And Butterpea Makes 3

We had Mally’s interview today for the school she will go to next school year. She was waitlisted for this year and never got in, not even for MDO. So, she will go next year. If I have a job, she’ll go fulltime. If not, she’ll go part-time. So, it was easy. Mr. K went too. Mally was happy and liked the room and the kids and the teacher. I knew this already because I have seen it all before. You can go back to the tag “Reggio” I think to find St. Paul’s school. I really think she will LOVE to go to school there. Love it. So, that’s done.

I also have some odd news. I sent her photo in to a commercial audition. They emailed me saying she as been accepted to audition on Thursday. I was planning to go to Dallas on Thursday, but I may stay for it. She would have to dress like a bumble bee if she got the part. We joked that we would have to tell her she was a princess bee or she might not do it! I don’t know what she might have to say in it, but if it’s too much then we may skip it and head on to Dallas. I do, however, feel affirmed that I have a cute kid.

Ok, there’s this blog I do not read on occasion.  And it does not have this Not Me Mondays post where you should not post what you or your children are not doing.  Maybe it’s like opposite day?  So, I am here, not posting. 

My butterpea is not sleeping soundly, for 3 solid hours and going.  Thank you, Lord.  My morning was not filled with spilled Cheerios, squished raisins, and the reassuring sounds of “That’s NOT mine!” from my toddler.  I did not talk to someone today about renting our home in Dallas.  I did not not like it one bit.  I did not spend the last 2 hours on the internet looking for a single interesting thing to read.  It was not boring at all.  Sometimes people think being a stay-at-home mom is not hard, but it is.  Even the boring parts.  They are not the worst.

Writing in not sentences is actually not as hard as I thought it might be.  Other than feeling rather boring compared to other not-so-fun to read blogs. 

That’s Mally’s latest fun thing to say.  How bout waffles for dinner, Mommy?  Let’s do a puzzle, how bout Mommy?  How bout watch tv!  :)  Ah, my little darling.  Quite the little 2 year old she has turned into. 

Just letting everyone know what we are up to these days.  I am going to Dallas some time in the next 2 weeks to pack everything we own.  My friend, Jill, who is wonderful, is showing our house in D to a prospective renter.  Hopefully he says yes.  Regardless, I am packing the stuff.  Someone will rent it if he doesn’t.  So, we are looking at houses in NOLA.  We found one we like.  It’s way out of our price range.  And it needs a ton of work.  A ton.  Like 4 new bathrooms and a new kitchen and some new windows and a complete backyard overhaul and some floors refinished.  You know, work.  Which takes money.  Lots of it.  So, we might make an offer.  A really low offer.  Mr. K pulled the city records and knows what it sold for last.  And it is GROSSLY less then they are asking.  Did I mention it is 3400 square feet?  Which is 2000 more square feet than our D house?  By the way, several people I have discussed it with have been reserved about mentioning their own square footage of their home.  I think that’s just weird.  If I see your house, I will know if it is big or not, people!  I just like to know the market and whatever.  So, it’s great.  It is a double that is 1700 sf a piece.  Technically the left half has the smallest downstairs bathroom I have ever seen.  I mean, it’s like European.  If you’ve been, you get it.  We could rent out one side and live in the other side while fixing it up.  It’s a huge undertaking.  We’ll see.  Will let you all know! 

I have been babysitting again.  It has ups and downs.  I like the little guy.  He’s a sweetie pie.  I do realize that I keep Mally from doing some things because he is here.  I catch myself saying “We can do that when R goes home.” But really, things like fingerpainting, play dough, coloring, etc. are hard because he likes to chew on the crayons and really wouldn’t understand play dough.  Some things are for safety.  We don’t pour out 8 zillion tiny counting bears when he is here.  :)  And that’s ok.  I am adjusting.  

