happy fall=)

hi love=)

it's been a fun fall so far=) let it be written that i am somewhat enjoying the cooler weather (but after 1 month of the cold i'll be ready for summer) and it makes me giddy to drink apple cider and make chili and cuddle on the couch. but what i REALLY want to do is put up our christmas tree=) we got a new village and train to put around our tree and i CAN'T WAIT to put it all up and watch you play with it. i can guarantee you that will be before thanksgiving.

speaking of fall, sara and daryl came to visit us a few weeks ago! (sara LOVES fall) here's a picture of you snuggling with them. you think you like them just a little bit? ;)

yesterday when we were riding in the car you started telling me about how the leaves change color in the fall and that y'all talked about that in school=) i tell your teacher ms michelle when you do things at home that y'all learn at school, and she just about starts crying=) that makes me love her, that she obviously is so proud of you too...did i tell you about the school situation?? i can't remember..but the first school we tried here wasn't so good, so after about a month we changed to another one that was right across the street and it is WONDERFUL!!! and that is a huge part of why the transition to georgia is getting better-i can actually enjoy my job that i like so much because i know you are happy when i'm away from you. i definitely couldn't say that while you were at your other school, so it makes me breathe a huge happy sigh of relief that where you are now is loving and nurturing and you get treated pretty close to the way you get treated when you're at home. but maybe with a few less kisses.

a few weeks ago we went camping with uncle keith and aunt elaine and grandypa-your mama is not a natural lover of camping, because i prefer showers and toilets, but it really was lots of fun! i was so hesitant to go, but it was one of your daddy's favorite childhood memories so i figured i should muster up some courage and eagerness and make it happen. so we did. and we loved it. it was such a great time being with elaine and keith, who we don't get to see too often, and grandypa was great showing you the campfire and entertaining us with his antics...thanks aunt elaine for all the sweet pictures!

and then we went to a pumpkin patch with uncle kelly and aunt misty and cousin hazel. lots of fun!

and here you are all dressed up in your halloween costume=) this year you were jessie the cowgirl from toy story. we can thank my sweet friend christi once again for such a great costume-mommy is nowhere near that crafty!! you loved dressing up and telling people that you were jessie=) and we loved watching you strut around knowing you were so cute=)

it's probably not a shocker that christi made this cute little fall outfit for you too=) thanks again christi!! i'm not sure where my sweet girl would be without you, at least in the fashion sense=)

this is of us dressing up our pumpkin like a turkey...

and here we are loving on each other=)



and here you are looking awesome after you put on everything you could find in your dress-up drawer...

that's all for now love. i love you so much and am loving watching you grown and learn and get smarter and smarter every day=)

mommy

food...and a wedding

i have been a royal failure at this letter-writing/blog-posting business over the last few months. i blame it on the harder than anticipated transition to atlanta. (but it's getting easier! yay!) we do little things here and there and i used to be good at posting pictures as we do things, but not so much here lately. i will try to be better.

i was also thinking about how i am not good at making "lists" of what you're doing at different ages. you know how sometimes moms will make a list of what their kid is doing at 4 months or 12 months and stuff like that? i'm not good at it. i think it stresses me out to make an all-inclusive list that will most definitely not be all-inclusive. i will inevitably forget things. it's the perfectionist in me and i'm fighting her every day. but the subject of you and food is always on our minds, so the other day i thought i could make a list of some of your favorite foods as of late (notice i said "some" of your favorite foods...which makes it ok if i forget some items...this perfectionism is a sickness i think...) but here it is, nonetheless...

catherine's favorite foods at 3 years old:

-mushrooms. always always mushrooms. everything i make, you will ask me if there are mushrooms in it.
-broccoli. you eat this like candy. at grandypa's house a month or two ago you kept dipping broccoli in mashed potatoes and eating it like an ice cream cone. that-a-girl=)
-grapes. one of your favorite things to do is eat grapes and call gigi. we did it once and now you think that if we are gonna be eating grapes, we need to be talking to gigi. gigi likes this.
-lollipops. lots of items have come and gone from your favorite food list (beans, in particular; you tell me that you don't like them anymore) but lollipops have been an ever present item.
-asparagus. you eat them like french fries.
-green beans. you also eat these like french fries.
-french fries. you eat them like french fries=)
-chicken wings. this makes your parents so happy. you eat these like a trucker-not leaving a single smidgen of meat on the bone. this is also how your daddy eats chicken wings.
-spaghettios. because sometimes mama needs a break from cooking.
-graham crackers.
-scrambled eggs. this is another one of the few items that have been on the list since you first started eating real food.
-you like to "lick gum". you eventually ask me if you can chew it, but mostly you know i only want you to lick it.
-water. you won't drink much of anything else.
-puffs. those baby puffs. you love 'em. you used to steal all of max's puffs every time we'd be in their apartment. they probably keep their pantry stocked for longer now that we don't live upstairs...but that makes me sad=(

and the only thing that has consistently been OFF your favorite food list is:
-onions. i hear ya sister.

