?" Gabby- "I don't remember. I just know I always like to dance to this song. I love this DANCIN' song."
We picked up a quick dinner at Chick-fil-A on our way to Kindermusik last week. Here was the conversation. Gabby- "Mom, did you order milk for me?" Me- "Yes." Gabby- "Did you get STRAWBERRY milk?" Me- "No, just regular milk. Have you had strawberry milk before?" Gabby- "Yep!" Me- "When did you have strawberry milk?" Gabby- "I had it when I was five." Me (laughing now)- "Oh really?? And when were you five?" Gabby- "Last Tuesday." She is learning all kinds of phrases like this weekend, yesterday, last week, next month, etc. and is throwing them casually into conversations. Always nonchalantly, and never making any sense, making it even more humorous.
Lately our little motormouth has discovered that avoidance is a possible strategy when uncomfortable conversations come up. Gabby typically gets good reports from Pattie each day (other than the regularly occurring "not listening"). If she ever DOESN'T, we usually have chats about the issue du jour on the car ride home. But now, when I start talking about the "issue", Gabby clams up and says, "Mom, I don't want to speak. I don't want to speak right now." So last time I responded by telling her that she didn't have to speak, but that she should still listen to me. To which she said, "Mom, I don't want YOU to speak either. I want you to stop speaking to me." Yikes...OK, I wasn't expecting to have a sullen teenager for another 10 years or so, but that was TOTALLY what she was projecting. In a cute, pouty, 3 year old way.
The other morning there was a bad accident and we were stuck in traffic for about 5 minutes while the cars were getting loaded onto the tow trucks. Gabby and I were discussing the accident, and I was explaining to her how accidents happen, that drivers need to be careful, etc. Gabby thought for a second, and then had a lightbulb moment..."MOM! When somebody is driving a car, and there is another car...with another person...that person driving needs to go AROUND that other car, not THROUGH that other car!" By golly, I think she's got it all figured out!

Weekend wrap up

2010-01-31T19:55:00.002-06:00

Another low-key weekend over here...which has pretty much been the norm for the entire month of January. It was COOOOOLD this weekend so I didn't feel like doing much more outside of curling up in front of the TV under a blanket with a fire going in the fireplace. But Gabby has dance first thing on Saturday morning, so like it or not, we got out in the 27 degree weather bright and early.

After Gabby's class, I went to the gym and did some crazy booty shaking in my first Zumba class! I almost didn't go...wasn't sure if I would like it, if it would be a good workout, if it would be hokey...but it was SUCH a blast! Prior to going I had asked on Facebook if anyone had done Zumba and what they thought, and a whole bunch of my friends from Drill Team commented that they had done the class and loved it. I just knew if all these girls liked it that I would too...so I went...and they were right, I had an AWESOME time. I think I am already hooked; I can't WAIT to go back next week! And it WAS a good workout; I was sweating like crazy at the end of class (actually, I was sweating like crazy about 10 minutes into the class). And today I am sore in all sorts of weird places...the moves we did in class are not things you do in everyday life, or even during everyday workouts. I was on a post-Zumba high for most of the day yesterday. I not only felt great from the workout, but I was just so excited to have found something new that is so much fun.

Good thing I banked some calories at Zumba because I went and spent all I had (plus some) that night when we went out for Thai food. I just love Mango Thai...cute little restaurant...and we hadn't been in ages. We ordered all kinds of things, and Gabby tried lots of new foods. We got a sampler platter, so Gabby tried spring rolls and shrimp rolls, crab cakes, chicken satay, dumplings, and various tempura items. She is on a shrimp-kick lately. I ordered Pad Thai with shrimp, and Gabby ate all of the shrimps off of my dish (and oddly, rejected the noodles). She wasn't really into David's beef dish, but she WAS excited about sticky rice for dessert. After we ordered it, every time a server came by for a reason OTHER than to bring our dessert (like to refill our glasses), Gabby would ask, "hey, where's the sticky rice??" She was very anxious. Once the dessert arrived, she did indeed like the sticky rice, but she was mostly into the thin slices of mango that came with it. I don't think this was her first time to eat mango, but I don't remember her loving it quite this much. We all left the restaurant full and happy.

This morning we were greeted in bed at 7:42 with a bright eyed, bushy tailed little girl who came to tell us it was morning time. So much for Gabby staying in her room in the morning! Thank goodness she still sleeps relatively late, so even if she continues to come wake us up, it won't likely be before 7:00.

