The Gruetzmachers

'Tis the Season

2011-12-08T17:31:00.000-05:00

Wow! Where has the time gone. Christmas is almost upon us again, and it seems like the last time I posted anything was.... last April. Oops. I guess I missed a thing or two. Kasia has finished pre-school and started kindergarten. She has lost two teeth, and gained two new ones. And now she can ride her bike without any training wheels. What's next on her to-do list? Get a job. Oh wait. That's my list (for her!).
Anyway, I posted a whole bunch of new pictures, and some that aren't so new. No matter how old they are, they're still cute! Merry Christmas everyone.

A Man of My Word

2011-04-02T16:12:00.003-04:00

So I said back in January that I probably wouldn't be updating my blog all that often, and I have kept my word. In case you missed it, here are the highlights of what has happened since January:

1. I went back to school to get an MBA

2. Kasia learned how to spell and write both her first and last name

3. Kasia turned 5

4. Kara got even more beautiful

I did however just upload some new photos, so have a gander at those. It seems like the older Kasia gets, the fewer pictures I'm taking of her. She's still really cute though (in case you didn't know that).

New Pictures

2011-01-12T14:57:00.002-05:00

And a Happy New Year

2011-01-11T15:29:00.001-05:00

I know, it’s been forever since I put up a post, right? I guess I was so intimidated by my Swiper pumpkin that I just didn’t feel like I could top it in any way. So what has the little angel been up to since the last post? Really, too much to talk about. But here’s a brief synopsis:

Pumpkin patch and hayride field trip with her class, and that was followed up with Halloween (she was a cowgirl). Following Halloween comes Thanksgiving, and her grandparents drove in from Chicago to come be thankful with us. They weren’t thankful though that their car broke down while they were here and so they had to spend a few extra days hanging out with us. We really loved having them.

Then we started getting ready for Christmas. The tree was up, the lights and decorations were all looking lovely and festive. We went to the Chesapeake Christmas parade and Kasia got to meet Santa. Then she met him a week later at her schools breakfast with Santa. She and the other kids put on a show for the adults with songs and costumes (Kasia was dressed as a Christmas tree ornament and sang “I’m a Little Ornament”). Kasia couldn’t wait until Santa came to visit, and then visit he did. We had a wonderful Christmas filled with presents, love and family (and bread pudding). The day after Christmas we got a nice surprise in the form of a blizzard which dumped over a foot of snow on us. Even more surprisingly was that it was the second big snow storm of our winter. If this keeps up, I’m going to have to invest in a snow shovel. So while Christmas wasn’t very white, the day after Christmas was extremely white.

Then New Years came and went without much fanfare and Kasia went back to school. Come to think of it, a lot has happened since October. Kara and I both had grandparents pass away. My grandfather passed away in early December and her grandmother passed a few days ago. Both had been suffering for a long time and can now finally rest.

So what’s up next for us? Well, I go back to school at the end of January. I’m excited/anxious for that. Kasia is doing well in school and is learning a lot. She’s working on learning to write her last name right now, and hopefully by the time she’s a teenager she’ll have it down.

And if you’re wondering if my New Year’s resolution was to update this site more often, it isn’t. I’d like to say that I will, but chances are I won’t. But I’ll try to do it more than once every three months. It’s just that the holidays are so busy. You understand, right? But I will try to put up new pictures soon.

Swiper No Swiping!

2010-11-11T11:22:00.000-05:00

The whole week before Halloween, Nick Jr. kept showing little "How To" videos on carving creative pumpkins. One of the pumpkins they kept showing was a Swiper pumpkin, and naturally Kasia fell in love with it. So when we got our pumpkins the first thing she wanted to do was to car a Swiper pumpkin, and what with me being the wonderful dad that I am, I did my best to make the Swiper jack-o-lantern of her dreams.
I think that it turned out pretty good.

The Infamous Double Rainbow

2010-11-10T15:13:00.001-05:00

It’s rare, but it does happen. The Double Rainbow is a neat thing to see, and the other day we happened to have one. I took a quick video of it, with sound effects and everything. The second rainbow is very faint in the video, but it’s just a little bit above the one that’s easy to see. And as a bonus, if you wish upon a double rainbow, your wish is guaranteed to come true. So be prepared to bow down before me as I’m crowned King of the World (eat it James Cameron!).

Sick as a Dog (or a four year old girl)

2010-10-11T16:39:00.001-04:00

Not everything was great with Kasia’s first field trip. When she came, she became noticeably ill. After she took a brief nap (which she never does) it was obvious that something was wrong. We took her to the doctor that night, and sure enough, she was struck down with the dreaded pink eye.

The whole next week turned in to a slew of other illnesses. Her pink eye cleared up, but she then caught a cold. That kept her out of school for a few more days, and then she had something else wrong with her. So again, we went to the doctor, and this time she had an ear infection. So we got some medicine for that, and that cleared up as well. Finally. After a week of being sick, Kasia finally got healthy again.

And then Kara got sick. And then I got sick. Eventually, we’re all going to get better and our house will be the very model of health. Hopefully that will happen sometime before Christmas.

Apple Picking Field Trip

2010-10-04T09:41:00.003-04:00

Kasia went on her first ever field trip with her pre-school in September. The whole class went out to Knotts Island to go apple picking. Suffice it to say, Kasia had a great time wandering in between the various apple trees and picking everything and anything that slightly resembled an apple. Kasia was initially going with the philosophy of "quantity over quality." We quickly had to correct this view and had her picking some high quality apples in no time. And pick them she did. We left with a bag over-flowing with apples of all kinds, and despite the fact that Kasia won't eat them, she had a great time picking them. Kara was able to turn the pile of apples in to two very delicious apple pies (which I enjoyed very much).

Kasia's pre-school and her teacher Miss Debbie

After the apple picking was finished, the class then took the ferry back home. We really lucked out in that the weather was absolutely perfect for a field trip and ferry ride. It was sunny, warm (but not too warm), with low humidity. You could not have asked for better weather for being outdoors. Kasia loved the ferry ride almost as much as picking apples. She and her friends were able to run amok around the ferry, and just have a great time.

It was the first of many field trips that she's going to be going on this year, and this one certainly set the bar pretty high.

Hurricane Earl Ruins Our Day

2010-09-02T11:56:00.003-04:00

So there's this hurricane churning out in the ocean that is coming our way, and it has completely ruined our day. The schools are closed today, and probably tomorrow, because of this thing, and that means Kasia doesn't have pre-school today. Now, the little girl who was screaming and crying on her first day because she was at school and just wanted to go home was no at home and screaming and crying because she couldn't go to school. Over and over she just kept crying "I WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL TODAY!!!" It's amazing what a few days can do.

Now, instead of doing all the stuff I had planned for the day, I instead have to move all our lovely patio furniture in to the garage so that it doesn't blow away. And the sad part is that we're probably not going to get all that much of a storm anyway. I may be wrong, but this isn't the first storm that they have hyped as being the big one that's going to get us all. A few years ago, tropical storm Hanna was supposed to be the big one. That one ended without it even raining here, and the worst damage I had was a shingle blew off my roof. And I spent that day moving my neighbor's patio furniture because I didn't have any of my own.

So we'll see how it all turns out. It's supposed to be at its closest late tonight. We'll probably get a good breeze and some nice kite flying weather, but I don't anticipate anything bad. The really bad thing is that apparently since the state of North Carolina is in a state of emergency, the sale of alcohol is prohibited. Now how am I going to throw a hurricane party if I can't buy beer and margaritas?

Kasia's First Day of Pre-School

2010-08-30T13:38:00.003-04:00

Kasia today went to her first day of pre-school. A little girl could not be more excited for a day to arrive, outside of Christmas that is. She has been looking forward to going to school since we first signed her up last spring. She was ready to go. She had her backpack all ready. She had all her school supplies ready to go. This girl was ready for school. That is, until we got to school.

Today has been a day of mixed emotions. First there was excitement (as seen in the picture above). Kasia was skipping all the way to the car as we were getting ready to go. Her friends were all going to be at her new school, and she was all ready to play. We got to the school and she was all excited. She hopped out of the car and ran up the stairs. Then suddenly, after we walked in, fear fell over her and she was no longer excited.
It's a little hard to tell from the picture (and I didn't want to take too many pictures of her not having fun), but Kasia was not feeling good about school. She was clinging to Mom and Dad with a death grip. In fact, at one time, she was holding on to me so hard she would have made an NFL coach proud. There were tears, lots of tears. She didn't want to take her backpack off. Her friends were there waiting to play, but she didn't care. We tried to calm her down and get her relaxed so she could have some fun, but it just wasn't happening. Then the teacher asked Kasia if she wanted to go see a puppy that they had in the next room. Kasia said yes, and away we went. Hopefully she'd have a better time when we were gone.

Apparently that worked. The teacher called us about five minutes later to say that Kasia was all smiles and playing great. I guess they went to see the puppy, and Kasia started talking about how she has a dog named Michelle. And then she kept on talking about dogs and puppies and what her dog likes to do. The teacher asked if she wanted to go play with her friends, and Kasia said yes and away she went. She never even asked where we went. She never noticed that Mom and Dad had left.
When I went to pick her up, Kasia was all smiles. I walked in the door, and she was bouncy and smiling. She came running over to me as happy as a clam and showed me all the wonderful crafts they had made that day. This was not the same little girl that I had dropped off just a few hours earlier. She was going on and on about about everything they did and how much fun it all was. She told me that she was extremely excited to go back to school tomorrow.

So while the day was a mixed bag of emotions, at least it ended with some happy ones. Kasia had fun and is looking forward to going back. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Two Peas in a Pod

2010-08-30T11:33:00.003-04:00

When our neighbors across the street moved and rented out their house, I told them that the new occupants needed to have 1) a four year old child 2) preferably a girl and 3) a stay at home dad. Well, they tried their hardest, and they got two out of the three. A couple weeks ago, Kasia's newest friend moved in across the street, and the two have been inseparable ever since. Kasia's first thought in the morning is now what the fastest way is to get ready so that she can go out and play with Kalina.

The great thing is just how similar the two of them are. Their personalities compliment each other so well that they end up playing for hours and hours at a time without so much as a fuss. They love to play the same things. They get along great. It's awesome. And they both have a sixth sense about when the ice cream truck is coming through the neighborhood. The other day, they both came running through the house screaming "ICE CREAM MAN! THE ICE CREAM MAN IS COMING!!!" Kasia was tearing through drawers looking for money to buy some ice cream. I went outside with her and listened for that familiar music. All I heard was silence. Occasionally I could hear the faint sound of wind chimes from a neighbor's house, but nothing else. Then about thirty minutes later, sure enough, here comes the ice cream truck. I was floored. How did they do that? It reminded me of Radar from MASH. I'm not sure how these kids know, but they know.

Our Little Beach Bum

2010-08-30T11:15:00.003-04:00

At the beginning of the summer, I was really looking forward to going to the beach with Kasia this year, because she is now finally old enough to really enjoy the beach. Now, while the crashing waves of the ocean are still a little too much for her, she is definitely enjoying playing in the sand a lot more than she was last year.

Earlier this month, we made a trip down to Salvo to visit Karlie, Bryan, and the girls again. We always have such a great time when we go down there that it's a shame we don't do it more often. Sadly, we haven't actually gone to the beach all that much this summer. But now that school is starting and the crowds down in the Outer Banks are thinning (and the water is warming up) we are probably going to head down a few more times in the up coming weeks. We were just down there this past weekend, and it was absolutely perfect. The weather was not too hot and the water was not too cold. Kara and Kasia walked the beach looking for seashells, and then Kasia and I built sand castles together (or rather, I built and Kasia stomped on).

Now we just need to teach Kasia to surf, and all will be good with the beach.

A Barbie Princess Party!

2010-08-30T11:09:00.003-04:00

On August 14, Kasia went to a "Barbie Princess Birthday Party" for the birthday of a girl she knows from story time at the library. The girls were all decked out in various forms of princess costumes, and everyone had their Barbies for play time. Kasia was feeling a little shy though, and she had a hard time getting really comfortable around the other kids and having a good time. It's too bad, because as much as Kasia enjoys her "girl time," this party was all girl.

The most impressive thing in my opinion was the birthday cake (pictured above). This girl's mom baked a cake in the shape of Barbie's dress. She was up all night making the thing look perfect. That kind of made us feel bad because we just go to the grocery store and let Kasia pick out her own birthday cake. But since Kasia only eats the frosting off the cake, I don't see the point in putting that much effort in to a cake.

The World Cup

2010-07-27T14:20:00.002-04:00

In case you've been wondering what I've been doing since I last posted in the beginning of June, the answer is "Watching the World Cup." Every four years my life gets consumed by the greatest sporting event on the planet, and this year was no exception.

It's hard work keeping up with this tournament. For a couple weeks, I had to watch three games a day and then squeeze in the rest of my life between matches. It was pretty rough.

And while I am a Netherlands fan, and was thrilled that they went to the final, it was nice to see Spain win it all. They deserved it. Though, on a sad note, our air conditioner broke down during the final game between Netherlands and Spain. So while I thought I was just getting hotter because of the excitement on the field, it turns out that I was actually just getting hotter. I also discovered that it's no fun having your air conditioner go out when it's 90 and humid outside.

My God. It's Full of Stars!

2010-07-27T14:10:00.002-04:00

Is there anything more wonderful to a child than the magical realm known as Chuck E. Cheese? According to Kasia, the answer is no. We were able to go there to celebrate Noah's 5th birthday, and Kasia was in a dream world. Now, she had the idea of Chuck E. Cheese in her head and hyped up by her cousins, but until we were actually there, I don't think she knew quite what to expect.

As soon as we walked in the door, and she saw the games buzzing and the lights flashing, her brain went in to an overloaded state of excitement. She stood there. Staring. Her eyes were wide as she took it all in. Her tiny hands were trembling from excitement. It was too funny. She was so excited about what she saw that her body was literally shaking. Then it was off to the races.

