katie's first skate lesson

today was katie's first ice-skating lesson. it went pretty good, considering. the other 4 kids in her class had skated before, so she was pretty intimidated at first because she was the only one who didn't appear to know what they were doing. she started crying at which point one of the instructors took her aside and worked with her one-on-one for pretty much the entire lesson time, so she essentially got a private lesson. by the end of the lesson she was walking along out on the ice by herself and even *smiling* (gasp!) she said that she had a good time and that she was excited for next week's lesson (yay!) next week i'll try to get some pics, this week i was too busy hiding from her so she wouldn't be distracted.

he's figured it out already; or, they're magically delicious.

i gave samuel some lucky charms in his little snack cup tonight (yeah, whatever. don't bother with the "healthy snack" lectures.....we don't buy them that often.) he picked out all the plain pieces (thats a pile of them on the coffee table) and ate out all the marshmallows.

my first and last, ahem, pole dancing lesson.

a friend of mine at work had this *fabulous* idea for all of us gals to sign up for a pole-dancing class. i succumbed to the peer pressure and, because i didn't want to be the only "uncool" kid, signed up for it. it was at dolphin dance exotic. it only re-confirmed my suspicion that i am *the* most uncoordinated and klutzy person ever. but hey, i did get out for a kid-less night with girlfriends, and had a yummy dinner at los cabos afterwards with some good friends and a kick-ass strawberry margarita. so it was all good.

one of those "awwww" moments.

katie is learning about the senses in preschool. yesterday they were supposed to draw a picture of their favorite sound. this is katie's (writing courtesy of her preschool teacher).



her rendering of our family, L to R: daddy, samuel in his highchair, austin (LOL about how much bigger katie drew herself to him), katie, mommy, and missy at the bottom.

her teachers were fawning all over her. they all thought that was the *sweetest* thing that she chose her brother's laughter. i hope she always feels this way about him.

missing! lost tooth!

last month katie lost her 1st tooth. one day she came to me and said "mommy, this tooth is wiggly!" and sure enough, it was. she wiggled and wiggled and wiggled some more, but it stubbornly refused to come out. daddy offered (more than once) to help her along by pulling it out with a string, but she declined. she does *not* like blood and when she found out that it might bleed when it fell out, she thought that maybe she would just leave it in there, LOL. after about a week of it hanging in her mouth by a teeny little thread, she ran into the kitchen one day frantically pointing to her mouth. it was dangling out of her mouth but still attached, so i plucked it off. in honor of the occasion, i made her a tooth fairy pillow from this tutorial. makes it *ever* so much easier for the tooth fairy ;0)



not even a week after she lost the first one (on 1-14-09), she lost the other bottom front tooth! her grown-up teeth are poking through now....

90 years young.

today was my gram's 90th b-day. holy cow. guess i've got some longevity genes going for me. she had a very memorable day....her family flew in from all over the country to surprise her. we went to molly ward garden's for brunch this morning. it was a very cute little eclectic place, though their menu was a bit high-falutin' for me. i ordered the ham and gruyere cheese timbale, even though i didn't know what the heck a "timbale" was. i figured it must have something to do with eggs. i was right, it was a custard-type egg dish, similar to a quiche but not quite as firm and no crust. it would have been really good sans mushrooms. (yuck). it'd be a *great* little place to go ~without~ kids; but samuel was a handful and then some. and there were lots of little "pretties" that he could break laying around everywhere, agh!

anyhoos. everyone met up a little early so we would all be there when my mom brought her in (she thought she was just coming to have brunch with me.) she was very surprised and emotional and teary when she walked in and saw us all sitting there. after brunch we all went back up to my mom's in port townsend to visit and have cake and presents. it was a hoot sitting around listening to my crazy aunts, LOL....they are a riot. i hope her 100th proves to be as much fun.

guess i need one of those bumper stickers now.

you know, the ones that say "my child is an honor student at such-and-such a school". because austin MADE THE HONOR ROLL!!!! woooot! for the 1st time since he's been in jr. high. he got 5 A's and 2 B's and comments like "student is highly motivated" and "is a pleasure to have in class". i think i actually *squealed* in excitement when he showed it to me.