Gabby's new weekend habit is to wear her favorite "at-home" clothes. She has strong preferences about what she likes to wear, and she will regularly go change her clothes on her own if she would rather be wearing something with more pink or with more Hello Kitty than what she currently has on. We have been successful in getting her suitably dressed for leaving the house, but she knows that when we are hanging out at home, she has more freedom to pick her own clothes. She knows that certain items (those that are too old, too tight, wrong season, etc.) are not part of our suitable options for going out, but are OK to wear at home. Lately she is all about summer clothes...knit shorts, knit skirts, little t-shirts and tank tops, and of course, all of her Hello Kitty and Disney Princess items. Regardless of the weather outside, if we are at home, Gabby is likely wearing a little knit pink skirt, tank top, and pink rubber sandals from last summer.

Tomorrow evening is our first class for the new semester of Kindermusik, and will also be Gabby's first "official" class by herself. She had her "try out" for the big-kid class last December, and now it's the real deal. She has been so excited to start this new class, and has been less than pleased that after December's trial run that she had to finish out the semester in her original Mommy-and-Me class. We talked about the class a little bit tonight before going to bed and she showed a little bit of nervousness, so hopefully things will go well tomorrow.

The honeymoon is over

2010-01-29T18:10:00.000-06:00

I knew it wouldn’t last…after over 7 months of sleeping in a big girl bed WITHOUT realizing that she is technically free to get in and out of her bed as she pleases, Gabby has FINALLY discovered that she does indeed have the ability to climb out of bed.

It was actually quite funny. When we first moved Gabby to a real bed, she got in and out of bed a few times during her first nap. I threatened her with her life, and she pretty much hasn’t climbed out by herself since. And I mean FOR NOTHING. If Molly the dolly fell out of bed, Gabby would cry out helplessly for us to come pick her up. If we forgot to turn on her nightlight, she would cry for us to come back and turn it on.

I couldn’t believe she took the “stay in bed” command so seriously that she wasn’t even willing to hop out for a second to grab her fallen baby. But…I was more than willing to make a few extra trips into her room for silly things in exchange for having a kid who would reliably stay put in her bed. Even in the mornings if she woke up ahead of us, she contained herself in her bed until we came to get her. And she never would cry for us in the morning…she would entertain herself by playing with Molly, singing, arranging her blankets, talking to herself, and playing all sorts of pretend games…and we just went to get her whenever we were ready. Yes, we were spoiled.

But that is all over now, and I blame my parents. When we were in San Diego over the holidays, Gabby slept in my dad’s office on the floor on a foam mat. It was a perfectly suitable bed for her, but with it being on the floor, there wasn’t such a rigid “on the bed” vs. “off the bed” boundary. After a few nights in San Diego on her floor bed, that kid was up and down nonstop. She would wake up in the morning and dig through her suitcase and pull out books and clothes and get herself dressed in her favorite items (Hello Kitty t-shirt, pink socks, pink skirt). Early one morning I woke up and heard such a ruckus coming out of her room that I thought my mom or dad was in there with her…I went upstairs and discovered her dancing around the room by herself, singing, wearing her fresh outfit (she had even taken off her pull-up and replaced it with Hello Kitty underwear on her own). She totally gave me a deer-in-headlights-oh-crap-I’m-busted look when I walked in. And then she laughed. And she has been getting out of bed whenever she feels like it ever since!

Some nights she is up and down…getting out of bed to get a book off of her bookshelf, to turn her nightlight on and off, to turn her humidifier on and off (I guess we ought to move these electrical things someplace she can’t reach them), to get clothes out of her drawers…other nights she stays put. Some mornings I walk into her room and discover a massive pile of books next to her bed that weren’t there when we put her to bed. So far we have yet to wake up to bright little eyes staring at us…but she is somewhat of a late sleeper so I am usually up first anyway. We can usually sleep until about 7:30 or 8…I will enjoy it while I can because I am sure that won’t last forever!

Another brush with fame...meeting the Pioneer Woman (!!!)

2010-01-25T19:51:00.006-06:00

Ree Drummond came to town last month for a cookbook signing, and it seemed a large portion of the metroplex decided to stop by to see their favorite blogger in person. The signing was at Borders in Dallas, and luckily, we were prepared! Having read other blogs about PW's book signings in other cities, we knew we might face mass chaos and hours (and hours) in line, so we called Borders way in advance to find out their system.