Now, Kasia is maybe just a little too young to play most of the games at Chuck E. Cheese, but she is not to young to know that getting more tickets is a good thing, and that after you get a lot of tickets, you can get a toy.

So I helped get as many tickets as possible. I discovered the secrets to Street Basketball and raked in nine tickets for every token spent. Kara spent a lot of time with Kasia and helped her to enjoy the games and rides that were just right for her. I think everyone had a great time.

And then when it came time to decide what to get with all those tickets, Kasia must have spent thirty minutes trying to pick something out. On the one hand, she wanted the same things that her cousins were getting. On the other hand, she didn't want all those "boy things" and wanted something more girly. In the end, she was happy.

And Then To Wisconsin

2010-07-27T13:43:00.004-04:00

We were truly some traveling fools when we went up to Chicago. We left North Carolina on thursday, and drove all day until we got to Dayton, Ohio. On friday, we drove all day to my parents' house. Saturday we then drove up to Wisconsin. On sunday, we then drove back down to Chicago. Finally, on monday, I said enough is enough and let the car sit all day in the driveway.

The main reason we were going up to Chicago though (aside from seeing my parents and Rick, Susan, and the boys of course) was for a little family reunion we were having up in Wisconsin. At one time, all of us cousins were spread out all over the country. Now everyone has moved to Wisconsin with the exception of Rick and me. So it was nice that we could all get together and head up to Schumacher Island in Shawano for a great cookout and get together. It had been a long time since we had all seen each other, and so even though we live in a world of Facebook and email, it was nice to catch up with them and find out they've been up to (mainly because I'm horrible at keeping in touch, and don't use Facebook very often).

It also let us get this great family portrait.

The kids had a great time playing together and swimming in the lake. And the real excitement came when Noah went fishing for his first time. A few minutes in to it, he caught himself a 17" bass. Not too shabby. Sadly though, I feel bad for him because fishing from now on is probably only going to be disappointing. He peaked too early, just like Orson Welles (hopefully Noah won't get as fat as Welles did though).

On sunday we went to visit my grandpa who is currently in a nursing home and isn't doing so well. He was looking better than I thought he would, but still a far cry from the robust man and farmer that I knew while growing up. And while he always seemed "old" to me (I mean, I remember him at 64... an old man) it seems that his age has finally caught up with him. But it was great to see both he and my grandma while we were up there.

Then on the way back home, we stopped off at the Mars Cheese Castle for a taste of real Wisconsin goodness (aka, cheddar cheese and summer sausage). Once we got home, my good friends Chris and Jessica came over for a visit that was unfortunately shorter than I would have liked. But the last time we saw them, Kasia was an infant, and Chris and Jess managed to have two beautiful daughters. It's great that they now live in the Chicago area, so we can get together again the next time we go home to visit.

A Trip To Chicago

2010-07-27T13:23:00.002-04:00

Ah, Chicago. The land of my youth. Around once a year, we like to make a pilgrimage back to the Mother Country to see how the locals are fairing up north. So, at the end of the June, we loaded up the old Family Truckster and made the journey once again. Now, people often ask me, "Brad, why is it that you always drive to Chicago? Why not fly? I mean, how long does that take you anyway?"

Well, the answers I could give vary anywhere from "It's cheaper for us to drive, and deep down, we're very frugal people," to "It's Gruetzmacher family tradition to always drive on long trips." The truth though is much simpler. We love the American highway system. This beautiful engineering phenomenon allows us travel great distances in very little time while at once being able to see the majesty of this country. We're not like some pretentious Northeastern snobs who refer to the Mid-West as "fly-over country." No. We call that Driving-through country. The wonders of Charleston, West Virginia. The dazzle of Dayton, Ohio. They are all simply breathtaking. It's so wonderful, that we take what would normally be a 16 hour trip and break it up in to two days worth of driving just so we can take it all in. That way we see everything we wouldn't have seen had we flown. Did you know that there was some awesome wind turbine farms just north of Indianapolis? No, because you flew right over it.

This was also our first long trip with a child who is now potty trained. That makes it a completely different kind of trip entirely. We're working on teaching her that if she needs to use the potty, she needs to give us a warning instead of just blurting out, "I NEED TO GO POTTY NOW!!!!!" Though, because of this, we saw some small, out of the way towns along the way that we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

It was also our first trip in which Kasia discovered the phrase, "Are we there yet?" We weren't more than three hours out before Kasia started up with this phrase. And she would use it over, and over again, as I'm sure any parent is well familiar with. I feel like we can now be let in to the Car Club With Kids. It was driving me to the point where I almost thought that we should fly from now on.

Tree Hugging Hippy

2010-06-09T17:55:00.002-04:00

My daughter has turned in to a tree hugger. Literally.

I blame TV. Every show seems to have an environmental slant to it these days. I bet that if GI Joe were on today, Duke and Hawk would be having discussions about to recycle all those blown up Dragonflies, and that they need to carpool to the base to reduce their carbon footprint.

And the Rest of the Time?

2010-06-09T17:53:00.002-04:00

And what else have we been doing? In one word: Weddings. Kara and I had three weddings to go to in May. They ranged from extremely casual, to pretty darn formal. They were all fantastic and a lot of fun. Congratulations to all the newly married couples out there. We're wishing you the best.

And in a related note, my parents just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. I guess getting married on D-Day wasn't such a bad omen after all.

That's a Whole Lot of Gruetzmachers

2010-06-09T15:32:00.003-04:00

On May 11, my brother and his family flew in from Serbia to come and visit us. I picked them up at the Raleigh airport after their flight was slightly delayed (darn you Icelandic ash cloud!). They came and stayed with us for about ten days and it was a great time. The weather however was not so great. When we were building the deck, the goal was to have it done before they arrived, and we beat that goal with just two days to spare. However, after the Gruetzmachers arrived, the weather turned south and we had a lot of cold/rainy days. Regardless, we had a great time.

The main highlight for Kasia was Aunt Susan. Despite the fact that Kasia spends every day with me, she has somehow turned out to be all girl. She loves painting her nails, playing dress up, and setting up Barbie's dollhouse. Needless to say, these are all things that I tolerate, but far from enjoy. So when Susan showed up and actually WANTED to play these things with her, Kasia was amazed. The Girls Only Club was immediately formed. This was followed up with the Purple Nails Club, and a slew of others.

While the girls were busy with that, we boys had a good time playing some video games and other, more boy things. Alex and Noah proved they are both very adept at the Nintendo, and by the end of the week, Noah was a pro at MarioKart and giving me a run for my money.

Then just as quickly as they arrived, they had to leave. Fortunately, we'll be seeing them in a couple of weeks when we make the long journey up to Chicago for a quick visit.

I Built A Deck (with a lot of help)

2010-06-09T15:11:00.004-04:00

I know. Where have I been? Why don't I update this blog anymore? What have I been doing with my time? Well, for Kara's 29th birthday in April, I built her a deck. Technically my father-in-law and I built a deck, but since it's my house, I'm claiming all the credit.

Now I've never really built anything like this before. I think the extent of my wood working skills was watching my dad build my pinewood derby car in Indian Guides. So with that vast amount of experience under my belt, how hard could it be? You dig a few holes. Mix a little concrete. Screw some boards together, and voila, you have a deck.

Now if only the county's building inspector thought it was that easy.

But like I said, first we dug the holes. Many of them actually. 16 to be exact. 30 inches deep. Now, since doing that by hand would mean we would be working on this thing until Christmas, we rented a power auger. I naturally thought that would help things go easier. In theory, it might have, except for the fact that it didn't cut through the clay that is abundant in our yard very easily. It didn't help either that by the third hole, we got the auger stuck in the ground with now way to get it up (that's what she said).

Obviously, we got everything dug and ready to move on to step two. What was step two? I had no clue, but I was ready for it.

We put in some posts. We nailed beams together. We put in joists. Kasia was not having a good time. For two weeks, almost every day, she had to find new and different ways to entertain herself because I was unable to play with her. To make it worse, her best friend was knocked out with a really bad fever for almost the entire time we were working on the deck.

After we put on the deck boards and built the railing, we had something that pretty much resembles a deck. Now we have some really nice patio furniture that makes the deck actually usable. We've actually already entertained some friends and family on it. I'm too scared to have too many people on it at the same time because I'm just not that confident in my woodworking skills. Oh, and for the record, my car never did that great in the pinewood derby either. I'm just saying.

Meet Michelle

2010-04-06T08:10:00.003-04:00

The big news for us recently is that we now have a dog. Well, technically, we've always had a dog, but she was always living at Shawn's house. Years ago, Kara had rescued a stray dog and too her in. She and Kara were together for a long time, but when we got married, our apartment wasn't big enough for all of us. But now, Michelle is at our house, living with us full time.

This is all new for me since I've never lived with a dog before. It's not that I never wanted a dog, but my mother (who grew up with a dog) deprived me of one when I was a kid. I'm learning the ins and outs of dog ownership really fast, and I'm loving it. Kasia is also loving it, and poor Michelle is getting the full brunt of Kasia's affection. You see, Michelle is old. She's about 15 and at this stage in her life, just walking around is a chore. She really just wants to sleep a lot, and occasionally go out for a quick stroll. Kasia, at this stage of her life, wants a dog who will play with her. And she is adamant that Michelle will play with her. It doesn't always go over so well. It's just funny to watch Michelle try to sleep only to be startled awake by having Kasia put her in a headlock hug and shouting "OH MICHELLE! YOU'RE SO CUTE!" Then as Michelle gets up to walk away, Kasia thinks it's a game and follows her to keep playing. That poor old dog walks from room to room trying to find some peace, but just can never find it.

Maybe all this "playing" will make her feel young again. That, or it's going to kill her. Only time will tell.

Sleepover at the Beach

2010-03-09T08:47:00.003-05:00

On Sunday, Kara had to go out of town for work, so Kasia and I drove down to Salvo, NC to spend some time with Karlie, Bryan and the girls. Kasia has been talking about wanting to go sleepover at someone's house forever, and this seemed like as good a time as any to make her wishes come true.

The last time we went down there, it took a little while before Kasia, Kylie, and Kinzlie started to play well together. That was definitely not the case this time around. They hit it off immediately and ran off playing really well together for the rest of the night. I had brought Kasia's Tinkerbell bed for her to sleep in, but after the girls talked, I was informed that there would be some new sleeping arrangements. Kasia wanted to sleep in Kylie and Kinzlie's bed, and since there was room for everyone, that was fine. But then Kinzlie wanted to sleep in Kasia's Tinkerbell bed, and if Kasia was in the big bed, that was fine too. Well, then Kylie wanted to sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor. So you had all three girls all sleeping in different places than they were originally supposed to.

Of course, as the night went on, Kylie moved in to the bed, Kinzlie moved in with her parents, and I was on the futon. It was a true sleepover, except of course the girls didn't do each other's hair and tell ghost stories.

The next day we went to the beach so the girls could play in the sand, and then spent the rest of the day jumping on the trampoline. I was kind of amazed at how well the girls were around each other, and despite the occasional dispute now and then over a toy, it went really, really well. When we left, the girls kept hugging each other goodbye, and Kasia was so pitiful looking when we walked out the door. By the time we got to the car, all she could say was a quick sobbing, "I miss Kylie and Kinzlie." So we're definitely going to have to go back again soon, and hopefully by then, the infamous Pirate Pool will be blown up and ready to go.

Happy Birthday Kasia

2010-03-07T11:20:00.003-05:00

(you may want to turn down the volume before watching)

Kasia is now a four year old! Can you believe it? Four years ago we were bringing this tiny little girl home from the hospital, and now we have this four year old, ice cream eating machine!

We had a small party for her at our house with pizza, cake and ice cream. Kasia's playmates, Devlin and Charlotte came over as did some family. It was a fun and chaotic time.

Kasia is really a lucky girl and was given a ton of new toys to play with. Sometime during her party, she decided to take the pile of gifts and stack them on top of Chatam.

So now our little girl is four and is getting ready to go to pre-school in the fall. She's developing her own personality, getting so big. It's amazing to look at the pictures of her from just last year and see how much she's changed in just a year.

A Visit From Ama and Buppa

2010-03-07T10:57:00.001-05:00

For Kasia’s 4th birthday, my parents were able to come down for the weekend to celebrate with us. Kasia could not have been more happy. We have seen them since last summer, so it was quite a treat for us. Kasia loved that they were coming to play with her. She loved that they were coming for her birthday. And she REALLY loved that they were going to be spending the night so that they could have a sleepover. I’m not sure why, but having sleepovers is really big with Kasia.

They flew in on Saturday and we immediately threw them in to a birthday party for Kasia. It was crazy and fun. We didn’t let them rest at all and immediately started loading them up with pizza, cake and Scotch (Shirley can really down that 18 year old Glenfiddich). I think they had a pretty good time.

The rest of their trip was a lot more relaxed. We watched the Olympics, went out to eat, and played some cards. Kasia had a wonderful time playing with Ama and having Buppa chase her around the house. I heard, “You can’t catch me Buppa” so many times that I was waking up at night with those words in my head.

They flew back out on Tuesday, and it was just in time to miss rain/snow/ice that we received just after their plane took off. As we were saying goodbye, Kasia seemed to be taking it pretty well. When we got home however, it was a different story. It sank in that the sleepover was finished and that Grandma and Grandpa were gone. That’s when the tears came, and boy did she take it hard. However, the fun she had while they were here drastically outweighed the pain of them leaving.

Kasia now can’t wait until the next time when they can have a sleepover.

Look Over There!

2010-03-07T10:31:00.002-05:00

Pointing at the camera must be some genetic trait that is passed down from male to male in the Smith family. Here are three generations of Smith men all trying to get Kasia to look at the camera, and then couldn’t get their fingers down in time before the picture was taken. If Chatam has a son, I’m curious if he’ll be a pointer too.

