What will her future hold?

This is the look of mischievous. Karlee gets into everything and never sits still. I wonder if she will be one of those kids on medicine for attention disorders!



I know as parents, we often think about our children's future. We long for the best and hope for better lives than we had for them. Karlee is such an outgoing child with a personality that lights up a room. She is 110% on the go all day long and I NEVER know what is going to come out of her mouth.

She loves anything outdoors, anything that moves, anything that makes music, and anything that she can build something with. She is left-handed like her daddy which worried me for a while. How will I teach her how to write and use scissors, etc.? I did a little research on how to help left-handed children. In this research, I found that left-handers are more likely than right-handers to be creative and visual thinkers and better at 3-dimensional perception and thinking, leading to more left-handed architects than normal.

This totally explains a lot. Karlee is infatuated with how things work. She wants to take everything apart and put it back together. She will sit down and roll her bicycle just to watch how the wheel moves. She loves playing with her blocks and building castles and houses. Last week we had to build a house for each person in our family including the dog!

Last night after dinner, Karlee wanted her daddy to play blocks with her. She didn't even ask me because she knows daddy's creations are better than mine! She would help him place the blocks and want him to take anything out that she didn't see him actually do. If she got distracted by the TV and he put on a block, it had to come off and she had to put it back on herself.






So, I'm pretty confident that when asked later down the road what she wants to be when she grows up, it will not be an accountant like her mommy. I don't see a desk job anywhere in her future unless it's designing something. I think Chip would be beside himself if she chose his major in college of building science or architecture. We'll see what the future holds.

Welcome to 2 Year Old Class

Parkway Preschool started back today and I am so excited (maybe a little too excited!). I'm in desperate need of a few hours a week to myself to get my to-do lists taken care of.

We told Karlee all weekend that school was starting back on Monday. She would just stare at us and talk about new friends but didn't seem interested. When I woke her up this morning, she was having no part of wanting to be awake or getting dressed. I had to bribe her with a breakfast picnic in the living room floor and watching Scooby Doo to get her out of bed. She kept telling me she wanted to play with me today and not play with new friends.

She finally perked up after breakfast and cooperated getting dressed. When I pulled the backpack out, it's like a light bulb went off. She was dancing around and so excited about taking her new backpack to school. She was all smiles from then on.

Karlee's backpack is just about as big as she is!

We had to stop and say hello to her fish friends when we walked in. Karlee is infatuated with fish and has to talk to them every time we see a fish tank. She walked right in the classroom, took off her backpack, and headed straight for the table to color with a new friend. I was worried about how it would go since Karlee doesn't know many of the kids in her class this year. She never looked back my way and was very content with coloring. I snapped a few pictures and headed out the door. I watched from the hall window for a few minutes to make sure a melt down didn't occur. To my surprise, it didn't. She was in deep conversation about the colors with the little girl next to her.

My little lefty!

When I picked Karlee up this afternoon, she was excited to see me. Mrs. Kim said she did great and played and participated really well in every activity they did. Her biggest comment was "Man does she like to talk!" I just laughed because I know what she means. Karlee is definitely the biggest chatterbox kid I know. It was so neat to come home and ask what she did today and she was able to tell me. She told me stories from the whole day and what kid cried and what kids went tee tee in the potty! I think it's going to be a fun year.

A Successful Surprise!!!!!!!

I pulled off something on Saturday that I thought was going to be impossible ... a surprise baby shower for my friend Elizabeth! If you know her, then you know she is a reporter and great investigator. I called her on Tuesday to tell her that we were having a small cookout on Saturday before summer was over and we all had new babies.

I told her both sets of Kirk's were coming too. Well, before I had a chance to let Christy Kirk know that I had included their names in the cookout, Elizabeth had said something to Christy on Facebook about seeing them on Saturday. I immediately got a message from Christy asking if Elizabeth knew about the shower. She wasn't going to respond back to Elizabeth until she heard from me. I thought, oh Lord, that sneaky girl!

Then on Wednesday, Elizabeth sent me a text asking if we could invite the Hensarling's. I said sure and immediately sent Kerri a text to let her know that Elizabeth was going to be contacting her about a cookout and to just go with it. Elizabeth didn't know that the Hensarling's were in on helping throw the shower!

