Ballet Part Deux

Kate's second session at ballet was fabulous!  To be honest, I had to bribe her but whatever.  Mommy told Kate that if she was a good girl and listened to Miss Catherine (her ballet teacher) and "no fits" she could go to the dollar store and buy 3 things.  Kate LOVES the dollar store by the way.  The bribery worked!  Kate did not cry and did not tell Miss Catherine "no" once.  Did I mention at the first ballet class Kate was super sassy and yelled "no!" to Miss Catherine?  Anyhow, Kate was SO excited about ballet and was following instructions and kept looking at me or coming up to me and telling me, "I'm being good", "can I go to the dollar store now?", "mom I did it!  I'm doing ballet!".  It was really really cute.  I did have to sit in the room with her to get her to cooperate but it worked.  The third ballet class was even better as Kate listened to Miss Catherine and I sat in the waiting room with all the other parents.  I could hear Kate yelling at me "Mom I did it!"  "Mom look at me!".  She is so cute.  Kate earned her lollipops the past two sessions.  Papa took her today, her fourth lesson; I can't wait to hear what he says about Kate.

1st Day of Ballet Class

Kate was SO excited to be a ballerina and go to ballet class!  When she arrived she was smiling and making friends with her fellow ballerinas.  She was running around the studio and showing everybody her twirls.  Class started and she engaged in the stretching and was following directions.  Then the teacher told the ballerinas to do certain things, you know teach them ballet stuff, and Kate had a massive fit and started crying.  "Mom, I want to goooooooooooo"...this lasted about 5 minutes, I think, but it felt like 15 minutes.  Kate just doesn't like people telling her what to do.  In Kate's mind she knows how to twirl and be a ballerina so why can't she just do whatever she wants right?  Makes sense to me.  It was comical and annoying at the same time.

Before class started, Kate was happy and showing off her moves!  Notice Daddy sneaking out? 

Kate crying when she could not do her own thing

So after the crying episode, Kate and mommy had a talk.  She was given two choices.  She could either stand with the ballerinas or sit in the corner and watch, but NO crying!  Kate chose to sit in the corner and watch the ballerinas.  This is a picture of Kate looking through the glass saying "hi" to me in the waiting room.  I heard her say things to the teacher like "I can do that" and "I know how to do that".  The teacher asked her if she wanted to join the class to earn her lollipop, Kate said, "no thanks."  At least she is polite.  

Mr. Howard

Mr. Howard is doing great at his new job!  Suspensions, hearings, and dealing with lovely middle-school aged children every single day.  Sounds like a dream job to me; not.  However, it is what Chris has always wanted and dreamed of.  He knew from a very early age that he wanted to be a teacher.  It takes a very special person to work with kids, they are lucky to have him!

Mr. Howard has his own designated spot; haha every educator drives a Camry !

Mr. Howard in action; notice the box of tissues for the crying children?  "But Mr. Howard I didn't mean to call the teacher a %!@*"  

He even gets his own bathroom!  Kinda girly, but we can "man" it up

Mommy & Me

I found this cute "Mommy & Me" interview form on Pinterest.  This is how my interview with Kate went:

What is your name?  "I don't know..."

How old are you?  "4"  (Kate is 3 1/2)

What is your favorite color?  "Red"

Who is your best friend?  Kate pointed to me...aw, melt my heart!

What is your favorite animal?  "Sheep"

What do you want to be when you grow up?  "Dora"

What is your favorite movie?  "Dora byastics"  aka - Dora Gymnastics

What is your favorite book?  "Round and round"  aka - The wheels on the bus go round and round

What makes you happy?  "Dora"

What makes you sad?  Kate pointed to the tv (she probably hates the crap I watch like Real Housewives and Honey Boo Boo)

What is your favorite food?  "Mac n cheese"

What is your favorite song?  "Round and round" aka The wheels on the bus go round and round

What is your favorite game?  "Peter Piper"

Kate write your name for me:  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

source: http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2011/02/document-what-they-say/motherandchild/

First Day of School

Ha ha fooled you all!  You probably thought that I was writing about Kate's first day of preschool, right?  Since this is the happenings of the Howard's I have to write about Chris' first day as an Assistant Principal!  Well from what I heard from my husband, it went very well.  Look how happy he looks coming back from parking lot duty dressed up in 115 degree weather.  Why not wear a short sleeve button down shirt with a tie you ask?  Because it looks lame and not stylish...remember who Chris is married to?  Plus we don't want him looking like Sipowicz from NYPD Blue.  

