3 year check up

I almost forgot...E's 3 year check up...

She's in the 80-85th percentile for height -- 38.5"

She's in the 50-55th percentile for weight -- 31 lbs.

She enjoyed getting her blood pressure taken (80/50) and wanted more of that sort of thing. She enjoyed having her heart listened to and her ears checked. (She still has some fluid in her ears and has to take Zyrtec nightly as a result. She was all high 5's with Dr. Ruben during the exam.

She really liked Dr. Ruben...until the flu shot. I held her while Reid attempted to distract her. We kept trying to get her to turn her head away so she wouldn't see the needle. That didn't work so well. Dr. Ruben was great, though. He put on a Snoopy band-aid and shortly after giving her the shot had to step out of the room for a couple of minutes. When Dr. Ruben came back into the room, there were no more high 5's...she refused to make eye contact with him and continually held her arm where she was given her shot.

Oh our little drama queen!

Happy Birthday From Candyland!

We had a great time with Grandma, Papi, Nana, Papa, and the Koeglers - Jason, Sarah, Campbell, & Will at Elizabeth's 3rd birthday party!!!

Warning: If you're diabetic, you may need to back away from the monitor a bit -- there was a wee bit of sugar involved in this event...

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

• Benign results on the lumps removed from CJA's head...
• My mom -- it's been fun having her spend the extra time with us...and Elizabeth is as clean as a whistle at the moment (well, except for her mouth...and not in that, "Poor thing, she has a potty mouth just like her mama" sort of way)
• Wonder Woman cake - E has feasted on it since her birthday...well, at least the icing...Mom, Reid, & I have actually eaten the cake underneath the icing...
• My Skull Candy -- Elizabeth has had the best time sharing the ear buds with me...and will listen to just about anything that I want to...even listening to Reid & Chris broadcasting the West Liberty men's basketball game from my beloved alma mater, WVWC, as I multi-task and watch the Mountaineers at Georgetown. (Don't tell her Daddy, but I think E would rather be listening to 'Ginia - as in the Mountaineer Marching Band.)
• The heat wave we got today (low 30's)...enough to help the ice thaw around the back of the house so we could shovel it away...
• The Mountaineers for getting a big win on the road against #14 Georgetown
• For HOPE...for our new President
  

Party Like It's 1.20.09

Thanks to Anne, I have a shirt that says that, "Party Like It's 1.20.09." What a moment! What a day! What a great country in which we live!

I'm bummed that circumstances have made it such that I am not in DC for the craziness that is this inaugural day. However, I'm currently sitting in MY chair, witnessing history from the warmth of my living room...with my mom & Sweetness...the Obama champagne is chilled...ready to be uncorked.

I thought I would write this Blog entry as I watch today's ceremony unfold...

From the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial, the Mall runs 1.9 miles. When in our nation's history have we had people standing nearly 2 miles deep to watch a presidential inauguration? NEVER! This is absolutely amazing to watch! (This was certainly not the case for W's first inauguration...we were there with Rikki...and there was plennnnty of elbow room amongst the crowd...no need for anyone to be behind the ticketed area...just plenty of rich rednecks in their fur coats with silk lining...complaining about how cold they were (it was sleeting, after all)...none of those rich rednecks had remembered the famous "Checkers Speech" by former President Nixon who talked about Pat wearing "respectable Republican cloth coat." Much better suited for the sleet than fur...)

The Obama girls, Malia and Sasha couldn't look any more adorable. Just like the type of girls, for more than the obvious reasons, that I hope will become Elizabeth's friends one day! Malia has her digital camera out...sooooo cute!!!

MSNBC is talking about the Lincoln bible. I am really suprised that Barack Obama is the first president-elect to request use of the Lincoln bible for the swearing in ceremony.

Reid is amazed that after her appearance on Oprah yesterday, Dr. Jill Biden is appearing without a muzzle. I think the Bidens were quite charming on Oprah yesterday. She also won't be near a microphone.

VP Cheney didn't get pushed down the stairs and off the platform. Damn!

W is walking out to the boo birds. Kudos to the commentators on MSNBC stating that it is in bad form for people to be booing W's entrance. (Reminds me of the crowd booing the crap out of Bill & Hillary Clinton...and Al & Tipper Gore, especially the latter, in 2000. Made me quite cranky that the crowd wasn't more respectful of the Clintons & Gores...not cool to boo -- even W...and I think everyone that knows me knows I have NEVER been a fan!) At least for the formal announcement of W, it sounds much more like polite golf clapping...much better form, there, audience.

