Dear Mr. Rooster

So with all the sunny days we have been having, Virginia and I have been spending time outside playing. Virginia loves getting outside and running all over the yard and driveway. She enjoys playing with the rocks and climbing the porch stairs. What can I say she is easily amused.

Wednesday as we were outside playing on the porch. I caught something out of the corner of my eye coming up the driveway. I was expecting one of the neighborhood dogs, but to my surprise it was a ROOSTER! Not what I thought I would see coming up my driveway. I took a double take and quickly grabbed Virginia. I knew the first thing she would do is run after it and try to give it a hug. The rooster came all the way up the drive and to the porch. Mr. Rooster must be someones pet because I was amazed how close it got to us.

The best part of Wednesday was that night watching my neighbor attempt to catch Mr. Rooster. Here is a grown woman and her daughter running circles around their house chasing Mr. Rooster with a blanket. I was just curious what their plan was once they caught Mr. Rooster.

So it has been three days now that our neighborhood has adopted Mr. Rooster. Even has beautiful as Mr. Rooster is I am not enjoying the morning wake up calls from Mr. Rooster.  Usually I hear him around 7:00am and later. Some neighbors have said they hear him at 3:00am. So I guess it is time to try to find Mr. Rooster a new home. I am hoping my father in law knows a nice farmer that needs a new rooster. If not I will be calling animal services soon. It will be sad to say goodbye to Mr. Rooster, but I will enjoy my quiet mornings again soon.

Also I have posted a ton of photos on my facebook page of Virginia playing in the sun. To many to post on my blog so surf on over and check them out.

Sharing is Caring

Sharing, in this case, is far from caring. Last week, Reiggin started to feel bad and came home with a nasty head cold. Which, as you all know, once one person in the household is sick, it usually means everyone in the household is going to get sick. I was second in line for the nasty head cold. Then, come Monday when Virginia woke up, I knew something wasn't right.

She got up at her usual 7:00 a.m. but she was super calm. This is not like Virginia. She is usually either a little cranky or wide awake and ready to go watch some cartoons. Monday morning, all she wanted to do was lay on my chest and not move. Virginia is also not the most cuddly child. Don't get me wrong, she does like giving the occasional hugs and pat pats, but most of the time she is too busy to stop. I also noticed that she was breathing really fast and wheezing. I waited about an hour then decided to go wake up Reiggin and ask his opinion. I am known to be the worrying mom. Reiggin suggested taking her temperature and taking a warm bath. So I took her temperature and she was normal. But then she really was looking down so I made the decision to go ahead and call the doctor. I believe in being safe and not sorry.  We managed to get an appointment with one of the doctors for that morning.  Poor Virginia. The whole time from 7:00 a.m. to about noon, when we finally saw the doctor, she didn't move from my chest. 

The doctor looked her over and told us Virginia had RSV. Which, for adults, is nothing but a nasty cold, but for infants and toddlers, it causes major breathing problems. The doctor prescribed some medicine and also told us we needed to do breathing treatments with Virginia. Even though the nebulizer for the breathing treatment is a super cute panda, Virginia still doesn't want to have anything to do with it. She is starting to warm up a little bit to the treatments but it is a slow pace. Usually, once I pull out the nebulizer and mask Virginia runs off to the farthest corner and hides. We did have some success tonight; Virginia actually held the mask up to her face all by herself. 

So the doctor saw us again on Wednesday and told us Virginia is looking much better. We still have to do breathing treatments for two weeks but only twice a day now.

The major bummer to this whole story is that since the RSV virus is so contagious, Virginia and probably all of us are going to have to stay away from all children for about a month. Yes, I said one month. Not a couple of days but a month. I am not happy at all about this but like my doctor told me, you don't want to be one of those moms that infects the whole playgroup. Moms don't like moms that get their kids sick. So looks like we are going to miss out on all the fun March events on my moms' website. Also, we will miss seeing Samantha and the big 30 event for Susan. Thank goodness we have Skype. I have to see my cute niece somehow. 

Hopefully, within a month, we will all be better and maybe we will need to throw a getting-out-of-quarantine party.

Hina-matsuri

my little baby girl September 22, 2008

On the third day of the third month, it is traditional in Japan to celebrate Hina-matsuri, or Girls' Day — a day for wishing all little girls health, growth and happiness. I just learned about this holiday like a minute ago. I was trying to drown out the noise of the Duke game that Reiggin is watching by browsing Etsy. Oh and Go Maryland kick some Blue Devil butt! Anyway I was looking though Etsy and I came upon this article by Heather about Hina-matsuri. You should take five minutes and read the whole article.