In other news...Chris was the AP at McGraw for 3 days.  He is now the AP at Gila Vista Junior High.  What it comes down to is that McGraw did not have the enrollment amount expected to support a position for an AP.  The AP at Gila Vista got a job at the District Office so they moved Chris over.  He is nervous about this, but I read a quote that fits this situation perfectly:  "If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try" - Seth Godin

Good luck Chris, I know you will kick ass and be a great Assistant Principal!  

California

Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mike have a time share in Escondido, CA (Welk Resort) and we go and visit them each year around this time.  I told Kate that were going to visit grandma and grandpa in California.  I told her we could run and play outside without burning up and go swimming.  She was SO excited!  On the day of the trip Chris and I had to work so I had to explain to Kate that she was going to Lori's house first (our babysitter) and then after work we were traveling to California.  Well, we all know that having a child wait for anything is pretty difficult for them to understand.  We avoided a tantrum, mostly by having Chris deal with this situation - yes, I am the parent who passes of the tasks and situations to Chris when I don't feel like dealing with it.  Anyhow, we picked up Kate after work and she continued to ask if we were going to California.  On the freeway she asked when we were going to be in California.  We told her very soon...even in San Diego she didn't believe we were in California because grandma and grandpa were nowhere in sight.  Kate thought California was the house that grandma and grandpa were staying in.  It was really funny.  The next day we went out shopping and on our way back when we pulled up to the time-share Kate yelled, "Look, it's California!"  On another side note, Kate calls "Mexico" "Mixer".  So the time-share is California and Ma's house is "Mixer".

This is California!

Kate and our lovely view

Kate and Papa at "California"

We had a really nice trip despite Chris having to take off early.  He received some good/bad news on Thursday afternoon.  The good news, he was appointed the Assistant Principal at Gila Vista Junior High.  In my eyes, this is good news because his goal is to work in the Middle School and he is going to be working with an incredible principal, Rusty Tyndall, who has over 15-years experience as the principal at Gila Vista.  Chris is going to learn SO much from this opportunity.  The bad news, Chris has to leave McGraw Elementary and say good-bye to another incredible mentor, Adar Garcia, who gave Chris this opportunity.  He has to leave a staff who he has worked for over 2-years.  So this is a bittersweet moment in his life.  We all believe in Chris and know he is going to do a fabulous job in this new role.

So while Chris took-off, the girls took-off too to go shopping!  Kate got a ton of clothes of course.  We all go crazy and I LOVE having my little girl look fashionable and trendy.  She is into dresses and skirts right now.  She is the perfect mixture of girly girl and rough and tumble, active girl.  Valley girl too.  My mom said, I don't know if I want Kate sounding like you.  And I was like what - haha - get it?  Kate will say things like, "Oh my god that is crazy funny" or "Oh my gosh that is so funny" or the best one "Oh my gosh, HOLY CRAP it's hot!"  Mom of the year over hear - hold the applause please.  After shopping, we hit the swimming pool.  Kate made a friend at the pool.  This little girl came up to Kate and started showing her that she could reach the ground and do this that and the other.  Kate very awkwardly responded after a bit, "That's my mom, that's Annette".  To which grandma Linda asked, "what did she say?  my mom's a nut?"

She hates the camera

Kate in her new tutu

The next day, we all said good-bye to the cooler weather (as compared to hot ass Yuma).  We made a pit stop at Viejas where we did more shopping.  Kate was running around the Gap and found a pink tutu that she wanted.  So of course, since Nana Delia was footing the bill I said sure.  I told Kate to follow me to the dressing room so I could try on my clothes.  Kate replied, "I need to try on my skirt too."  The funny part, as she was walking to the dressing room she started taking of her skirt in the middle of the store.  I think some poor guy saw her under-roos and butt crack.  My mom said Kate started getting into all of the women's jewelry so she told Kate to go look at the kid's jewelry.  Kate grabbed a necklace and ripped it out of the package and put it on.  So, we added another item to the pile of clothes we got.  Thanks Nana!

My sweet girl sleeping...little did I know what was to come!

