Hi Ho!

Katie's embarrassing quote of the day...at the grocery store: (Squealing with delight, while clapping and pointing) "Little Man! Little Man!" Traci turned around to see an actual dwarf in a wheelchair. Nice.

Let's Go, Irish!

ARGH - What a day for us to forget our camera! All four of us met up with a huge group of our college buddies and their kids to attend the Notre Dame - Georgetown basketball game at the Verizon Center. Included in the group were some old football manager families like Eric & Kristina and their two kids, Kelly & Rose and their daughter, and Brent & Lisa. We first had a scrumptious brunch at Eric & Kristina's place (thanks, guys!) and then everyone trekked downtown for the BEST surprise...our victory over the much-hyped Hoya team! All of the kids, ranging from 5 years to 5 months of age, did fantastically at the basketball game. Katie loved clapping with the rest of the crowd (unfortunately, for both teams), chatting with Miss Lisa, dancing to the jumbotron music, and eating her pizza picnic-style on the concourse floor. Michael loved looking at all of the bright lights, standing on Daddy's lap, and cuddling under Mommy's coat. Unfortunately, we will have to wait for pictures taken by some of our friends. We didn't want to leave you without some kind of image, however, so we took a video of Katie doing her favorite new chant from the game. Let's go, Irish!

Once Upon a Time....Happily Ever After

After a few months of not being interested in her books, Katie is back on the reading bandwagon. It might have something to do with princess books being part of her potty-training surprise chart rewards. Anyway, she has now had some of her books read to her so many times that she knows the stories by heart. You can often hear her at nap/quiet time and bedtime "reading" her books aloud. She ALWAYS has to start each and every page with, "Once upon a time..." And, they all seem to end with "Happily EVER AFTER!" Oh well, at least that means that all of the characters in her books are always happy. Another cute thing....as pictured, she loves to read to Michael, and he seems to enjoy it as well. (Note how he cutely threaded his arm through hers...) What an awesome big sis!

Prince Michael III (and the Lost Nap)

No, we're not claiming to have found a third illegitimate child of Michael Jackson. It's just our own Prince Michael wearing a new, gorgeous crown...a Katie McG. original. We've been having to come up with more and more such time-killing projects and games as Katie's naps seem to be slipping away from us. If Traci could legally run away screaming from the house for at least an hour each day just to get some alone time, she would. Oh well, we guess it's just a new reality that we'll have to get used to. How many days until preschool starts??

Jimmy Crack What???

Fun, fun playdate this morning with our best buds, Ms. Kim, Patrick (3.5 years-old) and Colleen (13 months). The kids dumped out all of the toys, we ate a good lunch, and Katie and Patrick even sat in the bathroom for awhile showing each other how to go to the potty. (Yeah, we would worry about that when they got a little older...) Anyway, very funny story from the playdate: Katie was showing Patrick her caterpillar toy that plays a ton of different kids' tunes. She knows almost every tune now and sings to many of them. Suddenly, she started singing very loudly about a "crack ho." Kim took one questioning look at me and I ran over to have Katie repeat herself. Much to my relief, we figured out that she was trying to sing along to the tune of "Jimmy Crack Corn." Phew...one potentially embarrassing moment now gone...

This Old Man, He Played Five...

Our gentle giant (aka, Little Ox) turns 5 months old today! This morning, Katie wanted to give him her love by inviting him onto her bed and smothering him with kisses. Awww.... Michael's latest accomplishments? Lots of smiles and giggles, aaaalmost rolling over from his back to his front, following even the smallest of objects around the room, and grasping for things. He's also (knock on wood) starting to get the hang of that thing called sleep... Won't be too long before we give him the old heave-ho into Katie's room - HOORAY!

Oh, and why the Little Ox nickname? We found out that he was born in the Chinese Year of the Ox. Pretty apt name for him, don't you think?

I'm Hungry

And I want my toes!! Michael's been trying, in vain, to get his toes to his mouth the last couple of days. He knows he wants to eat them so bad, but he just doesn't quite have the flexibility and agility to get them to his mouth yet. Perhaps he should join Katie's ballet class to work on that. Maybe tomorrow - his big 5-month birthday - will be the day that he reaches his goal!

A Moment Captured

Seeing as how these two sibs will someday probably shout "I HATE YOU" at each other while slamming their bedroom doors, we just wanted to capture this one moment of complete mutual admiration. Michael had just woken up from his morning nap and we were about to go to dance class. Katie wanted to be the first one to greet him when he opened his eyes. So cute.

PS - Don't mind the mess in the closet. That is our very unorganized Goodwill pile. Anybody want to come and help us get our acts together?

