When coming to the sad realization that they were out of Ariel costumes, Katie decided on Jasmine. Of course, there was no way she’d wait till Halloween to try it on. PICTURE TIME. She was so funny. She made a different pose for each picture. For one of them (the angry face one with her arms crossed) she said, “This is what Jasmine looks like when she gets mad at Alladin” and for another (the kissy face pic) she said, “and this is what it looks like when she’s very happy with him.”

What on earth would I do without her??!

I’m in a Digital Imaging class right now and this was my final project for the first half of the semester. I’ll admit that I procrastinated more than I should have and waited till about 2 hours before class to start. BAD idea. The feeling of making yourself be creative is not pleasant. I have a horrible headache right now, probably induced by stress.

Arggghhh. Fortunately, I felt it was post-worthy.

My mom, my brother, my daughter and I went to visit my mom’s family in Ohio this last weekend. We had a great time catching up with them [I hadn’t seen most of them for about 12 yrs], meeting my cousin’s children for the first time, and introducing them to my daughter, Katie.

A bummer: the first night we arrived [a little after 10:30pm] we went straight to my aunt’s house. Katie’s been around dogs a lot since she was born so we didn’t think much of the two that live there. The bigger one is a Rottweiler and he was hanging around me and Katie in the living room. We were so glad to be off the airplane after an entire day of flights, that we were a bit hyper and playing around. Well, I think we scared the dog or something, cause out of nowhere, the dog attacked Katie! He first got her back and shoulder, then got her face. Without even thinking twice, I jumped on Katie and pushed the dog off her. He then chomped on my arm, giving me two teeth holes and a whole ton of bruises. As soon as my aunt pulled the dog off me, I looked at Katie’s face. I expected the worst, of course. But thankfully, he’d missed her eye by about 1/2 inch! She ended up with a 1 inch gash under her eye and a hole under her chin. Also, three holes in her back and shoulder.

We took her to the ER and she got two stitches. It was so hard for me to hold her hand and watch them give her shots so close to her eye, all the while she’s screaming and there’s nothing I can do! It’s such a horrible feeling to not be able to protect my little baby girl from pain and fear. I guess this is just preparing me for the many years of experiences - good and bad - that she’ll face. I won’t be able to protect her from everything, and it kills me to think of it.

We stayed at my cousin’s house that night and by the time we woke up the next morning, Katie was back to her playful, independent self. The family was all so supportive and helped to make the trip a pleasant one, despite the dramatic entrance.

We spent the last couple days at my Grandma’s house. She really enjoys spending time out on her back porch, so we went shopping and got her a couple bird feeders and my brother power washed the deck. He also did a few other small projects around the house, changing light bulbs and such.

I was also able to fit in a couple photoshoots while I was there. I’ll show you in another post.

I’ll post a few pics of the owies and also some from a few days afterwards to show the progress. She’s doing well, and so far still wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up ;)

Gross:

One more thing: I read an entire book this last weekend! If you know me well, you’d know that I’m not a reader. Every once in a while though, I’ll get a really odd desire to pick up a book and start reading [I usually don’t finish it though]. I’m going to try hard to make it a habit, I have to just not let myself think of the one billion other things I feel I should be doing instead.

Today was my little teeny tiny baby’s first day of Kindergarten! WHAT?! That is insane. I still feel like a child. In the car on the way there she said, “My dad asked me if I’m nervous. Why would I be nervous?” This girl is amazing. No fears in life. She went through the gate, put her backpack down, and ran off to recess with her very-soon-to-be friends.

Soon, it will be high school. Holy Moses.

A lot of pics:

We told her to stop growing but she didn’t listen.

Katie keeps asking me how many days till she’s in Kindergarten. As of today, its 12. Last night my mom took her [us] school clothes shopping. Before we went out I told her to “hurry and get dressed cause gramma’s coming to take us shopping.”

This is the outfit she chose to wear:

Yes, that is a firefighter t-shirt and a straight-out-of-the-eighties Baby Guess skirt [one of my thrift store finds]. I’m kind of thinking I should have her pick out my outfits every day. This CUTE GIRL will have boys lined up the street.

In 12 days, you’ll be seeing a post about Katie’s first day of school. She’s ecstatic.

Sunday, I went shooting in Castro Valley. My co-worker’s husband is a local artist/rapper and he wanted some promo shots.

Here’s me shooting & Katie playing. Thank you - Kerri - for the photo.

Yesterday I shot Rachel Goerke in Martinez. She’s a long time friend and fellow photographer.
I brought Katie along, so I had to get a few shots of her as well ;)

My daughter just graduated preschool. Not only did she get her cute little “diploma” but she also got the honor roll certificate for “Fastest Learner” in her class. I am soo proud of her! I mean…of course I think she’s amazingly brilliant! But for her to be recognized in class was awesome.

It’s been so fun watching her grow up and become this older girl. For her birthday, my mom bought her a bunk bed, and I changed her room into a “big girl” room by adding a pretty rug, some curtains on her closet, etc. It was all a surprise. I had her dad bring her over to see it tonight. We told her she had to go “clean her room” before she could have her present, and when she opened her door, that’s what she saw! She was soo excited about it. She kept showing off how she could go up and down the ladder all by herself without a problem. Ohman, I love her.

No way.

This morning, I could barely even pick Katie up to say bye before she left to head to her grandparents house in Morro Bay for the next few days. She’s getting so big! I kept telling her as soon as she turned 5, I wasn’t gonna carry her anymore. I guess its true, she’s 5 today.

We had a party over at her dad’s house yesterday to celebrate. A bunch of family and friends joined us for a bbq as the kids swam and played with Katie’s new punzies.

A special thank you to Yvette’s mom, Margarita, for the awesome birthday cake - Katie loved it!

Along with my parents working at/directing a rehab in Oakland most my life, they helped to construct a family camp. I have MANY memories of driving 3 hours to this piece of land a mile or two from the cute teeny tiny old fashioned town of Murphys to help my dad with new additions.

For example, laying the cement for this basketball court:

Also, building this gazebo and the dormitory behind it:

Last weekend, my mom and I decided to introduce Katie to this place where her mommy grew up playing. It was so fun to watch her run around on the same dirt I did.

Ewww [but kind of cute, if they weren’t dead]:

Also, a place my parents used to take us was Mercer Caverns. This was FUN. A cavern that goes about 16 stories deep into the ground, located less than a mile off the main street of Murphy’s. Katie loved it and of course wanted to climb all the STEEP stairs by herself. I probably had about 4 heart attacks, thinking she was gonna fall.

They like to say this is Rapunzel, after letting her hair down and being turned into stone by a witch:

And a jelly fish:

Katie & Gramma Linda:

And last one, Katie pretending to be scared: