Monday we woke up to a surprise with snow completely covering the ground. Fiona has loved the snow since she was a tiny little baby so the first thing she said when she saw it was, “let’s go outside mommy! right now! pleeeeaaaassssseeee mommy!” How could I resist? So we threw on some barn boots, a hat and coat over her p.j.’s and away we went. She ran around making snowballs for zoe and told me, “I love the snow mommy. Play outside All Day!!!!”
Tuesday was Fi’s 2nd Birthday – once again something that I just can’t believe.
Sunday we had a nice little party with just the family. We had cake and ice cream and Fiona’s favorite meal, mac-n-cheese for dinner.
For Christmas we were given a cute little “bear” cake pan. There were pictures of different bears you could make ; Santa, princess and soccer bear. I let Fiona choose between the princess bear and the soccer bear (she really wanted Santa bear but i wouldn’t let her =) and she chose soccer bear! I was surprised she chose that, and I checked with her several times, but that was what she wanted:
Fiona seemed thrilled with her cake and stopped by all day to talk to her new friend “teddy bear cake”. What I didn’t predict was the horror and confusion in her face when it was time to cut up and eat her new friend. “Teddy fall down momma!” “Pick teddy up momma!” “nana eat teddy’s tummy momma???!!” oops.
All in all she had a great party and received tons of great gifts :
Princess Party Fion Fiona’s new bike and her Dad covering the specs with her
G-pa Predmore made her her own fly fishing rod with a fly he tied especially for her and even a fish to catch!
Cake and ice cream glaze over Zoe had to get in on it!
On her “real” B-day we took her out to celebrate at her favorite place to eat….Red Robin – where she once again had mac-n-cheese and root bear to wash it all down -
All last week she has been telling me that she is a baby – not a little girl. But the day after her birthday she told me, “nanna little girl today mommy – papa (grandpa) nanna’s baby now”.
Last week we had a very sad week when it comes to pets. We got a call one night from our neighbor wondering if all of our kitties had made it home for the night. We were indeed missing one – lil’ miss Mei-Mei. She (our neighbor) had found an injured cat in her yard and had taken it to the emergency vet, from the description we knew it was ours. I called the vet right away but sadly they had to put her to sleep soon after she arrived because her injuries were so severe.
Man that breaks your heart. She was my little buddy. She hated to be petted or touched and would bite me all the time. Greg and I thought she would out live us all because she was so feisty. But at the same time she would sleep right next to my head every night (just out of my reach….and if i did accidentally touch her , yes, she would bite me =) but every single time Fiona would cry in the night Mei-Mei would get up with me and follow me to her room, then sit quietly just off to the side until Fiona went back to sleep and then she would quietly follow me back to bed and fall back to sleep. She was my little helper. I miss looking up while rocking fi and seeing her patiently waiting, watching over Fiona to make sure everything was all right.
We’ve been telling Fiona that mei-mei is gone and that we can’t see her anymore. That she is in the sky, or in kitty heaven. Fi tells us that she is napping somewhere – I believe her. But this morning Fi wanted to pet Mei-mei. I told her that we couldn’t really pet her anymore but that mei-mei was in her heart and she could pet her in heart. Fiona unzipped her p.j.’s and looked down and said, “I see her mommy I see her!” Then she walked around all morning with her hands over her heart and said, “I’m petting mei-mei mommy”.
To make the week even worse on Saturday Greg’s parents had to put down their 13 year old elkhound, who had been like a sarrogate mom to Zoe and her sisters.
A hard week for pets and hearts indeed.
The other night Greg was out with friends and Fiona and I were hanging out together. Fi decided it was a good time to test my patience and soon it became a battle of wills. After some time spent in the chair she decided it would be best to listen to her mother – and even sweetly apologized for it all later that night.
The next day Greg and I were standing in the kitchen and Fiona was on the patio playing. The slider was only open a foot or so and I was telling the story to Greg in an almost whispered voice.
Fiona stopped playing and ran over, peeked her head inside the doorway and said, “It’s o.k. momma. Stop talking about me! Haaa Ha ha ha ha heee ha ha!” and ran away laughing at herself hysterically.
Greg and I just stared at each dumbfounded.
