The Truth About Santa

I've been debating whether or not to finally tell Emily that there is no Santa Claus. She's ten years old, and most of her friends already know the truth, so I figured that maybe she was ready to know the truth, too. This morning, I decided to go ahead and tell her. Here's how it went...

ME: Emily, I need to talk to you about something.

EMILY: Yes, Mom?

ME: Emily, there's no Santa.

EMILY: Yes there is. There's no Santa at Mema and Grandaddy's house, but there is a Santa here.

ME: Emily, Santa's not REAL.

EMILY: You're lying to me, Mom.

Can you believe it? I finally get the nerve to break my child's heart and tell her the truth about Santa, and she refuses to believe me. I guess all of those great, logical explanations of how and why Santa was real that I gave her over the course of her life have really stuck. She's completely convinced that Santa is real and that I was just trying to mess with her by telling her differently.

Look What I Found

Phil came home last night so he could attend Emily's Chorus Winter Concert. Since he had to be back at work in Port Charlotte at 6:30 this morning, he got up around 4:00 to get ready. Katie decided that she wanted to be awake then, too, which meant that I had to get up with her.

Since I have a difficult time waking up at 4:00 am, I decided to try to catch a few winks on the couch while Katie watched Yo Gabba Gabba. I guess that at some point I fell asleep and Katie fell asleep on me. At least, that's what I can surmise from the photos I discovered on my camera when I was moving pics to my computer.


Isn't she adorable? Even in her sleep, she looks like she's posing for the camera.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Emily was our photographer this morning.

Addict

Katie is an addict. This kid eats, sleeps, and breathes Yo Gabba Gabba. Seriously, the first thing she asks for in the morning when she wakes up is, "Yo Gabba." If the television isn't currently showing Yo Gabba Gabba, she finds and brings me the remote and asks, "Yo Gabba?" Sometimes when I am sick of watching Yo Gabba Gabba, and I refuse to put it on for her, she starts screaming, "YO GABBA!!!" at me.
If you've never seen the show, you should check it out. It is so cute, and it's perfect for parents and little kids to watch together. There's lots of singing and dancing, plus some great guest musicians, like the Shins. Some episodes feature Mark's Magic Pictures with Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame, as well as Biz Markie with Biz's Beat of the Day. Seeing your 16 month old beat-boxing is the cutest thing ever!

Christmas Photos

I don't know what I was thinking, but when I went shopping for Christmas cards this year, I decided to buy some of those add-your-own-photo cards. I figured it would be easy to just snap a cute pic of the girls, and then upload it to Walgreens to have printed 50 times.

Since Katie and Emily have been sick lately, I have been putting off taking the picture because they really weren't looking very well. But today, after Katie's bath, I decided that it was time to take the picture. We really couldn't wait much longer to do it, since I still have to assemble the cards, address them, and mail them out.

This is the picture that we decided to use for the cards:
Although, I really considered using this picture since it is a much more realistic portrayal of my girls:
What do you think?

I'm back

Hi. Remember me? I know you haven't heard from me in a while, but I'm back now, so you can stop worrying.
While I was away, I had a birthday. The day before Thanksgiving, I turned 34. Since I am so old now, I decided to stop fighting my gray hair and just embrace it. So, instead of coloring my hair to cover up the grays, I decided to just get my hair highlighted so the grays will blend in better. After my birthday dinner with Phil, we went to the mall and I got my hair done. The hair stylist commented that she didn't think that Phil and I were married until she noticed our wedding rings. She said that most husbands wouldn't stick around while their wives got their hair done, so that was why she thought we were a newer couple. I didn't tell her that he only stuck around because it was my birthday and I asked him to.
Then there was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving used to be my favorite holiday. I loved that the whole family got to be together without all of the commercialization and pressure to buy gifts. But this year, Thanksgiving turned out to be the worst day of my life. I don't feel like sharing all the nasty details, but I am still reeling from everything that happened, and I don't know when or if things will ever be the same again.
So, anyway, I've been dealing with a lot lately, which is why I haven't blogged in a while. But, hopefully, things will be getting back to normal (or as close to normal as possible) soon, and I'll have some fun stuff to post about.
Congratulations to Julie on a successful NaBloPoMo. I'm glad you were able to stick with it all month. Maybe I'll try it out next year.

