Katie Beth Reid

Kate is turning into quite the interesting character these days! Her favorite things to do always seem to involve turning various items into hats, singing songs of original composition, dancing like noone is watching, being very attentive to babies and saying the word "Mama" in 10 different ways to mean 10 different things.

She knows what she wants, how things should be, how to manage people, when to be shy so that it's cute and the basics of a clean house. Kate is such a good girl, very patient with everyone around her and so loving of all people, cats and stuffed men named Albert. She is a great eater, snuggler and conversationalist. She comforts the weaker personalities and leads the way for them. All she wants in life is to kiss and hug everything along with thinking Buddy the Cat is the greatest thing in the world. (She actually was reading to him and asking our cat to "point to the circle" in her book today.)

Katherine thinks bubbles are the most amazing invention ever, loves to talk with Angelique on the phone and wishes she could jump higher off the ground. (I know she does from the frustrated look she seems to have as her hands reach up and her feet don't move.) She can throw a greatly aimed ball just as well as a naughty tantrum complete with kicking and screaming.

Can you believe Kate can pull Ashton uphill in a radio flyer wagon? She can't seem to get enough of different types of food and will try absolutely anything we put on her plate. She always makes me smile after a tough night with her first laugh in the morning and I love her more than words can say.

I love you Katie Beth for being everything I never knew I wanted in a daughter!

He that thinks himself the happiest man is really so...

Here is a list of things that just flow out of Ashton's mouth these days:

• Buddy (our cat) has sharks teeth on his feet. (meaning his claws)


• Please close window, the frogs wake me up when they sing the ribbits.


• I go candy store and toy store when I get 5 quarters and spend them.


• I love you today mommy.
  
• Happy Daddy's Day Mr. Jimmy. You a daddy so I give you a hug.(Our neighbor and it's not even Father's Day yet!)
  
• Clean up or the pigs will come. Lock the door so the pigs can't come.
  
• That's not a monster truck, it's a green truck.
• I'm not Curious George mommy, I Ashton.


• Kate! Turns. My turns, Kate's turns, my turns.


• Grandma come to our house in 2 days. No, 5 days. No... 2 months, yes Mommy, 2 months. (She came to visit the next day)


• Mommy, today is not Monday, today is Sunday. Sun-day, because the sun is out.


• I put rainbow in my hand and give it to Daddy. Here Daddy! I share a rainbow with you!


• I can do it! Look!....Uh oh, sorry Mommy. I make a mess.

"He that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks
himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool."

YES! Soliciting

Help! Does anyone who reads this have any ideas on the following situation at hand? (Feel free to post a comment or email ANY responses.)
Ashton doesn't sleep much for a 3 year-old anyways, but as of late he is in the habit of waking up at 6am, coming into my room and waking me up to get him a drink. After dragging myself out of bed and getting the much needed drink I can then settle him down for another 20-30 minutes. He then proceeds to wake me up again and again until I get frustrated at him and yell "MOMMY NEEDS HER SLEEP ASHTON!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!", which quickly after I am racked with guilt because deep down I know that he just wants the pleasure of my company during his best time of day. I can't expect him to understand that, because of my part time job, I go to sleep most nights around 1-2am and am just sooooooooooo sleep deprived.
I've tried locking him in his room until I am ready to wake up, but he's figured out how to take his night time diaper off and, well, it just doesn't pay to wake up to the messes I've seen a few times. He also will kick and bang on his door until he wakes up little Kate and YOU TRY TO SLEEP through not one but two "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"s.
ANY SUGGESTIONS? Help!
Sincerely,
Haven't Slept Since Feb. 2007

We Picked In Fields of Gold

Today was such a lovely day outside, High of 78*F without a cloud in the sky, that we just simply had to go pick our own strawberries! We headed over to Hill Family Farm, which was located in right outside the bustling area of Ballantyne (check them out at: http://www.hallfamilyfarm.com/about_strawberries.htm). We rode over in the Honda van, each child holding on to their own basket. (By the way Brian, Ashton still remembered that the yellow easter basket I pulled out to use once belonged to you!) Kate actually thought hers would make a more suitable hat/helmet and wore it proudly on her head.
While we picked 4 lbs, we took home 2 lbs (between Ashton throwing the "mushy ones" and Kate eating every 2nd berry).
It was a beautiful day and a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed slowing down and taking in the sights, scents and sounds of a little country farm, right in the middle of a bustling city! Who would have thought you could have it all!