On Friday, Elizabeth's son Mason was sick with an ear infection. I thought I was going to have to tell her about the shower to get her to my house with a sick child. Travis always provides ice for get-togethers since he has a big ice machine. He sent me a text around 9:30 asking if the house was decorated yet because Elizabeth had decided to ride with him to drop off the ice. Thank goodness it was not and I just had to move a few flower arrangements to the bedroom. Mason was feeling better on Saturday so they took him fishing where he decided to eat old, molded fish food. Elizabeth was freaking out, called poison control, and so on! Another thing I thought I was going to have to break the secret about to get her to my house.

Twenty minutes before the set time for Travis to have Elizabeth at my house, I got a call from Elizabeth. I had to dash outside to answer because I had about 30 loud people in my house. She told me she's not coming unless she can bring something to share at the cookout. I had originally told her to just come eat and we were providing everything. So, we decided on fruit!

When Elizabeth finally rang the doorbell, I was sweating bullets and could not believe I had pulled it off. She walked in the door, fruit in hand, and was totally shocked to come around the corner and find her closest friends, family, and news colleagues standing on my stairs. It was priceless and totally worth the stress!




Elizabeth had no idea that her mom from Atlanta was in on it too. She even left Elizabeth's house that morning and dropped off a cupcake cake from Publix.



It was a great party and I could not have done it without the help of Travis' parents, sister, and Kerri Hensarling. Now, we just have to sit and wait for Sept 2 when sweet Avery makes her debut!

The Tube

We've been trying to fit more lake time in before summer is over and the water goes down. Karlee and I headed to the lake early Saturday morning to meet my parents. We headed out on the boat for a little riding and stopped at chimney rock because Karlee was ready to jump out and swim.



We headed back to the lake house around lunch and Karlee spotted the inner tube. She kept saying she wanted to get in it so my dad finally pulled it out. She played in it and then started using it as a diving board and jumping off of it. I think the zillion times I lifted her up in it is what caused my "I think I'm in labor" scare on Sunday.



My mom kept asking Karlee if she wanted to ride it and of course Karlee said yes every time. I knew Chip was coming up when he got off work and I really wanted him to ride with her. I get a pass due to the preggo situation! So, we kept letting her play until daddy arrived. He didn't get out of his truck good before Karlee was telling him to "come on ride wif me."



I swear my child has no fear what so ever (except pooping in the potty - another post will come on this). She rode the tube with me and my mom last year behind a wave runner but not a big boat. You would have thought she had been doing this forever. She laid back and rode with one big smile for quite a while. When it was over, she gave me a big thumbs up when I asked if she had fun. I have it all on video too but I will spare you that since I was standing beside the boat motor the whole time. The sound is horrible.



I just cannot tell you how much it means to me that Karlee loves the lake as much as I did as a child and still do today. Next year, skiing at 3 years old....think that's a little young?

Back to the Crib

Well, it seems like yesterday that Karlee was helping her daddy convert her crib to the big girl bed. It was February 7 to be exact. Exactly one month before I found out I was pregnant again.



Saturday night, Karlee helped her daddy turn the big girl bed back into a crib. I promise I dress my child but we had just finished dinner and were about to take a bath when Chip decided he would get started on this project!




Sunday morning, Karlee helped me dust the furniture and get it shiny clean. Then, she helped me put sheets on the mattress and Chip stuffed the bumper pads. Before I had everything back in the bed, Karlee was trying to climb in it. She said she wanted to lay in the bed until Madelyn got here. I told her she could get in it one time and one time only. She picked out a bear last week that she said was Madelyn's so I let her put the bear to bed.




Karlee keeps going in Madelyn's room wanting to see it. The bed and changing table are just in their right now. They are too heavy for me to help lift to put in the places they go. I just wanted the crib converted back because Karlee kept going in there and getting on the slats of the big girl bed. I just knew she was going to fall through one and break her leg. I have plenty of time to get the nursery decorated. We are using the same bedding so I just need wall decor and book shelf decor since all of that moved to Karlee's new room.