Kathryn's Talking...Kinda

Kathryn started trying to say a few words about a month ago and during the last week, she's been babbling up a storm.  Of course, we can't understand most of what she's saying, but she's definitely trying to tell us something.  In this video she says mama, kitty (she usually says it better), gangy (what she calls my mom), papa and poo poo (she started that one today after a very stinky diaper!).

Puddles

Kathryn's been "dancing" lately and her idea of dancing is squatting and bouncing up and down.  After we got her undressed for her bath, she started "dancing".  Then she started walking down the hall towards the bathroom and she squatted.  I thought she was dancing, but when she stood up, there was a lovely puddle of pee sitting there.  I think she's taking after her furry brothers.

Cuddlin' With Dad

I forgot I had this picture on my phone and it's too sweet not to share. 

Last week, Kathryn got a horrible diaper rash.  She was just crying and not herself.  She was quite the cuddle bug and I got a sweet picture of her daddy making her feel better.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year.  Kathryn woke up around 8am and we got the tree all lit up and the cameras ready and then got her from her bedroom.  She went right over to the presents and started playing with her farm.  She loved everything, but I think her favorite present was her little car from Gangy and Pop Pop.  She loved being pushed on it over and over.  She was all smiles and laughs.  She reacted to everything and had a great time.  It was so different than last year when she just laid there.  I know next year will be even more exciting.  She got a lot of great things like clothes, books, and toys.  I got some good stuff too.  iTunes gift cards, Amazon gift cards, a HUMONGOUS Snickers bar from Mom (it's size is truly obscene) and a new camera from Jared and Kathryn.  My old point and shoot really needed to be replaced. Now...if I could just replace the iPod Kathryn broke.  That shall be my next request.

My mom made some delicious French toast for breakfast and then around 12:15pm, we headed out to Lincoln, RI to our adopted family's house.  We're so lucky to have the Parenteau's/Breckel's in our lives.  It makes the holidays so much more fun to have a real family gathering to look forward to.  Kathryn had fun there too and we tried to get some nice pictures in her new dress Neena sent her.  We had a dusting of snow last night, so it did look like Christmas.  She looked so cute in her dress.

Overall, it was a really nice day.  We're thankful to have Gangy here to celebrate and good friends to include us.  I'm so grateful to have a healthy little care to share Christmas with.  I look forward to celebrating many more with the Honeybaby.

Check out this huge Snickers bar!  It's so big it's obscene!

Thanks to my mother for making Jared a red bearded man for Christmas.

Getting ready to head out to Christmas dinner.

Christmas morning in the snow.

A rare family shot.

So pretty in the dress Neena gave her.

She loved getting pushed on her car!

Checking out all her stuff!

She loves the dolly Neena bought for her.

Check out the car Pop Pop made for her!

Pretty girl in the snow.

Someone's got disco fever!

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Well, it's Christmas Eve.  Kathryn is asleep and Santa has already laid out all the presents.  I can't wait to see her opening presents tomorrow.  She was only a month old last Christmas and she just laid there so this year, she should have fun.

Around 5pm we got some D&D hot chocolate and drove to Brooklyn to watch the awesome light display.  A private residence covers their house with lights and syncs it up to music.  It's pretty cool and Kathryn loved it.  She kept pointing and staring and jumping and laughing.  It's exciting to see her get so excited.  It'll be even better next year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Santa stopped by yesterday morning.  Kathryn almost missed him!  She woke up from her nap 2 minutes before he came by!

Gangy got this for Kathryn today.  She LOVES Olive the Owl.

Santa came!

New York at Christmas

Mom came out to visit so she could watch Kathryn while Jared and I went to Boston to see The Killers.  For a Christmas present, I took her to NYC to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.  I'd been two years ago with Tarin when we went to see Brandon Flowers as well and I ever since then I told Mom how great the Christmas show was.  We got up ridiculously early (3am) to take the 5:45am train to Grand Central.  The early start was great because there was no traffic and we got a good parking spot at the train station.  We got to NYC at 7:45am and it was great because the streets weren't crowded. It was quite nice actually.  We walked down 5th Ave. and were able to see the tree at Rockefeller Center with no crowds.  It was great.  We went to the show at 9am and Mom loved it.  Especially the Living Nativity, which truly is amazing and beautiful. 

