Exhausted!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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?

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.