And the award for worst mom goes to...

I hesitated whether or not to write this post, but it has been a few days so I think I can laugh at the situation now. Wednesday started out so fun. My friend Angela and her 3 cute (and tan!) kids came down from Kingwood to go swimming at my neighborhood pool. The day was sort of cloudy and rainy so when we met at the pool it had been closed temporarily due to thunder. We went back to my house to wait and see if the weather got any better and the kids had fun playing the Wii and with George. The pool reopened about an hour later and because it had been closed earlier we were the only ones there for quite awhile. We stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to call it a day. Kate loves to play with my keys, and being the indulgent mother (i.e. pushover) that I am, I let her play with them while we walked to the car. I put her in her car seat and quickly grabbed my keys from her and replaced them with her toy keys that were in the car. I tossed my keys on the front seat and shut Kate's door. When I tried to open my door....locked. I tried Kate's door...locked. I ran around to the other side....locked! Angela was still in the parking lot so I went to her car and said "I locked Kate in the car, what do I do?" She said "call 911". So I reached into my bag to get my cell phone and couldn't find it of course. Angela very kindly let me use hers and I called 911. The operator asked me "what is the address?". Well I didn't know so I said "umm...the Fall Creek pool?" That apparently didn't cut it so I had to run back to the pool to ask the lifeguards what the address was. Meantime, the call was dropped but I didn't realize it and the operator tried to call me back but I thought it was someone trying to call Angela so I hit ignore on her phone. After I realized what had happened I had to call 911 again. Keep in mind this is the middle of July. In Texas. And the car was not running so there was no AC. Luckily the day was cloudy so it wasn't too terribly hot. Anyway, I could hear sirens coming so I went back to the car and a cop car pulled up. Out jumped a short, bald cop. Then another cop car came, and again, out jumped a short, bald cop. Angela turned to me and whispered "Are they twins?". Man, I wish I had checked their name badges to see if they had the same last name! Oh well. Then a fire truck (not a fire engine, just a truck) and an ambulance came. They popped the lock in record time and I got Kate out of the car. She was pretty mad but I think it had more to do with her being tired than being in distress. Everyone was very nice about the situation, but I felt pretty stupid. So what do you guys think? Do I win the award or what? Here's a poll:
A. Nope, there are wayyyy worse moms out there.
B. Yep, you win. Someone call CPS!
C. I can't answer the question, I'm too busy trying to get my kid out of my locked car.

Where does the time go?

So I know July 4th was forever ago, but I had to post some pictures. Our neighborhood had a little parade so I decorated the stroller and we paraded around that morning. It totally reminded me of decorating my bike and riding in the neighborhood parade when I was little. Of course, I was also dressed up as a pioneer because it was July 24th, but close enough! Then that night the golf course near our house had a firework show. It was a fun day (from what I can remember because it was so long ago!)
Kate turned 10 months last week. She is finally crawling around! It has been nice to have her be able to follow me around instead of sitting her down and then have her start crying because she can't follow me. But now I have to keep a close eye on her so she doesn't get into things or put everything in her mouth! She makes a really funny noise whenever we say "meow", like she is trying to copy us or something. But she only does it after "meow". She is eating lots of new things and likes most of them as long as she can feed herself. I can't believe she is almost a year old!

Memory Lane Tag

You're It!

Memory Lane.... the tag that gets everyone involved
Got this from a friend and I thought I would play the game.
Here's how you play
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and i had together. it doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory of you. it's actually pretty funny to the responses. if you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

A perspective on work

I have been working at a hospital near our new house (I'm an ultrasound tech for those that don't know) while one of their regular techs is on maternity leave. I have to say...working is so much easier than being a stay-at-home mom! It is really hard to leave Kate, but once I get to work, I have clear objectives and an immediate reward (in the form of a paycheck). At home, I have a child that can't tell me what she wants, a house that never seems to stay clean, and no paycheck! I can totally understand why some moms would choose to go back to work and respect even more the moms that decide to stay home. I remember my mom being there to greet us when we got home from school, and it meant so much to have her there. But I can see now why she went back to school as soon as Paul was in elementry! Anyway, my hat goes off to all you stay-at-home moms, the most difficult job on the planet!

Priceless

Baby oatmeal: $3.49

Baby applesauce: $1.09

Juice: $2.49



Letting the baby feed herself: Priceless

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

We're back! After a rough start (our plane was supposed to leave Houston at 1:10pm and didn't leave until almost 9pm getting us to our Orlando hotel after 1am) we woke up and reintroduced ourselves to nephews and nieces, some of whom I had never met! Then we got on a shuttle and headed to Port Canaveral where a ship was waiting. After getting on the ship and dropping off our bags, we immediately began eating which was a good example of how we would spend the majority of our time (either actually eating or thinking about it). There was a nusery that we dropped Kate off at so we could have dinner in peace. She cried at first but when I went back to check on her 15 minutes later she was almost asleep so I took that as a good sign. The next day we got to Castaway Cay which is an island that Disney bought. It was gorgeous and not at all too "Disney". They had the actual Flying Dutchman ship from Pirates of the Caribbean and you could get your picture taken with Captain Jack (I think this was Alicia's highlight). We spent the morning playing in the ocean and then after lunch we rented bikes and rode around. Poor Kate was so tired she feel asleep in the bike carrier! That night the theater put on Toy Story the Musical which was pretty cute and Kate seemed to enjoy it. The second island was Nassau which I was not at all impressed with. There was lots of shopping close to the dock, but it was mostly the same junk you can find in Mexico or the streets of New York. The beach was too far to walk to and we didn't want to get too far from the ship so we decided not to go (I heard from other people later that we didn't miss much). After walking around for a little while we went back to the ship and played in the pool. The fourth day we went back to Castaway Cay. Jason, Kate and I rode bikes around while Bev, my dad, Greg and Alicia went parasailing. Then Jason decided he was beached out so he took Kate to the ship for a nap and I went to the "adult" beach with my sibs. There was hardly anyone esle there and we swam and relaxed in hammocks and saw a (baby) shark and it was glorious! Before dinner we went to another show called Disney Dreams (I think). I wasn't expecting much but it was really fun! There were songs from lots of Disney movies and they threw confetti into the audience, blew bubbles (for the Little Mermaid song) and even made it snow on us (during the Beauty and the Beast song)! After that was our last supper, sniff, sniff. The next morning we disembarked and made our way as slowly as possible back to the real world. All in all, I think this was one of my favorite vacations. It was sort of hard with Kate, but it was so worth it and I can't wait to go again when she is a little older!

Happy Mother's Day!

The day started out great because Kate slept until almost 9:00!! And I woke up to a waffle breakfast, so that made things even better. And yes, that is a picture of a vacuum, which was my mother's day present. No, my husband is not a chauvinist pig, he gave me exactly what I asked for. I have been wanting the Bissell pet hair eraser for awhile but couldn't really justify the cost (since the old vacuum works just fine) so getting it as a gift seemed like a good solution. After church, I watched Masterpiece Theater's Jane Erye while Kate slept and then we had pasta for dinner, so the whole day was just perfect. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and future mothers!