Z is for Ziplock. And Zoo!

So every Tuesday Jack's preschool sends home a "letter of the week" bag. It's basically a brown paper lunch bag with the letter of the week written on it. We are then to find an item at home that begins with that letter (and is small enough to fit into a brown paper lunch bag) put the item in the bag, and send it back to school on Wednesday. The kiddos all share their letter of the week items and make a list of what items were discussed. They then post that list ouside of the classroom so you can review it with your child during pick-up/drop-off time.

I shall let you in on a little secret. I HATE letter of the week. HATE it. With a passion. Because it is SO.darn.hard for me to come up with item suggestions for Jack. Seriously - I am like alphabetically challenged or something. A few weeks ago the letter was Q. I was totally stumped. I literally tossed and turned in bed that Tuesday night wracking my brain trying to come up with an item thats name started with Q. Know what we ended up sending in? A duck "whistle". It looks like a little duck bill and when you blow into it, it quacks loudly. See here: http://www.phillyducks.com/
So I told Jack that when it was his turn he should blow into it and say QUACK. B/c QUACK starts with Q! How much do you think his teachers hated me for that one? But really - it was the ONLY Q word I could come up with for which we had a cooresponding item that would fit into that little damn brown paper lunch bag. The next day when I was reviewing the Q words list with Jack I saw that 95% of the class brought in a quarter. A QUARTER! How in the $%&*@ did I not think of that? See? Alphabetically challenged. Big time. Need another example? It's a good one. So Jack and I are in the car one day a few weeks ago and we're listening to "Kids Place Live" - his most favorite station on Sirius satellite radio. They were playing an oldie but goodie - "C is for Cookie" by the artist Cookie Monster. So we're singing and the song goes "Can you think of anything else that starts with C?" and Jack says "Can YOU think of anything else that starts with C, Mommy?" and I'm like "Um, well there is cookie. But of course we already said that one. And then there is .. um ... well ...um .. OH I know! Crate and Barrel!". .

Seriously.

He asked me for c words and I said Crate AND BARREL! And I was so proud of myself for thinking of it too. Ya gotta love me. Or ya gotta think I'm crazy as h-e-double-hockey-sticks. Ya definitely gotta do one of those things.

Wait where was I going with this? Your guess is as good as mine. Anywho - this week's letter was Z. Know what Jack brought in?

You: Oh NO she dih-nt!
Me: Oh YES I did.

A ziplock bag. Most BORING letter of the week item of all time. But it's all I could think of. I can't wait 'til they post the list of what items were brought in - b/c really other then a zebra figurine what the heck are you going to bring for Z?! Whatever - it's not like they were being graded on this.

Know what else starts with Z? Zoo! Which is where Kate went on her first family outing last week Thursday. Please excuse the quality of my photos - they were all taken with my phone camera. As you'll see Kate was quite taken by all the animals. So much so that she slept the entire time.

The kids and some prairie dogs ...

I said kidS! I have KIDS! Plural!

The kids (!!!) and some lions ...

I drew black arrows on the pictures above to point out the animals since they are a little difficult to see.

Jack comparing his paw to that of a tiger ...


How cute is THIS guy?

I totally want a pet meerkat.

And the highlight of our day - a baboon butt ...

Jack thought that was the funniest.thing.EVER! You are totally cracking up aren't you?

Okay it's late - time to go catch some Zzzzzzzs ....

Newborn bliss

Awww ... SO peaceful and serene, no?




Um, yeah - not so much.




It's the dread pirate Kate! Arggghhh!





And THIS one. This one just makes me laugh and laugh.


Pink overload + leg warmers + headband = ridiculous. I'm aware. I just need to get it out of my system.

More later. Gotta go kiss my babies then hang out with my handsome husband whilst he cooks me dinner. Life is good.

Guess who is here?

Guess! Go ahead - guess! Is that your final answer? Ding ding ding! It's Kate Elizabeth!




And here she is with THE proudest big brother in the universe.


She was born on Friday, April 2nd measuring in at 7lbs 12 oz and 20 and 3/4 inches long. Ohhhhh how we love her. She's a relatively quiet baby (knock on wood) and is a BIG fan of sleeping. And the hair - OH the hair! She has a ton of beautiful dark hair! She's a complete snuggle bug and stole her daddy's heart the second he laid eyes on her. The look on his face when he looks at her - it just melts my heart into a puddle. There is just something so special about the relationship between little girls and their daddies.

And Jack loves her. I mean loves loves LOVES her. He is constantly kissing her and singing to her and asking me what he can do to help with her. I just know he's going to taked such good care of her the rest of their lives. And when she gets a bit older she'll be taking good care of him right back. They are so lucky to have each other.



More later. Gotta go snuggle with my baby now. And figure out how to change the name of this blog to Jack AND Kate's Place!

Merry Easter!

Yes folks it's a two for one. On account of my extreme laziness. You're welcome.

The last few months of pregnancy have not been kind to me in the energy department. By the time I get home from work and get Jack settled I hardly have the stregnth to lift a fork to my mouth to eat the delicious dinner my husband has cooked for me. Yes he cooks. Well, grills. He loves to come home and unwind after work by firing up the grill - and I like to eat the results of his unwinding. It's win/win!

So first things first - this baby is coming FRIDAY! As in 2 days from now FRIDAY. Hallejulah and Amen and all that jazz! I'm so close to Miller time I can practically taste the ice cold goodness right this moment! Oh wait, that was the sip of Mike's beer I just took that I'm tasting. KIDDING! Just kidding, of course. Or AM I!?!?!**

I'll be in the hospital on Easter so we'll be celebrating the holiday a bit late this year. But we did do some eggs this week! While I was trying to pep talk myself into turning on the computer and posting the egg pics I remembered that I have YET to post any Christmas pics. So I figured if I'm going thru all the effort why not post both holidays in one fell swoop? Why not? Well because I can't find my Christmas pictures!! Seriously. You'd think that they'd be in the file folder entitled "Christmas 2009" right? Right. Well they're not there. Don't get me wrong - they are not lost forever - they are definitely on my computer. Somewhere. So they are just lost until I find them. Welcome to life with me! Know what else I can't find? Any of Jack's jeans. The kid has like 4 pairs and I can't find any of them! And no they are not in the dirty laundry b/c all the laundry is done (No really it is. I know - I can hardly believe it either). How does one lose 4 pairs of jeans? Easy when "one" is me! Story of my life - people - story of my life.

Lucky for you I was able to find a couple of pictures from Jack's Christmas program at school. Not exactly sure what the point of the whole felt collar thing was but he sure looks festive!


And moving right along to Easter eggs .... check out that concentration:


Waiting patiently ...


And a proud boy with the finished product:




Okay I started this post yesterday so we are now T-1 day 'til baby time!! YEY!!! I will post an update with about a zillion pictures as soon as possible. Think good thoughts for us right about 1:30 EST tomorrow!!!!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming ...

for a very important message:

To: Michael Michael
From: MGif

Message: Thank you brother! It's ready and waiting for you ... Love, Mike.**




** I added the "Love, Mike" part myself. Backstory: Last Christmas I made cookies for all of Mike's departmental co-workers. There was a bag of cookies for each person with a tag that said 'Merry Christmas! Love, Mike". Apparently he gets teased about the "Love, Mike" part to this day. I don't get what the big deal is! I sign pretty much everything "Love, Kelly". Once, when getting off the phone with a customer at work, I even closed with "I'll send you that quote right away. Okay thanks, love you, bye". Okay that one was an accident.