VP Joe Biden...to a sea of flags waving...

And now...PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK H. OBAMA!!!! Woo Hoo!!!

I wonder where Rikki & Doug are in this sea of people...and Andrea Mcelroy...and Todd Pickett...

I was hoping for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T from Aretha Franklin, but will settle for My Country Tis Of Thee. But what in the Hell is that thing on her head???

Joe Biden takes his oath of office. Yea!!!! How cool...his 91 year old mama is there to witness that!!!

Ahhhh...hopefully the performance of John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGil is a sign of things to come - more funding for the arts. Simple Gifts -- makes a WVU grad verklempt!

Some time between Joe Biden accepting the oath and the music, http://www.whitehouse.gov/ got updated...

I'm totally choked up now. It's official - the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack H. Obama! Spotted our Senator, Jay Rockefeller, over his shoulder during the swearing in...

The inaugural address...happy to hear that "We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost"...that we have been called to service (reminds me of the part of the Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose which I hold so dear to my heart, "To welcome the opportunity of contributing to the world's work in the community where I am placed because of the joy of service thereby bestowed and the talent of leadership multiplied.") ...that "America is a friend of each nation"...that "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord"...

I love the quote from George Washington, "Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

I'm so thankful that I no longer have to wish that the man residing in the White House is named Dave - or Josiah Bartlett.

God Bless you, Mr. President -- and the United States of America!

Yes We Can!

Happy Birthday to Elizabeth!

Today Elizabeth is thankful to/for/about:

• Presents
• Wonder Woman cake (well, at least the icing on the Wonder Woman cake)
• Ice Cream
• Mommy, Daddy, & Kennenny (aka Kennedy) -- who gave her presents
• Grandma -- who has been playing with Elizabeth since she came up to visit on Wednesday...and who brought presents...and who makes sure that her nose is wiped...and medicine ingested...and reads to E...and snuggles...that's good stuff!
  
• Hans -- who came to celebrate her birthday -- and brought her cool stuff for her kitchen (mmmm Betty Crocker cakes with icing, brownies, cookies, muffins -- she can now open up a bakery!)
• Phone calls from Papi, Nana & Papa, Anne, (Sean - who was working, but I'm sure sending her birthday wishes), & Alex (who actually said "hi" on the phone to E), and RaRa & Doug (despite not being so chatty with either of them!)

I can't believe our little baby is THREE! My how time has flown by!

Nearly Forgotten Elizabeth Funny

Thanks, Nana, for reminding me about this one earlier this evening...would hate to have forgotten this little funny.

A week or two ago, Elizabeth was being particularly bad at the dinner table. While I was reprimanding her, I said, "Shame on you, Elizabeth."

Her response, "No I don't want shame on ME. I shame on YOU, Mommy!"

I would say, poor Reid for having to deal with two of us in the household, but the entire time he was laughing at her antics! Plus, he asked to spend the rest of his life with me...so he pretty much knew what he was in for...

Elizabeth's Latest Funnies

Here are a few of the latest funnies from our soon-to-be 3-year-old:

• [Random Side Note: Not everybody knows this but the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written about a girl, Katie Casey - E has a book about this.] She's also recently been playing CDs and singing or dancing along. Sometimes she either can't pronounce or misunderstands the lyrics and so this is somewhat amusing. However, in the case of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," she's just plain old changed them. Here is her version, "Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts, and cheese and crackers..." She's never had Cracker Jacks, so I'm sure she would just prefer cheese and crackers. She is her Daddy's girl after all.
• When she's getting a nighttime treat of ice cream and cake, we sing "Ice cream and cake and cake" (ala Buckwheat Boyz). Well, this presents a problem as Elizabeth doesn't like cake, just the icing. (Girl after my own heart, there.) Yesterday evening when we were singing, "Ice cream and cake and cake" I told her that if she wasn't going to eat any of the cake, she shouldn't be singing the song - that we would need a different song for her. She came back with, "Ice cream and icing, icing. Ice cream and icing." I guess I asked for it!
  