Poor Baby

Yesterday, I chaperoned Emily's class field trip to the Victory Ship. (If you've never heard of it, it's an old WWII warship that is docked behind the Florida Aquarium.) My Aunt Kathie kept Katie for me while I was out with Emily for the day. When I returned to pick Katie up, my aunt informed me that Katie had hardly eaten anything all day. Not such a terrible thing - maybe she just hadn't been hungry.

After Sarah got home from school, I took the girls (including one of Sarah's friends) to the Olive Garden for dinner. Katie usually loves it there because she is crazy about their breadsticks. I figured that since she hadn't eaten much all day that she would be pretty hungry, too. I figured WRONG! Not only did Katie not want to eat - even her beloved breadsticks - but she was miserable and yelling the entire time we were there. All I could do was beg the older girls to please hurry and finish their food so we could get out of there.

Once we got home, I took Katie's temperature and it was 102.7. No wonder she hadn't been eating or acting right all day! She was sick, duh! So, I gave her some Tylenol and rushed her up to the After Hours Pediatrics office, because I was afraid to wait until this morning to see her regular pediatrician. THAT was a HUGE WASTE of TIME and MONEY!

The "doctor" there said that Katie looked just fine to her. She could see no signs of infection, so her fever must be being caused by a virus, and we should just keep treating her fever with Tylenol and Motrin and wait for her to get over it. Something about her diagnosis just didn't sit right with me, and when Katie was still running such a high fever this morning (up to 103 by then) I called her pediatrician and asked if I should go with what the other "doctor" had said or bring her in to be checked out. He said to bring her right in.

Since I had to get Sarah to a friend's house for a ride to volunteer with our church youth group at Metropolitan Ministries, and get Emily to her soccer game, too, I had Phil take Katie to the doctor. As it turns out, Katie is NOT infection-free as I was told last night. Her throat is bright red and her glands are swollen. Luckily, it's not Strep, but it was still pretty bad. Since we had already wasted $30 on the After Hours co-pay, Dr. Bob gave Phil some samples of the antibiotic so we wouldn't have to pay for them. Hopefully, she'll be feeling better very soon.

So Very Tired

So, about three weeks ago, my doctor diagnosed me with anemia. I was a bit shocked, but it totally made sense to me since I had been so very tired. She prescribed me some iron pills, that my insurance won't cover by the way, so I thought I would start feeling better soon. Of course, I never thought I'd feel great, seeing as my asthma is a constant issue, too, but I thought I'd at least feel a little better.
Alas, I feel no change at all. I did feel okay for a few hours on Wednesday morning, because I had gotten to go to bed at 7:30 the night before, but that feeling didn't last long. By the end of the day I was worn out again. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the holidays feeling like this. I have all of this stuff that I want to get done, like shopping for Christmas, but I just don't have the energy to do much, if any, of it.

Doctor, Doctor

Katie turned fifteen months old today, so off to the doctor we went for her check-up. Katie weighed in at 20 pounds 4 ounces, and is 31 1/2 inches tall. She's tall and skinny, and well on her way to being a supermodel.

Katie also got a few shots today. Ouch! She got her MMR, her pneumoccochal vaccine, her chicken pox vaccine, and her flu shot. Gotta keep my baby healthy! Thankfully, Katie took her shots like a champ and has been in a good mood all afternoon. She even put up with me dragging her to the mall for a while after her appointment.

Hug-N-Farm

Tuesday morning, our playgroup went on a field trip to Granma's Hug-n-Farm. Katie got to see and pet lots of farm animals. We also got to go on a hayride. Katie had a blast.

Out of all of the farm animals, Katie's favorite one was this dog. So, of course, she had to give him a kiss!

Here Katie is showing me the donkey that she and Julianna were looking at.

Katie loved petting the soft little bunny in this picture. She also enjoyed chasing the bunnies around with the rest of the kids.

Look, Ma! No hands! Katie did so well on the "phony pony" that she thinks she's ready for the real thing.

Congratulations, Emily!

Congratulations to Emily for getting her first ever report card with straight A's on it. Emily is very proud of herself and I am very proud of her, too. This is especially exciting because at conference time I was told that she was borderline between A's and B's in four of her subjects and that her grades could go either way. And then she got sick and missed a few days right before the end of the quarter. Apparently, working so hard on the make-up work really paid off for her.

Another congratulations to Emily's soccer team, the Fireballs, on their first win of the season today. Emily missed the game last weekend, but from what I've been told, they played a team of Amazons and lost 7-3. Today, they were much more evenly matched with the team they played, at least size-wise, and won 5-0. Way to go, girls!