This Is Why I Worry

2010-03-07T10:12:00.001-05:00

Kasia has a friend named Devlin whom she gets together with quite frequently to play with. He is also quickly becoming my biggest worry.

The other day Devlin and his sister Charlotte were over at our house playing. Kasia and Devlin were up in Kasia’s room playing, while I was working on something in the office. I then heard the pitter patter of Kasia’s feet coming down the stairs and running in to our kitchen. Then, I heard Natalie (Devlin’s mom) say to Kasia, “Hi Kasia. Does Devlin have his shirt off too?”

What?! I didn’t hear that right. I couldn’t have heard that right. So I went out to check, and sure enough. There was Kasia with no shirt on. She was giggling away and running around. So did Devlin have his shirt on? Yes, he did. What was going on up in that room, I don’t know. But what I do know is that I put Kasia’s shirt back on her right away and instructed her that she needed to keep her clothes on at all times. Then I had a sit down with Devlin and let him know that there was to be no funny business going on in here.

Then as I left them to play, I told Kasia that she needed to keep the door open while they were playing in her room. She told me that she needed to close and lock the door to “keep the monsters out.” Yeah. Right. I tried that one on my mom when I was in high school, and it didn’t work then either.

Sledding, Outer Banks Style

2010-01-31T17:42:00.002-05:00

Since snow is so rare in this area, we naturally don't have a sled. Heck, we don't even own a snow shovel. So when we finally did get some snow, we did what everyone in the neighborhood was doing and broke out our boogie board to use as a sled. It actually made for a really good sled, albeit with zero ability to make it go straight. But since it has a slick bottom, it would glide on the snow with ease.

Kasia loved pretending that she was Santa Claus and that we were her reindeer. She kept going "Ho, ho, ho! Giddyup Rudolph!"

Let It Snow!

2010-01-31T17:27:00.003-05:00

Snow is somewhat of a rarity here in Moyock. Snow is actually a rarity in the entire area. At the mere hint that it might possibly snow, everyone goes in to panic mode. If it's forecasted to snow, schools are closed and everyone stocks up on canned food. A lot of times though the snow never comes. They build up the hype, and then we're all let down.

So it was really a nice surprise that this time when they forecasted it would snow, it actually did. And boy did it snow. We got around five inches of snow, and it was the perfect snow for building snowmen or having snowball fights. When Kasia saw the snow in the morning, she was practically bouncing off the walls. And while this is not the first time she's seen snow, it's the first time she's been excited to go play in it.

We went out and it was still coming down pretty hard. The first thing we had to do was roll a big snowball for our snowman. And reaching deep in to her creative name making region of her brain, Kasia decided to name our snowman Frosty. Brilliant.

We also had to have a snowball fight, because Kasia is obsessed with snowball fights for some reason. She also helped to clear all the snow off the cars. Since we don't get snow very often, we had to make sure that we made the most out of the time that we got. It was a ton of fun.

Kasia's New Bed

2010-01-31T17:21:00.002-05:00

Kasia had been sleeping in a toddler bed for the last year, and while she really loved it, she was quickly outgrowing it. She now has a "big girl bed" from Flexa. What's Flexa, you ask? The next time you run in to Kara, ask her. But be prepared, because you may get a twenty minute sales pitch in which she'll talk about the "Nordic pine" and throw out phrases like, "the bed that grows with you."

It really is a great bed, and Kasia really loves it. Or, as she would say, "It's berry, berry cool." She really needs to stop watching TV.

Let's Roll!

2010-01-31T17:10:00.002-05:00

We were recently blessed with some really nice weather, and for the first time in a long time, we were able to play outside. Kasia really wanted to go rollerblading and wear the "big kid" rollerblades. So she got her helmet on and strapped on her wheels. She then proceeded to slowly creep around the driveway with care.

It's hard to imagine that now too long ago she was just learning to walk. In fact, it seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the floor with her trying to get her to crawl.

Too Much Television

2010-01-31T17:04:00.002-05:00

A sure sign that Kasia is watching too much TV is that she's starting to mimic the language of certain cartoon characters. I've noticed lately that Kasia has completely eliminated the word "very" out of her vocabulary and has replace it with "berry" ala Strawberry Shortcake. So yesterday when we were playing outside, she kept saying "This is berry, berry fun!" I shook my head in shame.

So we're cutting her off from the TV and we're going to all sit around the fireplace and read aloud old Thoreau novels.

And in complete irony, we just signed up to get cable this week and we now have more channels to watch than ever. Strangely though, we now have fewer kids' channels than before because instead of having six PBS stations, we now only have two.

Freezing in D.C.

2010-01-10T14:41:00.003-05:00

One of the things we wanted to do while Kara was off from work was to go up to Washington D.C. for a day to walk around the mall and see the memorials. Originally we were planning on going up before Christmas, but there was this crazy blizzard that dumped two feet of snow on the city to ruin our plans. So we went after Christmas, when the snow was gone and the cold was on in full force. It was cold. It was really, really cold.

We did manage to thaw out just enough so that we could see the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII memorial, but that was about it. Kasia had a great time poking at the ice in the Reflecting pool.

As we were walking to the WWII memorial, this squirrel walked up to us and just stopped in front of me and posed for a picture. Or maybe he wanted food. Or maybe he was just saying, "I'M REALLY COLD! HELP ME!" Alas, we had no food, and he just wandered on to the next unsuspecting tourist.

It was a fun day despite the cold, and it helped me to make up my mind that I will never willingly go back to Washington D.C. again if I can help it. The traffic in the city is horrible. It's almost as if someone designed the city just so that there would be a traffic jam on every single street possible. I think that explains why a majority of politicians are idiots. They're all suffering from some advanced form of Road Rage.

A Very, Merry Christmas

2010-01-10T14:10:00.003-05:00

Christmas was very special for us this year. Kasia was finally at an age where she understood what was happening and was extremely excited for Santa Claus to come and visit. So it was a little surprising that when Christmas morning came, with presents under the tree, Kasia woke up and immediately wanted to... stay in her room and play before going downstairs.

Eventually though she did want to come downstairs and see what all happened over night. The first thing she was amazed about was that Santa had in fact eaten the cookies and drank the milk. She didn't comment about all the presents at first, but the fact that the cookies were gone really impressed her. By the time she got to the bottom of the stairs (and it took awhile) she finally saw the stocking was full, and the presents from Santa were there.

We spent the next few hours opening presents and playing with our new toys. Santa was very good to everyone this year, and Kasia got so many new toys, that it took us a few more days just to open the boxes so she could play with them. It wasn't until around monday that we finally opened her last toy so that she could play with it. That's the sign of a really good Christmas.

Later in the day, we went over to Kenny and Sandy's house for a really nice Christmas dinner. Kasia wore a cute little red dress and even conceded to wear tights for the entire evening. At first she was flipping out over having to wear them, but then when we showed her that her new doll was wearing tights too, she didn't seem to mind anymore.

So despite the fact that we had a lot of rain instead of snow this Christmas, it was still a very wonderful day.

Christmas Eve in Williamsburg

2009-12-24T14:36:00.000-05:00

We spent Christmas Eve this year in Colonial Williamsburg. It's a great place to go with carol singing, a large Christmas tree, and everyone in the festive Christmas spirit. But what makes it truly special is the fire. The torches. The giant bonfire in the middle of the street. There are also a number of cannons around the main square that they fire off to either announce the Christmas or the Red Coats are coming. As strange as it sounds, both were correct. A fife and drum band (in red coats) began to march on the square just after the cannons.

There's just something so Christmasy about a lot of fire on Christmas Eve. If, for not other reason, it manages to keep Frankenstein from ruining the party.

Winter Wonderland!

2009-12-10T07:19:00.003-05:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Not only is the Samuel Adams Winter Classics pack back on store shelves, but Christmas is coming. We here at the Gruetzmacher household have been feverishly preparing for the arrival of Santa Claus, and Kasia is getting more and more excited every day.

The lights are up and the tree is trimmed. At least I think the tree is trimmed... I mean, it's decorated. Is that what "trimmed" means? Well, just in case, I also cut all the excess fat off it, so it's lean, mean, and green. And to top it all off, we went and saw Santa Claus last weekend.

This year, Kasia did better with Santa than I expected, though not as well as I would have hoped. While we were at home, she was all excited about wanting to see Santa. While we were waiting in line, she was adamant that she did not want to see Santa. And while we were seeing Santa, she was mixed on her feelings. It's very much a love/hate relationship at this age. She loves the fact he brings her lots of toys, but hates the fact he has a big white beard. Kasia is not a big fan of facial hair, unless it's someone she knows really well. But in the end, she did sit on Santa's lap, though she did need to have us by her side to keep her from running. We were able to get a picture, which is more than I can say about last year and our attempt to get a picture with Santa. So I really can't complain about anything.

The funny thing is that we took her to see Santa at the Bass Pro shop, which was unbelievably amazing. They were decked out for Christmas and had one of the most amazing Christmas set-ups for kids that I've ever seen. There was coloring, and race cars the kids could play with. Plus the kids could take a trip to the rifle range and practice their target shooting. I just find it amusing that the store which has been voted the most Christmas friendly store in America, is probably also the most unfriendly store toward reindeer. Rudolf and Dasher must have been quaking in their jingle-bells when they enter that store and see rows and rows of hunting camouflage, rifles, deer stands, and high powered crossbows. Is that the pitter patter of reindeer hooves on the roof? Or is it the sound of a guy in an orange cap and a 12-gauge shotgun with a taste for reindeer? At the Bass Pro shops, you just never know.

But we got the picture with Santa. That's all that matters.

To The Aquarium!

2009-11-21T07:42:00.000-05:00

I love the aquarium. I love the aquarium in Manteo because it's big enough to have all the fish you'd want to see without being too big that it takes forever to see everything. I also love that it's small enough that it's never really crowded, especially during the off season when the population of the Outer Banks drops to about twelve people.

So for half an hour, there were a total of six people in the entire place... and then the high schoolers came. There must have been 200 of them, and they descended on that place like a pack of locusts. We kept trying to beat them off, or smoke them out, but they just kept coming. Eventually, Kasia and I just cowered in the corner, covering ourselves to stay safe and waited it out. Then, just as quickly as they came, the teenagers soon left and all was once again quiet. The staff were so relieved, that they soon started showering Kasia with little free toys for her to play with to thank her for being quiet, and not being a teenager.

Kasia is still a big fan of watching fish and always seems to have a really good time when we visit the aquarium. This time around, her favorite thing was watching the river otters swim and fight with each other. Afterwards, she would act out just how the river otters fought by shouting, "This is my place to sit! You move! You go for a swim!" and then push the otter in the water. It's cute.

Nor'easters Are a Pain

2009-11-20T07:31:00.002-05:00

Not too long ago we had a little thing called a Nor'easter come through here. Now, being from the Chicago area, I'm not too used to what these storms can do or what they're about. I was here for the hurricane in 2003, but that one didn't effect me very much. This recent nor'easter however proved to be a real monster for us and dropped so much rain that we ended up with our own swimming pool (and to think Kara wants to pay someone to put a pool in for us... silly girl).

The rains really started on thursday, and were coming down all day. Kara was out of town on a business trip, and so when I woke up friday morning, I was amazed at how much water was out on the ground. I even took a few pictures. Little did I know, that all that water was nothing compared to what followed.

A few hours later, all our drainage ditches were full, and the water was creeping toward the house. Our backyard was so saturated that the entire lawn looked like a giant puddle. A little while after that, the yard was just water. In the front of the house, the water had come up to our house and in to our garage. I fought gallantly for over an hour trying to stem the rising waters, but being a nor'easter virgin, I was a little lost on what to do (fyi, if this ever happens again, I have the gameplan down and things will go a lot smoother than last time).

The water started climbing in the garage. Fortunately, I was able to move anything of value up out of the way, so nothing important got ruined. Then the water kept climbing up the side of the house. It spilled up on to our front porch and started approaching the door. If you looked out the back, it was just a giant lake. Kasia's plastic picnic table had up and floated away, and I was forced to rush out and get it. The water in our yard came up to my knee. Against the house it rose about eight inches. And the scare thing was that it was still raining.

Fortunately, the rain didn't last much longer, and the water never got close to coming in our house. Our garage got quite a bit of water, but nothing important was ruined. Unfortunately, some of my neighbors were not so lucky as some of their houses sit just a little lower to the ground than ours and suffered quite a bit of water damage.

For us, it was kind of a blessing, because it forced us to clean out our garage, and it was neater and more organized afterwards than it has been in years. Though, this is a blessing that I hope I never get again.

Word Up!

2009-11-05T08:46:00.003-05:00

Attention to all you parents of youngin's out there. I know that todays TV for children is dominated by channels like Noggin and Nick Jr, but if you have not watched Word Girl on PBS, then you're missing out. This show is perhaps THE greatest cartoon ever made for kids. Why? Because in the end, I don't think it's made for kids. It's made for the parents who watch cartoons with their kids. It's hilarious. I mean, it's milk out of your nose hilarious. I highly recommend you check it out.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-03T19:17:00.008-05:00

This year for Halloween, Kasia decided that she was going to go as a "Cute Witch." I think that every little girl in her life time has to dress up as both Raggedy Anne as well as a witch for Halloween. Luckily for Kasia, she has checked off both those boxes on her "things to do" list.

Kasia was extremely excited about Halloween this year and really got in to everything that hadto do with Halloween. She wanted it all. She wanted the pumpkins carved, though she didn'twant to have to smell them. And she really wanted to go Trick-or-Treating, but she didn't want to have to actually say the words.Kasia was skipping and excited to get to the house to get some candy, but then as soon as she sawsomebody standing there, she froze. In a voice that was barely above a whisper she would say, "trick or treat." And then after she got her candy, she would the say again in that whisper voice, "Thankyou." As we were walking back down the driveways to go to the next house, she would then findher voice and shout, "THAT WAS FUN! LET'S DO THAT AGAIN!" By the time we'd get to the nexthouse though, she was back to her whisper.