Jumpy Boy

Here's our happy boy jumping for joy in his jumparoo. He's just starting to get the hang of it, so I'm sure we'll get even better video in a few months. We just wanted to show you that he does, indeed, smile quite a bit. Just not usually for the camera.

Tri-ing to Sit

Although he's not much into rolling these days, Michael is really starting to show his strength and balance in other ways. First, he's able to hold himself up for a bit in a tripod sit (see picture). If he would just stick both hands out, he could probably sit up even farther. He's actually able to sit quite well for a minute or two with a Boppy pillow behind him. Second, the boy is obsessed with standing. If you have him on your lap, he insists on standing. He'll even "stand" on your arms and hands as you try to walk around with him. Finally, we can't wait to get a good video of him hopping around in his jumparoo. He smiles and giggles and almost loves it as much as his sister did. Now, we'll see when he puts some of this strength toward moving again....

All of the Mini-McGs

All four of us took advantage of YET ANOTHER Daddy-day-off to visit Connor's new baby sister, Madeline. She is such a cuuuuuuute, little peanut. Mike likened holding her (probably about 8 pounds) to holding a paper clip. Funny how Michael was never that light in his entire almost-5-month life. Katie was especially sweet with her. She wanted to hold her, and when we gave her the chance, she was smiling and baby-talking with her. We tried to get a good shot of all four munchkins, but this was the best we could get. From LEFT to RIGHT: Michael is trying to steal away Connor's cool boy toys...he's thinking, "Thank God, there are toys beyond princesses and fairies." Connor is trying to fend off Michael with his best defensive tactics. Katie, who is trying to forge a new fashion trend with her pink glasses, won't take her eyes off of her new protegee. And sweet, little Madeline is asleep and oblivious to it all. All four will hopefully be buddies for life! Congrats again, Mo and Brian!

Valentine's Mea Culpa

Alright, I (Traci) have to confess that I was not the greatest wife this Valentine's Day. While Mike really pulled out the stops for his wife and kids (details later), I...um...fell kind of flat with my lame sense of humor. This blog is here to show you the good and the bad emanating from our clan, so we'll start with the good:

Katie, Michael, and I came down to breakfast with our gifts nicely set out on the table. Katie got a yummy, supersized lollipop; while Mommy was greeted with a big bag of candy and a spa gift certificate!! Hooray, Daddy! (Michael still doesn't even know how to get his toes to his mouth yet, so we figured he could sit this holiday out.) Later on, Mike spent (and I'm not joking here) three and a half hours in the kitchen creating the following menu from scratch: Corn-roasted calamari with roasted red pepper remoulade, Roadhouse bbq pork ribs with red beans and cilantro rice, and Cheesecake with strawberries. Everything was so delicious, and bonus -- Katie ate just about everything, too! You know you've struck gold when the 3-year-old digs in. Here's a shot of the meal....

Now on to the bad: I went for more of a joke-y kind of gift as I never know what to get for Mike on this girliest of holidays. A few weeks ago, Mike and I were watching some late night TV when we spotted the silliest infomercial for the lamest gift ever: the HUG-E-GRAM (http://hugegram.com/). It's basically two stuffed arms with Mickey Mouse hands that you can attach around your body. Mike couldn't stop laughing and said he wanted one. So, I ran with his sarcasm and ordered one the next day. Um, yeah...so after Mike did everything for me, that's what he got to open. It even came with really lame wooden roses that we've now given to Katie as her "princess flowers."

Sorry, babe, I'll make it up to you soon! :)

Snowverkill

 

Upon final tally, we had 38.5 inches of snow fall in just over five days this past week. Unbelievable. While life outside the confines of our townhome resumed today (e.g., Mike finally made it back to work, Katie returned to ballet class), here's one last look at us making the best of a crazy week...

Go to Heck, Carolina, Go to Heck!

 

Alright, you know we are closing in on March Madness time when Duke and Carolina finally clash in ACC action. After an awful year last year when Carolina (Traci's most hated team) ran away with the title, it was nice to see Duke bounce an inferior team last night. We wanted to show everybody exactly how our kids feel about the rivalry with today's picture. Katie's shot is vintage March 2007, while Michael's was taken today. Uh yeah, he's just a tad bigger....

Well on Her Way!

Our record-breaking blizzard week has brought our household at least one very positive outcome - Katie is doing fantastically with her potty training! Obviously, we haven't been able to get out and about much, so we figured it was as good a time as any to push the training. It's been nice having Mike around to help with things. With an extra pair of hands, we don't have to worry as much about last-minute accidents or long bathroom breaks. As a matter of fact, Katie has been wearing training pants for two days now with no accidents at all! Here she is showing off her completely full sticker/surprise chart. She's reaped some nice rewards (new books, stickers, puzzles, etc.) and she has loved all of the praise that we've lavished on her. Now on to the next steps...the move to undies.....and (sigh) the successful potty trip away from home! Wish us luck!