and there you have it. a list of "some" of catherine's favorite foods at 3 years 2 months old=)

love you baby girl. and i'm still so proud of you for eating. daddy and i can't get over it sometimes=)

mama

ps. blog posts without pictures make me sad. so here are some pictures from when we went to erin sutton's wedding back in july. it was outside, in birmingham, and as i mentioned before, it was july. we were very very hot. but we had lots of fun seeing lots of family friends and hanging out with the davis side of our family. love 'em. don't seem them nearly enough. and here are some pictures:

you and aunt misty

the davis "kids": your aunt elaine, uncle keith, you, your mama, your daddy, aunt nikki, aunt misty, cousin hazel and uncle kelly

i thought this picture was appropriate for the post about food, considering you have some getting ready to fall out of your mouth...

you and me. and mama debbie behind me. shaking our groove things in the conga line=) look how excited you are!! you definitely love to dance. daddy always says, "that girl loves to dance. just like her mama. we're in trouble."

my big 3 year old girl

oh goodness. there are a million things to say. and i think i keep putting off writing this letter because i'm afraid i'll forget things. which i no doubt will. and none of these things are monumentally important, but i just like to have a little record of what happens with us....so here we go.

you turned 3 and we had a super fun birthday party=) some might argue (myself included) that a slip-n-slide lacks a certain "class" that i generally like to aim for...but the slip-n-slide was the hit of your party. that morning as daddy and arnold were setting it up, you kept falling on it and he slipped and cut himself and i was convinced it was gonna be a disaster and what was i thinking ever wanting to have this be part of a 3 year old's birthday party??? but it was most definitely a success=) here are pictures:

happy girl on your actual birthday=)

you and gigi made a bunny cake=)

you and your "baby doctor" - you had been asking if you could have it for weeks!

birthday party!


my loves


i think this smile is hilarious=)

you and that cousin of yours love each other SO MUCH!!! we wish anna cate could have been here to join in all the fun...

maxy-moo

major was the master of the slip-n-slide

you and hazel having a talk about slip-n-slide strategy=)

beautiful hazel girl

miley trying her hardest to just get a kiss=)

jackson enjoying the mud puddle caused by the slip-n-slide

max and catherine loving on rachel (there are two babies in her belly and we are so excited!!!)

talented aunt nikki made your dora cake=)

two beauties=) this might be my favorite picture ever of you and aunt nikki.

the two little davis princesses

moving on...you like to tell everybody that you are 3, and hold up your 3 fingers. not the conventional 3 fingers, but the 3 fingers that get held up when you make the "a-ok" sign with your hand. and then you like to tell me that "mama! there's a hole in it!" (meaning the little hole that your index finger and thumb make...i love the inner-workings of your brain=)) there was a picture of it up there where you and daddy and jackson are showing us how old you are...

you are OBSESSED with all things babies these days. several months ago i asked you if you would ever want a baby brother or sister and you said no twice, but ever since then you say "i want a baby brother AND a baby sister" and that has been your answer every single time we talk about it. i don't even bring it up anymore, but it's still a part of our every day conversation because apparently you think about babies all the time. you always ask if you can go to the store with gigi and get "that thing" you saw for your babies. (you and gigi saw some kind of crib or something in sam's, and you haven't forgotten it) you always tell me that you are going to bring your babies passies and diapers and bottles when they get here, and when we pass toys in the store you say that you think your babies would like that. no, i'm not pregnant. i feel like that's an important note to make. but if you had it your way, i would have at least two babies growing in my tummy right now. actually you'd probably prefer to snap your fingers and the babies would just appear. i don't think you're going to be very patient with the 9 months of waiting. but you go around telling people that mommy and daddy are having new babies and you pretend to give your babies (both baby doll and invisible baby) pretend pacifiers and bottles and you still tell us most mornings what baby you are that day: baby lion, baby kitty cat, baby piggy, baby puppy, baby inchworm (my favorite), or just plain baby, which we can only assume to mean human baby. you tell me that you can't walk yet in the cutest most pitiful voice and so you go crawling around on the floor. you tell me that i'm the baby and you're the mommy and you say "baby? what's wrong baby? just talk to me..." and daddy and i can't quit laughing wondering where you got "just talk to me...". and when you're the mommy you rub our face and pretend to pick us up and tell us it's ok but then you whisper for us to cry when you leave the room. and we obviously do as we're told. you pretend that the little mushroom in your play kitchen is a passy and you walk around with it in your mouth all the time. i'm a little worried that, whenever we do get you a real baby to play with, i'll find his/her pacifiers in your mouth...either way, this is a super fun stage and i hope you still love babies when we add another one to our family=) and if we ever have twins, which don't really run so strong in our family, i will give you full credit and call you a prophetess. (also-our friends lance and rachel are pregnant with twins. what a fun story that is for another day. well, it's not my story to tell, but it's still a GREAT story. they live in clemson, and before we moved we were with them pretty often, and you got familiar with the fact that there were two babies in her tummy. that's all i can figure out with your obsession with two babies...maybe you think that's the norm???)