We had a peaceful ride home.  Kate watched her iPad the entire trip.  She of course waited to fall asleep when we got off the 16th street exit.  When we pulled up to grandpa and grandma's house (we had to do switching of cars and such at their house) and told Kate she needed to get out of the car (to get into mine) and she threw this MASSIVE fit.  Yelling "NO" at the top of her lungs, tears running down her face, sweat dripping off her forehead, running around all of the cars as I am chasing her in 115 degree weather.  When I picked her up to throw her in the car she started clawing at my arms and pulling my hair.  I actually started laughing as I thought anyone looking at us would have to find this funny.  A cute girl in a pink tutu and pigtails pulling her mom's hair and pretty much kicking my ass.  I had no chance.  Kate wins.  Mommy loses.

End of Summer 2012

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to Summer.  Technically Summer is not over I know, but we are done with our Summer fun as we go back to the real world.  The first day of school is August 8th, which is my first day back.  Chris started on July 23rd with his new gig as Assistant Principal.  I can't recall anything too exciting we did, but it was relaxing and stress free not worrying about getting to work on time that is for sure.  I was especially stress free as Kate spent most of her days at the sitter's house.  Yay for Lori!  We attempted a couple of classes for Kate; swimming and "tumbling".  She dropped out of both classes.  She went to tumbling three times but was SO clingy to me it was more annoying than fun to take her.  She lasted 30-minutes at swim class but figured after slapping the lifeguard and screaming bloody murder for me that this was not going to work.  Yes, I let my child quit.  She is 3, no biggie.  Let's hope ballet classes she starts in a week will work out better.  Maybe we will have better luck if Chris takes her.  Daddy don't play as he says.

Tumbling school drop out

A happy moment                                                       

Before she started assaulting the lifeguard

Kate is growing and talking nonstop.  I always mention this, the talking bit, because (1) she talks NONSTOP...and (2) she has this incredibly funny muppet voice.  I am finding that this age is very challenging.  Kate is bossy.  I feel like I hear constantly "mom, don't say that", "don't say it like that", "mom, want to play...do it like this".  If she says or does something funny we often get, "it's not funny, don't laugh!".  If she wants to play she dictates every single little move that you have to make.  So it is not much fun playing with her because she is the puppet master.  But, of course there are the good moments...let me get back to you on that.

Chris has been super busy.  I have been trying to get his office ready before the first day of school.  When I get a chance I will post of picture of his office.  He seems really happy and loves working with the staff and parents.  He is really excited for the first day of school.

I am looking forward to getting back to work, but not in this heat!  It is no fun getting all dressed up in this heat.  I bought some mini hairsprays to keep my hair poofy all day long.

Kate eating her free breakfast at daddy's school

Kate is very brave in the pool!  She loves her "water wings" and jumping in the pool now!

Kate loves her cousin Maria too.  See, there is she ordering Maria around.  "Push me in my stroller!"

Our excitement this Summer, trying to outrun the haboob in Phoenix

What you said?

Remember when I was worried that Kate's speech was not developing at a normal rate?  Remember when I had her speech tested and they said she was totally normal and I was like, "say what?!".  Well, they were right.  Kate talks nonstop.  From the moment she wakes up until the moment we drag her to bed.  Oh yeah, remember all that bragging I did regarding Kate going to bed so easily.  Yeah, not so much anymore.

Kate no longer sleeps from 6pm to 6am.  She now sleeps from about 8:30pm to 5-7am.  On a good day she wakes up at 7am.  On a typical day we hear, "it's morning?!" at 6am.  Getting Kate down to go to sleep is no longer an easy task.  We have to read several stories, arrange her stuffed animals a certain way, and scratch her back or arms or legs.  Then once we close the door and get nice and comfy to unwind she comes out of her room and tells us "I gotta go PEE!" (even though we ask her each night if she needs to go pee, yes we also make her sit on the potty before going to bed but it is more fun for her to come barreling out of her room and make this grand announcement that she has to pee).  Then when she is done, she lets us know that she went pee.  Woo-freaking-hoo.  Then of course there are other things she needs or wants, but mostly knowingly trying to bother us.

Finally, SILENCE.

Then, morning and the chattering begins nonstop.

I don't even know what she is talking about or questioning us about.  It is just words coming out.  Typical preschooler, probably.  But the kid has to have ADHD.  These random thoughts on totally different subjects just spew out of her mouth.  But of course we have favorites.

When she wonders what we said, "What you said?"