When we got home, she dumped her treasures out onto the floor and began to count them. She refuses to eat any of her candy, but she pulls it out and then puts it back in her bucket. Of course,she has no problems with eating the leftover candy that we have lying around the house. I thinkthat maybe we scared her a little too much by telling her that she'll get sick if she eats too much candy because now whenever we suggest she has a piece she just says, "No, I don't want to getsick."

For more pictures, click on the Recent Photos slideshow and enjoy the little video. If you can't tell from the video, Kasia had a problem with wanting to wear her witch hat. She insisted on waitinguntil Aunt Sandy showed up before putting it on. To her credit though, she did put it on when Sandy arrived, only for us to take it off her again a little later because the thing kept falling off.

Climbing the Currituck Lighthouse

2009-10-22T09:32:00.003-04:00

One of the great sites in Currituck County is the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla. The other week, they had a festival for the local residents and we were able to climb the lighthouse for free. So I took the plunge and climbed the 220 steps to the top. It's quite a feat for a guy who has problems with heights, but it was well worth it.

Kara and Kasia decided to stay at the bottom and wait for me. Actually, we decided that we didn't want to go up with Kasia because we knew that inevitably we'd get half-way up and she'd want us to carry her the rest of the way. And since Kara has already climbed the lighthouse, it just made sense for them to stay at the bottom.

This is what Kara and Kasia look like from atop the Currituck Lighthouse. That's them in the very center sitting in the shade of the tree.

Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-22T09:21:00.003-04:00

For the very first time, we decided to carve a pumpkin for Halloween this year. I actually haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid, so it has been a really long time since I've done this. The one thing I always remembered about doing this when I was a kid was that when you're scooping out the insides of the pumpkin, it stinks. It's bad. I actually think that was the reason why it has been so long since I've done this.

So it was no surprise to me when we started scooping out the pumpkin, Kasia didn't enjoy the smell much either.

In fact, she hated it. She covered her nose, ran out of the room, and gave up on the pumpkin. Eventually she would return, but with a mask over her face to keep the smell out.

Something else that I remember about doing this from my younger days was that I used to have this special knife for carving pumpkins that was safe for kids to use. It was called the Pumpkin Kutter, and it made carving a pumpkin as easy as slicing butter. Well, this time I didn't have the Kutter and had to rely on regular knife. It was possibly one of the worst experiences I've ever had. The next day I went online and promptly ordered three new Pumpkin Kutters so that next year I will not be caught unprepared.

Chilly

2009-10-22T09:17:00.003-04:00

Like most of the country, we're having a bit of a cold streak in our weather. On tuesday morning, we woke up to discover that it was 28 degrees outside. That is just a tad chilly for this time of the year. The car (as you can see) was completely covered in ice. For the first time in a long time, I had to warm up the car and blast the heat just to thaw the thing out.

The strange thing is that by noon, the temperature was in the upper 60's. Kasia and I went to the park and didn't even need jackets. In fact, we were a little warm just by wearing pants instead of shorts. How does one dress for days like these? It's winter in the morning and summer just a few hours later. I think this is exactly why they invent those pants where the bottoms unzip to transform them into shorts. Genius.

Worst. Slice. Ever!

2009-10-03T14:03:00.004-04:00

Well, it finally happened. After living on the golf course for over two years, somebody finally broke a window with a golf ball. I always said that because of where our house lies on the the golf course, you'd either have to have the worst slice ever to hit our house, or you'd have to do it intentionally. Now, I'm going to be optimistic and hope that it wasn't intentional. Of course, it did happen in the middle of the night while the golf course was closed. But then, that only makes it seem more like an accident. I mean, if you're out there playing some night golf, it's got to be hard to see where the hole is.

The upside is that the cracked window actually looks really cool. And, the best part is that, according to legend, if you stand in a specific spot in the kitchen at a specific time of day, the sun will shoot in through the hole in the window, which then points to the exact location of the Well of the Souls. So that's kind of cool. As it turns out, the Ark of the Covenant is actually buried under my kitchen floor. That would explain a lot of things (like the reason the finger of God is always pointing to my refrigerator).

Happy Birthday To Me!

2009-09-22T14:42:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! That's right. I had a birthday (a week ago) and for those who don't know, I'm now 32. Sweet Lord. When you say it out loud (or write it) it makes me feel so old. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was freaking out over who to ask to my junior prom?

I had a great birthday this year. Since Kara had to go in to work, Kasia and I decided to go on down to Kittyhawk and play on the beach. Then we went out for lunch at Mama Kwans, which is a tiki bar and grill that I've really wanted to go to (mainly because they have a billboard for the place just outside my neighborhood). It was excellent, and Kasia even enjoyed eating there.

Then Kara came home and brought Uno's Chicago style pizza with her. We feasted on pizza and beer. We opened presents, and we had a huge hot fudge brownie with ice cream dessert.

It was an absolutely terrific day. It was so good, that I didn't even mind turning 32.

First Ferry Trip

2009-09-17T14:33:00.001-04:00

One of the things we have always talked about doing but never have was to take the ferry over to Knotts Island. Well, last Saturday, the weather was absolutely perfect and so we drove on down to the dock and hopped on the ferry. This was Kasia’s first time on a ferry boat, and my first time on a ferry boat where you could drive you car on (I’ve only taken passenger ferries before). So it was a big day for all of us… except Kara. This ain’t her first rodeo.

So with the wind at our backs, and seagulls flying high over head, we shipped out for 45 minutes of fun. It really was just a nice cruise across the sound and on to Knotts Island. Kasia was a little scared at first and didn’t want to stand on the ferry, but after a few minutes, she got used to it. She had a great time watching the birds fly after us and the water speed by. In fact, later she would comment on the whole event by saying “I was on the ferry. I was scared for one minute but then I wasn’t scared.”

Now, once you’re on Knotts Island, there isn’t really a whole lot to do. Every summer they have a peach festival, but this weekend there wasn’t anything going on. So we stopped by the two wineries on the island as well as the “general store.”

At least I guess you could call it the general store. It was really just a run down shack that sold a bunch of old things, but it had some character… and some characters working there. It’s a must see if you ever happen to be on Knott’s Island.

Kasia’s Second Trip to the Dentist

2009-09-13T14:36:00.001-04:00

Just after her third birthday we took Kasia in for her very first dentist visit. To say it lightly, it didn’t go so well. She screamed and cried throughout most of the visit. After spending thirty minutes trying to calm her down, the best we could get her to do was to open her mouth so that the dentist could see that she actually had teeth. Baby steps.

It’s now six months later, and we went in for the second visit. What a difference six months make.

For days I had been prepping Kasia for her second trip to the dentist. We talked about it quite a bit, and even played “dentist” quite a bit and everything was great. She was excited to go. If she behaved, she could get a toy as a prize. He was looking forward to that toy. It was going to be great.

Then we got their, and things started going south. She saw that room, the chair, and the instruments, and suddenly she was clutching Cuddle Pup, refusing to go in. The hygienist, who had gone through this with us six months ago, decided to give us some time to work it out ourselves. So I talked to Kasia and eventually talked her in to sitting down in the chair and relaxing.

When the hygienist came back in, Kasia was much better. I sat right next to her as Kasia got her teeth cleaned, polished, and painted. Then, somehow, Kasia was even ok with getting her teeth flossed.

The dentist then came in and check everything out. In short, her teeth are very healthy, and all is well. Oh, and for those dying to know what toy she got, it was a the Wonder Pets Flyboat. Because no house is complete unless it’s filled with the Wonder Pets.

We Have Baby Lions

2009-08-30T20:17:00.002-04:00

Once again, the Norfolk zoo is full of baby lions. This time there is four times the fun as our lions parents had quadruplets, which apparently is unusual for lions. Personally, I love it when the zoo has baby lions, because unlike their parents, the cubs never sleep. They are awake all the time, and when they're awake, mom is awake. It's the only time you actually get to see lions awake at the zoo. It's a pretty cool thing.

Speaking of which, does anybody else find it odd that lions are called the kind of the jungle, and yet they don't live in the jungle? Meanwhile tigers, who are the true tough guys, and who do live in the jungle, get no respect. The animal world is just so not fair.

What's That Lump?

2009-08-30T20:14:00.003-04:00

The other day, I came upstairs to check on Kasia only to discover her missing. I looked everywhere, and she was nowhere to be found. However, I did find a rather unusual lump in her rug. Well, you put two and two together, and you get the idea.

She crawled under her rug, and then fell asleep. How crazy is that? I mean, I know that I enjoy taking a quick power nap while lying on the rug, but under the rug? Now that's just ridiculous.

Kasia the Fishing Girl

2009-08-30T20:10:00.003-04:00

Many of you may not know this, but Kasia comes from a family with strong ties to the sea. Obviously, I was a naval officer for longer than I can remember. Kasia's Poppy is an avid fisherman. Her mom used to go fishing quite a bit, and her father used to fish all the time too... when he was nine. And now Kasia has picked up on the tradition, and she can now fish.

Admittedly, she didn't catch anything. Of course, we had no bait, and we were standing in water that was only six inches deep, but we had no bites. Well, she did get a jelly fish caught on the hook, but no swordfish or tiger sharks or anything cool like that. You'd figure though that the big trophy fish would hang out in the six inch waters. Maybe we'd have better luck if fish decided to purposely beach themselves at an alarming rate.

Peanut Butter Hands

2009-08-30T20:02:00.003-04:00

Normally Kasia freaks out whenever she gets anything on her hands. She's to the point now that when she's playing with her sidewalk chalk, she has to wash her hands every ten seconds because she has chalk on them. I mean, isn't that kind of the point of playing with chalk?

So you can imagine my surprise the other day when Kasia came in to the kitchen to show me her hands, and they were COVERED in peanut butter. I guess she was kneading it or something, but it was everywhere. She got it on her face, her hands, her fingers... everywhere. But surprisingly, she didn't get it on her clothes or on anything else. Crazy.

I have to admit, that this is one of those moments were my initial thoughts were not "Awwww, this is so cute, let's take a picture." No. It was, "Come on? Really? Now I have to spend the next ten minutes cleaning this up. Great." But I figured, what the heck. Take a picture and one day I'll see the humor in it. And it worked. Now when I look at the pictures of peanut butter Kasia, I laugh. If only more things in life were that easy to get over.

Kara’s Trip from Hell

2009-08-12T15:07:00.001-04:00

Kara flew home from New York on Friday, but not without a lot of hassle. It was supposed to be an easy flight, with Kara being back and in her home by 8:00pm.

The problems started with the limo that took her to the airport. It was scheduled to pick her up too late and so by the time it got her to the airport, it was too late for her to check in to her flight.

So she had to go across the street and wait in line to talk with an agent to reschedule. For three hours she stood in a line waiting to talk to somebody, anybody, to figure out how to get home. THREE HOURS! There was some flight to Minnesota which was described as “hellish” and “a nightmare” because the passengers had to wait in their plane on the runway for nine hours. Phooey! That’s luxury compared to what Kara had to go through. At least on a plane, you’re sitting down. Your luggage is taken care of. You’re not getting your heels run over by the guy with the oversized bag standing behind you. Luxury.

When Kara finally did get a chance to talk with someone, they said she could either fly out the next day at one, or fly in to Richmond that night and get in by midnight. So, rather than spending the night at the airport, she chose to go to Richmond.

And Kasia and I packed our things up, and made the journey to Richmond International to pick up her and Linda at midnight. I thought that I was going to fall asleep well before getting there, but as the night wore on, I got more and more awake.

Then when I got to the airport to pick them up, it turns out that the airline sent their luggage to Norfolk. And since it was so late, we’d have to wait until the next day to get it.

We finally got home at around two in the morning, or just a little later. It was a long day. When I was younger, before Kasia, I used to stay out until two in the morning all the time and it never phased me. Now, if I stay up past midnight I feel like I’m pushing the boundaries.

I must say though that it is wonderful to have Kara home again. The house is so lonely without her.

Truly, My Worst Nightmare

2009-08-12T14:17:00.001-04:00

It’s on in full force now. That period in her life that I’ve been fearing ever since… well, since well before I had a child, is here now. And I’m terrified.

Kasia is in the stage where everything becomes “Why?” “That’s a monkey,” I say. “Why?” she asks. Everything is why, why, why?! I’m going to eat lunch. Why? We have to put our shoes on. Why? Is there anything I can say that won’t get the response “why?” Of course there is.

“Because I said so.”

Just a Day at the Beach

2009-08-12T13:55:00.001-04:00

Kara had to go out of town for the whole week on a business trip up to New York. While she was away, Kasia and I (well, mainly me) decided that it would be fun to go on down to Salvo and spend the night. So after talking to Karlie, we decided to do just that.

We don’t get together with the Philips family as often as we should, but when the girls all get together they always seem to have a great time. Oh sure, there’s the occasional fight and every once in awhile someone gets punched in the face, but why should a little physical violence come between friends?

I’m always a little worried when we stay someplace new, because Kasia usually has a hard time sleeping. Fortunately, she went down pretty well after a long day of playing, no nap, and three or four stories. She probably would have slept in too had it not been for the fact that she spent all night dreaming about all the toys just waiting to be played with downstairs.

We had some rain in the morning that threatened our day at the beach, but fortunately the sun broke through and we had a lovely time playing in the sand. Kasia actually surprised me by going down and playing in the water. Not even Kylie would spend time in the water. Then when the wind picked up and started shooting sand at us, Kasia took refuge under her towel (as seen in the picture above). I wasn’t as smart and just sat there getting hit by bits of sand.