• Even if you don't ask her, she'll gladly tell you, "My birthday's coming up." And in the case of Grandma or Nana on the phone with her, "Do you have presents for me?"
• Potty training is not going well...if you can say it is even going. I swear I think she'll be in Kindergarten before she learns to pee in the potty...let alone #2. She doesn't even mind walking around in a soiled diaper. In fact, if you ask her if she has poop in her pants she'll run away and say, "Nooooo!" (Dead giveaway that there is some nastiness in the diaper.) Yesterday after she denied that there was anything there...while I was changing her, she said, "Thank you for telling me there was poop in there, Mommy."
  
• She's also a great shopper. She knows that Target is good (probably doesn't hurt that they have popcorn and slushies) and if on the very, very, very rare occasion I have mentioned about going to WalMart, she'll say, "No, I not going to WalMart!"

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

• That my Mom's MRI was negative - woo hoo! No surgery for Sue Baby!!!
  
• That the Lady Toppers are such good gals - they were great with Elizabeth when we had them over for dinner on Monday. E gave them all (I swear I think it was all of them) a tour of the house. It's easily done, mind you, when, "This is MY playroom. This is MY kitchen. This is MY dining room. This is MY bathroom. This is MY crib. This is MY bedroom. (Girls would ask if that was her "big-girl's bed" in HER bedroom - E would say, "No that's Grandma's bed.") This is MY bedroom." (The girls would say that was an awfully big bed for HER bedroom and E would say, "Well, that's Mommy & Daddy's bed.") Thankfully the girls went along with the tour...and E didn't take them to the 3rd floor...or surprisingly the basement.
• Reid - who brought me flowers...so sweet!
• Pat White - for being the greatest player to ever wear the Mountaineer uniform in my lifetime! What a privilege it has been to watch him play for WVU!
• My scrapbook space...plugging along on the next installment of Elizabeth's scrapbook...not to mention E's rockin' birthday party invites!
  
• Kennedy - who keeps my feet warm when they get cold - without a whimper! She's the sweetest little puppy ever!
• Elizabeth - who just continually cracks me up. You must hear her read "The Monster at the End of this Book: Starring Lovable, Furry, Old Grover" to herself. It's priceless! In addition to, at times, testing the waters to call me "Jennie" then saying "Is that your name, Mommy?"...she's taken to sometimes calling Reid "Sweetness."
• The ability to work from home! I get soooo much done...
  

Birthday Party Preparations

So as usual, I'm a bit tardy in getting E's birthday party invitations in the mail. Her birthday always (I say this as if she's had 10+ more of these) creeps up on me. I started thinking about what I was going to do as soon as I figured out what she was going to be for Halloween (yes, pre-party preparations in September/October.) However, with the Christmas doings, I just didn't seem to get my act together to make the invitations until now. I know I could cop-out and just do a theme and buy the fill-in-the-blank invitations...but that wouldn't be the "Martha" way - and this is just something more for Aunt Anne to say, "How am I supposed to compete with this?"

So, the theme for Elizabeth's 3rd birthday party is "Candyland." It was a fun game that I enjoyed playing when I was a tot. Since these invites were a little more labor-intensive than in previous years, I thought I should show you my process. Plus, if it helps you get a little more creative/crafty - all the better!

The main part of the invitation required a little work on my part in PhotoShop. Here is what I started with - the photo of E I took during the photo shoot referenced in my previous post. I liberated a Candyland image...superimposed the image of Elizabeth, and worked up the invite from there...That part, which we'll get to in a little bit, was printed on card stock.

I purchased scrapbook paper that I was alright with (was hoping for a more candy-themed paper, but Michael's is quite limited in their scrapbook paper, in my humble opinion. The candy embellishments, outer wrapping and ribbon were also procured at Michael's. The lollipops were bought at Cracker Barrel. (I must note that I couldn't get 10 of the same kind of lollipop at Cracker Barrel - so if you're going to do something similar, you may need to purchase in advance. I like both kinds, so I'm still quite pleased overall.) Other items I used were stuff I had in my scrapbook work-space - the paper trimmer, self-healing cutting mat, bone paper folder, pencil, eraser, double-sided photo-safe adhesive, scalloped-edge scissors, the Martha Stewart circle cutter (puts the Creative Memories circle cutter to shame!), and the Cricut (had to use it...just for the little circles on the front...which I'll get to in a bit.)

I cut the scrapbook paper in half. Then I trimmed the short side of it by a quarter of an inch. I knew (based on what I had done with the invitation part in PhotoShop that the center piece would need to be 6", so I made reference marks in pencil - one tiny one in the center (you won't be able to see it in the picture), then measured out three inches from either side and those are the pencil lines you can see in the photo above.

