Chef Karla

Working hard (and very slowly) with her Christmas apron on.

Silly Karla!

"Look Mom! I'm giving myself a massage!"



Other than playing outside, going to playgrounds and swimming, Karla and I baked cookies this week. It was a rainy afternoon and honestly I needed a more "restful" activity! :)

We got a cowboy hat cookie cutter at a wedding we went to last week for my cousin Aaron. So that is what we used!

First Family Trip to the Beach (Part 2)

I forgot to mention in my first vacation post that the other 2 families from our church left right after General Assembly (Day 4). That was disappointing because Karla started to feel better that day and all the other kids had to go home. We were glad to have time as a family too though. We decided to stay over the weekend to make it a vacation for Jason too!

Fun at the pool:

Beach reading and snacking:
Our hotel is directly behind us in this picture.

Working hard:

Day 6
When we were getting ready for dinner Karla asked if we could go back to the seafood restaurant for dinner because she really wanted some clams. We had to explain that last night's dinner was a special treat and we were not going back to that restaurant again on this trip.

The past few nights - on days she hasn't napped due to illness - she has fallen asleep almost immediately upon sitting in her car seat when we drive somewhere for dinner. Jason has carried her into restaurants sound asleep. Playing in the sun wears a girl out!

Today we spent a lot of time at the beach and then some time at the hotel pools. The hotel has 3 pools, a lazy river, and water slides. Karla went down one of the two water slides a few days ago when Jason was at his convention. I was really surprised she wanted to but I think she had seen some of the other kids she knew going down and wanted to try it. She did it once and she and I laughed and laughed afterward (because of the face she made while sliding down) but she has not wanted to try it again. She does prefer the pool to the ocean for some reason. She does enjoy playing in the sand though!

On the first day or two here Karla kept saying she missed her toys, liked her home and missed her Grammy, Pap-Pap, Mammy, Pappy, Grandma, Grandpa, Mammaw, Peepaw, Tio Eric, Tia Beth, etc....naming everyone in her family! Today she has been saying she doesn't want to go home!


Day 7
We drove home today. The DVD wasn't working which made us a little nervous because Karla had used it on the way down. However, she did not ask for it once! We only made two stops and she -again- never complained!! I had bought 2 new activities for her to do in the car and brought lots of car activities and we didn't even use half of it. Never even opened the new stuff! I was really proud of her. She seemed more patient on the way home than Jason and I did.



We've been home for over a week already now! Of course I got whatever bug Karla had on the way home and didn't feel too great last week...so last week is kind of a blur. We've been enjoying summer this week in some hot weather! Playdates, playgrounds and the pool! I'm ready for bed when Karla goes to bed. :)

First Family Trip to the Beach (Part 1)

We had a rather unexpected opportunity to go to Virginia Beach last week! Jason, our pastor, and another elder from church were going to General Assembly and were able to bring their families! It just happened to be at VA beach this year! We thought it would be nice for Karla too to have other kids she knew to play with.

Karla has been to "beaches" at lakes but never at an ocean so we were all pretty excited. We have never taken a long car ride with her either so we didn't know how it would go. We had a great ride down though and Karla did not complain once! She was so good! We couldn't believe it!

I tried to journal here a little each night about what we did during each day.

The evening we got there we went to the beach right after we checked into our hotel. Our hotel was right on the beach and we had an ocean view from our window. Karla was VERY excited when we walked out on the beach for the first time....she was literally running in circles and was talking/singing nonstop along the shore! The moment the waves washed over her feet for the first time is a moment I will never forget! The look on her face was surprised and amazed.
Right after first feeling the ocean water:

Me and my girl.

Day 1
The next day we got ready for the beach first thing in the morning. Karla was excited to build a sandcastle and I was showing her how to get water in her bucket. Then she tried and the waves took her bucket. She started crying at the top of her lungs and yelling for her bucket so I scrambled around in the water and waves trying to grab the crazy bucket. I finally got it and returned it to a very unhappy little girl. Things kind of went down hill from there. I had taken her to the doctor 3 days before we left for a sinus infection but she took a turn for the worse on our first full day at the beach - even though she was on antibiotics. Between not feeling well and being a little "afraid" of the waves after the bucket incident it was a rough morning. I am beginning to think that hotels and vacations cause Karla to get sick with lots of congestion and asthma troubles! I had to tell myself that I know what to do. I have her meds, I can go to an Urgent Care center if necessary, can use my insurance, and the doctors can speak English -- all of which I could not do when in Guatemala with her a time or two.

She slept for 3 hours in the afternoon! That hasn't happened in a long time so I know she isn't feeling good.

She said several times today that she missed her toys and the neighbor boy.

View from our hotel room!

Day 2
Second full day on trip we ended up taking Karla to an Urgent Care Center. She was wheezing and not improving at all. Luckily we only had to give her a stronger antibiotic. Doctor said to bring her back in not better by Friday. If she's not better by then we'll be heading home earlier than planned!

Day 3
On our third day of the trip Karla finally felt like playing with the other kids in the pool and then when Jason had an unexpected "free" hour in the afternoon she went in the ocean with him! She also "helped" him build a sandcastle. She hadn't had any interest in that before even when the other kids were doing it. I was starting to worry we'd end up leaving the beach and she'd still be afraid of the waves or not like the beach! It was also obvious she was starting to feel better, therefore, I was able to relax a lot more too!

