On the way home....yeah!

OK, I am not on the road home yet....but am heading out at 6am tomorrow morning. This has been a good trip, work-wise. Lots accomplished and good to be with the sales group.

Also, had a good (though quick) visit with my sister and her family. My best doggie-nehpew, Scooter, gave me a good licking and let me give him a good scratch behind the ears. I also was introduced to my new doggie-niece, Skye. She is a six month old Shephard mix. What a cutie pie! Was great to catch up with big sis.

First haircut....again!

OK...little one has had her bangs cut twice. Some hair was cut, so I have documented it in her baby book as her first cut, but not all of her hair was cut. Does that count as a haircut? Today, we went to Cartoon Cuts, a hair cut place for the kiddos. High chairs. Cartoons playing at each station. Really nice ladies doing the cutting.

Let me back up...why am I having her hair cut. Little girls should have long curls, right? Well, in Houston it gets hot. It is not even summer yet and little ones neck and back end up being a sweaty mess by of the day....because, we have only had her bangs cut and the rest of her hair is mid-way down her back.

Little one sat on the booster chair like a big girl. No comment. She just sat there and made faces in the mirror while the beautician wetted her hair down, pinned up this section and that, and trimmed her hair. She did great! She looks so cute with her little bob. Her first style and blow dry.

Touch a Truck...nope!

A friend told us about a fund raiser where the kiddos could be around trucks of every size and shape. As little one always points out every truck and school bus we pass as we drive along the road, I thought it would be fun to let her see the trucks up close. We packed in the car with our sunscreen and hats (as it was kind of hot), we paid our $15 and went to the parking lot where the trucks were parked. As we got out of the car, we knew this was not going to be the relaxing event as the kiddos were allowed to not only climb in the trucks but to honk the horns....and the horns were honking. We started walking down the main aisle, and were between a police car and a school bus. At about the same time, the siren went off and the bus horn was honking. Rilee grabbed her ears and started wailing. End of story. Too bad. I believe Rilee would have liked to climb in the trucks, especially, the school bus, but it was just too noisy.

Back to the car and off to home, where we passed a spring fair, which had a jump house. Rilee had a good half hour of jumping in the jump house so the morning ended up with a smile.

Home again .... only to leave again

I returned home Thursday afternoon. The flight was uneventful but long, as usual. This is my third time over to the UK this year. That is too much traveling. I will be going again in May and again in June. From that time, I am hoping to only have to go every two months and then, hopefully, once a quarter. I love working with our UK crew but do not like the commute.

The best part of traveling is coming home. I picked up little one at school upon my arrival. She was out at the far end of the playground. When she saw me, she smiled, dropped what she was doing and came running. Big hugs!!! That is the best feeling in the world.

The only ill effect that I can see from my travels (besides my sorrowful heart about leaving my family) is that little one becomes a bit clingy and possessive of me. If we play with other kids and I pay the littlest attention to them, she will grab my hand and state firmly, "My mommy!" and pull me away.

Little one's nose is about healed. Luckily, it looks like there will be no scarring. The doctor said to keep vaseline on it and to keep her out of the sun for awhile, as this new skin will be sensitive for awhile. Whew! That was a scary one.

A friend told us about a function called "touch a truck" held at a local church. Essentially, a bunch of different cars and trucks (fire truck, tow truck, tractor, school bus, police car, etc) that the kids can crawl into and, as we found out, honk their horns. We paid our money ($5 each = $15). We walk into the parking lot and then whammo, we are hit with a barrage of horns and sirens. Rilee starts crying. Daddy gets mad. And, off we go. Five minutes tops. Oh well. It sounded good.

There happened to be a spring carnival at the elementary school a few blocks from our house. We stopped there on the way back. Little one got to jump in one of those blow up houses so the morning ended up well.

I am off to San Diego tomorrow. Sigh! Can't wait to get back.

Imagine If You Will

Our office in the UK is out in the boonies serviced by a train that passes by once per hour. I had my head buried in email, I am the second to last in the office, then I looked up...5 minutes to train time. Agh! One last send, shut down, pack up, down the stairs, out the door (after remembering that you have to turn the lock at the same time as pushing, which means putting down your bag...argh!), fast walking across the parking lot, going through the train entrance gate, then THERE IS THE TRAIN, on the other side of the tracks....a quick sprint over, across and down...heart pounding, hair mussed...I made it. Whew! All to get back to my hotel room to sit at my computer and check some more email. Wow, something really wrong with that scenario.