Using the awesome Martha Stewart circle cutter and my pencil, I traced a circle for the center - just large enough to bleed off of the folded edge of the scrapbook paper. (Note, the folded part on the front should overlap by about a quarter of an inch. I then cut out the circle with a new pair of Fiskars scalloped-edge scissors - cussing at least twice per invitation because the scissors don't ever seem sharp enough - making sure to keep the folded parts attached to the main circle.

You can see how the scrapbook paper looks when cut out and unfolded.

Again using the Martha Stewart circle cutter, this time with the blade, I cut out the invitation that I created in PhotoShop and printed on card stock.

Next, using the double-sided photo-safe adhesive, I adhered the invitation in the center of the scallop-cut circle.

Using the circles I cut out using my Cricut cutter (any kind of circle cutter would work, I just wanted to play), I wrote "You're Invited" on each one and put a Martha Stewart candy embellishment on the top. Again, using the double-sided photo-safe adhesive, I adhered (albeit very lightly, the "You're Invited" circles on the front of the folded scrapbook paper. I used more adhesive on one side than the other -for easier opening.)

Then I used the double-sided adhesive (would have loved it if I could have just found my double-sided Scotch tape...but I'm sure it will show itself tomorrow...now that I don't need it!) I adhered the back scrapbook paper to the back of the lollipop. (I think double-stick tape would have worked a bit better, because the wrapping on the lollipops was somewhat difficult to get the invitation to stick to. However, it should be pretty easy to remove the invitation from the lollipop - should you get a sweet tooth or want to hang on to the invitation!

Finally, I wrapped the entire invitation in the shimmery-kind of cellophane, and tied a bow at the base of the lollipop with sheer ribbon to keep the cellophane intact.

Now, I ask you - who wouldn't want to get one of these cute little invitations from the cutest little soon-to-be three year old???

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all!

We've been busy around here! Went to Jason & Sarah Koegler's for a NYE party - met some great people there. When I woke up yesterday morning, I had no voice. Reid's not complaining, but I swear it was the weirdest thing. Go to bed with a voice, wake up with none.

I finally got around to taking a picture of our 9-foot Christmas tree. Sorry for being so tardy in posting this pic!

Yesterday we had a flow of folks through the house for the bowl games. I started cooking my seafood gumbo at 9 AM, it was ready by 2 PM. Reid had me double the recipe so there would be leftovers. There are TONS of leftovers! (When I cook something for 5 hours, I have little/no interest in eating it, so that doesn't help matters!) So, if you're hungry for gumbo, and are in our neck of the woods, please stop by and take some off our hands!

E is having a grand time playing with her Christmas loot! The living room coffee table has been taken over with the Play-Doh center (she got the craft caddy (excellent choice Grandma!) and the octopus - the latter is ridiculously difficult to get the Play-Doh out of, so if you're considering it, you may want to go in another direction.) She does have fun getting the Play-Doh through the sea creatures, though. (Reminds me of the Barber Shop Play-Doh I had as I kid where you could grow and cut the hair...) She has been a cycling fool on the Smart Cycle. She was a little slow the first couple of days with it, peddling backwards - or just being too interested on the images on the TV, but no more. Now she is peddling and grabbing up the letters and shaped like a pro! (She's waiting for Nana to come so she can "show you her moves!") The kitchen is great - and she has created us several delicious and nutritious meals! However, the mixer Aunt Anne & Uncle Sean got her is in time out. She came to learn that the beaters on the mixer can really tangle up a little girl's hair - not that we didn't tell her that...fortunately the scissors weren't involved in freeing up the tangly mess!

We're looking forwarding to hosting the Lady Toppers basketball team for a fajita party dinner on Monday evening. Elizabeth has been concerned about two things - 1.) that Topper Bear wouldn't be coming (she's scared), and 2.) and I quote, "Well what are we gonna fix, Mommy?"

Today I attempted a photo shoot with Elizabeth for the picture for her birthday party invitations. I ask you - is this the face of a child wanting to cooperate with the camera? I don't think so! Regardless, I think I may have something that will suffice. I have grand plans for these...will likely involve a trip to Cracker Barrel tomorrow - you'll have to wait to see the finished product.

Elizabeth is getting excited about her birthday. So, I must get cracking on those invitations. She will tell you that her birthday is in January or, like she told Aunt Rikki earlier tonight, "My birthday's coming up!"

Have a Happy & Healthy 2009!