I Broke the House

2009-07-27T15:54:00.001-04:00

The faucet on the outside of our house (the sillcock for those of you in the know) has been leaking all summer long every time we try to turn it on. When it’s off, it’s fine. Turn it on, and our garage starts to flood. So I thought I would give my handyman skills a workout and see if I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it.

I grabbed my pipe wrench and went to work. I had the whole thing taken apart with the exception of this one last piece. I have a twist, and it turned right off. Unfortunately the reason it twisted right off is because, not knowing my own strength, I actually twisted the pipe and broke it off. Crap. The bad news was that there was no direct water cut off for this faucet, so in order to turn the water off, I had to shut off water to the entire house. So now I had to fix the thing as fast as possible, or go without having running water. I had no idea where to start, but thankfully my father-in-law was at home “cleaning out the garage” (that’s what he calls it when he’s putzing around but wants to make it sound like he’s working)

Jeff came down and gave me some guidance and helped my replace the piping in the house, after cutting out a chunk of the wall. Unfortunately the next morning, discovered that it was still leaking a little. So I went up to our local Taylor’s Do-It Center where you get the absolute best service I have ever seen in any store. There’s always some old guy who knows how to do everything, and he’s just waiting to answer your question. I describe to the guy want happened, and what we did to fix it. He pointed out to me that we skipped a step along the way and that I’d have to do it all again without skipping that step. When I got home, I tried it and it worked. Everything is up and working just fine now.

So I broke the house, but fortunately with the help of a couple of wizened men, I was able to fix it again. Now if only I could fix the giant hole I cut in my wall, I’d be doing just fine.

On a related note, I’m actually writing a new book called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Home Repair” which is written by me, The Complete Idiot.”For Idiots, by Idiots” is my motto.

Posing for Pictures in Wisconsin

2009-07-27T15:35:00.001-04:00

I remember as a kid that each time we left my grandparents’ house, we’d always have to pose for a few pictures before we left. So we always had pictures of all of us together.

It seems like since digital cameras have taken over, and you can taken hundreds of pictures for nothing, those posed pictures just don’t happen as much. At least they don’t happen as much in my family. So this last time we were up in Wisconsin, I made it a point to get everyone together and pose for pictures. But I went all out. I did it like the Japanese at Disney World, which means you get every possible combination of people in the photo as possible (Dad with Goofy, then Mom with Goofy, then each kid separate, then all the kids, then just the girls, then Dad and the girls… I swear, it was like a whole roll of film from just one family).

In the end, I now have a bunch of pictures that I had been wanting for a long time. I even got a picture of my dad with his brother. I think the last picture I have of the two of them together, Dad still had hair. It was that long ago.

Father-Son Bonding

2009-07-27T15:21:00.001-04:00

Dad and I spent a lot of time bonding while we were in Chicago. We sat on the deck and did some reading together. We talked about serious life issues over an adult beverage. We even got the baseball gloves out and played a little catch. “Go long Dad! Great catch.” But most importantly, we played a little Super Jock Super Toe together.

Super Toe is the game that my parents got my brother for Christmas sometime in the early 80’s. While putting it together, my dad decided to test it out. He then proceeded to test it out for the next several hours, and kept testing it until it broke. So to help him relive the good ole’ days, I got him his very own Super Toe for Christmas this year with the understanding that if he practices, we’d play. And practice he did.

Dad’s skills have really improved over the years, and he was able to beat me in the tournament. Though, I think he and Kasia were conspiring against me because every time it was my turn to kick, Kasia would rush over and try to swipe the ball away as I was about to kick it. This made me rush nearly all of my shots. Then when it was Dad’s turn, she mysteriously became really well behaved. Funny.

I was able to come back in the end and at least win the “longest kick” competition.

Go West Young Man

2009-07-14T16:38:00.001-04:00

One of the things we did while in Chicago was go to a Wild West park. Here we could do things like pan for gold. Lasso a cow. Throw a tomahawk. And ride in a covered wagon. Look at this picture of us heading west, just like in Little House on the Prairie. Kasia is confidently guiding the horses while I’m pointing the way. Kara meanwhile seems confused as to what the future holds for us.

Actually she’s confused because she doesn’t know what I’m point at. I guess she failed to realize that I was posing for a picture, and the whole time she’s going “What? What are you looking at?” I thought it made for a great photo though.

By the way, I also found out that my mother is pretty good with a sling shot and a bow and arrow. I never would have guessed it from looking at her, but she showed us all up. Now if only she could cook or sew like Caroline Ingalls.

A Natural Gamer

2009-07-14T16:32:00.001-04:00

While at Pat’s house, we decided to head down in to the basement and play for awhile on his old pinball machine. Much of my high school career was spent in this basement on that pinball machine. Watching the thing light up and tell me I had “multi-ball” was one of the best feelings ever.

So we played a couple of times. I beat Pat one game. He beat me in another. And then Kasia had her turn. I kid you not when I say that she schooled us both. I think the highest score I had was 14 million. Pat’s high score was 16 million. Kasia managed to score over 21 million in one game.

I mean, just look at her face while she’s playing. Look at the focus. Look at the determination. Look at the way she’s just randomly pushing buttons while things light up. She’s a natural. If she could play pool as well as she plays pinball, we’d have one hell of a hustler on our hands.

Baby Xander

2009-07-14T16:28:00.001-04:00

One of the main reasons we went to Chicago was to visit Pat, Stacy and Baby Xander. Kasia has been talking about going to see Baby Xander for weeks (and to her, it’s never just Xander. It’s always Baby Xander). Well, when we all finally got together, Kasia was in heaven. She loves babies. She loves baby dolls, but more than that, she loves real babies. So when she got to hold little Xander… sorry, I mean Baby Xander, she was loving it. She gave him the little Tigger rattle that she had picked out for him, and was all about showing him how it worked.

She’s going to make a great babysitter one day. And then the money will really start to flow in. Cha-Ching!

A Drive to Chicago

2009-07-14T16:24:00.001-04:00

The gods must be crazy, because for some reason, Kara, Kasia, and I decided that it was time to take a really long drive… a really, really long drive. And since we’re going to be driving for a really long time, we may as well go and visit the clan up in Chicago. Pat and Stacy just had little Baby Xander, and since we hadn’t seen him yet, it seemed like the logical place to go.

This time though, we learned from the mistakes in our past. First, we decided not to drive straight through. While the 16 hour drive is possible to do all at once, what usually ends up happening is that we get to my parents’ house in the middle of the night. Then Kara and I want to crash and go to sleep, but Kasia (who has been sleeping in the car the entire trip) is wired and wants to play. So if we stop half way there, we avoid all the pains it causes. Also, to keep her awake during the trip, Kasia’s wonderful Ama and Bupa got her a DVD player for the car so that she could watch movies and DVDs during the drive. This worked like a charm, and she hardly slept at all during the trip.

Some observations about the drive. First, Washington D.C. has the worst traffic ever imagined on this planet. Who would actually want to live in such a place? Now at least I know why all politicians are crazy. It’s because they probably sit in that idiotic traffic every day. All total, it put up three hours behind on our first day. Whereas we should have made it somewhere near Indiana on day one, we barely made it to Pittsburg.

Another observation is that I think the reason the traffic is so horrible in D.C. is because everyone is texting on their cell phones while driving. Now, I kind of expect this when I see some girl in her early 20’s driving in her VW Beetle, but I get really disappointed when some dude in a Ford pick up, or some lady my mom’s age, is too busy texting on their phones that they fail to realize traffic is moving again. All total, we counted less than ten people in all of D.C. who were not on their cell phones. I actually made Kara grab her phone and text something just so that we would fit in.

Also, I noticed that the Pennsylvania Turnpike (which is one of the most famous of the turnpikes) is a horrible road that is overpriced and always under construction. I also noticed that every time Kara drives, it immediately starts to rain/snow/hail, or the rapture begins. Because of this, I think it’s best if maybe I just drive from now on.

And lastly, I noticed that there are far too few gas stations on the Ohio turnpike. This led us to almost run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. It was on day two of our drive, and after all the traffic we encountered on day one, we were so thankful to have nothing but open road ahead of us. We were making great time and Kasia was just about to fall asleep in the back. We had just over a quarter tank of gas left (about 120 miles worth) as we passed a gas station. The sign said it was the last one in Ohio. Not a problem, we thought. We’re making great time, we’ve got plenty of gas, we’ll just fill up at the next one. Well, we kept driving, and driving. I kept looking at the gas gauge getting lower and lower. Kara kept saying that I was worrying for nothing. Then the light popped up saying that we were low on gas. No problem. The next gas plaza was in 24 miles… and according to our trip computer, we had 32 miles of gas left. Then we hit the toll plaza and came to dead stop. Eventually we crawled out of there, and saw a gas station next to a Burger King. Awesome! Sadly, it was closed.

The gas plaza was now 12 miles away. We had 15 miles worth of gas left. We were in the middle of nowhere. I mean, if there was a farmhouse a mile away, we were lucky. But we kept limping along. Finally, after a lot of sweating (because we had to turn the AC off) we rolled up to the gas pump. They were charging 50 cents a gallon more than the last gas station (total gouging) but we made it. With three miles left, we made it.

I have since decided that Ohio and their turnpike both stink. I will avoid them as much as I can in the future.

Oh, and we did eventually make it to Chicago. We suffered through Chicago traffic, but it was not nearly as bad as Washington D.C.

She's Ready for Hell's Angels

2009-06-24T15:08:00.003-04:00

For the longest time, Kasia struggled with being able to work the pedals on a tricycle. Then, one evening (May 8th to be exact) she finally got it. Everything finally came together and she was cruising around on her three wheeled bike like a pro. Granted, she wasn't very good at steering and kept hitting things, but she had it down.

So we decided that maybe it was time we upgraded her to a real bike. It took her a few days to figure out that you can't pedal backwards to go backwards on this bike. She eventually figured out that her two choices were forward and stopped. And now that she's got that, she is all over the place on her new bike. Her steering is still somewhat shaky, and she feels the need to always ride in the very center of the street.

Next year we're going to upgrade her again to a Harley. Or maybe I'll upgrade myself to the Harley and Kasia can just watch from the sidecar.

Kasia's New Game

2009-06-24T15:01:00.003-04:00

Kasia has a truly unique talent. She can spot a school bus, anywhere at anytime. She can spot a "baby school bus" (aka The Short Bus) a mile away, doing 70mph, on a different street. Her abilities to spot a bus are so good that we've turned it into a game. While we're driving in the car, the first person who sees a school bus has to shout "SCHOOL BUS" and whoever does it first, wins.

When we first started playing, every time Kasia would spot one first, we would always say, "Oh no, you got me." Soon, Kasia started to inform us that she "got us." She no longer says just "SCHOOL BUS" anymore, but "SCHOOL BUS! GOT YOU!" But when you hear her say it, she doesn't pause between the words. So it comes out "SCHOOLBUSGOTYOU!"

And while Kara and I try to compete with her at this game, it's just not a contest. Unless we know where the buses are parked, Kasia will lay waste to us, hands down. It's amazing.

Confusion at the Gruetzmacher's

2009-06-17T17:17:00.003-04:00

There is a lot of confusion around our house today concerning food categories. It all started last night when I read an interesting bit of trivia. Apparently a raspberry is not really a berry. And neither is a strawberry, but that technically a tomato is a berry. Huh?

I mean, I knew a tomato was a fruit, despite the urge to say it's a vegetable, but a strawberry isn't a berry? Not only that, but banana's and grapes actually are berries.

It only got weirder from there. After trying to figure out why the strawberry isn't a berry, we discovered that bell peppers are actually fruits. So are squash and cucumbers. I always thought these things were vegetables.

The world has gone completely topsy turvy for me where up is down and left is right. Just too weird.

Bye Bye Birdies

2009-06-17T15:16:00.003-04:00

The era has finally ended. Kasia's all time favorite Children's Play Area is soon to be no more. After being members for a year and a half, we're having to say goodbye to Birdie's because they're shutting their doors forever.

There were three different segments to Birdie's. There was an indoor mini golf course. There was the children's play area. And there was a rental side for renting the giant inflatable play slides and such. They've decided to let their lease on the building expire and focus all their attention on to the rental side. According to their flyer, "this doesn't mean Birdie's is closing, but that it will be bigger and better than ever." I fail to see the logic in that seeing as how they're eliminating two-thirds of their business, including the one that I actually use, and downscaling their operation.

So it's time to say bye, bye to Birdie's. Kasia had many, many hours of fun there. She met Santa Claus there. She went on her first Easter egg hunt there. It's a sad and rainy day.

Best Friends

2009-06-04T09:56:00.006-04:00

Kasia had a great time the other day as her "best friend" Gabby came over to play in her pool. Gabby's mom was putting together a swingset for her, so since she watched Kasia while I was putting the Sky Fort together (see previous post), I was more than happy to watch Gabby. To be honest, there's no need for watching really. She and Kasia just play together so amazingly well that it's just plain awesome.

ICE CREAM MAN!!!

2009-05-30T19:43:00.003-04:00

Kasia loves ice cream. She also loves the fact that there is a man who will drive through our neighborhood and sell it to her.

Here is a quick video of her after she got her bubble gum popsicle. I just missed the moment when she ran out the door shouting "STOP! STOP ICE CREAM MAN!!" But this captures her enthusiasm pretty well.

Congratulations Pat and Stacy

2009-05-29T14:15:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to Pat and Stacy Lewis who are the proud new parents of Alexander Gregory Lewis. Little Xander was born on May 28 at 6:13pm, and for awhile there it looked like he was never coming out. He's very happy and healthy at 21" and 8lb 14oz. Mom is doing great and recovering nicely. Dad is still a little strange, but he's still my best friend (aside from Kara... naturally).