Greg and I were SO proud today. We haven’t been super serious about potty training with Fi…I mean we bought a potty, she has a couple story books, we talk a lot about it – she has shown interest and has gone #1 on the potty several times – but we haven’t put a lot of emphasis on it. Well last weekend we bought her her very own panties and today we wore them ALL day except for her nap. She did not have ONE accident! I couldn’t believe it! She even went #2 on the potty with no problems at all! We were so amazed and proud of her.
She loves it all – especially the flushing. The only thing we’ve noticed is that afterward she wants to sit on the potty for hours and almost seems afraid to leave it. We know that she doesn’t like to mess up – she’s very calculating – so I think the panties stress her out a little bit because she doesn’t want to have an accident. I imagine that will get easier and easier for her – I’m hoping that she doesn’t have an accident that would really upset her or it might turn her off. But for now she did great! We’re far from ready to leave the house yet sans-diaper. Tonight when we were getting ready for bed I told her someday she wouldn’t wear a diaper even at night time – her eyes got really big and she said No No mommy – nanna (that’s what she calls herself) needs clean diapers!
well I’ve decided to try anothe Team In Training event. It’s been a few years since I did anything with them and finally I feel like I’m back in a place where I can balance it all.
The Rock’nRoll marathon is coming to Seattle. http://www.rnrseattle.com/ . I’ve always heard that it’s a great race so I thought I’d sign up. Then I got an email from TNT and learned that I could alumni the program (meaning that I don’t have to raise as much money) and that one of the workout nights would be right here in Bellevue.
On the serious side TNT does an amazing amount of work raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society trying to cure Blood Cancers. The money not only goes to research but also to patient care – little things like making sure they have the ability to get to and from their Dr. appointments. It’s a great organization and even after 6 years of working with them I’m still impressed.
On the fun side TNT offers great coaching and a great group of people to train with. I mean really – not a lot of jack asses are going to commit several months to raising money for cancer right…so you usually end up with a pretty amazing group of people. I really need this now. I need some motivation and some accountability. There is no way you can slack off and one of your teammates won’t call you out on it. I love that!
If you’re interested in donated to the cause you can go to my link:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/rnrseatl09/kpredmore
and keep following my progress here….training starts end of January! Wish me luck!
Greg and I both took most of the week after Christmas off so we decided to go up to the cabin. It’s a really nice place to spend New Years because there’s no worries about driving or crowded places or loud noises. We were a little leary of heading back into the snow since we just got out of it but the cabin always makes it better. I was also a little leary because last year when we went to the cabin for New Years I had a bit of a miserable time. There was so much snow that Greg had to get up and go outside and work all day and then would come in and be exhausted so go right to sleep. Fiona was trying to learn how to walk and was teething and was coming down off of the holidays and she was unhappy day AND night everyday we were there. I was cooped up in a little cabin with just her the whole time and I was just about to crawl out of my skin – i couldn’t wait to go home. I was worried that this year could be the same.
We told Fiona few days ahead of time where we were going and she couldn’t stop talking about it so I thought that was a good sign. In fact one night she crawled into the backpack by herself and told me , “let’s go mommy! Walk to the cabin! Now!”
Once we got there we were glad we did. The snow was deep but it was great! Not as much as last year (we could actually see out of the windows) and Fiona was totally psyched to be there! We did some sledding that day and Fi had a great time. Uncle Alan and Aunt Val came up that day too and while Fi napped we shoveled out most of the pathway to the cabin. That night she woke up when some snow fell off the roof and she didn’t want to go back to sleep. She asked me to sleep with her in that bed so we layed down together….not a good idea. She must of just been so excited to be there because she wouldn’t go back to sleep. She wasn’t crabby at all – she just wouldn’t sleep. Crawled over me and under me, kissed me, patted my head, sang to me, rolled on me, kicked me – everything but slept. When we got up that morning I thought OH NO NOT AGAIN! I told GG i needed a break and he took over for a few hours that morning. It’s amazing what just a little break like that can do – just enough to reset the button. We went sledding again and Fi came in and took a LONG Nap! That night she slept fine – and in fact slept in – and did so for the rest of our trip! Our friends Wes and Katie and their two boys came up on New Year’s Eve Day to spend the night. Fi had a great time playing with “the boys” and I had a great time being able to actually do my thing without her searching for me every few minutes and wanting up. We need to take extra kids with us everywhere! =) That night we got around 3 to 4 feet of snow. When we woke up we learned that the pass was closed and was going to be closed all day. We were bummed because my sister and b-n-l were going to come up and so were Ellie and Jackson. THEN the power went out. Bummer. We still had a great day playing in the snow (though Fiona wouldn’t go outside at all that day…she told me, “no mommy, it’s cold outside. nana play inside” – how can you argue with that? At dinner time the power was still off so the dads fired up the BBQ and made pasta….and frozen pizza! on the grill. We all stayed huddled by the fire playing games and reading books. Around 7 the power came back on and we all did a victory dance! woooses we are – but we love our heater, lights and t.v.! By Friday the pass was back open and we packed up to head for home. It was a great week and we already can’t wait to go back!
