Lots of catch up

A few weeks ago we went to Shawn's playoff hockey game. And Kat got to hang out with her big cousin Cheyenne. She loved it. (No idea why that sentence is now a hyperlink.)


Playing in the snow.
The turkey (named Tyson) she got to pet at our zoo class.
The tiger skin she got to pet at the zoo class.
Weight lifting at the pool.....
Could they be any cuter?
At a party last week, all 3 girls zipped themselves into the crib. They had to ask for help top get out.

This series is all Kat art. I really like a few of them....




Not sure which of these I like best....I think the second one.
Skyping Wendy.
Boo.

Grandpa & Grandma at Tom's for xmas.
mommy.
I like it....
Here she is at the library playing a Barney Farm game. I was impressed at her skill in moving the frogs to the lily pad (and knowing that's what she was supposed to do).

Happy St. Patrick's Day

You can't tell from this pic, but she has big green barrettes in her hair (which she wore For a record 7+ hours) band her pent served as a napkin all day....

Home and bouncing all over the place.

Well, we survived the morning at the hospital. And getting up at some ungodly hour (I realize that many folks are up at that time every day) to get there by 7:45 with a hungry & thirsty munchkin. Our surgery was at 11, and I think it was right on time.

The surgery was a less than 10 minute deal and she did great. The recovery, which I hadn't considered at all, was another story. She was crying and screaming when I went in--I didn't even know that it was Kat, as I apparently was expecting her to be lying quietly, awaiting my arrival. Nope. So she screamed about her ears and "I need my hearing aids" for half an hour or more, with small breaks taken to watch Dora and drink some of Dan's Pepsi. And then she would remember the indignities and start screaming again.

We took her home, with some crying along the way, but playing with the iPhone and a promise of ice cream helped. Once we got home, she and Dan had their ice cream and she had nearly forgotten the trauma of the morning and began bouncing about.

I haven't, however.....I'm half passed out on the couch (I hardly slept last night) and am counting the hours till bedtime (for both of us). Dan dragged himself to the office, as there was zero chance of getting anything done, nor grabbing a nap with Kat here moseying about. She will resume her regular activities tomorrow, preschool, moving & grooving & soccer.

The Dr did say that there was all sorts of fluid in her ears and that she got that out, and now, with the tubes, hopefully no more will accumulate and there are no more barriers to her hearing being maximized with her hearing aids (which Dan inadvertantly broke one of this AM when taking them off at the hospital). When she was screaming for them, we couldn't really put them in, as they were in 2 pieces. We did stop by the Hearing aid store and get them fixed, so she now has no fluid and 2 working hearing aids.

Tomorrow we will return to normal (and I can nap after dropping her at preschool) and she will forget all about this, I hope.

That's the scoop from here. Hopefully spring is springing here in Buffalo and we will see the sun again soon.

Kat at hospital awaiting ear tube surgery

I am going to win parent of the year!!

I let her be seen in public like this. Though I drew the line at going to story time at the library. I told her she would have to wash it off for the library, but not for miss Beth's Kidsit. Which did she prefer? She chose miss Beth's.

My birthday

Well, the three of us went bowling for my birthday (after Kat showed daddy what a TAe Kwon Do expert she is.). Here is my high score, possibly ever.

Kat's high score

This must be why I hid the black ink pad before....

But, silly me, I just came across it and put it BACK in the box of stamps.....and then I remembered.....

At sesame street live

With rapt attention.

Knee high naturalist graduation

I don't think that the baby bear graduated.....

Knee high naturalists

Swimming?

She always finds a kid on her class to screw around with. She found a very willing volunteer this time.

Swimming class tonite.

She's been obsessed with goggles. We'll see how it goes in the water....

At the library

She found a new friend. And she was telling it to 'look at mommy'.

Tae Kwon do

Kat's first class. She Loved the wall of mirrors. Had I known how this video was going to end I would have....well, hell, I would have done nothing differently!!

A hole in the wall

Not sure what the point of the hole in the wall is, but Kat discovered it at our playdate today.

Enjoying our 'new' couch

We were waiting for him to roll to his back and land on the floor. He didn't. Even boo isn't that stupid..... Though I never saw a dog lay like this on a couch.

No Snow....but a sex scandal !!!

So we didn't get much of the snow we were promised two weeks ago. It was cold and wintry and we got several inches, but nowhere near the 15+ inches we were promised. Very disappointing. But it was a great day to be out running errands, as no one else was out and about.