a few weeks ago you had a little cold and you were coughing all-night-long again. so around 2 or 3am for a few nights in a row you would start your coughing fits and i tried this and that and finally realized that if i got you up and put you on the couch, gave you some cereal to eat out of a bag, got your cup of water and turned on mary poppins, you eventually stopped coughing. i don't know if it was the change in temperature from your room to the den, or the propping you up just a little bit more than usual, or if mary poppins truly is magical, but it worked. and it turned into one of the sweetest times for my girl and me. this is a BIG deal for me to say, because mommy sure does like her sleep. but we would snuggle and it didn't hurt that mary poppins happens to be one of my favorite movies=) and then another thing i have been dreaming of kind of evolved out of that: during the day you have started snuggling into my little wing (that's what daddy calls having your arm around somebody) and eating ice cream with me while we watch mary poppins. i can't even begin to describe how blissfully happy that makes me=) you very rarely will sit through an entire movie, and you also very rarely want more than a few bites of ice cream, but those two things make mommy's top 5 list of things to enjoy so i'm glad you're finally joining me there=) oh - and sometimes when you're pretending you're different babies you will say that i am mommy poppins and you are baby poppins and daddy is daddy poppins. another happy way to make mary poppins a daily part of our life=)

we went to the lake for labor day-lots of fun-here are some pictures:

nay-nay showing some sass with the little girls on the jet-ski

i think you were talking to somebody up on the porch-and i think your little face is precious=)

i have no idea what's going on here or what caused you to make this face, but i love it=)

you and addy talking with the people on the porch-again, i'm not sure why the binocular eyes...

nathan posing with the girls

your daddy, posing with the girls

silly faces=)

you and your new buddy addy

you two played baby and mama all weekend long=) (look at sweet lily-just along for the ride=))

and the most eventful thing that came from that trip is that you no longer have a g-tube!!!! we had decided along with your doctors that it was time to take the thing out. we haven't used it in a couple months and you're finally eating like any other child your age. you might actually eat more than any other child your age, but you're a skinny scrawny little thing and you might just always be that way. my theory is that the 8 inches they took out of your intestines when you were a baby really has made a difference, and you don't absorb as much from your food as you should-basically, it just goes right through you most of the time. pleasant to think about, right??? but we were eating dinner one night at the lake and when you were finished i was helping you hop down from your chair-your tummy rubbed up against my arm and i felt your g-tube but that has happened before and it was no big deal-so you took off across the room and as i was going to check on your tummy and make sure the tube looked ok, megan pointed to the floor and asked if that was a big deal...well "that" was your g-tube on the floor, no longer in your tummy. so i sat like a deer in headlights for a total of 5 seconds saying "ok. well. i think that's ok. um." and then i realized that i am fully capable of making the decision that we just leave it out. i knew that in the office all we would do would be take it out and wait a few weeks and see if it needed to be surgically closed...and we could certainly just do that at home. i thought it was kind of a sweet little gift that we were able to do that at the lake of all places without really knowing it was even happening...but to reassure daddy, and myself, i talked to dr carter (your new pediatrician and my boss) and sweet lindsay from uva talked to dr rodgers (your surgeon in virginia) the next day and we all decided that yes it was indeed ok to leave it out! it's been about a week and a half and it does seem to be leaking just the tiniest bit, so we'll go see GI one of these days soon and decide how to close it up. i wish so so much that you wouldn't have to be under general anesthesia for this but i'm guessing you'll have to be. we'll manage=)

a random fun moment the other day was when we were playing at home and you looked up at me and said: "mommy-how were you feeling at work today?"...i'm guessing this is because i ask you every day how you were at school, but i still thought it was so very intuitive and sweet for a 3 year old=)

remember how papa has cancer? things have kind of gone up and down but in a general downward pattern...we've gotten to see him a few times and on the day he decided would be his last sunday preaching, we along with a lot of cousins went to hear him. it was a sweet sweet day, and i think it meant a lot to him=) here are a few pictures of that:

he sat down the whole time, but he got through the sermon!!

uncle david and cousin keith helped him sing the songs during worship

a handful of papa's great-grandkids that were able to come see him that day

uncle nathan being silly...

so lady-like=)

ok sweet angel. that's all for now. i will try so hard to keep you updated more often than this one was...the transition to life in atlanta has been a little bit more difficult than i expected; mostly, i usually work slightly longer hours and it simply takes longer to get home from anywhere, so i have less time to play, or type. and when i'm home i want to be hanging out with my sweet girl, so the blog has taken a back seat. but i will try to do better=)

i love you baby girl-

mommy

ps-the other day you put your baby's stethoscope around your tummy backwards and started running around telling me you had a tail=) and then somehow you ended up with panties on your head with your hair sticking out the legs like pigtails. and here it is for your visual enjoyment...