We had a great Christmas this year (despite the last minute shopping the snow caused =) We spend Christmas Eve with Greg’s Parents and Kevin at their house. We had a nice dinner and opened a ton of presents. Fiona wasn’t interested in the actual “opening” of the gifts but she did love what’s inside. She was very excited about “claus” this year – even though the thought of him coming into her house at night seemed to worry her. She seemed to get the basic idea of it all though and thanked him over and over again for her gifts. The next morning we got up and Fiona got her presents from “Santa Claus” under the tree – again didn’t want to open them but was pretty psyched about having them. After we opened gifts we piled in the car for my parents house in Enumclaw – and yep, you guessed it…more gifts….whew. Where were we going to put all this stuff? The house is now full – but we had a great time. For all the running around the hoopla Fiona did great and had “0″ melt downs! yeah!!!
As everyone probably knows by now it snowed like crazy around Western Washington the last couple of weeks of December. For whatever reason Bellevue seemed to get a particularly heavy snowfall measuring in at the end around 14″ (which is A LOT for these parts). I was happy to see the snow but as everyonle also probably knows….western washington is not equipped to handle it on the roads which made life a little exciting. Every year Greg and I take a day to go to the mall, have some drinks and do some shopping at a casual pace. I was really looking forward to it this year since i’m finally not pregnant or nursing – but to our dismay the snow made it too sketchy to get to the mall so we cancelled. The snow also made me a miss a holiday concert and a few holiday get-togethers – by the time it melted we were all glad to see it go.
In the mean time however; we managed to make the best of it – even a few power outages that the falling trees brought!
*time to put a million clothes on *showing fi how to make a snow angel *fi making a snow angel
*mom tried skiing on the road *Dad and Fi’s (and zoe too!) snowman *snow dog
*the cats LOVE the tree *powers out – i love my headlamp! *zoe just can’t get enough of the powder
We were so happy that this year’s Jingle Bell Run took place AFTER Greg got home from China so he was able to do it with us! The weekend of the race was the first really cold weekend of the winter – plus we received a dash of snow to make it even more exciting. I was happy that the roads were clear so we didn’t have to worry about the race being cancelled (this is Seattle after all). So we bundled up and headed for the city – my sister Theresa was going to meet us there to run with us. This was Fiona’s 3rd Jingle Bell Run (the 1st was still in my belly =)
*The Largest Yard Nome EVER * Bundled up for the start of the race *The sea of people!
The run was great – and unlike last year Fiona didn’t cry at all =) I don’t think she was thrilled being stuffed in that thing – but she loved the festivites afterward!
*Fiona LOVES that snowman *Auntie and Fi enjoying their “coffee” *And the best Santa – Fi got another candy cane – her favorite!
While I was in line with half of King County for coffee Fiona stayed outside stalking Frosty the Snowman. She wanted to go everywhere he was at. Finally Frosty went inside and when Fi asked where he was going Greg quickly told her that he had to go potty. So then the rest of the day everytime she saw something on the ground she pointed to it and said “snowman poop!”
We ended the great morning with a ride on the carousel at West Lake Center. Last year we had to hold Fiona on it – this year she did it all by herself. She LOVES horses so this was very exciting for her to get to ride the horsies. I think she would have stayed there till her hands froze to it if we’d let her!