Congratulations guys. Now the real fun comes when you leave the hospital. We can't wait to see all y'all at the end of June.

The Sky Fort

2009-05-21T16:18:00.006-04:00

For her birthday this year, Kasia received a new swing set. But not just any swing set. She was given the behemoth juggernaut known as the Sky Fort. This fully loaded play-set includes, two swings, a glider, a slide, monkey bars, a rock climbing wall, a clubhouse, and a crow's nest. According to the instructions in the box it would take "two skilled men twenty hours to complete." Wow. Twenty hours?! And where was I going to find two skilled me to put this thing together? For weeks this thing sat in our pieces in the garage while I searched high and low for the aforementioned "skilled men." Alas, I could not find them and so it was decided that we'd have to put this thing together ourselves.

We started on a friday morning with Kenny and Jeff coming over to help in the assembly. For awhile there is was real slow going, as we stared at these boards trying to figure out what to do. Then once we realized that not all of the holes are pre-drilled for us, and that we would actually have to drill some ourselves, things started to pick.

Kenny takes a break from his "supervisor" role to help out

Jeff becomes the first casualty. He got bit by a drill (get it? Drill? Bit? Just a little drill humor for you)

By the end of the first day, after over eight hours of work, the thing looked like we had hardly even started. The pile of wood still laying in the garage was still piled to the ceiling. Those two skilled guys would probably be halfway done by now, but all we had was a picnic table surrounded by more wood.

By the way, during the morning as we were building this thing, Kasia was playing over at her friend Gabby's house. This was when she discovered the joy of pancakes.

We started at it again bright and early on Saturday morning. Saturday was a little more difficult because that wind North Carolina is famous for was in high gear. Screws, nails, and boards were constantly flying out of our hands as the wind whipped down on us. But we persevered, and made a lot of progress. By the end of day two, it actually looked like we were getting somewhere. Kasia finally had a little clubhouse that she could play in, if she could get up to it.

Sky Fort, end of day two

After the second day, Jeff decided that he'd rather go on a vacation with his friend to Kentucky and drink bourbon and beer all week instead of finishing the Sky Fort for his granddaughter. That's fine. I'm cool with that. I'll keep working on the thing myself.

After another day of work and hard labor, Kasia soon had a ladder in the back to climb to her clubhouse. She also had a slide to get down. And she had a rock climbing wall for another way to get to up to the clubhouse.

Another day later, and she soon had the monkey bars to climb on. If I could do this thing all over again, I would conveniently forget to put the monkey bars up and just leave a big empty space where they belong. Kasia is currently too small to really use the monkey bars, but she is big enough to climb up the rungs and grab the first bar. After she does that, it is usually followed up with "HELP! HELP!" and then someone has to go help her cross.

By the following weekend, Jeff came back and we were able to finish the thing despite an on again/ off again rain storm that was designed solely to irritate us.

From the crow's next, Kasia is able to spot approaching pirates from up to two yards away. She has also been known to stand up there and laugh as golfers completely mess up their tee shot. "It's a par 3!!!" You can hear her shout. "Even I can hit the green from here!!"*

Kasia keeps the clubhouse neat and tidy

Now Kasia has a wonderland that is also called the Sky Fort. She spends hours swinging and playing in her clubhouse. We spend hours pushing her in her swing. In the end, she loves it, we love it, and it was well worth the effort.

* she doesn't really say this... she only thinks it.

Thank God for Best Friends

2009-05-21T16:07:00.003-04:00

Take a look at this picture. This is Kasia eating a pancake. For over two years I've been trying to get her to eat a pancake, and I have failed miserably. Now Kasia says with conviction that she "LOVES PANCAKES!" So what happened? Gabby.

Kasia has a new best friend. Gabby. Gabby moved in two houses down from us, and she and Kasia get along as though they've been best friends their whole lives. One morning, Kasia went over to Gabby's house to play and Gabby was eating pancakes. Kasia then said she wanted a pancake too. Much to my surprise, she actually started eating it. Now at home, she'll eat pancakes too. Of course, we have to have them just like how she had them at Gabby's house. That means the pancakes have to have chocolate chips in them, and she needs to have a glass of milk in a cup with a straw. Whatever. So long as she's eating them, I'll make them anyway she wants. I'm just happy to say she now eats pancakes.

Thanks Gabby.

Exhausted!

2009-05-21T15:57:00.004-04:00

After a long and tiring day of playing outside in the sun, Kasia finally ran out of energy while taking her bath. In fact, she ran out of it so quickly that she was actually falling asleep in the bathtub. Now this could be a dangerous situation. We should probably sit her up before she hurts herself. But first, I need to take a quick picture. She just looked so cute.

The Kids' Fest in Manteo!

2009-05-05T12:30:00.006-04:00

With spring in full swing, and the weather getting warmer, it's time we started doing more things outdoors. Cupcakes and all are fun, but then so is playing in the sun. And here, when you think about sun, you thing the Outer Banks. And when I think the Outer Banks, I think of three other girls whose name start with K: Karlie, Kylie, and Kinzlie (or Kinzlie and Kylie... I'm not picking favorites, and I'm not sure who is older). Fortunately I got a call from Karlie and she told me that Manteo was having their annual Kids' Fest. We should all go together. Well, the weather was beautiful, the sun was shining, and so we got ready just a little earlier than normal and got out the door and headed on down to Manteo.

The entire trip down, Kasia sat in the back and asked one question over and over. "Where is Kylie and Kinzlie?" Again, and again she asked this question. For an hour and a half. "In their car," I would tell her. That was not good enough, so again she'd ask "Where is Kylie and Kinzlie?" With their mom? Eating breakfast? I don't know. Finally, I just told her that they were on their way to the park where we would all play together. She seemed quite content with this answer, so I let it lie with that.

The Kids' Fest was awesome, especially if you were a toddler. They had a whole bunch of different play areas where the kids could just go wild. They had an area full of the giant foam building blocks. An area with nothing but bubbles and bubble blowing stuff. An area for sidewalk chalk. There was a firetruck the kids could sit in. The Coast Guard had one fo their boats there that the kids could climb in. And there was a stage with live music playing the entire time. It was a lot fun.

When Kylie and Kinzlie (plus Karlie) arrived, the three girls took off and had a blast. They spent most of their time at the stage, dancing and chasing each other around.

Kasia and Kinzlie also spent much of their time at the stage, completely fascinated with the African musicians. I have to admit that they were a really good band, but Kasia and Kinzlie were in complete awe of them.

The one big problem I was having with Kasia all day was with getting on the Coast Guard boat. She wouldn't go on unless I could go on, and I wasn't going on. Kinzlie and Kylie went on and had a lot of fun, but Kasia just wouldn't do it. So we left, danced at the stage, and then Kasia told me she wanted to try the boat again. And again, she didn't go on. So we went and played some more, and then just before we left, she said she wanted to try one more time. This time she did it. In fact, not only did she get on, she didn't want to get off. Karlie and the girls were leaving, and Kasia said her goodbyes from the bow of the boat.

She would then end up sitting in the driver's seat for about fifteen minutes while I stood outside saying again, and again, "Ok Kasia, now it's time to go. Come on." I was afraid she was going to flip some switch and somehow set the boat's self destruct mechanism. She does the same thing in our van, and sits behind the wheel and flips levers and pushes buttons while pretending to drive. So I've got a feeling that when the Coast Guard puts this boat back in the water and powers it up, they're going to suffer through the same things I do after she's been playing in the car. The hazard lights will be on, the left turn signal will be blinking, and the windshield wipers will be on high.

She's Got Cupcake Fever

2009-05-05T12:11:00.006-04:00

For Easter, Kasia received a really neat cupcake kit from her Grandma. This was another time, much like dying Easter eggs, when the thought of making a huge mess dominated every thought that I had. So we put off making the cupcakes. Kasia then ripped open the box, and started walking around with the bag of cupcake mix, and the tubes of frosting. For a week she did this. Finally, after fearing that she'd make a bigger mess by breaking open the bag of mix, I succumbed to Kasia's version of peer pressure (screaming) and we decided to make some cupcakes.

Much like dying the Easter eggs, my fears were worse than the reality. We both had on our baking aprons (mine was borrowed from Kara, but it's pretty gender neutral.. so I didn't look fruity or anything) and got to work baking. Kasia mainly just loved mixing the batter for the chocolate cupcakes. Then she'd have to lick the spoon to make sure it was ready. It wasn't ready yet, so more stirring. Then a quick lick. Still not ready. More stirring. On and on this went for about twenty minutes. Finally, with half the batter gone, she finally let me put the batter into the pan, and then in to the oven.

For the next fifteen minutes, Kasia lost all interest in cupcakes. She broke out her Dora the Explorer figures, and played with them under the table.

Finally, when it was time to decorate them, she got all in to it again. She did a pretty good job squeezing the tube of ice cream to make little blobs of design on the cupcakes.

When it came time to eat, she really wasn't all that hungry. She took a bite, and then was done. I guess when you eat half a bowl of batter, that tends to fill you up. At least the cupcakes looked good.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-19T15:27:00.003-04:00

Kasia was excited about he Easter Bunny coming to visit this year. In fact, she was so excited that she woke up extra early so that she could run downstairs to see what he had left. This of course meant that Mom and Dad had to also wake up extra early to go see as well (which was really unfortunate because we had stayed up kind of late the night before watching a movie).

The fun started immediately, as the Easter Bunny had hid an egg right at the bottom of the stairs. "AN EASTER EGG!" Kasia shouted with glee. The race was on. She grabbed her bucket, and started hunting. She looked high and low and discovered egg after egg. One by one the eggs fell to this mighty egg hunter. Occasionally she would stop for a moment, crack open and egg, and enjoy a quick hit of chocolate. Then she went back to the hunt.

After fifteen minutes, the eggs were all safely captured in her bucket, and the new hunt was on for the Easter basket. I was personally kind of amazed that she didn't find the basket while looking for the eggs, but I guess she was just too focused on those colorful little plastic wonders. Soon, after a lot of looking (and a few hints from Mom and Dad), Kasia found her Easter Basket. This was then the beginning of a week long chocolate binge that Kasia would only end with the help of an extremely upset tummy.

In the afternoon, we went over to Kenny and Sandy's for a nice get together and Easter dinner. Kasia spent a lot of the time upstairs in the loft playing with an old can of Billy Beer, and fixing cookies and drinks for anyone who wanted them.

Kasia makes a fantastic concoction from Billy Beer

Dying Easter Eggs

2009-04-11T14:53:00.000-04:00

Easter got off to a great start this year with a fun round of dying Easter eggs. I never really think it's a good idea to let a three year old splash hard boiled eggs into various cups of colorful dyes, but once a year we throw caution in to the wind and just go with it. In my nightmares, I can see waves of colored vinegar/water splashing on to the walls and the floors. Kasia stands there, dripping from head to toe in a blue and red dye, and Kara informs me that there is no way we can now sell Kasia's clothes because that stain in never going to come out.

Fortunately, in real life, things turned out a little better. The only real damage happened to the eggs as Kasia got a little carried away and instead of gently placing the eggs in the dyes, she threw them in with such force that it would make Nolan Ryan jealous. Apparently the dye doesn't work on the cracks in eggs. Who knew? But she did manage to keep the mess down to a minimum, and in the end had an egg or two that she could be proud of.

She was very proud of this egg.

A Visit to the Doctor

2009-04-08T15:58:00.002-04:00

Kasia had her three year check up, and this time we were preparing for the worst. The whole day I kept telling her that we were going to go to the doctor, and that it was going to be fun. I told her that if she behaved, we would get ice cream after. I told her that if she behaved, she could practically do anything she wanted. I just wanted her to not scream during the entire visit (as in her visit to the dentist).
So we get there, and she's all in good spirits. We get into the examination room, and she's doing well. While we wait, she's getting a little restless, but nothing too bad. The nurse comes in and asks some preliminary questions. She does some quick examinations, and Kasia is behaving very well through all of this.
Then Kasia eyes some toys in the doctor's office across the hall. Whatever health problems she may have or will have, nothing can be said about her eye sight. That girl can see a toy or a school bus five miles away. So she sees the toys, and the nurse says that she can go over and pick one out to play with. She gets one and plays with it for awhile before deciding that she wants to swap it out for another toy. This goes one for awile before the doctor comes in.
Then the doc comes, and examines her. Again, she behaves perfectly She's a little shy and tries to hide her eyes when he's trying to shine the light in them, but other than that, no fuss. When it's all over, the doctor informs us that he wants to take a blood sample because Kasia is such a picky eater. So Kasia gets her finger pricked and blood drawn. Not a scream is heard or a tear seen. Nothing.
When does she scream? When does she start to fuss and throw a fit? When it's time to leave. That's right. She has no problem getting her finger pricked, but when we tell her that she has to leave the toys behind so that we can go, she goes ballistic. How many kids do you know throw a fit when you tell them it's time to leave the doctor's office??
So here are the facts:

Fact: Kasia is 38" tall
Fact: Kasia weighs 29.75 pounds
Fact: Kasia's blood (despite eating nothing) is completely healthy
Speculation: Kasia is probably taller than 38"... I think she was slouching

So now we don't have to worry about the doctor's office for awhile. Maybe next time we'll bring more of our own toys to the office.

What Happened to March?

2009-03-26T14:30:00.004-04:00

So I looked at my calendar and realized that the end of March was fast approaching. I looked on the blog and noticed I haven't written anything since Kasia's Birthday. So what have we been doing with our time?

Well, we went to Corolla one weekend when the weather had turned exceptionally nice. We walked on the beach. We picked up seashells. We ate ice cream. Corolla is without a doubt the best the Outer Banks has to offer. You should all go to Corolla.

And spend lots of money there. The fact that our county schools benefit greatly from the tax money generated in Corolla in no way influences my decision to declare Corolla the Greatest Beach in the World!

