I'm a Katherine

Since it is a rainy day and the kids are watching a video and Macie wants to be right beside me, I have been wasting time on the computer. Mitzi sent me to this silly little test. It says I am a Katherine. If you know me, you know I hate self assessments. I can never figure out what answer best describes me. But, I actually think most of what this says is close to true about me.

You are a Katharine -- "I am happy and open to new things"

Katharines are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Give me companionship, affection, and freedom.
• * Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter.
• * Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories.
• * Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am.
• * Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people.
• * Don't tell me what to do.

What I Like About Being a Katharine

• * being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down
• * being spontaneous and free-spirited
• * being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun.
• * being generous and trying to make the world a better place
• * having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures
• * having such varied interests and abilities

What's Hard About Being a Katharine

• * not having enough time to do all the things I want
• * not completing things I start
• * not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career
• * having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies
• * feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship

Katharines as Children Often

• * are action oriented and adventuresome
• * drum up excitement
• * prefer being with other children to being alone
• * finesse their way around adults
• * dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up

Katharines as Parents

• * are often enthusiastic and generous
• * want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life
• * may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive

So, if you know me well enough to comment do you agree with what it says?

Macie Stats

Macie went to the doctor this morning for her 2 year check up. I was afraid it was turning into a sick kid visit, because she had not eaten much in a few days, was cranky at school yesterday and just lying around all morning. But, she had no signs of illness other than a little wheezing that comes with this time of year. She will be getting her albuterol a couple time a day to keep it from getting worse. Thankfully after a 3 hour nap, she woke up and seem better than before.

So, here are her stats. She has grown, but stays in the same percentiles.

Weight 25.6 pounds 34th percentile
Height 35 inches 77th percentile
Head 18.6 inches 41st percentile

I kind of think the height is off. She seems short to me, and she did not cooperate while she was being measured. Plus they say you double a girls height at 2 to get their adult height. I can not imagine she is going to be close to 6 feet. (I found another example that sats between 60.5 inches and 68.5 inches. That gives such a wide range I would say there is a good chance it will happen)

New do and a new bed

Our cute pig tail days (like this one last Monday at Music Class with cousin Jake) are now gone.

Macie has a big girl hair cut. This is not the greatest picture, but you can see her hair. She would not cooperate for me yesterday. I think she looks adorable, but I will miss the pig tails. Maybe if her hair gets a little thicker we will be able to grow it back out a little.

Carson also got his hair cut. I think it is a little short, but his will grow fast and look great in a couple weeks.
To show you how much they both needed a hair cut, here they are at the dentist just before we went to get their haircuts. (Only Carson was getting his teeth cleaned, but Macie wanted to show him how to open wide. Carson was a little scared.)
I also wanted to show you a picture of Macie's new bed. I have not gotten one of her sleeping there, but she is doing great. When I get the room all put together I will show more pictures.

And last, this is what happens when I am trying to clean and Carson wants to play a game. I think Carson always wins if he is playing Blue bear and Baby blue bear.

Happy Birthday Macie

Friday was Macie's birthday. It is hard to believe she is 2. Here are some pictures.

First, this is her invitations. I was excited about how they came out. It is not a normal thing for me to make something and be happy without they come out.

This is Macie, after I showed her her cake. She wanted to see it again, but I was busy. So, Miss Independent gets the chair from the kitchen and moves it to the dining room to help herself.
Speaking of the cake, is this not the cutest cake you have even seen. (I made the cupcakes) The lady who made the cake gives all proceeds to cancer research. And, it is very reasonably priced. If you live in the area, I will give you her name.
I did not get many picture during the party, but here is Addison and Macie eating lunch.
Our neighbor Sue reading to Macie and Sophia.
The family as everyone was singing Happy Birthday.
Macie is showing us Minnie Mouses nose. (Can you tell that her bow is Minnie?)
Getting ready for her cupcake. She already had watermelon all over her shirt.
Yummy!
Joshua (Sophia's brother) liked the cake. Isn't he about the cutest little thing?
We opened some presents. Macie got lots of great presents like this Fancy Nancy book from NeyNey.
And, Macie got some help opening her presents from Cole and Addison.
She had a fun day with lots of friends. I invited the kids on our street (and a couple from church) that are within in 9 months of her age (and their siblings). We had a total of 17 kids! It was crazy, but it is a nice reminder of how lucky we are to have friends close by.