I finally got to go to the Convention Center to see what the General Assembly was like and visit the exhibit hall. Jason got to attend a seminar this week on starting an "Adoption and Orphan Care Ministry" at your church so I picked up a little more info on that. :) We had planned that Karla and I would attend the worship service last night...but we went to Urgent Care instead. I thought it would be fun to worship with thousands of other people. Maybe some other time.

We got to go out to dinner with the other two families from our church which was really nice. Karla enjoyed being with the other kids too.

Day 4
Jason was done by noon with the General Assembly. He got back to the hotel just as Karla and I got to the hotel pool. Karla and I slept till 9 this morning (nearly unheard of for her) then ate snacks in our bed for breakfast and talked...we just had a very lazy, fun morning together in our room. Then the 3 of us swam in the hotel pool and ate lunch poolside. We didn't make it to the beach in the afternoon because it stormed. But we went to dinner at a nearby pizza place and had ice cream.

Karla is feeling, looking, and acting better although she gets tired pretty fast still so it was an early night!

Day 5
Today we went to a restaurant called "Pocahontas Pancakes" for breakfast and ate way too much. Karla really loves french toast and bacon. That is what she ordered. Then we went to the beach all day! It was great. Karla went out into the ocean and played in the sand. She and Daddy made a big sand castle and a big hole that the 3 of us could stand in. She played and played all day. She even had the idea to make a sand angel.


We went for a walk down the beach and then Karla decided that she wanted to run back to our chairs and sand castle. So she and I took off running. She was able to run for quite a while! I had said I wanted to exercise on this vacation...

For dinner (we didn't even eat lunch today b/c of our breakfast!) we found a good seafood place. We ordered the buffet and at first I thought Karla wasn't going to eat anything. She ate spaghetti and bread and THEN she decided she wanted to try some clams since Jason and I were eating them. She took a bite and announced "I love them!" Then she proceeded to eat several more. I had been eating crab legs too and she had many questions about the crab legs so I finally said that she should really take a bite b/c they are even better than clams. So she took a bite - and loved it too! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe I hadn't brought my camera either. Luckily Jason had his phone. :)

For the rest of the evening Karla pretended she had a little pet crab whom she was now mothering since I ate its mother. She assured me the crab was not mad at me though.

More to come...

Daddy's Birthday

This is a post I started 2 months ago. :)

I asked Karla on multiple occasions, "What should we get Daddy for his birthday?" Every time she said "a wig." I asked why she thought he would want or need a wig. Each time she said, "to ride girl rides."

I don't know if she was thinking about our trip to Disney or what. Although I can't think of any rides that were just for girls!

He did not get a wig!

Here is a picture of Karla telling Daddy about the card she had picked out for him and drew in. The pic is a little fuzzy.

Karla decided for Daddy's birthday he needed some toy cars. So that is what he got. A package of matchbox cars. They spent a lot of time on the floor that evening racing.

Video

Here is the video from Karla's dress rehearsal. I put pictures on the blog last week but didn't say that she danced to the song "Lollipop." The first thing she said to me when I went to get her after she had performed on stage was "I can't wait to do that again!" I was glad I could tell her she would be doing it the following night as well! I was relieved that was the first thing she said to me because I had been worried about leaving her backstage without me....but I really wanted to watch her on stage!

Flickr limits videos to 90 seconds so here it is in two parts...

Video Part 1

Video Part 2

Here are some updates on things Karla is doing:

She is able to read/recognize about 14 words, of course she thinks she can "read" a lot more than that!

She has a new friend. Our neighbors have a boy who is 5 1/2 and he and Karla get along really well. Karla loves to play with him. Whenever she seems him outside she wants to go outside. It is fun to watch her run through the yard to his house yelling his name the whole way. It is the first time she does NOT want me to follow her and play with her outside. If he's outside, she doesn't care if I am around or not! I am happy that she has a neighbor friend.

We decided to join our local pool this summer since Karla doesn't take naps anymore. Our neighbors joined and at least one other family we know will be going. I am excited. There will probably be others we recognize too.

I think the reason I don't blog as much is because Karla isn't napping. Seems like I have less time to sit and blog and then in the evening I have other things I want or need to do....or I'm just too tired.

Karla has a quiet time in her room most afternoons. The down side of this is that usually her room is a disaster afterward. I recently went in her room and must have dropped my jaw because she said "a tornado went through here." I told her we'd better clean it up and she said "No, a cleaning tornado will come and clean it up for us." I had a little trouble getting her to cooperate with cleaning that day.

I signed Karla up for a "princess dance camp" later this summer. It is one week long for an hour each day. She will also have VBS at our church and another 3 day morning "camp" about animals. I think that will be plenty to keep her busy!

Karla is really into have "collections." I recently found a "collection" of wrappers (i.e., candy, food wrappers) hidden in a corner of her room. Most collections are hidden or put into little boxes or baskets that she has...and then hidden.

She is also wanting to build tents a lot. I think all of her grandparents have had the joy of being scrunched into a tent for an extended period of time.

I have also noticed that there has been a lot less Oso these days. Sometimes in the morning she leaves him in her bed and we don't even think about him or look for him until after lunchtime. She has also forgotten to take him in the car too when we go somewhere. I have to say Jason and I haven't really forgotten to take Oso in the car...it is habit. We just haven't mentioned it to her when we realized she didn't grab him. She still needs Oso when she is feeling tired or sad though. I don't think she'd try to go to sleep without him either!

She is really growing up. Last week she turned 4 1/2! Can't really believe it.

More pictures