Best Day Ever!?!

I think it might be safe to say that all of Brad's dreams came true yesterday. We headed off to Brundage ski resort outside of McCall to rent some tiny boots, skis and a helmet. I waited in the car while they went in to rent the equipment, and when I saw him carrying her with her shinny red boots, jiggling helmet and 3 foot skis I couldn't stop my laughing. We took her to the Bear Chair lift and immediately she told me, "I ready, Mama!" I pointed out to her all of the big kids on their skis while we waited for Brad and she was pumped up! We clipped her into the skis and Brad and Kate headed off for the chair lift. I watched and waited with camera in hand to catch it all. Finally I saw the two of them come from around a bend, Brad holding Kate, stopping, putting her down on the ground between his skis and heading down the hill. I knew he was excited to share this moment with her, but I had no idea how much she would love it! She had a great time, and when it was all over (3 runs) she didn't want to give up the rented gear. Luckily, a packed snack of popcorn gave her some incentive to say goodbye to the red boots and the big helmet. An excellent first!
After an afternoon of rest and relaxation back at the cabin we headed back into town and decided to check out the skating rink. It just happened to be Open Skate and we decided to rent 3 pairs and another jiggly helmet and hit the ice! Skiing and ice skating in one day! Oh my! Brad indicated that it was my turn to be the instructor - as of the 3 of us I am the most steady on skates. Funny thing is that at 23 weeks pregnant I don't feel that steady these days, but it was fantastic. We quickly found the easiest and most constructive method was for me to skate backwards holding on to Kate's hands. I learned to skate at 2 yrs old while pushing a chair around the ice. The rink provided stacks of buckets to push, but Kate told me, "No bucket, Mama's hands" so that's what we did. She kept saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" I think we all had a great time enjoying another first.
I was very proud with how happily she embraced these two new, adventurous, potentially scary activities! Makes me marvel at the fun things ahead - ski passes, our own skates, maybe even some ski goggles and a figure skating skirt. Oh my! The places we'll go...

Progress Makes Perfect

It takes time to make perfection out of cast-offs. And, the Martha Stewart empire wasn't created in a day, right? But, if I keep this up, the next thing you know I'll have my own station on satellite radio. If only I could actually sew. Anywho, between wrapping up at the Special Olympics, normal life with a 2 year old and clearing out the crap that has piled up over our 5 years here, we're getting closer to a big girl room. It seems so strange that "baby girl" isn't baby girl anymore. She is very excited about the big girl room concept - the big girl room and bed, big girl panties, big girl bikes, etc. And thank goodness another baby girl is on her way, otherwise I might just be a little weepy about all of this big girl stuff.

Check it out - the "scarf story" from the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. This video was first shown at Opening Ceremonies (and made me cry!).

Big Girl This... Big Girl That...

Since our unproductive big girl bedroom furniture shopping (see previous post) I committed myself to finding a delightfully cute, hodge podge big girl room on craigslist.com. FYI, in the event that you haven't fervently sought out an object of your desire on craislist.com, IT IS HARD WORK! It is simply a dog-eat-dog world out there. You need to be available to search the website 24 hours a day, you need the stars to align and have the seller actually call/email you back, and need to be able to hop in your car at a moment's notice to go take a look at the item at the seller's convenience. Needless to say, I have none of those qualities.

This said, last week I secured a horribly ugly bed, a nice mattress and box spring, and a chest of drawers within a matter of about 35 hours. With the help of Home Depot, JoAnn's Fabrics and my Aunt Pat I was able to turn some pure crap into some pure delights for a big girl room worth bragging about.

Okay, so we're not quite there, but so close! The next item(s) on the agenda is taking away the remaining "office" bits of the room, in order that I can actually fit all of this new stuff in there. Good bye boxes of crap carried from Chicago 5 years ago! Good bye super slow clunker computer! And an especially enthusiastic good bye to a crumbling computer desk!! And can I please welcome the Weissenberger's to a new wireless world? I mean, please, it is 2009.

Enjoy (Brenna requested some "in progress" photos)...

Big Girl Beds!

We spent the day Saturday shopping for a big girl bed. Kate didn't really know what was on the agenda, until we walked into the brightly lit, pastel dream land of a local furniture store. She immediately said, "princess bed!" in the most airy and dreamy of voices and climbed into a swirling, silver wonder of a bed that looked like Cinderella's carriage. Needless to say, Kate LOVED it. We then found this bed, which Kate took an immediate liking to - since there were "kitty cats" involved. She helped herself...