The Harder Things To Learn In Life...

Mary Catherine has definately figured out the "terriable twos". It was freezing cold one morning and drizzleing rain about a week ago. When we got up to get ready it was still dark outside. I had an 8:30am meeting with the lawyers, Kevin had to be at work at 8:15 and so our house was in a hustle. I jumped in the shower while Kev shaved and then while he showered, I threw on a robe and woke Mary Catherine. She didn't want to get up. She was grumpy. I insisted that she needed to get up and let me dress her (hind sight-I should have just dressed her while she slept.) As I pick out the first outfit of the morning, she decides that she doesn't like it. She says it is too tight. The second outfit is too big, the third outfit she didn't like the shoes, the fourth outfit she didn't want to wear tights. By he fourth outfit, I didn't care, she was wearing it. I preceed to dress the screaming child. At this point, we have gone into complete FIT mode. I take the half dressed child and place her in time out. I explain she is there because she pitched a fit and she will sit there 2 minutes. I go into our room, throw on my pants and shirt and the timer goes off. I walk out and there in the time out chair sitting quietly is my child completely naked. I was fit to be tied! Once again, I put the clothes on her screaming and yelling. She doesn't want to wear tights. Once again, into the time out chair we go. This time,I turn my back to make her breakfast. At the two minute mark, I turn around and there she is...naked again. At this point I had completely had it. Kevin happened to be walking through the kitchen. He had on his khakis and t-shirt and the idea hit me. I said, "Okay Kev, it is time for you to take Mary Catherine to school." He looked at me funny as I handed him his coat and pushed his house shoes toward him. I handed him the naked Mary Catherine and opened the door. I kissed them both and wispered into his ear "Take your time getting to the car!" So, out my husband walks into the freezing cold rain with my naked child who will not wear her clothes. He takes his time, the cold air and the freezing rain begins to touch her back. Mary Catherine begins to reconsider not wearing clothes. She says, "Daddy I am cold." He said,"Well, if I take you back in are you going to let your Mother put your clothes on and keep them on?" "Yes SIR!" she replied. Since that day, we have had no problems getting dressed and staying that way!

PONY PARTY!

This year I decided I wanted to have a pony party. We held the party down at the barn at Wildwood Farm. Mommy had cow boy hats and bandanas for everyone who attended. There were lots of stick horses and my bouncy horse for us to play with. The end of the barn was decorated with hay and streamers. The tables were set up with red table cloths and the center of each table were all kinds of horsey items. Mommy gave each of us a real horse shoe with our name and the date on it. I had a beautiful cake. Mrs. Diane Carroway made it into the shape of a horse. It was beautiful and was good too! Uncle Sam brought out Lou Lou and Romeo (Sissy's Horse) for us to ride. King Arthur put beautiful ribbons in their manes & tales. All of my friends and some of thier parents got to ride horses. It was so much fun. I like being 2 years old!

Mary Catherine and Jen Jen

Jen Jen ( Jennifer Stroup) was my very first nanny. She was with me from the time I was 4 months old until I was 22 months old. I love my Jen Jen. She taught me all kinds of good things. She loves to play with me. She likes to fix my hair and put pretty clothes on me. We also put on makeup and paint our toenails. We like to go shopping. I was sad when Jen Jen got a "real" job and I still don't understand why she has to work. Sometimes I still go hang out with her and spend the night. She came over and helped me cook Christmas cookies. I decided she needed some makeup. I love my Jen Jen!

Toddlers Class at Mothers Morning Out

I have moved up to the Toddlers Class at Mothers Morning Out at Central Methodist Church. I am in Mrs. Tommy and Mrs. Margie's class. I have lots of new friends. Riley Barfield, Tallon Goff, Josh Anderson, Robbie Jordan, Michelle, Murphy Fuller and Walker Lilly are all in my class. My best buddie is still R.J. (Robert) Lee. We like to take our shoes off much to our teachers dismay. Lately we have been sucking each others toes and kissing each others feet. It is totally gross! We make some crafts, watch movies, play and have snack time. We have tables and chairs in this class. It is hard for us to sit still very long in this class. We are also having to learn to share, which is tough. We do alot of pretending in this class.

Bow Baby

Mary Catherine has this strange obsession with not getting rid of anything. She is a MINI PACK RAT of sorts. She wants to keep everything....literally. Even if it is 3 or 4 sizes too small, she thinks she should keep it. If it is broken, or if it is trash, she wants to keep it. She gets absolutely devastated when we pack up clothes, shoes and toys that she has out grown. One afternoon, I was in her closet packing up her clothes she had out grown. She was devastated and was taking them out of the boxes as fast as I could pack them. At one point, I looked and she had one of her baby pacifiers in her mouth, one of the too small dresses on and all of the tiny bows which she had out grown in her hair. It was just too cute for us not to take a photo. We hope she will eventually out grow this pack rat mentality!