4-day weekend (and counting...)

Not that Mike is complaining, but he is now certain that he has had more Government "snow days" than he had in his entire public school tenure back in Michigan. And the Government is off tomorrow as well! Feeling good about your tax dollars? Anyway, these free days allow a dad some great opportunities to spend some time with the kids. This afternoon, Mike took Katie out to play in some of the goliath mountains of snow left behind by the plows.

Katie was a little more tolerant of the cold than she was in December's storm. She was amused by her trucks, snowballs, and crazy father for a short time, but her interest was greatly aided by the most random of things...

She could have stayed for hours filling this dirty slush puddle with snow and ice. As it was situated in the middle of the road, she would patiently wait for the "all clear" signal from dad and ask permission to throw "anutter one." She's polite, if not slightly deranged.

Snowtorious B.I.G.

We have survived our second snow-mageddon of the winter! I think we got 22 inches when all was said and done. Thankfully, we never lost power or heat and we got our shoveling done over the span of about three hours. We even had our own grand adventure for the day:


Our good friends Maureen and Brian (Connor's parents) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Madeline Mary, on Friday evening. All was fine with mom and baby, but they had one major problem: How would they get everybody home safely in their non-4WD vehicle? (As of this afternoon, many major roads were still in awful shape.) So, Mike offered his chauffeur services with our SUV and took over the majorly stressful role of getting a new baby home. Way to go, Mike! And a big congrats to the other McGs!!

Little Betty Crocker

Apparently the only thing we know how to do in blizzard conditions is bake really yummy things! Way back in the Blizzard of '09 (December), Katie and Mike tackled the Christmas cookies. This time, we used Katie's new cupcake-making kit (thanks, Julian & Nico!) to bake some sweet-looking cupcakes with Ariel-green frosting. (We mixed blue and green food coloring together into the frosting to make an ocean-looking turquoise.) Michael didn't want to miss out on the fun, so we plopped him into the exercauser (see rear part of the picture). Katie was actually quite impressive in this round of baking. She poured all of the ingredients in the bowl, did most of the mixing, and poured the batter into the cups. We also let her do the frosting after the cupcakes cooled down. Maybe Mike and I can train her to do all of our cooking?? Oh, and as for the blizzard...8 inches by 10PM, scheduled to get 2 feet by tomorrow night!!

Peace Now, Little One

We just wanted to take a moment tonight to pray for our dear friends, Henry and Maggie. On September 14, 2009, they gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy, Henry V. Unfortunately, little Henry was born with some severe heart and lung complications and was whisked away to a children's hospital. Henry and Maggie were so strong throughout their ordeal, keeping a bedside vigil next to their sweet baby while their older daughter (Katie's age) stayed with loving grandparents. Unfortunately, Henry's body could no longer battle all that was thrown at him, and he passed away this afternoon. Our heads are spinning, wondering how God could take away such a beautiful, innocent soul from such loving parents. We were lucky enough to have watched a video of Henry, taken about a month ago. He had the most expressive eyes and was plucky enough to rip one of his arms out of a tight swaddle to scratch his head. You know....he was just doing stuff that all babies do. Thank God his parents captured moments like that, because they can always remember what a remarkable young man he was (and always will be). God bless you, Henry and Maggie, as you start your heartwrenching journey through what is to come. As you so poignantly wrote in your blog, as Henry's suffering ends, yours is just beginning. We love you and will always be there for you!

Buon Appetit!

Nothing beats the winter-time blahs like bringing out some "new" toys. (Actually, we've kept a large stash of Katie's Christmas/birthday presents hidden in a closet for exactly these kinds of days.) Today we brought out her cool collection of fake foods. Katie had a blast cooking up some great dinners for Mommy, Daddy, and Michael. (Notice Michael chomping on the hot dog in the picture!) All she needed was a piece of cardboard to act as her stovetop, some real pots and pans, a mixing spoon, a chef's glove, and her imagination! Who wouldn't want a banana and fish sandwich covered with milk, eggs, and a slab of steak?

Hanging with the 'Rents

Sometimes it's easy to forget that Katie is only three. She can be....what's the word....mature for her age. It always cracks us up that she would rather play with the mommies and daddies at playdates than the other kids. Take, for example, today's playgroup. She spent the entire time chatting in the mommy circle (especially with Francie, pictured in the gray shirt to Katie's right) rather than socializing with those her age. And, when it was time to leave, she went around and hugged each of the mommies. Traci had to remind her to say goodbye to the kids as well. As long as she doesn't start noticing older men anytime soon, we'll be OK....