We spent another weekend at the Virginia Aquarium with Shawn and Chatam. Kasia had a great time looking at all the fish and turtles and sea lions. I had a great time watching her. We all had a great time just looking at other things, until Kasia discovered that there was a children's play area complete with a dollhouse and a play kitchen. From that moment on, it didn't matter that there were fish anymore, because playing dollhouse is all she wanted to do.

I also got around to a project that I've been wanting to do for some time. I painted the ceiling in our kitchen. For two years now, I've stared at the ceiling in our kitchen and kept thinking, "Geez, that thing really needs to get painted. I mean, you can see purple paint from the sloppy job the previous owners did." And so, after two years, and because I'm anything but a procrastinator, I finally painted it. Or rather, I started to paint it. I'll finish the rest this weekend. But it looks good.

We also took the time to refinance our mortgage. We've only had our place for two years, but the rates dropped to a point that it would be good for us to take advantage of it. Of course, knowing my luck, in a week the rates are going to drop to 1% and we'll be SOL. That's just the way it is sometimes.

Next week we take Kasia to the doctor for her three year check up. Hopefully all is well and she's as healthy as she seems. And hopefully it will go better than her first dentist appointment. She did not have a good time at the dentist. Fortunately, because she kept screaming with her mouth open, the dentist was able to take a quick peak inside and see that everything looked good. I don't know what Kasia's problem was. I mean, this dentist's office is posh. Every dental chair has this floating LCD tv so you can watch whatever you want while they clean your teeth. How awesome is that?

And that just about sums up March. Not a lot happening, but that's ok with us. Maybe April will provide a little more excitement. It is, afterall, Kara's Birthday Month... so that's reason to celebrate right there.

Beach Trip to Corolla

2009-03-17T15:29:00.004-04:00

The weather around here has been absolutely bizarre the last few weeks. We went from snow on Kasia's birthday to the upper 70's by the end of the week. It's 80 one day and 40 the next.

Fortunately we had a beautiful weekend recently, and we did what any sensible family does on a nice day. We went to the beach.

One of the beaches that I had never been to since living here is the beach up in Corolla. It also happens to be the only beach in the county in which we live and pay taxes in. So we decided to take a trip down and see what our beach was all about.

As I should have known, it was gorgeous. The center piece of Corolla is the old Corolla lighthouse, which remains in its original, unpainted state. Of course, since this is the off season, the whole place was closed and we couldn't climb to the top or anything fun like that. But on the plus side, since it was the off season, there weren't any crowds to deal with.

So we wandered around the lighthouse for a little while before heading across the street and spending some time collecting sea shells on the beach. Kasia had been talking all winter about how she wanted to go to the beach, and she finally got her wish. She even wanted to walk in the water, despite the fact that the temperature of the water was around -2 degrees. She just loved it. Kara hated it. And I was too big a wimp to get my feet wet. I mean, it was freezing.

Then as the waves kept getting higher and higher, Kasia became obsessed with making sure our shoes and things didn't get wet. She kept picking them up and moving them high and higher on to the beach.

After we got all the sea shells we could carry, it was time to have a little ice cream and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Easier said than done however. Apparently most of the ice cream shops in town are closed during the off season, and finding a scoop of ice cream turned out to be a rather difficult task. We must have stopped in five different places before we finally found a coffee shop that also served ice cream cones.

Now, as I look outside and see it rain, and know that it's in the 40's again, I find myself longing to go back to the beach again. Hopefully next time we'll have an easier time finding some ice cream.

Kasia Turns Three!

2009-03-03T16:06:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe, but Kasia is now three years old. It doesn't seem like it has been three years since she was born, but the calendar doesn't lie.
We had a small get together over the weekend to celebrate. It was nothing too big or fancy, and basically just included cake and ice cream, which is all Kasia would eat. She enjoyed getting some new toys, and loved unwrapping the presents. It's just taking her awhile adjusting to the fact that she's three. She's been going around telling everyone she's two for so long, that it just sounds wrong when she says three. She'll get it though.
For her actual birthday, we decided to really spoil her. We gave her some more presents and then took her for a late lunch to McDonald's. We got her a Happy Meal, but she didn't eat it. All she wanted was the little toy, and to be able to play in the play area for as long as she wanted. So we let her, and all day long just basically let her get away with whatever she wanted. It was kind of the poor man's birthday party, but Kasia doesn't need a lot to be happy (which is good because we don't have a lot to give her).
So the next time you see her, ask her how old she is, and hopefully she'll tell you three. I make no promises, but hopefully she'll have learned by then.

She Wears a Dress

2009-03-03T16:03:00.003-05:00

Kasia wore a dress on Valentine's Day. It had little hearts on it and she looked really cute (as you can see). The unusual part about it was that she chose to wear the dress, we didn't make her.
Kara came down with the dress and another outfit with pants and a shirt. She made the comment, "Well, since you probably won't wear the dress, let's put this shirt on you." To this, Kasia floored us all and said, "I want to wear the dress." What?? Whose child is this?
Kara was shocked with disbelief. She asked "You want to wear the dress? This dress? This one right here?"
"Yes. I want to to wear the dress." Wow. Ok, so she wore the dress, and doesn't she look cute? Now if only she would do this with food. I could say something like, "Do you want some peanut butter?" and she would say, "I want to eat some carrots." A parent can only dream.

MINE!

2009-03-03T15:56:00.002-05:00

Kasia is that stage in life where everything is "MINE!" The other day when we were playing at Little Birdies, she dove on to a pile of toys, like a future Medal of Honor winner diving on a land mine, and shouted "MINE!" Of course, she mean they were hers... not that they were an actual land mine or anything. She was probably still hoping for a prize though.
Then I brought my old keyboard down from the attic because I thought she would enjoy playing with it. The first thing she did was instantly declare it "MINE!" I was not allowed to touch it or show her how it worked.
"MINE! MINE! MINE!"
Fine, I said. If this is yours, then where did you buy it?
Without thought or hesitation, she immediately said, "Food Lion."
"Really? Food Lion? You bought this keyboard at Food Lion?"
She thought about it for a minute and then corrected her statement. "Dollar Tree. I got it at Dollar Tree."

Then I went to show her how to turn it on, and I was stopped with "MINE!" Fine. It's hers.

Keeping Order

2009-02-18T08:52:00.004-05:00

The Little Peoples Airport can be a rough place. Often times, chaos is the rule and not the exception. Wild animals from the 100 Acre Wood and Noah's Ark have taken control of the place. Thankfully there's a new sheriff in town to keep the law. Johnny Thunder.

Tigger was getting a little out of line and needed to be brought down. Johnny Thunder used a tranquilizer gun from a 100 yards. At least he said it was a tranquilizer gun.

Peace has once again been restored.

Kasia Sleeps in a Real Bed Now

2009-02-12T16:15:00.003-05:00

It took us just shy of three years, but we finally did it. We finally took the bars down and let Kasia sleep in her very own bed. I don't know what we were thinking, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Over the weekend, we took the bars off her crib and converted it into a toddler bed. We put some Strawberry Shortcake sheets on, and Kasia loved it. We put a gate up at the top of the steps so that wandering toddlers wouldn't fall down in the middle night. We changed everything in one fell swoop.

Now, Kasia wakes up for no reason in the middle of the night and comes in to our room. Why? I mean, I know kids do that. I use to do that, but why is she doing it? Why do I find her standing in the hallway at one in the morning? The odd thing is that we just walk her back to her bed, and she goes right back to sleep. And she'll wake up bright and early now in the mornings. We used to be able to get up before her and have some "me" time, but not anymore. The strange thing is that now I can't sleep. I'm constantly paranoid that every little sound I hear is her walking in to our room. Every time the blanket shifts, I think it's Kasia hitting my feet. So maybe this weekend we'll put the bars back up and see how that works out. Well, maybe not, but it was worth a try.

Kasia Kicks it Old School

2009-02-12T16:06:00.002-05:00

Kara got me some Old School Sesame Street dvds awhile ago. They start off with a warning that states these early episodes are meant for adults and may not be appropriate for today's pre-school child.

Well, they may not be appropriate, but I have to tell you, our pre-school child loves them. I mean, she LOVES them. She'll sit there and watch these things over and over. She counts with them. She talks back with them. She learns her letters. All Old School.

The funny thing is that she doesn't really like watching the modern Sesame Street. She likes Elmo and Zoe and some of the other characters, but as a whole show, she won't watch it. So what is it about the Old School ones that don't make it appropriate, and yet make it a wonderful learning tool?

Could it be the afro? None of the people on today sport the afro anymore. The long sideburns are also gone. Were they the secret ingredient to learning the ABC's? Or was it that they focused on a few, simple ideas and tried to teach them? One word, repeated over and over throughout the episode.

I watched Sesame Street the other day... and they were talking all about "estimating." Not exactly 1,2, 3 but I guess it's useful. Zoe and Elmo had to estimate how many hats they were wearing. Both of them won. Everyone won. Nobody lost. Old School Sesame Street had people who lost.

You Call Him Dr. Jones Doll!

2009-01-30T16:41:00.003-05:00

Kasia got a dollhouse for Christmas and she absolutely loves it. In fact, I think her favorite phrase of all time is, "We play dollhouse, Daddy?" And while I enjoy spending time with my daughter, playing with a daddy doll who has to pick up a crying baby doll... it gets a little boring. That is until Indy came to town.

"You call him Dr. Jones, doll." - Short Round

Actually, Short Round, he's not a doll... he's an action figure. And he has come to the "Loving Family" dollhouse to find his treasure and kick a little Nazi butt while he's there. As it turns out, there's a very rare Mayan face carving hidden under the baby's crip, and only Indy can find it and get it to a museum before the Nazis steal it. He has suddenly made the dollhouse a lot more fun.

Now I'm the one who says, "We play dollhouse Kasia?" Because Indy is here, and he's ready for action, adventure, and... hey. Whose that coming in through the window? Boba Fett?? Oh, this just got really cool.

Is That Rusty?

2009-01-30T16:35:00.003-05:00

Another strange Kasia Kwirk.

For some reason, and only Kara knows the reason why, every horse that Kasia sees is named Rusty. Her toy horse is named Rusty. Her rocking horse is named Rusty. The horse sticker on the wall, that's Rusty too. The weird thing is that it's not only isolated to horses. Anything that resembles a horse is also named Rusty. So all zebras are Rusty as are donkeys.

Of course she might be saying "horsie" but it's just coming out all wrong. Nope, she's definitely saying Rusty. Yep, I'm sure of it.

No Sing Daddy

2009-01-22T16:35:00.001-05:00

They say that a child enjoys the singing of their parent. “It doesn’t matter if you can sing,” I’ve heard, “what matters is that your child just wants to hear your voice.”

Apparently Kasia did not get this memo. I don’t know why or for what reason, but as of late, I am no longer aloud to sing. Not at all. If a song enters my head, and I start to sing it while she’s around, she immediately shouts, “NO SING DADDY!” Or, sometimes she’ll vary it up and shout “NO DADDY SING!” She’s still working on which one she wants to use full time.

I never thought this would bother me, but now that I’m not allowed to sing, I find myself doing it all the time. In the car. In the kitchen. Everywhere. I feel like Kevin Bacon in Footloose and Kasia is the uptight minister who forbids dancing and rock n’ roll music. Well, I’ve got news for her. I’m going to sing! And maybe like Kevin Bacon, I’ll do some weird dance routine in an abandoned warehouse.

That Whole Crib Thing

2009-01-14T15:35:00.005-05:00

So if you remember back before the holidays, Kasia had learned to climb out of her crib. Well, since her bedroom is right at the top of the stairs, this worried us a lot. She climbed out of her crib consistently for about a week. And then all of a sudden, she stopped. For reasons unknown to all of us, she won't do it anymore. Now, when she wants to get up, she calls for us just like she used to. We're a little perplexed by this, but not that worried. Once we get the potty training thing done, we're going to move her from her crib to a real bed. The countdown has begun.

UPDATE: I guess I spoke too soon. Just a day after I posted this, she spooked me by climbing out of her bed. I thought I heard a sound coming from the kitchen, and to my surprise.. there was Kasia. I guess she's back at it again. What gets me is her absolute ninja-like stealth when she does this.

Realism in Her Play

2009-01-14T15:30:00.004-05:00

I think that it's extremely amusing to watch Kasia as she plays with her new doll house. She seems to love to reenact all the things that go on here at our house, and she does them all very accurately.

For example, she'll pretend the everyone is waking up and that the family is going to go to Birdie's for the day to play. Before they go however, Daddy has to take a shower and get everything in the van.

But the funniest thing for me is when she puts the baby to bed. She'll have the parents tell the little baby it's time to go night night, and then put the baby in her crib. Then Kasia will start to cry as the baby because she doesn't want to go to sleep. She does the fake cry so well, and then the parents have to come in and console the baby and change her diaper, and finally she'll go to bed. It's the fake cry though that just amazes me. She'll even have the baby stand up in the crib and shout "UP! UP! UP!!"

She does the same thing with her stuffed animals and her read bed. It's funny for me because it shows me that she knows exactly what it is that she does, and she knows exactly how we react to it. It's very accurate.

Potty Training: Again

2009-01-14T15:27:00.004-05:00

Now that we've started off a new year, we've decided that it's time to dig our heels in and get our daughter potty trained. Surprisingly, it's going extremely well. We've just insisted that she wears underwear while we're at home, and that when she needs to use the potty she needs to tell us. The shocking thing is that she actually has been doing it. There have been very few accidents, and so long as she gets her little treats for using the potty, she's all about doing it.

Now going out in public is a different matter. I'm sure that will come soon, but for now we're thrilled with the progress that we've made.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:59:00.000-05:00

I think that it's official in that we are getting old. Here were are plans for New Year's Eve:

Drop Kasia off at Granny and Poppy's house for the night.
Go home and fix a few drinks.
Watch a movie.
Fall asleep.
Wake up before midnight.
Watch the ball drop, kiss each other, and wish each other a Happy New Year.
Go to bed.