I think I do MORE things since he is here, actually.  Definitely more stories…not that he would dare to let me read to him!  (Ok, he did let me read 2 stories yesterday.  Hopefully progress!)  We have done about 27 million puzzles cuz he likes those and Mally loves them.  She really likes to get out about 15 at a time.  I had them seperated on a high shelf so that she couldn’t do that any more, but somehow things have rearranged.  It’s ok though because she can do almost all of her puzzles all by herself!  She does an ABC one (Where is D?  D for Dallas?) She loves the princess one from Grammer.  (One princess dress is way way way under the bed…) She loves her Mallory name puzzle.  She has decided that the ‘L’ that is green goes before the ‘L’ that is blue.  Whatever!  She fishes for the fishy puzzle that Elizabeth gave us for huge lengths of time. (Who says toddler attention spans are short?) 

Aside from puzzles, we play kitchen and car garage and put Thomas the train together a lot.  She really really does not like to put the train away, but HELLOOOO, we are in like, 800 sf here!  The train goes in. the. box.  So, yeah, and she plays with her horsies.  Oh!  And the Little People Birthday from last year is a revisited hit!  Of course, we did just have hers, mine, MK’s, my mom’s, Doodaddy’s, Uncle Bear’s, and Uncle Mae Mae’s.  So, birthdays are big right now.  I do like seeing her with other kids. She is learning lots of new things like “We don’t say No to R just because he has our toy” and “We can take turns and share.”  Of course, what she is really learning is new words like “MINE!” and “I WANT THAT!”  :)   And we have had 2 other little girls that will come stay with us randomly.  They are lots of fun, too! 

Ok, one last thing.  Anyone thinking of visiting us during Mardi Gras, let us know soon!  It’s pretty much from the first half of Feb.  Would love to see some people!

Hi all!  I am still here.  Haven’t blogged in ages, I know.  I think I need my own laptop.  :)  I might blog more then.  hehe

Christmas was great.  Mally’s birthday was great.  She was so cute and when it was her birthday she said “Santa Claus gives MORE presents!”  Of course, we weren’t totally done celebrating until the 3rd of January.  So for Mally, it must seem like Christmas, Mardi Gras-style…never-ending.  Even now she still says, “Mally gets MORE presents!”  She loved everything.  The tutu mouse she was in love with turned out to be one of the BEST things Santa brought.  She keeps that little mouse with her at all times, even waking in the night to say “Where Mallory’s tutu mouse go?”  She loved the trike and wasn’t afraid of it at all.  Perfect.  She got tons of toys.  My dad gave her a horsey stable.  My mom gave her a piano.  My in-laws gave her a castle.  We gave her an indoor treehouse tent and sleeping bag.  I am having de ja vu.  If I said all this before, blame the holiday brain freeze. 

All the going and going and going was the bad part of the trip.  Yuck.  To Jackson and Dallas and back and then to New Orleans and now to Florida to work for my dad.  It has really been a bit too much.  The flight over was fine, but getting on it was absolutely awful and made me swear “Never again.”  Mr. K reminds me that I said that last year.  But seriously.  I was carrying my bag, the diaper bag, and hauling the Britax humongo carseat on my back to go check in.  Not.  Fun.  At.  All.

But we are here and it has been fine.  Ate at Fridays last night which was yummy.  Mally has been fine in the show so far. 

I will update more when I get back to NOLA in a few days.

Ok, Mally might be asleep.  Questionable, miraculous, but possibly true.  Need to get stuff from her room to wrap, but waiting a few minutes to be sure she is good and out.  So, I thought I would take a second to blog.  I don’t send one of those Christmas card letters about the year, so I thought I would give this year a blog recap.  Can you believe my baby is nearly 2 years old?  Where does the time go?

January started the year off, like it does every year, (can you tell I have never done this?) and Mr. K was unemployed so that was both positive and negative.  There is no way in the world that he would ever have gotten to spend 7 months at home with Mally, so that was like some bizarre blessing really.  I look back and think it was stressful, but worth it.  Would he ever have taken half a year off work on purpose?  No way!  So, they got a lot of quality time in.   