But, on the upside, the latest (and unbelievably lame) congressional sex scandal was our very own congressman, Chris Lee!! YEAH!!! Buffalo has made it to the big time!!!!! If you call sending a picture of oneself with no shirt and flexing one's bicep a sex scandal. I would personally call it cheesy and lame, and while the guy appears to be slime, I'm not at all sure that by congressional standards that's even close to a scandal. So either the guy has far worse stuff that has yet to hit the fan, or he's way to much of a weenie to be in congress to begin with. I suspect a fair number of congressfolks do far worse than than this on the way in to work each day and you don't see them resigning! Plus, it was a potential sex scandal with a woman! That's a novel twist. Maybe that's why he was out of there so fast.....the Republican party couldn't stand the idea of a sex scandal with someone of the opposite sex! I think he set the record for how quick it went from when the story hit to his resignation. It was about 2 hours! And I just got my voter registration card, so will be able to vote for his replacement!

My cough is nearly gone, sometimes. So hopefully the pneumonia is far behind me now and it just may be time to start hitting the treadmill again. I started a 12 week program at the Y, back in November and I think it will be more like the 20 week program.....oh well.

Last week Kat and I went to Kid's Fest while Dan was traveling to a conference in San Fran. I am pretty sure she has no idea who Word-Girl even is, but she ran down the hall for a hug nonetheless.
She loved Curious George.
Who wouldn't love Elmo?

She got here first Tattoo! Unfortunately the piercing place wasn't ope so that will have to wait.Our bar before......
This was our basement bar before. Clearly one of the ugliest things ever. SO. using stuff laying around the house (ceiling paint and an old bathroom mirror) to brighten up that corner of the basement AND make it NOT hideous. Let me know what you think. I still have some of the red fabric if you want it....I pawned the mirrored tiles (and many broken ones) off one on someone on Craig's list.And after....
Kat is going to give Tae Kwon Do a shot. We will see. In her first and only personal lesson, she spent most of the time hiding underneath the chairs in the room. Maybe this week will go better?

Her swimming on the other hand, is going great. I'm amazed at how natural the underwater swimming thing seems to come to her. She still struggles to keep her body on top of the water, as she can only focus on kicking OR moving her arms, but not both. But underwater, she does both with ease

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Preparing for the Snowpocolypse

Well, we are waiting.....It's 8:42 and nothing is happening out there yet. I can still see the fence, mostly because there is no snow to speak of yet. We did the obligatory Wegman's run to make sure that we had plenty of supplies, filled the gas tanks and are now waiting for the fun to begin.

Kat had swimming class tonite and, despite the fact that it's not yet miserable out, I had no desire to leave the house. But she wanted to go and good thing we went; that little fish had a great class! She was the only one in her class tonite, so she had a .5 hour personal class with her regular teacher. She made great strokes, as you will see in the videos.

In an unrelated note, I had a chest x-ray yesterday to check out the status of my pneumonia, as I'm still coughing, a lot sometimes. My Dr e-mailed me that my lungs were clear, so I guess that drama is now behind us. I guess the cough sometimes lingers and I assume eventually goes away.

Kat goes bowling! And pics of Grandma's birthday

Kat's preschool had a bowling outing yesterday and she really liked it. And she bowled a 61 (yes, the bumpers were up, but still), we had the best score of our two lanes, at least. you have to love the dance/somersault that follows......


Here, she and Grandma are singing 'happy birthday to grandma' . Could this be any sweeter?

Micellaneous stuff

This is Kat, cheering for Canada in the World Junior Championships....alas, it was not to be.
Here is Dan with his winter beard. Alas, that was not to be either....despite Kat and I lobbying for him to keep it. She keeps asking what happened to his beard 'did it come off in the pool?'. Maybe we can talk him into growing it back.
One of Kat's favorite snacks is a little tub of peaunut butter and carrots or crackers for dipping into it. Well, she is usually completely COVERED in PB and that stuff does NOT wash off easily. SO we have found a better solution.......

Back to the Doctor

Last night while I was hanging out at the Y (no idea when I'll feel able to exercise again) while Kat was at Messy Play, two ladies, independently, came into the room I was in and heard me cough. And made me swear that I would return to the Dr ASAP.

She said she hears the crackling all over my lungs now and put me on Prednisone. And tested my lung capacity, which was quite low. The pharmacist warned me that the pred increases the tendon loosening risk of the Levaquin (antibiotic) that I already finished. The warning for that said the tendon issue could last for months after taking the stupid drug. Great. And the pharmacist felt compelled to warn me, as she had recently taken both the antibiotic, followed by the prednisone. She had had no issues in this area, but had done a lot of research on it. And concluded, that despite the risks, it was a better option than eventually landing in the hospital with the pneumonia. I concluded the same. So, hopefully this will reduce the inflammation in the lungs and let the fliud out and I will leave this ugly thing behind us.