Listen Closely to the Minds of Children

Today, for reasons that are an even longer story than I'd like to get into, Ashton told me today..."Mommy, I don't want to go to school." Raising an eyebrow and looking closer at him, I asked why not. This is what followed in the perfect three-year-old speech I am adjusting to, "Mommy, I eat my vegetables and fruit and grow big and strong so I can go work to get money to pay puppy and kitty doctors for Buddy so his teeth will not hurt him."
I love this stream of ideas about our day's worth of activities. It was interesting how he connected everything into one sentence, however long and drawn out it was. Ashton is demonstrating that he is becoming less and less of an observer in my life and more of a participant. Welcome to the world Ashton!


And little Miss Kate, well, she is just a world of personality all balled up into one amazing red-head! She was doodling today with a random pen and paper she found when she suddenly busted out into a garbled song coupled with motions toward the paper and a huge smile. I realized she had come very close to what I can only assume was an accidental almost perfect "A" and was singing "A,B,C,C,D,la,la,T,W,la,la,now,I,la,la,Yea!" She really understands and comprehends so much more than Paul & I give her credit for. She is on the verge of conversing and I simply cannot wait to hear what she has to say!

Daddy's Little MVP

What could make Paul happier than a child that L-O-V-E-S to watch basketball games? You see, the playoffs are on and every night Paul tries his hardest to watch any game he can. But, in this house the children rule the roost, and by roost, I mean remote control. So, you can imagine, Blue's Clue's always seems to make it's way on to the screen. But there has been a recent development that almost brings a tear to a dad's eye. Tonight, while Paul was stealing a look at a game's score Kate grabbed the nearest floor pillow, dragged it over right next to her Daddy and quickly plopped down while pointing and saying "Baket-ball daddy! Baket-ball! Yea!". She was very much into watching the game saying, "Hurray!" during either team's baskets and "Uh-oh!" when they missed. (This was a little unexpected as it was all done on Kate's own accord.)

While Paul is somewhat sad that neither Ashton nor I are ones to spend time watching sports on TV (although both Ashton and Kate REALLY enjoyed checking out a Steeplechase on tv the other day), I'd like to believe that his heart has been lifted when he realized he will have a Reid as a couch buddy when the sports seasons start.

Kate is very interested in and already VERY good at kicking balls, bouncing balls, throwing balls...but don't count Ashton out when it comes to athletics. My guess is he may shy away from team sports like soccer or baseball, but I anticipate we may have one heck of a golfer, swimmer or maybe even tennis player on our hands. Only time will tell!

Fly Me To the Moon

Fly Me To the Moon and Let Me Play Among the Stars...

Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars In other words hold my hand. In other words darling kiss me!

Fill my life with song And let me sing forevermore. You are all I hope for, all I worship and adore! In other words please be true. In other words I love you!

Join us on the moon! (Ashton, Kate, Angelique and I are already on board!)

Click here for NASA's http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/index.php

Send Your Name to the Moon Aboard LRO! NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the moon aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft. The Send Your Name to the Moon Web site enables everyone to participate in the lunar adventure and place their names in orbit around the moon for years to come. Participants can submit their information at http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/ print a certificate and have their name entered into a database. The database will be placed on a microchip that will be integrated onto the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008."Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I'm doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers," said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The LRO mission is the first step in NASA's plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?"The orbiter, comprised of six instruments and one technology demonstration, will provide the most comprehensive data set ever returned from the moon. The mission will focus on the selection of safe landing sites and identification of lunar resources. It also will study how the lunar radiation environment could affect humans. NASA/GSFC LRO will also create a comprehensive atlas of the moon's features and resources that will be needed as NASA designs and builds a planned lunar outpost. The mission will support future human exploration while providing a foundation for upcoming science missions. LRO is scheduled for launch in late 2008. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is being built at Goddard. The mission also will be managed at the center for NASA's Explorations Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.Send Your Name to the Moon is a collaborative effort among NASA, the Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif., and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

F-U-N-achusetts - Part I

Where do I start? In the 4 days we spent visiting with my family in Massachusetts, we saw and did more things than we do in a month at home. (When Buddy heard the words "family" and "vacation", as evidenced by the photo, he tried desperately to join. I had to sadly explain that his 7.4lbs would tip us over the baggage weight limit but there's always next time.)