4 BIG Events

Macie has had a couple of really big days

Yesterday little Macie turned 2(and had a big party)......

and she got her very own big girl bed that she slept in last night.

Today, Macie asked to go potty and actually went peepee....

and then about an hour later, she asked again and went poopy!

I have to get my updates together to show pictures, but Macie wanted you to know the big news.

Back to school

Carson has done really well recovering from surgery. Yesterday was day 5 and suppose to be bad. But, he was doing jumping jacks with Sid the Science Kid first thing in the morning. So, I sent him to school for the first hour. Macie had music class at 11:30, and I was afraid to leave him while we went to class. He went to my mom's and did fine. He has been at school for 3 hours now and I guess he is doing good.

He started talking and eating again yesterday. We created out own little pain scale and it was basically a 0. We still gave him pain medicine at night and I gave him some before school to be safe. But, things seem to be going well. He opened his mouth to show Mom and I his scabs and they seem to be doing well. The only bad thing now is his breath. Apparently healing can lead to bad breath.

On another note, Carson has woken up dry for a full week now. He was not a kid who started having dry diapers in the morning as a sign he was ready to potty train. Even with getting him up to go to the bathroom before Jeff and I went to bed, he could still have an accident (and that was wearing a pull up). But, we have made it an entire week! Hopefully, we can go to underwear and stop buying pull ups for him.

Carson update

Carson is doing fairly well after surgery today. He had his tonsils and adenoids out this morning. We were very proud of how brave he was with the entire thing. We had to be there at 6:45. Macie went to the Morrows to hang out until school started and the rest of us headed to the hospital. Carson was quiet, but he did not act like he was worried.

Watching tv before the nurses came in to check in him.

We had about a little over an hour to hang out in our room before they took him back. The only time he was scared was when the anesthesiologist came in to talk to us. But, when the nurse came and drove him away on his bed he was fine. We had a friend who was taken back in a wagon. I was actually glad Carson went in the bed. He was comfortable there, and I think he would have freaked out if we had moved him.

Hanging out waiting for our turn.

The doctor came back quickly and said it all went well. His tonsils were huge like they thought. Jeff said Carson got them from him. The doctor then (jokingly) tried to get Jeff to go on back and get his out. A little while later, they brought Carson back to the room. We were waiting for him in the hall, but he was doing great. Once he got to the room, we had a little trouble. They said he had been burping some and he probably swallowed some air. Well, a few minutes later he was throwing up. Thankfully, he was aware enough to tell me and the nurse could get us a container. At that point he had not had anything to eat or drink so it was just blood and mucus. But, after he drank, that came up too. He could not keep anything down until they gave him the anti nausea medication. At one point he was asking to go home, then he threw up again and said "I'm too sick to go anywhere." He was so pitiful. But, he also told me "It didn't even hurt to get my tonsils out." He did not like it when they took the tape off his arm and the IV out. It looks like the tape irritates him like it does me. He has a bunch of red spots including up by his eyes.

Things have been mostly calm since we got home. As the pain medication wears off, he is in a lot of pain. He doesn't want to drink anything and just whines. Thankfully, we can usually give him the medication within a short period and it works fast. He has had 4 Popsicles, 3 servings of ice cream, a Gogurt, and a little to drink. Here are a couple of pictures at home.

We are keeping him up until 9 for his next dose of medicine then putting him to bed and hoping it goes well. I am going to set the clock to give him a drink and medicine when it wears off. I am just hoping he sleeps other than that.

Not to leave Macie out, here she is in her new favorite hang out. She lies on the top shelf and reaches over to get a book to read then throws it on the floor. And I wonder why my house is a mess!

Mommy wasn't ready for this.

Can you tell from this picture where Macie is sleeping?
Maybe this one will make it a little bit easier. Macie has not been sleeping well for the last week. She has either been up in the middle of the night for a long time, or she will not go to sleep when we put her to bed. The solution has been she ends up in the guest room or our room with Jeff or me. Last night, Macie was in her room screaming while I was putting Carson to bed. Jeff had gone to work out so I was the only one with them. After I left Carson, I went into her room and told her she needed to go to sleep. She said "mommy's bed". When I told her no, she started to have a fit. I then asked if she wanted to sleep in the big girl bed in the other room. She shook her head, gathered all of her stuff and was reaching for me to get her out of her crib. I put her in the other room and told her if she got up or I heard from her again, she had to go back to her crib. She stayed there all night and we never heard from her.