Video skyped with honey and little one this morning...so at least started the day with a smile on my face.

Big Boo Boo

I got the call yesterday from school. "Mrs. K? .....Rilee has been hurt." Heart in foot, sand in mouth.... Rilee apparently stood on her cot after her nap and something happened (a leg buckled on the cot or Rilee stepped wrong and BLAMO!) The end of her cot ended up hitting her nose ...I still don't understand it. When I got there, her nose was still bleeding, her eyes were watering and she was not a happy girl. I took her to the doctor to see if 1) she had a concussion 2) had a broken nose 3) anything else bad. Because of the swelling, the doctor could not say for sure whether her nose is broken or not. Could have been worse....but still looks bad.

Funny, Rilee's favorite song right now is...10 little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and hit his head, mom called the doctor and the doctor said? No more monkeys jumping on the bed!....

I am off to London tomorrow...again. Will be there until Thursday.

Good luck to daddy. Little Miss has been a bit of a pill lately. She is feeling her 2.5 year old oats.

This was yesterday. You can see the scrape on her nose and the beginnings of two black eyes.
Yup...still swelling and eyes (especially the right one) getting darker. She does not seem to be in too much pain but really looks bad. Poor little girl.

Hope you had a Hoppy Easter

If Miss Rilee cannot find a job, she may apply to be a professional Easter Egg Hunter. Over the Easter Weekend, she had three "official" hunts and an unofficial one put on by daddy. Over this period, she honed her hunting skills to a fine art. At her first hunt, she only selected pink eggs. Then she caught on that there were goodies in the eggs so for the second hunt, the egg had to shake "well" before it garnered a position in her basket. The last hunt, she had fewer eggs because she opened them up to find the goodies before going on.

We found that she definitely has a sweet tooth. She was chewing on something. I asked her to spit it out and it was the wrapper to a Tootsie Roll. Later, it was teh wrapper to a Hershey's kiss. Guess we need to teach her how to take off the wrappers first. While she was fast in sneaking the choloclate, the brown lips gave her away each time.

Here are a few photos of Miss Rilee in her Easter Dress and her new Easter friend, Frogger.

I Am So Amazed

Every day, it seems that Rilee amazes me with something she does or says. Today has been no exception.

The preface to this is that we have been working on our alphabet - singing the abc song when we are in the car, playing with letters while in the tub, playing with her alphabet bus and alphabet truck, putting the alphabet puzzle together, etc. Actually, looking around the living room right now, we have so many things with the alphabet, she has no choice but to learn it.

So, she is currently laying in bed, singing the alphabet song. She has GOT IT. So far, she has sung it completely through 2 times and still going. So cute to listen to.

For numbers, she has up to 10 easily and knows all the numbers to 20. However, after counting to ten, she kind of randomly says her teen numbers - 14, 18, 15, etc.

Proud mommy moment! (Yes, I have a LOT of these during the day.)

County Fair

I grew up around County Fairs so when I saw the Montgomery county fair was this weekend, we had to go. In my day, the county fair meant showing horses at the 4-H show, sleeping in the barn with the horses and going to the rodeo every night. Fun times. The one had a big BBQ cook off (lots of tents with BBQers showing their stuff), lots of rides, a kid barn with a petting zoo. There was a rodeo and a band but we did not stay for that.

Rilee loved the petting zoo. She even tried her first carnival corn dog (which was impressive on several counts...1) she will not eat corn dogs and 2) she normally does not try anything new these days....though, maybe she is starting to change on that front...see below) and her first carnival ride (not a success).

The ride height limit was 36" for the rides. She is awful darn close to 36" so we decided to try the car ride (which was essential a train with car that had steering wheels). It seemed to be the slowest, quietest ride around. We paid our $6 ($3 for the munchkin and $3 for me). We sat down in the seat and got buckled in. The ride started and Miss Rilee started crying and yelling for daddy. We were the only ones on the ride so one loop (about 10 seconds later) we got off the ride and back on terra firma.

Today was a day of firsts. We had leftover egg coloring from when grandma was here so we boiled up some more eggs and colored some more eggs. We cracked one so Rilee and I peeled it. And.....she actually took a bite...and then another and ending up eating just about the entire egg. This was the first time she has ever even tried an egg. I am thinking that because it was her egg, which she peeled, she ate it.

She is getting very independent in her old age. It is "I do it" on just about everything these days. Which is fine but have to plan extra time.

Hope you all are doing well.