Swiper No Swiping!

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

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)

 

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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?

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

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)

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

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

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

(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

 

 

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!

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

 

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

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!

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.