I have been talking about getting her a bed for over a month. Most nights she crawls into Carson's bed and tries to sleep there. She has never crawled out of her crib, but I knew she was getting ready. But, I had not thought about her sleeping issues being related to wanting out of the crib. Notice in the picture, the guest bed isn't even made. I was not ready for her to move yet. I guess we will be figuring out what to do for her big girl bed this week!

The next 2 pictures are from the zoo last week. It was going to be a pretty day and we have zoo passes. So I took the kids. It happened to be the first day the baby panda was on display. He was really cute. Carson loved seeing him. He was behind the glass so the pictures are not very good, but you can see his momma holding him.

A blast from the past!

I was looking for a picture for Carolyn today and I found this one from 2006. Look how little Bryant, Carson and Ann Bennett are! (Carson was almost 2, Ann Bennett had just turned 4, and Bryant was 7)

A few days before Christmas

Rene' and her family were here the entire week of Christmas. They stayed with us, but on Tuesday the 23rd we all went to Mom's for dinner. Mom made dinner for all of us. This is a very normal thing, but it has not happened in a year. Margaret took her to the grocery store and then they came home and got everything together. Since the accident, Randy took over the cooking in their house. Mom enjoys cooking for everyone so it was good her and for us.

Bryant, Macie, Ann Bennett, and Carson in front of Sue Sue's tree.

Macie adores Bryant.

Randy has a little singing Santa that her brought home from his mom's. Macie loved it and spent a good part of the evening lying on the floor watching it. Here she is with Ann Bennett.

After dinner, we had a surprised planned to SueSue and Randy. We snuck out of the house and met the Morrows to go caroling. We had planned to find a night to take the kids caroling and it ended up Tuesday was the only day we could make it work. Here are the dads David, Jeff and Carey.
And, the kids with Sue Sue and Randy at the front door. Clockwise from top left, Mom, Macie, Randy, Bryant, Ann Bennett, Connor, Cole, and Carson. (I think it is funny how much Carson and Cole look alike these days)

Hopefully by the end of this week, I will be caught up with Christmas posts and we can move on to 2009!

Carson's Christmas Concert

Carson's school has a Christmas concert every year. We missed it last year because we were in Colorado skiing. We were very happy to see the concert this year. Carson takes his performance very seriously. He knows every word and every motion. It is a lot of fun to watch him. This year his class got to be reindeer. He did not like the head band very much, but he did well keeping it on his head. Here are a few pictures after the concert.


And a video where you can hear a great Christmas song.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A year ago

A year ago today started a rather difficult time for us. At 6:45AM Mom was in an accident that has significantly changed all of our lives. I remember that morning well. Carson had gone over to play with Cole and Connor. Macie was actually taking a morning nap. I was just sitting down at the computer to update my blog with new year resolutions when the phone rang. By this time it was after 10. All he said was your mom has been in an accident and is at Atlanta Medical Center. I did not really grasp how serious it was. Most of the rest of the day is a blur. I remember trying to figure out where the hospital was located and learning it was the old Georgia Baptist. I remember thinking why on earth they took her all the way down there. I remember thinking I should wait until Macie woke up from her nap (Boy has she changed this year!). I remember calling Jeff at work and him going to the wrong hospital. I remember Mitzi asking if I needed her to drive me to the hospital and then just coming to get me. David was home that day so he stayed with all the boys and Macie rode down to the hospital with us. I remember calling Rene' and leaving a message for her to call me. Randy had not called her. I remember getting off the elevator and trying to figure out what I was suppose to be doing. I remember they quickly sent Mitzi back downstairs because kids were not even allowed in the waiting room. I remember trying to get in touch with my dad. Randy was suppose to meet him that morning and had not shown up. I remember trying to get information out of the doctors and nurses. I remember leaving the ICU to call Rene' and finding out she was already on the road back to Atlanta. I remember feeling very torn between going home to be with the kids and staying with Mom. Macie was still nursing a few times a day so I felt like I needed to go home. I remember that January 2nd was just the beginning. It was and is a reminder that in a moment everything can change.

2008 was not a fun year for us, but we made it through and learned a lot. I have thought often of Larry Ward (the other driver's husband) when I think this year was bad for us. This year Larry lost his wife, his son and his mother. So, if you think of us today, say a prayer for him as well. We will be praying that 2009 is much better! So far so good.