Borders doesn't mess around. On the morning of the signing they began giving out color-coded wristbands at 9:00 a.m. to those who purchased a book or brought previously purchased book with a receipt. Each color group had 100 people and your color determined your place in line. It was a good system...if you got an early group, you didn't have to camp out all day to be in the front of the line, and and if you got a later group, you didn't have to stand in line for 6 hours to hold your place.

I was one LUCKY GIRL that morning. I wasn't going to be able to miss work to get my wristband, and they were not allowing one person to pick up a wristband for someone else. Both of my booksigning buddies (Melody and Jennifer) were not going to have a problem getting to Borders first thing in the morning to get their GOLD wristbands for the first group. Part of the fun was going to be the three of us spending the evening together, and I was afraid I was going to be stuck by myself in a separate color group. So Melody's sweet sister Donna was going to meet her at Borders to get a wristband on my behalf. But before she was able to get there, Borders was running out of books and had given out almost all of their gold wristbands. Lucky for me, an EXTREMELY SWEET and EXTREMELY TRUSTING stranger who had no idea what all this fuss was about, noticed Melody waiting anxiously and letting people ahead of her in line while waiting for Donna...and volunteered to buy the book for her...and trusted Melody (who didn't have cash) to pay her back later! So I wound up getting one of the coveted GOLD WRISTBANDS along with Melody and Jennifer.

Let me tell you, I felt like a VIP with that wristband. When we got to Borders at 6:00 that evening (signing started at 7:00) only the golds were allowed to start lining up. The other few hundred people (mostly reds...the second group) just had to mill around the store. We were about 35th/36th in line, with more than half of the golds lined up behind us...and there were still about 7 or 8 additional color groups that would not be lining up until later. So we ended up being about 35th in line of a total of about 800 or 1000 people all together. NICE!

Ree came out right at 7pm, along with her two daughters. She said about 2 sentences, and then told us that Borders wanted her to get started immediately with the signing. She spent a few minutes talking to every group of fans that came through the line, so even with our prime spot, it was 7:45 before it was our turn. I attempted to come up with something witty or interesting to say, but that definitely didn't happen. Melody had her cute baby with her, and Jennifer was visibly pregnant (8 months) so I basically stood alongside them and smiled and nodded while PW made small talk about babies and pregnancy. She was friendly, relaxed, gracious, and fun...just like she is on her blog. Her two daughters were in charge of doling out t-shirts (another benefit of being at the front...they always run out of shirts before the night is over) and we had them autograph our books as well. (And Amy...I've got a shirt with your name on it if we ever get to see each other!)

And then, that was it! We left the mob and went and had a relaxing dinner at CPK. From what I read, the signing continued almost until 2 in the morning. It was funny to read some of the other blogs written about the Dallas book signing because our experience (our gold-banded VIP experience, haha) was not like these other ladies' experiences that involved camping out, spending hours upon hours waiting, fighting for parking, and getting slap-happy while bonding with other superfans to pass the time. As we walked out of the bookstore almost an hour after the signing began, we were acosted by many wristband-challenged people who were dying to know what color group she was on now...and were quite disheartened to learn that not only was she STILL on the gold group, but that we were in the first-half of the gold group. There were so many people who hadn't called ahead and had no idea about the wristband system, and had no idea the sheer number of people who would be there...and were quite surprised to walk in off the street and realize it was going to be HOURS before it would be their turn.

It ended up being a fun evening and a nice night out with some friends I don't get to see often enough. To be honest, I think PW is pretty neat...but there is no way I was going to spend 6+ hours waiting for her signature...some of her fans are a little bit nuts! So I am glad everything worked out so smoothly for us.

Despite making it back home before 11 p.m., I was WIPED OUT the next day at work. I felt like I had spent the past night partying like a rock star...apparently these days, a book signing and a calm dinner out on a weeknight is all it takes to put me out of commission. Yet another reminder that I am not 21 anymore!

Pictures! Courtesy of Jennifer...

Our prime spot in line...not many ahead of us!

A portion of the madness...these folks were in later groups that hadn't started lining up yet...many people aren't even at the store at this point since their groups would not start lining up for quite a while.

Can you imagine the poor unsuspecting souls who just wandered into Borders that night thinking they would pick up a book or two?

Aside from the roped off areas, the store was jam packed.

Melody brought Haydn, who won the award for Easiest Baby Ever. She may have cried for about 0.4 seconds the entire evening.

Getting close! On a side note, I LIKED the brown hair! I do tend to be partial to brunettes though.

Our big moment. I love how us being in the foreground makes us look photoshopped into the picture.

Getting autographs from Alex and Paige:

Mel and Dana

Ta-Daaaaaa!!