Out of nowhere, "You're mom?"  "You're dad?"  "You're my mom and dad?"  She is probably wishing she had a nicer mother who wrote lovey-dovey blogs about her.  Of course our favorite, "I love you mom, I love you dad".

Since this blog is now what is happening in all of our lives I have to mention that Chris is the Assistant Principal at McGraw Elementary School.  Kate and I are so proud of him.  His first official day is July 23rd so be sure to wave to the hot new assistant principal nicely dressed by his loving wife.  I am going into my 5th year as a School Psychologist.  Sadly, I was moved from my schools to sites in town.  There are a lot of changes in our department so I am just rolling with the punches and will make the best of it.  I am also supervising an intern.  This is very exciting for me.  I was telling Chris the other day that we are adults and have real jobs; pretty important jobs too.  When did this happen?  We still feel like kids.  Well, age is only a number and we definitely keep young at heart.

Well Kevin, I hope this satisfies you for now and promise to keep up with the BLOG!

Great start to year 3!

Kate I am so sorry that I have been slacking on the blogging about you for your modern baby book.  But, you are no longer a baby - you are a BIG girl!  Let's see what has happened since you turned 3.  You are officially potty trained and it was so much easier than I thought.  Glad I waited until you were truly ready.  You still have the occasional poops in the chonies and wet the bed at night, but I think you are doing a great job!  You have also outgrown your bed so you are now in a big girl bed!  A full size bed all to yourself, how fun!  2 nights in your bed and you already rolled off; I should really have put some barriers up.  Oh well, you will live.  You still drive daddy and I crazy with your bossiness, or as we like to call it - "showing leadership abilities at a young age".  You sing songs, love your Nick Jr. tv shows, love playing on "your" iPad, reading books, pretending, playing ball, counting and singing your ABC's.  Wow, what a fun time being 3 is.  I think this will mark the end to your "baby" book...I love you to the moon and back.

Adventures in Potty Training and Potty Mouth

Well, it finally happened. No, Kate is not potty-trained. She said, "Holy Shit". She said it in a busy restaurant too! Yikes. Luckily it was so loud in the restaurant that nobody heard (hopefully) or saw that I laughed. Can you imagine what people would have thought about me laughing at Kate saying "Holy Shit". It is as fun to write as it is to say. So who is the culprit family members? Mimi is Miss perfect and NEVER cusses, right Mimi? Grandpa is too busy on his computer so we don't hear from him often. Papa is Mister perfect and never cusses, only on the golf course. That leaves Nana...since Chris and I prefer other foul language. My favorite is "Mother-F....." or the classic "F-bomb". But you will all be happy to know I do not cuss in front of our impressionable Kate. I say things like "Oh you darn snowbird cutting me off, you are not a nice man"...I growl when I do it so notice Kate is picking that up. Now I need to stop growling. So back to Nana. I remember her using the "shit" word quite often. Everything is "oh shit". So there we go, case closed...Nana go wash your mouth with soap!

On a positive note, Kate is now ready to take out in public. To restaurants that is. It only took 3 years but she can sit during a meal and doesn't need to aggravate Chris and I by running around and annoying people (but mostly annoying us). She has her moments but we are starting to expose her more often to fine dining...haha, if you consider McDonald's, El Charro, and Lute's Casino fine dining. We do; we are on a budget y'all!

So on to the potty training topic. Kate just isn't quite there yet. Her sitter, Lori, does not think she is ready and told us she is going to hit it hard over the summer. Chris and I are not consistent either to be honest. We try on the weekends. We put her in undies, which are so cute and tiny by the way. We set a timer and she attempts every 15-minutes. We praise, clap, cheer and give her a treat or sticker when she goes in the potty. Yet, she still pees or poops and does not tell us. We had an incident yesterday where she told me her tummy hurt. I asked her if she needed to go caca. She replied no. Next thing I know she tells me she has a caca. I check her diaper and sure enough it was all liquid inside. Yes, it got on my fingers; lovely. So I tell her we are going to bathe her since she is stinky like caca. Once I pull down her leggings the liquid started dripping down her legs and on the carpet, yuck! So I swooped her up and ran to the tub and rinsed off the explosion of "shit" on her ass...maybe I do say the word "shit". In fact, when this happened I was thinking "shit, shit, shit, shit" in my head...maybe I was saying it over and over and loudly? Anyhoo, I tried explaining once again that if she has to caca or peepee to tell me so we can go to the potty. Augh, potty training, gotta love it.