4/23/08 - Arriving
We departed for the airport at a very early hour of 4am to make a 6:40am flight. The kids were surprisingly well behaved, perhaps because they were half scared/half asleep. They loved taking the shuttle bus from long-term parking to the terminal and insisted, much to the dismay of our drowsy and under-caffeinated business traveling companions, on singing "The Wheels of the Bus". The plane ride went well, and both children were surprised when, upon boarding the plane, I whipped out child-sized backpacks stuffed full of Dollar Store finds and Wal-Mart treasures I had hidden from them. Our saving grace during the long boarding and taxi was a packet of truck/boat stickers that Ashton happily used to decorate a special green sippy cup. (I just didn't think he'd use all 100 and make layers on layers!) Kate enjoyed playing with her bumble ball for most of the way and loved the vibrations that happened with the pull of a string! (Thanks Auntie Neeker for introducing us to the Bumble Ball!)

Upon arrival for our connection in Philadelphia, we accidentally waited at THE WRONG GATE (it was a flight departing for Montego Bay, Jamaica) before realizing our mistake and rushing towards the correct gate. Now, if you've never been to the PHL, all I can say is the caterpillar layout, with it's endless gate "legs" is just insane. I don't care how many moving sidewalks that have, it was nuts. We finally arrived at our gate, red-faced and out of breath to then sheepishly discover we had an hour to kill. Thank goodness for the kid's area with all the great play structures! There was a huge kid-sized plane, baggage-car (the type you see on the runways zipping around delivering bags to cargo-holds) and all sorts of rocking chairs and benches for parents! This made the layover awesome and were actually sad to leave!

The 2nd leg of our journey was uneventful and our arrival in Hartford was great! The stars aligned in our favor when our luggage was the 2nd on the carousel and Dad was waiting right out side the door for us! Ashton gave him a great big hug with a "Hey Grandpa-pa!". I admit I was concerned Ashton would not remember him due to all the time that's passed between visits, but should have known better with that steel trap of a memory he's got! They were old pals in no time!

Kate was shy at first, hiding behind her Daddy's long legs, quietly emerging and obliging Grandpa-pa with a hug when he asked. She perked up quickly when she realized that in her vacation car seat, she could see clearly out the window that rolled all the way down! (In our van, the window rolls 2/3s of the way down only and she sits low in her seat.) Kate cracked us all up as we drove the back way to West Springfield, passing many CT farms, when she suddenly let out a VERY LOUD "Neigh!" when she saw a group of horses grazing in a field. I didn't even know she knew what sounds horses made! Quickly though, she began to tire and become inconsolable and so we requested to be dropped off at our hotel.

Kate fell asleep as we drove up to check-in and Grandpa-pa volunteered to lay down and keep an eye on her. After a VERY long morning, with stomachs growling, Paul, Ashton & I made a dash for Friendly's! For those of you who don't know it, Friendly's is always the 1st place any of the Southern branch of my family hits up when in New England. Man, I love the Cone Head!!

After Kate's quick nap in the room it was off to visit with Great-Grandma R! Kate had never met the 94 year old GGR and I was very excited she would get to. (See video of it here! http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/dawnelizabeth8i/ec1d4ecb35b1576fbba3fce86977bab0?index=2 ) I think it was love at first sight for Kate, as she lay in my arms staring at GG and quietly pondering what we discussed, enjoying "girl time" that spanned almost a century of experience! I am looking forward to sharing these memories with Katherine as she grows up, providing her with family roots that go deep to keep her firmly grounded as she grows towards the sky.

Ashton greeted GGR like an old friend, saying he loves her and giving her a hug and a kiss. My hope is that he remembered his previous visits and he and Kate will keep GGR close in his heart. You see, both of my children are Rossmeisls, true and true - proud, intelligent, stubborn and leaders. They are not afraid of speaking their minds, having an opinion or being independent. I cannot speak for the Reid side to them, as I am still figuring out what qualities Ashton & Kate carry from their father's side, but I can say that while they may look like spittin' images of their father, they act more and more like their mother every day.

Someday, But Hopefully Not Soon

Someday they will both take turns taking care of me, but hopefully not soon.

Someday my house will stay spotless, free of tiny hand prints on windows and doors, but hopefully not soon.

Someday I will have quiet mornings where I sleep in missing the
sound of "Hey Momma! Your awake!", but hopefully not soon.

Someday I will have more money in my bank account at the cost of less time with my children, but hopefully not soon.