We ate lunch at an "Irish" pub.  I put that in quotes because it was hardly Irish.  The only Irish things were corned beef, lamb and the fact they served Guiness.  It was super expensive.  All we got were sandwiches and soup.  We even drank water and the bill was $58 (tax included).  They also squeezed us in so tightly we were practically sitting at another party's table.  We had to laugh because it was an experience! 

After lunch, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral to look around and it was beautiful.  Then we walked to the library to meet Jenny.  She showed Mom around the library and then we headed back to Grand Central to get the 2pm train back.  We were tired and wanted to get home at decent hour.  So, I got my usual slice of carrot/cheese cake from Junior's and we got on the train.

After getting back we headed home.  We ran into some bad traffic, but we exited and managed to detour ourselves around it.  The Garmin was quite helpful and we got home around 6pm.  Kathryn was very excited to have us home.

Overall, it was a very good day!

I'm Huntin' Wabbits!

Kathryn loves playing with wrapping paper tubes.  Last night she was carrying it like a musket and we started joking she was hunting wabbits like Elmer Fudd.  It was hilarious and the pictures just don't do it justice. 

She's getting so big.  She's starting to try and talk.  She's said "cookie" a few times and "kitty".  She loves kitties and laughs and says, "Keeee!" when she sees Sophie or a picture of a cat.

Tonight, she grabbed my face in her hand and gave me a "kiss", which is really putting her open mouth on my lips...very slobbery!

She also has a terrible diaper rash.  It started on Thursday afternoon after having had devoured a ton of kiwi the night before.  It hurts her so much when we touch it.  The doctor gave us some prescription diaper cream, but if it's not better by Monday, I'm calling again.  I want to make sure it is diaper rash and not a yeast infection or something. I hate seeing her in pain. She's a trooper though and really only fusses about it during diaper changes.  Hopefully she'll get better soon.

It was PJ day at daycare on Friday.  Kate wore these cute jammies Jared bought for her.

My Grandma Peggy made this hat for me and I used to wear it when I was little.  I love seeing her in it.

Huntin' Wabbits!

Ah ha!  I got you!

Savor Every Moment

I haven't posted in a few days.  My mind's been elsewhere.  On December 14th, a maniac forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT and killed 20 first graders and 6 staff members with a rifle.  When I found out about it after school I was just sickened by it and I started trying to process it as a teacher and a mother.  How would I react in a situation like that?  What would I do if it were my child that was harmed?  How terrified had those little children been?  Did they suffer?  I was just so sad.  Many people texted or Facebooked me to see if I was okay because they were not familiar with where I lived in CT or where I worked.  It meant a lot that they cared, but I had to wonder about the friends and families of the victims when they learned their loved one was not okay.

The news has been plastered with coverage and it's so so sad.  The night it happened, Kathryn woke up around 2:30am.  She hasn't done that in so long and she stayed awake for about an hour.  At first, I was annoyed that she was up.  She wasn't crying.  She was just playing and giggling, but I was tired and wanted to sleep.  Then, I realized I shouldn't be annoyed.  There were 20 sets of parents in CT at that moment who would give anything to be up in the middle of the night with their child.  Once I thought about this, the frustration went away and I was just glad I had my child with me.

My friend Katie called me very distraught about the situation.  She was crying and feeling guilty for bringing children into this terrible world.  I agree that this world is going to crap and I, too, feel guilty that Kathryn has to see all the bad things that happen.  Then I told Katie that all we can do is love our children and make their time with us as happy and fulfilling as we can because we never know when they'll be taken from us.  They could get sick or be hurt in an accident...we never know and we have to do our best to let them know how much we love them.

I've looked at Kathryn a little differently this weekend, and I know I'll do the same thing with my students tomorrow morning.  I appreciate her little quirks a little more and I'm trying to soak it all in because you never know when time will be up.
 

Gangy and Kathryn cooking

I woke up today to find Jared and Kathryn asleep together.

Kathryn loves Buster!

Silly girl!

Takeoff!

More silliness!

Look at that mouth!

I just love this picture.  The cup looks almost as big as she does.

Gangy's Here!

Kathryn is so happy to have Gangy back at the house!

Is That Coolio?

The other morning, Kathryn decided to run bananas all through her hair.  It was quite the mess and I tried washing it out with a wet wash cloth.  This was the result.

Here are some other new pictures of our wee one.

And this is why I don't do laundry...so Kathryn can play with it.

