Fingerpainting

Our little budding artist officially made her first paintings. She just recently discovered that crayons make marks on paper (previously they were just a pretty tasteless snack food). So of course Adam and I went overboard and immediately bought her fingerpaints, an art easel, crayons, etc. At least she’s a little too young to realize how much we LOVE to buy her things. We will have to get over this very soon! Oh, and yes, she did try to eat the fingerpaint, at least it was the washable kind…thank you crayola (now I think I understand why my mom didn’t buy this stuff).

New Haircut

Yes you read that correctly…we did it again. This time I did far less research and tried not to make a big deal out of it so I wouldn’t be disappointed. And, well…other than a screaming 18 month old, a rocket launcher filled with sparkles, and a star tattoo gone awry, it was a relatively uneventful experience. Sophie hated every minute of it. The stylist was MUCH nicer and the haircut is adorable…but it was still mildly painful. Note to self…if they ask you if you want sparkles, say no. Apparently in order to not have the aerosol can clog up every time they use it the glitter is propelled by jet fuel or something. If your child is already distressed, this does not help matters…at all. Apparently saying yes to sparkles also implies that you want the stylist to continue the trauma by chasing your child’s cheek with a sparkly tattoo. She looks great…but I think it will be awhile before we do this again! Here is the final product…the baby rattail is OFFICIALLY gone (it was still hanging around a little bit). Aunt Polly…do you make housecalls to Franklin, TN if we can give you about 6 months notice?

 

More cousin time...

These two are insane together. They laugh, dance, chase each other, etc. It is so much fun to watch them. Josie has been working on her sharing skills. She actually walked over and picked up a book Sophie dropped and instead of running down the hall holding it over her head laughing, she handed it back to Sophie. So cute!!!

Best Friends

I’m not sure who is more in love, Sophie or Tigger. Tigger actually looks for Sophie when he is inside. He loves her and Sophie loves to give him kisses. It almost redeems the cat with me…almost.

Oh Santa...why do you haunt me so...

Time for another Katie confession. When I was a little girl I was terrified of Santa. I HATED going to see Santa at the mall so in many of my pictures with Santa let’s just say, I’m not “at my best”. I have no idea why I was scared of Santa, but I have a feeling it has something to do with roller skating and alligators. You may think these could not possibly be related…but you would be wrong! In my fishbowl, everything is related.

Side note: I do have a little Doris Pegg in my genes! A little insight for those of you who never knew my Grandmother, she would often pull a comment out of nowhere, a comment unrelated to any of the current conversation. As Adam says (about me) “you pulled that comment out of the fishbowl (while pretending to reach into a bowl and pull out a slip of paper)”. I do it ALL the time and even more now that I’m older. I’m just always thinking of a million things and every once in awhile my thoughts come out of my mouth! It’s actually pretty funny and I think of my Grandma every time I do it!

Okay, back to my point. I hated Santa, not the idea of Santa, just the actual human being dressed as Santa. When I was 5 or 6 years old Santa decided to come visit my house to see me and my sister before Christmas to ask us what we wanted. This might sound like a really touching and special moment for my family, but in reality it will go down in history of one of the most terrifying moments of my life.

That night when Santa arrived at our house, Wendy and I were roller skating in the basement. Santa rang the doorbell and I heard a faint “ho ho ho”. I was leery anyway because I was not Santa’s biggest fan, but it only got worse.

You see, my sister told me that there were alligators in the basement. However, the alligators only came out when it was dark down there. So once she heard Santa’s bells and his “ho ho ho” she ripped off her roller skates in record speed and ran up the stairs as fast as she could and…you know what’s coming here…she TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS!!! I was still downstairs desperately trying to free myself from the roller skates that seemed to be permanently attached to my shoes just waiting for the alligators to come out of hiding (I guess they would come out of the drain? I never really thought that part through). By the time I got upstairs I was hysterical. I mean totally UGLY crying! I’m not sure who was more damaged by the experience…me or the sweet man from the down the street who dressed up as a Santa helper to visit us.

All this to show you the difference a year makes. We took Sophie to the mall to see Santa. She saw him from afar and was okay with it. BUT as soon as I turned the corner she turned her head into my shoulder and put the death grip on. I had to pry her off me to even put her in his lap. The photographer asked if I wanted the “screaming Santa picture” as if it was on special and I said “of course.” And it is one of the BEST screaming Santa pictures I’ve ever seen, a classic! Poor Sophie…

The cutest baby in the world

This is one of my favorite pictures of her! I could just eat her up with a spoon!!!

Christmas 2008 Hart-Reinbold-Huskins Style

For those of you who know me and my sister well, you will find our selection of gifts for our nieces quite fitting! I am pretty girly. If you haven’t read my baby doll post, you probably should to fully understand. My sister, on the other hand, not so girly. She is more into sports toys, etc. The good thing is that when it comes to gift giving, we can balance each other pretty well. Sophie got a PINK big wheel and helmet (along with an adorable polka dot raincoat, a movie, and a hilarious book). We gave Josie a baby doll set just like Sophie’s (yes I’m obsessed with it) and a magic tea set. I will laugh really hard if Sophie ends up being the tom-boy and Josie is the little girly girl! I just want to make sure Josie gets to play with girl toys and Wendy wants to make sure I don’t turn Sophie into a REAL princess! Before I get myself in trouble, Wendy will let her play with whatever she wants, she just tends to lean towards the less girly of the girl toys while I am all about some pink and some baby dolls! But I did buy Sophie some trucks for her stocking this year, of course she is far more interested in her pink laptop!