Someday I will hear deeper voices discussing everything from politics
to music in place of higher pitched giggles and sequels of delight,
but hopefully not soon.

Someday there will be no toys to pick up because there is no one to
play with them, but hopefully not soon.

Someday they will not be constant interruptions, wanting to cuddle and read books or look at new discoveries, but hopefully not soon.

Someday they will be potty-trained and off to school and I will be sad that I don't have any little ones to buy diapers for, but hopefully not soon.

Someday I will have to let them go, free to live their own lives that will be
full of hard lessons learned, tearful times when I cannot console, boo-boo's I
cannot kiss away, and decisions I cannot make for them, but hopefully not
soon.

Someday I will look for my babies but find adults standing proudly in their places, but hopefully not soon.

Can't Wait to Take Ashton to See This! Care to join us?

Just a Little Off the Top Please!

Why oh why did I choose the morning of school picture day to attempt my 1st home haircut on Ashton? Maybe it was exhaustion taking the wheel for the little hour between getting them to school and going back to sleep...who knows? Sadly, it was Ashton's bangs that paid the hefty price of an attempt at saving some dough. (See photo)

I will say that I think the short bangs makes him look like photos I've seen of my mother at a young age.

The good of the disastrous attempt at saving money is during the emergency trip to Supercuts where Kate was able to get her 1st hair cut! She is a born "girl", trying out all the products while we waited, sitting very still during the cut, being into the whole experience! While not much did come off, her style is a bit evened out now and most of the flips are gone (can't quite call them curls, as they really didn't make it past the first bend).

It's a good thing that we immediately when on to get their photos snapped at school, as when we returned home the first thing Kate did after getting out of the car is fall flat on her face, giving herself a really horrible looking scrape/bump about a golfball size. The tough part was that today she took her class picture and will forever be immortalized as the rough and tumble girl of Room 1.

Also, Ashton has developed a GREAT friendship with Richard, our 4-year-old rough and tumble neighbor. Yesterday Ashton headed off to Richard's backyard to play while I made dinner and through the opened window I heard two bumpy sounding "Woah woah woah woah woah -- HAHAHAH!"s. When I walked quickly over to see what was going on, I witnessed the naked happiness that riding a big wheels down a bumpy hill only a 3 year old could share with his best bud.

Ashton further cemented their BFF status by insisting I buy for him not the blue croc-like shoes I thought would match most of his clothes, but the fire-engine red Lighting McQueen shoes that Richard also was the proud owner of. (See photo below)

I am so happy Richard and his family moved on to our street, they are going to have such a great summer together! Now...if only a little girl would move in!

Pigs & Poultry

Kate's bath times are turning out to be much calmer and more of a learning environment now that we have started bathing her apart from Ashton. In the bathtub there lives a green duck and a pink duck. (Ashton has christened the pink duck "Uncle Scotty" and the green duck "Ashton".) Tonight Kate got great joy out of sending the two ducks down the slope of the back of the bathtub saying "Weady, Set, WHEEEEEEEEE!" before gently pushing them down the slide. I hope this gives her courage to send herself carefully down our own little orange slide on her own, as her cautious side has prevented her from sliding down face first.

She also is learning to role play with the ducks, while I show her the ducks can hug, kiss each other and say "Ello Governor!" back and forth. I wonder if I am confusing her by using an English accent during the role play...oh well! As long as she gets the fact nice and gentle are the way of the world vs. hitting and biting everything.

Kate is also becoming very good at letting me know her preferences, saying "No drink!" and "No bed!" and "No socks!". She is verging on the edge of the Terrible Two's, but I'm beginning to wonder if the only reason it is so terrible is because I am loosing all my parental control over her. While it is easy to have a life free of argument and full of compliance, how boring it would be. So, while in the throws of tantrums and back talk, I must try to remember I am raising a person, not a robot, and will be proud of her opinionated defiance as I am putting her in timeout!

Ashton has been a messy human being since I can remember. He's a messy eater, messy dresser, messy painter, messy drinker, messy messy messy! He has never cared if his hair is out of place or if he has chocolate on his hands, but tonight I think we have had a break through! We have been reading "Pigsty" by Mark Teague and it may have made something click in that little brain of his!