That's kind of how we did it last year, and it sounded so good to us that we thought we'd do it again. But then... then Steve and Angie had to change everything. They wanted to know if we wanted to all get together. Now how are we supposed to fall asleep on the couch when we have company over? Anyway, we all got together and discovered that we weren't as old as we thought.

Steve, Angie and the kids came over in the evening and Kasia and Riley started playing right away like they were long time friends. There was no hesitation, which was really cool. Peyton had fun playing Nintendo for most of the evening, and I played with him as long as I could without appearing to be unsocial with the adults.

Then Kathy and Jeff stopped by. They brought over pizza, and we all ate and had some drinks until late into the night. Then around 11:30pm, everyone decided to brave the cold and wind and went home. We turned on the TV, and waited for the ball to drop. Kasia tried her hardest to stay up until midnight, but she fell asleep on the couch about fifteen minutes later. She played hard most of the night and just couldn't make it to the end.

Kara and I then counted down to the New Year and had our New Year's Kiss. We watched some of Dick Clark, as we heard this was going to be his last year doing the New Year's Eve special... and that's probably a good idea. He may be the guy who never aged, but having a stroke can definitely take its toll. He had a good run, but it's probably time for him to move on.

We hope that everyone else had a wonderful New Year's and hope that everything is starting off on the right foot.

Christmas With the Smiths

2008-12-29T15:14:00.001-05:00

No Christmas would be complete until you have Christmas With the Smiths. I swear, just saying makes me think that it should be a holiday movie.

After our tearful farewell with dropping my parents off at the airport, and after Kasia and Kara both stopped crying from having to say goodbye, we stopped off at Mom and Dad Smith's to exchange gifts. This means more presents for Kasia and more importantly, more chocolate.

The funny story is that there is this doll feeding/changing station from Target that Kasia absolutely loves. Every time we go there we have to spend a minimum of half an hour with this thing as she feeds and gives baths to whatever stuffed animal happens to be nearby. Now, being the wonderful grandparents that they are, Jeff and Kathy get this for Kasia for Christmas. And Jeff spends a few hours, and a lot of frustration, putting the thing together for her. So as Kasia is opening her presents, she gets a toy minivan to go with her doll house. She is extremely excited about this and is having a great time playing with it. Then we pull out the baby station to surprise her, and her reaction was, "That's cool. But I'm playing with the minivan right now." All that time and frustration spent putting the thing together, and she spends the night zipping her action figures around the room in their new little car. Sheesh. Of course now that it's home she plays with the thing all the time, and yet every time we go to Target, we still have to play with the one there. I don't get it.

As for the rest of us, I got a circular saw. How awesome is that? I spent much of the weekend cutting two by fours to finish the attic floor. I feel as though I'm officially a homeowner.

Ama and Bupa Come to Town!

2008-12-29T12:48:00.003-05:00

Before Santa Claus could come to town, we had two other guests come to town. Grandma and Grandpa! Yeah! They flew in the Sunday before Christmas and stayed until the Saturday after. At long last, we had house guests and a good use for that guest room that sits empty most of the year.

Originally we were fearing that maybe Kasia would not warm up to her Northern Grandparents right away and that it might take a little while before she felt comfortable with them around. Fortunately, that was not the case. She warmed up to them right away and immediately was walking all over the airport while holding Grandma's hand. Then when we got home, she spent hours chasing Grandpa around the kitchen. She had a blast, and my father got one heck of a work out.

Then on Christmas Eve, my mom sealed the deal when she gave Kasia one of her Christmas presents a day early. A dollhouse. Kasia's eyes lit up and she was in love. All day long she played with that house. She set up the furniture and made the new family feel right at home. Then she went and got her other figurines and had them come over to say hello. Mickey Mouse and Strawberry Shortcake all stopped by for a quick visit. Then, Winnie the Pooh came over and constantly insisted on jumping out the window.

The downside to the visit was that shortly after they arrived, I came down with some flu like illness which knocked me out for most of the week. Then after Christmas, just as I was getting a little better, Kara got knocked out. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances, but then again, they came to spend time with Kasia. So they got what they wanted for Christmas, and that's all that matters.

On Saturday, we all went out to lunch and then we took them to them to the airport. We arrived a little early, but Mom insisted that it was ok since they both had books they could read. So we dropped them off, said our goodbyes, and drove away. Kasia cried... a lot. She really hated seeing them leave and hated even more having to say goodbye. Kara also didn't enjoy saying goodbye, and as we drove away, tears were also streaming down her cheeks. I was the only cold hearted one in the car with a dry eye. Maybe I've just had a lot more practice saying goodbye to my parents.

Hours later, after we got home, I received a phone call from, of all people, my mother. Their flight was delayed by three hours and they were still sitting in the airport. Fortunately, the did eventually get out that evening and made it home

Hopefully the next time we all get together, none of us will get struck down with some major illness that takes us out of the game for days. I know that's a tall order to fill, but maybe in the summer we can do it.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T15:28:00.005-05:00

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but after two tries, Kasia finally was able to enjoy Christmas on the third go around.

On her first Christmas, she was completely overwhelmed with the whole event. While she might have been curious about the toys and colorful boxes, the place she really wanted to be was somewhere else. So she kept crawling in to the next room.

For her second Christmas, she was once again overwhelmed by all the fuss that was going on. Her two older cousins were ripping in to their presents, and we kept giving her presents to open... which she did reluctantly. The problem there was that she'd open a present and want to play with it for an hour before moving on to the next one. It took us almost two days to open all of her gifts.

The third time it was perfect. She came downstairs on Christmas morning and saw all the gifts.. and then ran right to the doll house she had opened the day before. I mean, the wrapped presents could be anything, but she knew that the doll house was a doll house and fun to play with. We definitely didn't have to worry about her getting in to anything before we were ready.

Soon though we were all downstairs and ready to rip in to some presents. Kasia was extremely excited and had a good time this year not only unwrapping her own presents, but handing out presents to everyone else. And just in case we were having problems with taking the wrapping paper off our gifts, Kasia was right there to help.

After everything was opened, we adults (Kara, my parents, and me) all enjoyed a good breakfast while Kasia continued to play with her toys and eat some chocolate that was in her stocking. She then also ate some chocolate that was in my stocking. And if you count chocolate as a major food group, then Kasia ate very well on Christmas day. In fact, she ate very little else. Normally that would concern us, but it was Christmas.

Later in the afternoon we all went over to Judy and Darrell's to enjoy a nice Christmas dinner with the family. The men spent the evening mixing and drinking different cocktails and discussing the fine differences between different types of Scotch while the women... I have no idea what the women were doing because I was with the men. But the women were there, and I'm pretty sure they did some talking or something. They must have all gotten along because there were no fights and no blood was drawn from anyone. Personally, I had a great time. Kasia was given a few more toys, and of course a little more chocolate.

All in all it was a fantastic Christmas. Kasia can't wait for Santa Claus to come again next year. Maybe it's because she likes getting presents or maybe it's because we have a large tree in our house at Christmas time. But she's excited for it to happen again.

Where is Our White Christmas?

2008-12-18T08:30:00.003-05:00

There was three inches of snow in Las Vegas and the forecast is calling for more.

Snow storms hit the Northeast and knock out power to thousands.

My Grandparents wrote that they got ten inches of snow.

Chicago is expected to get a foot of snow.

And here in North Carolina? It's warm. It was in the 70's the other day and we went to the park without our jackets. The chance of us having a white Christmas is near zero. The sad thing is that it's forecasted to rain on Christmas Day. If only it were colder, we'd have snow. But how can we get the climate to drop severely in just a few days?

I know. We'll invite Al Gore to give a speech on global warming at Moyock Middle School. History shows that wherever he goes to give these speeches coincides with record low temperatures and lots of snow. So Al, if you're reading this (and we all know that you are), then you need to spend some of your carbon credits, get on your plane, and get here on the double. Don't make me angry here. You... wouldn't like me when I'm angry..

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

2008-12-12T09:25:00.004-05:00

Kasia got a change to go see Santa Claus and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She was excited. She was in awe. He walked in the room, and she was simply speechless. She sat there star-struck and watched him as he sang Christmas Carols. Then she got a chance to sit on his lap and tell him what all her Christmas wishes are.

It didn't go so well.

Like almost every other toddler there, seeing Santa from afar is awesome. Seeing him up-close is the most terrifying thing imaginable. I was not able to get a good picture of the two of them together. I've discovered that it's extremely difficult to operate a camera while at the same time trying to cajole a two year old to stand by a man with an extreme amount of facial hair.

This is the best shot I could get.

Kasia running in terror from Santa

There was also a picture of me holding Kasia and standing next to Santa, but alas, the poor old lady who took the picture didn't do a good job and it came out all fuzzy (bless her heart).

The Worst Morning Ever?

2008-12-11T16:36:00.002-05:00

I think that I've just lived through what could be considered the Worst Morning Ever.

It started at midnight. Kasia has been sick lately, and so she wasn't able to sleep very well. She's had a pretty bad cough, and so I decided to take her into the guest bedroom to sleep in the big bed. That helps her cough. Well, she isn't the best of sleepers, and she likes to do this thing where she takes her toe nail and dig it into my back. Then she likes to kick and scrape as much skin off my back as possible. Suffice it to say, I did not sleep very well.

Then, after breakfast, I realized that it was the day we could go see Santa Claus at Little Birdies. It's normally our library day, and so I had totally forgotten. I'm rushing around like a chicken with no head trying to get ready to go see Santa, and meanwhile Kasia is crying/screaming "LIBRARY!" because she REALLY wants to go to the library today. Of all days.

It's raining, really hard and we get wet as we rush out to the van. I try to cheer up Kasia by telling her she's going to see Santa. She doesn't care. Tears are flowing down her cheeks and "Library" is the only word leaving her mouth.

We get to Birdies and it's pouring rain. I gather up everything and make a mad dash through the parking lot, and my shoes and socks get soaked.

We meet Santa, but that doesn't go over very well with Kasia. I'm hot, sweating, and trying to wrestle with a two year old to get her to stand next to Santa Claus so that maybe I can get a picture of the two of them together. It doesn't really work, but Santa gives Kasia a lollipop anyway. I tell her she can have it when we leave, and suddenly she REALLY wants to leave.

We get back to the car, and suddenly I can't find my keys. We're standing in the rain, and I'm checking all my pockets only to realize that they're still in the ignition of the car. And the doors are locked. And Kara is the only person who has the spare keys and she's in Richmond.

And the clock strikes noon and my morning is over.

It Finally Happened

2008-12-11T16:30:00.003-05:00

The day I've been dreading for nearly two years has finally arrived. I knew that it would be coming any day now, but I was always hoping that I still had more time. Sadly, I don't. It's over. The good ole days are gone. Kasia can now climb out of her crib.

It happened during her nap yesterday. I put her down and then came downstairs to pick up all her toys. I heard a shuffling upstairs and thought that she was just tossing and turning to get comfortable. Then I turn around and there she is, giving me a hug. She was so excited. "I climbed out of my crib!" she said over and over in that language only Kasia speaks and which only a few of us understand. My heart sank. She looked so cute from being so proud of herself, and meanwhile all I could think was that this changes everything.

Of course she's probably been able to do this for a very long time, but she has never tried hard enough to actually get out. I put her back upstairs in her bed for a her nap about an hour later, and a few minutes later I heard a THUMP. She did it again. I asked her to show me how she does it, and sure enough, she just scales that crib like it's nothing.

Well, so much for naps being easy. Now my next big fear is the day when she doesn't take a nap anymore. I pray that she's like my mother and still naps long after she's grown.

Kasia Quirks

2008-12-03T15:26:00.002-05:00

Kasia is now two and a half, and she definitely has some strange little quirks. She's talking a lot more now, and that is in itself just grounds for hilarity. For instance, she will always call her Granny "Cree" for some strange reason. If ever you ask her where she wants to go, or where her toys are going to go, her answer is inevitably "Cree Poppy." Translated into English, that is Granny and Poppy's.

She is utterly convinced that the number five comes after the number two. I don't know how many times we go over this, but it always comes out "one, two, five." I guess this is an improvement over the way she used to count which was "two, four, two, four, TWO!!" If you sing a Backyardigans song to her, she can tell you exactly what DVD that episode is on, but she can't get that three comes after two.

She will imitate me and do anything that I do. If she sees me turn on the fireplace, she turns on the fireplace. If I walk funny, she'll walk funny. She can learn anything... except how to use the bathroom. What is that all about?

Mom Makes a Ginger Bread House - Kasia Eats It

2008-12-03T15:17:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend we down to BJ's Carolina Cafe to take part in a gingerbread house making workshop. It was a fund raiser for the library and the proceeds were going to help the story time program that Kasia and I go to every week. So we were super excited to go and watch as Kasia made her very first gingerbread house.Well, as it turned out, Kasia was more interested in eating the house and all the decorations than in building it. She started by munching on the two gingerbread trees that were standing in front of the house. Then she moved on to the gumdrops that were lining the roof. The chocolate Santa Claus never even got the chance to come visit the house before we was taken away and eaten. We even had gotten her a plate of French fries in the hopes that it would distract her long enough so that the house could be finished. It did no good. Kasia ignored the fries and went for the candy canes that were flanking the door. Nothing could stop her.

Then, I guess, she got full. She stopped eating and moved on to the fries.

Kara displayed her phenomenal house making skills as she carefully layered the house in frosting and sweet tarts.

Kara's Masterpiece

The house now sits on our kitchen table, and is relatively still all in one piece. Much of the frosting has been swiped away by little fingers, and there are a few more missing gum drops, but all in all it still stands. The problem is that at home, we don't have the French fries around to keep her distracted.