Happy 3rd Birthday Kate!

Wow, how time flies! Our girl Kate is 3 years old!

I was reminiscing the week of her birth. I was trying to remember what the doctor said at my appointment in which he recommended a C-section. I was remembering how I cried because I wanted to have Kate the good ol' fashioned painful way. I remembered scheduling the appointment and arriving at the hospital around 5am; I was so nervous. I had started contractions around midnight and when they were plugging me into all the machines I had asked the nurse how far apart my contractions were and she said 8 minutes. I was so uncomfortable and she said those contractions were not anything near the pain they can be...so at that time I was SO glad that I scheduled the C-section and was going to by-pass the labor! But what I remember of course is the birth of Kate, who arrived at 9:23 AM. She came out MAD and boy was she a fussy baby...she is still calling the shots, pushing our buttons, and has turned our lives upside down. She puts a smile on my face everyday, she makes us laugh everyday, and we are so grateful for her every single day!

To honor the birthday girl we planned a party for her at West Wetlands Park. However, Mother Nature was not working well with us and she sprinkled some rain on us and was blowing so hard that we had to cancel the party. Luckily we did not cancel all together, we just moved the party to Nana and Papa's house. Kate had her cupcakes and friends so she was a happy girl. This year we did a Sesame Street theme because for a while she was really into Elmo and the whole Sesame Street gang. I could have had a plate of cupcakes without the theme and she would have been happy. The one thing we all agreed on - next year the party will be indoors.

Don't know why I look irriated, but Kate looks so happy!

Mommy and her themes right Kate?

Oreo cookie pops and candy, yum-O!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kate!

Happy New Year!

When I was a kid we would have garage parties in Puerto Penasco at my Tio Fausto's home. The adults would buy the kids decorations and let us go wild in decorating the garage for the New Year's Eve party. The adults would drink and dance the night away, and we danced right alongside them. Those were the best childhood memories I have of New Year's Eve. As time passed the tradition slowly faded and went away. We are hoping to revive this fun family event as now we have little ones and want them to have the same fond memories of these garage parties. Ma cleared out her garage, and Ma and Eric worked very hard to set-up the garage for a party. There was a full service bar, a dancing area, places to sit, and a table ready to be filled with food to feed an army. Tio purchased a pig leg and carved away for us to eat delicious Prosciutto.

Eric served as bartender, and Bella helped out as a waitress taking drink orders.

Kate did not last until midnight. Chris and I only made a little past midnight. We knew that we needed our sleep to be able to keep up with Kate later that day. I think another reason New Year's Eve and Day is so important to us is because it is Nana's birthday on the 1st and Tio Fausto and Tia Angelica celebrate their anniversary as they were married at midnight New Year's Day (they celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary). We had a blast and can't wait to do it again to ring in 2013.

Kate and Bella in the festive mood

All the Soto girls: Kate, Nana Delia, Ma, Annette, Bella, Nanalu Marilu, and Carla.

Silly Girl

Kate cracks me up. She is really starting to insist on clothing options. I have to make a show about her outfits. Like, oh put on her princess skirt. Don't you want to look pretty for Santa and wear your Santa dress? Wow, you are going to look so cool in this outfit. We need to play, let's put on play clothes. The other day I was trying on some new tops and Kate was with me in the bedroom and she stops to look at me and says, "Oh mom that is so cute!" The tag was sticking out and she says, "take the tag off". Oh-oh, I am creating a mini-me. I have a picture from summer time that I will have to find and post. She is wearing her pink bikini, with goggles, and a red sock. The other day she wanted to wear her tutu and Uggs while playing outside on her trampoline, slide and tricycle. Then she wanted to ride her tricylcle in the house, naked, with her plastic toy heels (which Chris calls her hooker heels) and then proceeded to find my phone to play a "Pussycat Dolls" song titled "when I grow up". And this, well she opted for no pants and her Hello Kitty helmet.

I go see animals

We took Kate to the Sahiti Camel farm where they house Arabian camels and other animals. It was pretty rinky-dink but it was something to do with Kate. Of course she was scared at first even though for an entire day all we heard from her was, "I go see animals?". Well, when she went to go see animals she started being "chipi" with me and wanted "hug, hug, hug" which in Kate language is, hurry up and pick me up and don't put me down.

The donkey's made us laugh...

Getting brave to feed the donkey...