We love trying new hair styles in the tub.

Buster and Kathryn

Look at Kathryn's new hat from Gangy!

This frame is perfect with her new Christmas picture.

More Pictures!

About a month ago, I took Kathryn to get her pictures done. We got them back today and I LOVE them.  So sweet.

This little outfit is a Nugen family tradition. It all started in the 1940s when my Great Grandma Zella made one for my Aunt Sheryl. Then, my Grandma Peggy made one for each of the granddaughters and the granddaughters who have had daughters have passed them on to our daughters. I had hoped to get a picture for Grandma Peggy before she passed away, but she passed a week after the pictures were done. Such special memories of this little outfit.

I love the simplicity of this Christmas picture.  I think it's so precious.

12,721

Well...my promotion is over and I am overwhelmed and thrilled with the response.  When it ended last night, the final download total in the U.S. Amazon store was 12,002.  It the Amazon U.K. store, there were 685 downloads.  In France, there were 16.  Germany had 14.  Spain had 2 and Canada had 2.  Plus, unbeknownst to me, my book was featured on a website called The eReader Cafe.  They recommended my book and it was so cool to see it on a different website. I know it may not seem like much to some, but to me, it's validation.  I got two new 5 star reviews and very encouraging comments last night and it means so much that other people love Kathryn, Luke, Jace and Ben as much as I do.  I'm so glad I decided to share them with the world.  Now that the promotion is off, it's still selling (although not as rapidly as during the promotion).  I'm very excited.  Makes me want to polish up some more stories I've written.

Up, Up, Up!

I am still so excited over the downloads on Amazon.  As of right now, sales are at 5,378.  That's just in 2 days.  I am thrilled. I just hope people like it.  There was a bit of a scare last night when I realized when I reformatted my book somehow a page got deleted, which means 3,200 people downloaded a copy with a missing page.  It wasn't too bad of a mistake because it actually deleted at a spot that could've been an ending spot.  It just missed out on some character introductions, which sucks, but I think it'll be alright.  When I realized it, I quickly fixed it and uploaded a fixed version.  So, the last 1,800 people who have downloaded got the fixed version.  I was so upset about it last night, but I've come to grips with it now because there's nothing I can do about it.  Anyway...just checked once more and it's at 5,386!  The free promotion goes on for another two days. I can't wait to see the total when it's done!

I'll post about Kate tomorrow. I got some really cute pictures of her today in tub!

Amazing Bed Head

Kathryn has the most amazing bed head.  I think it's a gift.  This is what Jared caught yesterday morning.

Stoked!

Yes, I know this is the Honeybaby's blog and as the title says, True life adventures of Stretch-Lala, but sometimes I hijack and write personal things for my own memories and this post is one of those times.

I first published my book on Amazon three months ago.  Over the course of those three months it was downloaded around 750 times.  With Kindle Direct Publishing, you are able to promote your book for free for up to 5 days every three months to help encourage others to buy it and get the word out.  I did that three months ago and I got a decent response.  I was actually thrilled as you can recall from the blog posts when it was happening.  The last couple of months though have been slow with downloads, so I was anxious to be able to promote it for free again.

That time came yesterday.  I set up the promotion really not expecting much.  I expected to check it and see a big fat zero sitting there, but when I got home from work last night I was shocked to see 1,019. I was very confused and I thought something had to be wrong.  I started investigating and discovered I could even check on sales in other countries and was stoked to see 49 downloads from the UK, one from France and three from Germany. I was so excited that people in other countries are reading it. 

By the time we went to bed last night, it had reached over 1,700 and as of right now, it's at 3,034 with 83 in the UK, 5 in Germany, and 6 in France. 

I'm just really excited to know it's getting out there.  In a matter of a day in a half, it's sold way more than in the first three months of availability.  I just hope people like it.  I love sharing Kathryn, Luke, Jace and Ben with the world because they mean so much to me.  I love seeing that number go up!

Adventures in Beefaroni

Kathryn had a very nutritious dinner a few nights ago: beefaroni!  We joked she couldn't be more white trash than eating beefaroni in her high chair in only jeans and a bib.  The shirt had been removed to prevent stains.  We learned that lesson during her first time eating spaghetti.  She loved it and it made one heck of a mess!

Yes, she's drunk on beefaroni.

Off to the tub!

Yes, it all came off...even though she looks stained.