In July, we went to Oregon and saw Aunt Shellie and Beth.  And of course, went to Todd and Blythe’s wedding.  :)  It was beautiful.  Oregon and the wedding.  Had a blast.  Mr. K started work immediately after our return.  In New Orleans.  For those of you who don’t know it, we lived here before from 1999-2001.  So, we did the long distance thing for a while with Mally and I going back and forth 8 hours driving from NOLA to Dallas.  Did that every few weeks until it became obvious we were going to be in NOLA for good.  Well, as “good” as it is for now.  We both hope to return to D eventually.  When that might be, we just don’t know.  We are not selling our house there.  We are looking to lease it out in 2010 sometime.  NOLA has proved to be a lot like we remember.

In the beginning, it was hard.  At the end of one of our first trips to NOLA, we lost our friend Shannon to a random cardiac event.  Days later, my paternal grandmother died.  With Lindly ultimately deciding it was best for her and the kiddos to move to Arkansas, we lost a lot of our regular daily life and routine.  Staying in Dallas seemed pointless for me with no job (other than tutoring, babysitting, and working at a church childcare Wednesday mornings) and no other stay-at-home moms to do things with.  Of course, spending any time without Mr. K was really hard and seemed like something Shannon and Lindly would seriously frown upon, considering.  Although torn between the normalcy of being in Dallas and seeing Mr. K in NOLA, in the end, we ended up here in NOLA more permanently.  I miss our things, our furniture, our space, our yard, but it is getting better over time.

This fall we had a great visit from the Swedes…Malin, Mathias, Elias, and Felicia.  It was like they never left!  Going to the lake and the playground and to eat was so much fun!  Mally is still talking about it all the time.  Tells me she is sending packages and letters to “Belicia, Elias, and MalinTias.”  :)  I don’t think she ever realized his name is MAthias the whole time they were here! 

Winter has brought us through Thanksgiving and to Christmas and Mally’s birthday.  I struggled with the idea of taking a job teaching kindergarten, but did not take it.  I just wasn’t ready.  Mally is still really young and I didn’t think I could put her in daycare all day every day so suddenly.  Plus, with the ridiculous pay for teachers, it was hardly worth it.

By the way, she isn’t asleep after all, just being quiet.

So, here I am still unemployed.  Working for my dad some when I can, but with Christmas stuff to do that has been nonexistent for December.  January will be good though.  Will put Mally in MDO when a spot comes open for her.  Did I mention how IMPOSSIBLE it is to find childcare here?  If I had taken the job, who knows where she would have been going because we are waitlisted at 5 different places for any days any times.

So, here we are.  How my child has changed in a year.  She wasn’t even walking when we started this year.  She walked at about 14.5 months and has been on the move ever since.  Everyone who meets her is amazed at her vocabulary and her articulation.  A year ago, she was barely saying Mama and Dada.  Amazing.  She has learned to feed herself, ditched the bottle, is partly potty-trained, learned to run and jump, learned to sing and tell you her name, age, and birthday (ok, this takes some prodding but she says “almost 2 in December!” which is close enough.)  She also learned every single letter of the alphabet by name, the sounds of several, the names of every shape (even hexagon and octagon), every color, and most of her numbers.  She learned to count to 16 even though it is uh-leven, uh-twelve, uh-thirteen, etc. ;)  She learned to tell people my name and Mr. K’s which is my motherly paranoia that she might get lost in a store and need to tell someone who her mommy is.  She learned to “read” books by retelling the story and even tracks the words with her finger.  She finally learned (thank you Felicia!) to walk up and down stairs without holding the railing.  All this in a YEAR!  I just am outright amazed at the way a child learns things so fast. When I think that I have accomplished nothing at all this year, I try to remind myself of all of these things!  Now if she could learn to take a nap. 

A note about Christmas also-

People keep asking me our plans so here you go.  To Jackson on the 23rd.  The Dallas the 24th.  Back to Jackson sometime probably the 27th or 28th.  I have no idea.  Then back to NOLA Jan. 3rd.  Then I fly with Mally to “work” in Floriday on the 5th for 5 days.  So, should be super busy!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Happy Birthday to my little girl, ok, ok, big girl.  She’ll be busy soon playing with a train set, a tricycle (she is terrified of the little bikes, so hopefully this goes well), a tent and sleeping bag for indoors, a mouse with a very cute tutu, etc. etc.