Basically it is the third day of the third month, traditionally in Japan, a day of celebrating little girls. How awesome is that. I think this would be a great holiday to celebrate with any little girl or beautiful woman. Now that I know more about it I will plan to celebrate next year with Virginia.

One of the traditions for this holiday is to give your little girl a set of hina-ningyo dolls.  I just love the idea of celebrating little girls and wishing them health, growth and happiness for the year to come. Passing down a set of dolls sounds sweet too. To think something I give Virginia now, she could pass down to her children one day just seems sweet. 

One amazing photo in the article is a shot of a ton of paper dolls floating down a river. They set paper dolls afloat down the river to carry away bad spirits. I think this would be a fun craft project to do with Virginia.

I think I would add a tradition to this day and make it a day of learning about strong women though out history. This way Virginia could learn how strong women can be and if she puts her mind to it she can do anything.

I would just like to wish all the beautiful, wise, courageous, little girls, and Mom's in my life a happy Hina-matsuri.

Hide and Seek

We have a hider on our hands.  I was washing the dishes this morning and noticed Virginia was up too something. I turned and saw her hiding one of her books in the tupperware cabinet. Then she went and grabbed the car keys off the table and put them in the pots cabinet. I just had to giggle when she noticed me  watching and quickly shut the cabinet door. I wish I had been able to take a picture, but she quickly moved on to something else once she saw me watching.

Virginia is becoming more and more adventurous day by day. She is also losing some of her shyness. She still takes some time to warm up to new people, but she is improving. We were at the consignment store in Hickory on Monday. They have a closed in area where kids can play with blocks as the parent shops. Virginia jumped in and started playing as I watched her. She was by herself at first then a little boy came climbing over the wall. I thought for sure Virginia would jump up and start whining for me to pick her up. To my surprise she started giggling and waving her arms. She even started to pickup blocks and hand them to the little boy to stack. It was so adorable.

That night we were in search of new shoes for Virginia. We started at the consignment store in Hickory hoping to find a good deal. We didn't have much success. We did come out with a pair of blue sandals, hair clip, and a new book. Off to Babies R Us thinking they would have a huge selection. We were wrong in assuming Babies R Us had a huge selection. They only had like two racks. I was a little sad, but we moved on to Shoe Carnival. Success, we find a very cute pair of pink Sketchers. Shoe Carnival had a small back wall of shoes. I was shocked at some shoes that were meant for babies and toddlers. They had clear high heeled shoes, the kind you would think strippers would wear. I mean really who is going to put their baby or toddler in high heeled shoes.

Reiggin was off again on Tuesday so we headed back to the playground for some fun. It was a lovely day not to hot and not to cold. Virginia had a blast on the slides, swings, and duck. Reiggin had lots of fun getting to use his new camera capturing shots of Virginia and I on the playground. I am really amazed at how much better pictures our new camera takes. They are ten times more clear and crisp then my old camera. The real challenge now is to see if Reiggin can teach me to use the manual setting on the camera. Yes I took two photography classes in college and I should know how to use the manual settings, but honestly I do not remember anything that I learned in those classes.

Well that about wraps up our week so far. Friday should be a great day. Grandma and Grandpa Ford are going to babysit Virginia as we head off to the Jim Avett CD Release Party. Yes we are going to the Avett Brother's father's concert. What can I say we love all things Avett!

Virginia's World

Dreamer

I have always believed that I am a dreamer. I constantly dream of things that I would like to do. There is always a laundry list of craft projects floating around in my head. Doing freelance design has always been one of those dreams in my head ever since I graduated college and got my first design job. I knew that I wanted to get married, have children, and be able to work from home so I can take care of my kids.

I finally decided to really make a go at my dream of being a freelance designer. I know it is not going to be easy. I know that I won't be making millions if thousands the first year. I am just glad that I will be back working in design. I have created my website www.absolutelykathy.com. I still have some work to do on the site, but for the most part it is almost complete. I even made a fan page on facebook to get the word out.

So I started this project about a month ago and in all places a hair salon was where I got my first client. I have not had a haircut for like a year. So finally I decided I needed to find someone up here to cut my hair. I have only had two people since I was born cut my hair. I am just goofy like that about people cutting my hair. So I was sitting in this salon in downtown Troutman talking to the hair stylist when I hear the owner and front desk woman talking about needing to make a brochure. Some how I gathered up the courage to say I can make one for you guys. Amazing that the owner Tracy actually said sure go for it. I spent the next couple of days working on the design and finally came up with a design. I spent hours cursing at Photoshop and figuring out Illustrater again. In the end I finished the design and I am really happy with the outcome.

So with one project under my belt I look forward to the journey ahead. Even if I am not a success at least I can say I tried.

Hamster

Ok so I am bored and found this amusing on another blog. I figure you guys would enjoy it too. Yeah I know I need to get out more.