On a related note, if you haven't had your flu shot yet, I recommend getting one, as that is how this all started. And I read today that this year's flu strain leads to pneumonia more commonly than previous strains.

Hope that all is well with everyone out there and that no one else is sick.

Hockey practice.

Forgot to mention

That Dan's car is still full of all the stuff we took to and from Lake Placid. Neither of us had had the required energy to actually unload it, much less put everything away. So it stays in the car. Dan can't go to his office downtown, as his car is full of stuff that would get it broken into. Not that he's had that much motivation.....

And I think that Dad posted last night, haven't confirmed yet, but they are now officially on skype. I saw them last night and can confirm that they are up and running. Kat missed them, as she was so exhausted, she put herself to bed at 6:30. And got up at 8. No complaints from us.

Sent from my iPhone

The Plague

Apparently it's time to paint a red cross on our door. We had a great time in Placid with Derek & Liza and the kids, but we were somewhat sick all the while. And now we're sicker.

Dan and I, and Kat have all been in varying degrees of sickness for 3 weeks. Today, we all went to the Doctor (all different of course- me to my new Dr, Kat to her ped and Dan to an urgent care center, as he doesn't yet have a Dr here). I have pneumonia, Dan has bronchitis (sp?) and Kat has....well, a cough. At least her lungs were clear, so she is NOT on antibiotics. Even one of the dogs is on antibiotics! So fully 1/2 of the household (not counting the loaner rats of Derek & Liza's) are on antibiotics here.

The dogs haven't been walked for weeks.....they're dying. Pete was so kind as to stay at the house and watch the critters (including the surprise rat visitors). He tried to walk the dogs, one at a time. I forgot how they hate to be separated. Each dog is loathe to leave the other, as they are sure that they are missing something amazing- like peanut butter-covered steak and they won't go for a walk without the other. I can't walk them- hell, I can't make it up the stairs without being completely winded, so if anyone out there is a glutton for idiocy and wants to walk 200lbs of dog sometime, just let me know! We will have them leashed and ready to roll.

No new pics to post. I planned on getting lots of pics of the girls skiing. And then, on the day we were to ski and then head home, the east was getting slammed with that storm, so our travel routes were potentially dicey and we skipped skiing and headed home. Derek took his girls though and they did pretty well. I wish we'd been there to take pics. But it took up 9 hours to make our way slowly home, and got home at a reasonable hour, so I think we close correctly.

That's the update from here. Hope all is well with everyone out there.

Pool in lake placid......

Dog sled ride in lake placid

What Santa brought

Isn't this cool. And her favorite thing that she got was the pair of scissors on her stocking......

Kat's turn to get on Dan's lap

Ben the beautiful lap dog

Shoveling the Levine rink

Kat getting ready to hit the ice

Skates are overrated......

Thomas p entertaining a plethora of little girls

Kat's cousin Andrew

Home for the holidays from Texas.

Xmas poem

Too cute. And she's been saying 'nibble, nibble, crunch' all day but we had no idea what she was saying until I just reviewed the tape.

Kat's Xmas concert

I think dan may be right in concluding that we have the class clown.....

This kid LOVES the water!

She graduated yesterday to a higher level swim class starting in the new year. And I signed her up for 2 classes/week. She loves the water. Even swims underwater with her eyes open. Jumping off the diving platform was pretty cool.

Bryan and Wendy Visit and Guatemalan xmas party

Hey, we're all in it!!!

From the American side, while still light out.

Ice on the rails.

under the lights.

The three of us in the cold.

The Calgarians had to come to western New York -- to the falls--to really experience COLD!

Ben making himself at home on Bryan.

At the Guatemalan xmas party. Kat is the second reindeer in from the left- she is crying- sobbing, really.

Here's a nice fake smile.....she's so tired that I don't think she has a real smile left in her.

SLEDDING!!!

They had sooo much fun today. Kat and I went sledding with Derek, Charlotte & Gracie & their cousin Lousia. I'm posting lots of pics and a few videos, so feel free to skim them. But there were so many great shots. They all gave skiing a shot as well.
Let's start with the tobaggan!

I wish I had the camera turned just a few tiny degrees. I think they hate it and they want to go home.

As they flew past me.

And the dismount.......graceful as ever.

I can see why Charlie might be losing speed.....

Love the eyes screwed shut and enormous smile.
Gracie. Don't know if she can see or not.

A pure fluke as I had it on continuous shoot and you never know what you'll get, but I love this pic of Louisa.

Derek and I even did a few runs. not sure when I last did that.

Eli's brief time playing in the snow. He soon voted for watching Dora in the car.

Louisa's big finish.