I love when kids get to this age when they say funny stuff all the time.  It’s just adorable.  Yesterday Mamaw tried to teach Mally to say 9-1-1.  She would repeat the 9, but after the 1 she kept saying 2!  Wonder who answers when you dial 9-1-2?

She continues to say “Excuse me” to inanimate objects.  It is just hysterical.  And now she tells them “I sorry” if she bumps into something or drops something.  And she says “I sorry people” when given the chance.  Now her uncles are saying “I sorry people.” 

She says “Uh-oh spaghettio” and “How bout….cuddle with mommy!”  “How bout…go Grammer’s house!”  “Whoopsie Daisy!”

And did I mention her obsession with chapstick?  Pop-pop mails her chapstick about every other week.  And books.  She even knows to say “We don’t eat it.”  Think she’s heard that 100 times? 

Mamaw and Papaw gave Mally a grocery cart and she is pleased as punch.  I am working on felt play food for her for Christmas to go in it.  I can’t wait!  It’s coming along.  There are pop-tarts (ah, Lindly memories! ), strawberries, eggs, bacon, cookies, donuts, etc.  Super fun!

Can’t believe Christmas is coming so soon.  Mally is getting better about Santa.  She was saying “That Santa Claus scary right dere (there).”  But now she is better.  Of course, my mom had to move Oscar, her 3 foot butler guy to a closet.  Mally didn’t even want to go to DeDe’s house if he was there.  She kept saying “DeDe give Oscar away!”

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Planning to be in Dallas for Christmas, but are trying to find a way to do Jackson Christmas Eve.  Of course, that big number 2 is throwing a wrench in our travel plans.  Does anyone know if you have to pay for a plane ticket if your child turns 2 ON the day of your flight?

As I contemplate whether to make that phone call and take the job, which I don’t WANT to have to do, but NEED to do for the sake of our family, I have so many regrets.  I hugely regret not teaching in a public school the 2 years we were here the last time.  That’s about $35k I missed out on.  I regret every meal I have eaten out, every article of clothing I have bought.  Random household purchases, even getting my Masters which cost us $5K or more (with truly little benefit until I have a PhD).  I regret every coke I ever drank.  I could probably stay home with her forever if I had never bought a coke.   Every trip to Ikea, Target, Wal-Mart, I regret.   I feel like I have failed her.  I feel like I have failed Mr. K by not going back to work.  He wants to keep the house (but rented) in Dallas, do the addition to it, buy a house here, get to go places and buy things.  I think it’s truly a gender difference.  I want those things, but would go without every single one of them for the rest of my life to stay home with my baby.  I would drive Zippy, crammed in there, crawling out of my skin from the claustrophobia of it, for 10 more years if it meant staying home with her.  And looking at the math, I will only clear about $1600, so that’s not that much anyway.  December’s check will pay for Christmas and the trip to NYC for Mr. K’s 35th bday.  After that, even if I pay every cent to the credit card it will take…well, I won’t say how long.  Let’s just call it forever.    

Anyways, I am off to take a shower and reflect a few minutes on how my perfect life in 2008 came to be this.  Those were the days.  Mr. K was working for Beck, making good money and loving his job.  I was happily at home with our baby.  We lived in our perfect house, with the best neighbors and friends.  I miss those days so much. But you can’t go back, you can only go forward.  Right?

Well, I got offered a job.  Not just spontaneously…I had applied for it.  I just didn’t expect things to happen quite this fast.  I figured I would apply and then I would go to work after Christmas.  I don’t want to.  Work, that is.  I mean, I love work, it’s just that Mallory is my baby and all that.  I think about my friends and relatives and realize I am really, really lucky to have been able to stay home for this long.  Kyrs, Julie, Kate Scott, Heather, Elizabeth, etc. all went back to work long before this.  So, I shouldn’t complain.  I am just so used to being with her all day, every day. 