The story is about a little boy that refuses to clean up his room to the point where his mother tells him "Fine, if you wish to live in a pigsty, then fine!" Shortly thereafter a pig moves in, followed by another and another and another. The boy is happy at first to be able to leave his room messy and play with Monopoly late in to the night with his new roommates, never picking up the pieces. But over time, the room begins to smell and the pigs are making the mess worse, so the boy calls a local farm, has the pigs hauled away and proceeds to clean up his room. Ashton seemed very interested in this story, so after walking across books to reach his PJs for the 5th day in a row, I told him "That's it. The pigs will be moving into this pigsty soon since it's so dirty." This really got his attention. He immediately dropped to the floor and started cleaning up his books, instructing me to help him "so the pigs don't come Mommy!".

Now I have begged, pleaded, bribed and threatened him in order to produce a clean room. So, after all that, I must admit I was dumbfounded to see him actually begin to pick up when I hadn't really done that much to start it. His room is now clean as a whistle and he even got mad at me for leaving the story I read him on his chair, getting quickly out of bed with a "Tisk tisk" and putting the book on the shelf. My love of books has grown 3 times as much today and I hope that Paul reads this and sees why reading is so important!

{Ok, I would like to add 2 days after writing this, as I wrote this previously then saved it in draft, Ashton wakes up each night 2-3 times crying. We've regrettably come to find out it is because he fears the "pigs" are coming in his room to get him. GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. Now what? :p}

An Imaginations's First Flight

Tonight, while putting Ashton to bed, we read the appropriately titled book "I'm Not Sleepy". The tale is a story within a story, beginning with a little boy, Alex, being put to bed by his father with a bedtime story. In the tale Alex walks through a jungle, (Alex in the real world walks to the bathroom to get a drink of water), drinks from a lake (Alex in the real world uses the potty), then is chased by a "Thingamajig". The Thingamajig chases Alex up a tree, where he escapes by grabbing on to the moon. It is only on a breeze that Alex floats back to his house landing in his bed and falling asleep. I've read "I'm Not Sleepy" to Ashton only a few times, as we just got it from the library last week and Ashton was VERY concerned by the pictures in the book. He's had a great misunderstanding that Alex is falling through the air.
After explaining to him tonight that Alex is not falling, but FLYING, Ashton showed me a wonderful side of his imagination. Without a word he got out of bed, solemnly raised his hands parallel to the ground and began to flap them up and down, explaining to me HE too was going to fly. I kept a watchful look as he scrunched his face up and flapped even harder, with a jump or two thrown in with hopes of lifting off. But, alas, no luck.
With the gloomiest of looks Ashton fell face forward on the bed in defeat. Ready to console him, I reached forward to rub his back, but my hand was quickly thrown off when he jumped up in the air with an "Ah-Ha!" look and said "Mommy, turn on the wind! Mommy, turn on the wind!", pointing to the switch on the wall behind me. Reaching up, I turned on the fan, to the highest of settings, and whirled around to see a quickly returned look of hope on his face with arms again flapping. After a minute or two, defeat slipped back on his face and his shoulders slumped once again.
My mind began to spin, wondering how to explain to my three-year-old the fine line between flying and floating, when he solved the problem for me. He let out a long sigh followed by a simple explanation, as if he were consoling me, "Mommy, I cannot fly. There are no wings on my back." and laid his head on his pillow to sleep.
I am so happy for him! While his body did not move an inch, his imagination soared tonight, high above any cloud and over the moon. Good night my darling.

Ashton and His "Moon"

Peter Pan Amongst Us?

Today as Ashton finished his breakfast, he noticed the early morning sun peaking through our window that sent a ray of light upon our wall. While passing into the ray, he noticed an interesting phenomenon appeared. He asked me what that was, and after trying my best to explain the blurry duplicate before him, he waved at the shadow. Of course, the shadow waved back, bringing a fit of astonished giggles from Ashton. Then there was the mutual jumping up and down - giggles, the dual reaching up high - more giggles and the touching the shadow's head - even more giggles.
But the giggles stopped when Ashton told the dark image "Come on Shadow! Let's go!", but alas, the shadow could not follow into the darkened stairway. Ashton came back, checked on the shadow's well being, then again tried to bring Shadow upstairs again to play. He tried to yell at it, force it, even muscle it where he wanted to go, but that stubborn ol' Shadow just would not listen.
Ah...Shadow turned out not only to be a physical replica of Ashton's shape, but also of the very things that define him, inside and out!
Lately Ashton's been having some nighttime fears, so tonight I plan to give him a flashlight to use in making more shadows to play with tonight. Since he appears to be up anyways, at least he'll be up playing with and not fearing the darkness.