Merry Christmas!!

This will be my last post for awhile. We are leaving today after work to go to Indiana and spend Christmas with our families. I hope you all have a great time with friends and family this Christmas. These are Kaiya's Christmas/9 month pictures. What a cutie! :)

By the way -- the cat dilemma is worked out. We are going to take Money Bags with us and keep him in Laura's basement until we head to my parents. Then he will go home with Tony on the 27th.

I'm definitely feeling stressed out. Tony is picking me up from work and we are leaving from here, so I was running around like a madwoman last night trying to get organized and packed. I never seem to be able to get everything done. Then this morning I shut my alarm off instead of snoozing it. So I woke up about 40 minutes before I needed to leave for work. Thankfully -- good ol' Ruthie will come through for me. She is watching Kaiya today at the house and I have given her the job of packing Kaiya's bag. And a few other jobs... :)

Time management -- something I'm still working on...

Christmas Travel Dilemma

Okay... it's come down to this. A dilemma for our holiday travel plans -- What to do with Money Bags (the cat)? When we got Money Bags, we decided to get a cat because they are easy to leave alone when you go out of town. However, our extremely social cat loves to ride in the car and go on trips with us. So... for the past 3 years, we have taken him with us. This year, my mom's house has turned into a zoo and Money Bags, being the big dominant male cat is not wanted for fear that he might eat the other cats. Shocking, I know...

No -- to be fair to my mom... she has the two dogs, Kali (Money Bags sister), a new cat Squeaky (who is very petite), and then Ruthie will bring her cat LuLu along. So it really is a zoo. And Money Bags does think he is in charge when he comes. The other part to the dilemma is that we are first going to stay with Tony's family. As I posted earlier, his mom's dog was beat by intruders a couple weeks ago. So I'm not sure what the dog would think of us bringing $bags to his house. Honestly, I'm kind of afraid Tido might eat Money Bags. And my mom said we could bring him, as long as we took him with us to Laura's and didn't just drop him off at her house for the full week.

So... here are our options:

1) Provided my neighbors are going to be in town and willing: Leave $bags at the house and have the neighbors feed him.

2) Board him at Petropolis for $10.50 per night. I would do this in a heartbeat, however, the new cat suites are all reserved. So he would have to go in the old one and it is 2.5 cubic ft. Kind of a tight space for a guy who is used to running the house.

3) Threaten Tony's mom that we won't bring Kaiya unless we can bring Money Bags, and then keep him contained in her basement away from Tido while we are there. And then once we go to my mom's house keep him contained there.

4) Convince my mom to keep him contained in one of her basement rooms while we are at Laura's.

So much thought for the beloved cat. :) I'm sure Tony will have something smart to say in response to this long post about "the cat." But I don't care. I love him...Money Bags, that is...

WARNING!!

Opening freezer while barefoot can pose great risk to your toes!!

Friday a package of frozen chicken falling from the freezer broke my little toe. I even iced it up real good on Friday night -- but the damage was already done. By Saturday I was lovely shades of black and blue. Don't worry -- I was able to go to work today. :) ha ha... I'm just limping a bit in shoes. Poor Rachel...

This is the life...

Tony and I have decided that this is the life! Kaiya has mastered the no-hand-feed. She loves to run her fingers through her hair or mama's hair while she is eating, and she figured out how to do this while eating with both hands. :)

Time for a post!

I've had a busy week at work -- nice for a change! :) As a result, I've been less diligent about posting on the blog. I took a couple cute pics this weekend that I thought I would post. We went to the mall on Saturday and Kaiya is getting much more interested in her surroundings. I was standing near a family and the little kids had balloons tied to their stroller. Kaiya noticed their balloons and started kicking her little legs and sqeaking. A definite sign that our shopping trip would go much smoother if I could find a balloon for her. :) Thankfully the balloons were being given out just around the corner. She was so delighted with her balloon. And played with it for quite awhile when we got home too. In this first picture, she got the string stuck between her toes, so wherever Kaiya went, the balloon followed. She thought it was the greatest thing!

This picture is great. Tony's dad gave Kaiya a doll that came with a hair net. I snuck it on her head -- Tony & I think Kaiya has a promising future as "The Lunch Lady."

Little Cindy Lou Who

Today I begin my practicum hours. Yesterday I went to the site and met with my practicum supervisor. I'm good to start my hours whenever I want and it's pretty laid back. I just show up whenever to do them. So... I have the day off of work today to do them. After a quick e-mail check I'll be heading out. I'm really looking forward to this -- it will grow me as a counselor.

Last night I took Kaiya to get her Christmas and 9 month pictures. They turned out super good. Like usual, I ordered way too many of them. They come back December 19th.

I took one of my own in her Santa suit with the infamous Grinch. I thought it was pretty cute. :)

Our Weekend

Well, what a very interesting few days we have had. Starting on Thursday with the ice/snow storm that came through. I was able to leave work at noon on Thursday and then went home as the freezing rain came down. The rain continued until 2 a.m. and then changed to snow. So... by the time the snow started we already had about 2 inches of ice covering everything. Friday was a snow day for both Tony & I. We stayed in all day, but took Kaiya out in the yard to see her first snow. She had limited mobility in her snowsuit, but she was curious about it. Saturday was a big day. I was taking the bus (www.megabus.com) to Chicago to see some friends. The ride there was great and Kaiya was really good on the bus. Enjoyed the afternoon with my friends and then around 5 I started feeling terrible. It was the full blown flu by 7 p.m. and I was in Chicago with Kaiya. :) My sweet friends took care of Kaiya (and me) all night while I was in bed. Tony booked me a flight home the next morning, as the 5 hour bus ride was not sounding too good w/ the flu and baby. :) Got back to St. Louis at noon and then headed home to bed. I spent most of yesterday in bed and I'm home from work today. Kaiya is at the sitter's so I can rest. Not the best weekend I've had... but it could have been worse.

Worse would actually be Tony's mom's situation. Last week her house was burglarized. They took everything of value -- and all the presents under the tree! And she had most of her shopping done and under the tree. They beat up the dog and trashed the place. Anyway... here is the video from the tv newstation that came to interview her. She's doing better now, but how scary!!

http://www.wndu.com/news/headlines/4807361.html

Finally, here are the Kaiya pics from the snow. And one of her standing up on the chair. She is much more interested in standing up on things, than she is on crawling around. Wonder when we will have a walker? She can hold onto the couch and get from one end to another end by holding on. So it could get crazy around here in the next couple of months!

It isn't quite as clear as I hoped, but on this picture with me holding Kaiya, the moon is in the sky. It was about 4:30 p.m. when we took the picture... I just thought the sky was so pretty.