So, why go back to work?  Well, with 2 house payments, 2 sets of bills, 2 years of one income, and eventually wanting a second baby, well, 2+2+2+2=get a job.  I am in desperate need for a bigger car.  I love my car.  Really, I do.  I even named it Zippy.  We’re bonded.  But it is way. too. small.  Picture me going back and forth from New Orleans to Dallas, 9 hours, with the baby, all our stuff, and the dog.  Nothing fits in the way back except the dog.  Mally is in the middle, so barely anything fits beside her.  If Mr. K is with me, then there is barely enough room to put our overnight bags in it.  I struggle to get Mally in her carseat because she’s big, but not big enough to get in it “all by ya-self.”  So, new car.  Then we need to look at buying a house here.  No mortgage lender in their right mind would lend us money for a house right now.  We have a house with a mortgage and a rental, tons of debt, a car payment, and student loans that maybe Mr. K will pay off when he’s 100.  So, get a job. 

The plan.  Here’s my plan.  Because if I didn’t have a plan, I couldn’t do it.  I am going to pay one paycheck per month (there are 2) toward the debt.  I will do this until one credit card is paid off (there are 2).  Then I will save a few months and buy a bigger SUV or van.  Never thought I would buy a van, but lots of people love them, so we’ll see.  Then I will start saving for the next baby.  And I will actually have maternity coverage which I don’t have right now.  Then if all goes well, some time when Mally is 3 hopefully she can have a sibling.  If we continued at this rate, I don’t think we would ever have another baby.  And as much as I love the one I have, I would love to have more. 

The upside is I love love love the place I picked for her childcare.  The downside is that I haven’t heard if she will be accepted and she can’t go there until she is 2.  Which leaves me with no childcare for the next month.  Did I mention they want me to start, like, today???????  I am putting them off to buy some time with Mally.  Shooting for next week, wishing for after Thanksgiving.  Of course, the sooner I go, the sooner I get paid.  Getting paid before Christmas could be nice.

There are a few other downsides besides missing Mally all day.  It’s going to mean more time in the car.  The drive to the day care then to school and back will be probably an hour and a half of driving every day.  Of course, I am driving 40 minutes a day now to take Mr. K to work every day and save the $8 a day in parking fees.

The upside is that it’s kindergarten.  I like kinder.  It was probably second hardest to 6th grade, but I did like it.  This will be a class that needs to be created because the other classes are too full.  They will pull a few kids from every room.  The room itself is huge but EMPTY.  No play kitchen, no blocks, no puzzles, no books, no nothing.  There are huge desks and metal folding chairs.  Yikes!  I would have one day to set it up and then teach the next day.  I think that is insane.  I had 2 days the last time I taught kinder and I cried thru the first day at the mere thought of getting it done in 2 days.  But I have decided not to let that part stress me out.  I get done what gets done and that’s it.  I prefer to do it surrounding the weekend so that I can have 3 days at least, but we’ll see.  Of course, I would have Mally with me over the weekend, but that’s ok.  Mr. K has a major deadline.

So, I will keep you posted on whether or not I take a job.  For now, I am going to put on some going-to-the-playground clothes.

I must hear this 500 times a day.  It’s cute.  The first 400 times.  Until you actually need to go somewhere in a hurry.  Then “Do it by ya-self!” as we walk, painstakingly slowly down the stairs, is enough to put you right over the edge.  :)  Now, ask her to put on her own clothes and she hands them right back and says “do it by ya-self” with a different meaning of “Yeah right, mom.  You do it.” 

Little kids and their incorrect grammar is so cute though.  Yesterday I asked Mally if she was sure she was done on the potty and she said “I are sure!!”  So cute. 

Additional cuteness…she kisses her own hurt toe this morning, then promptly gave it a “big squeeze.”  She has just gotten into the whole big squeeze thing.  It’s adorable.  She wants to “big squeeze” her dinner, her babies, her

Well, I decided I couldn’t mention a completely foreign topic without giving a link to a great picture.  This is from some other great blog I just found and the picture of the classroom makes me drool.  Ah, the teacher in me. 

http://www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/2007/10/3/beautiful-classrooms.html