Christmas 2007

Kate smiling proudly after decorating the gingerbread house
Hero helping to open his present
A rare sighting of Bart (with Hero)


Kate with her cash register. She is licking her lips with excitement
Kate ever-so-grateful for the cash register!




Boy, this is a Christmas to remember for sure. It started with Rosemary visiting the Friday before Christmas. I was at school with Kate, so Mel picked up Rosemary. Now, the night before, Mel was up all night puking her guts out. By the time she went to pick up Rosemary, she was getting worse, so Rosemary then drove her to the emergency room. She was so dehydrated that she took 3 IV bags!! So, even though she vomited all night, she still gained 10 pounds from all of the IV solution!! :-) I think Mel looks good with an extra 10 pounds.

Anyways, after an exciting evening in the ER and a diagnosis of food poisoning (from her work lunch the day before - NOT my cooking!), we were on our way to an enjoyable weekend.

Kate was a sheep in both her school Christmas play and the one at church as well. She was a great sheep. Perhaps next year we will work up to a speaking role.

On Saturday night, we took Kate to her 1st Chicago Bulls game!! We were so excited and convinced that she would love it. The seats were right down on the floor. Well, the music and speakers were SO loud, that it actually frightened Kate. So, we ended up sitting outside in one of the restaurants at the arena, eating fries. Mel and Rosemary enjoyed the game. Kate and I enjoyed it on the TV.

To ensure we never have a dull moment, we of course had a house fiasco. Mel went downstairs Christmas Eve to do laundry (because she constantly has to be doing something) and notice we had water - a lot of water - on the floor. The basement is finished, so this was not good. It was all in the carpet and in the various closets as well. Several pieces of furniture will probably bite the dust over this. We finally got a plumber to come out Christmas day to fix the problem. It was a bit of a disaster, though. We have spent the last couple of days having workers here digging up the flooring, cutting out walls, etc. Yes, never a dull moment.

Christmas was a blast, though, even though we had no water for a day. We were smelly, had bad hair and could not use the restrooms. But, we had fun hanging out and of course watching Kate opening up her many presents. She was so sweet after every present. She would talk about how it was what she always wanted and then want to play with it. So, after much nudging, she finally opened up her last present around 7pm Christmas night.

General Update

Just a few updates...

Kate is loving school. She can now write all of her numbers, her name and most letters. She is singing constantly. She is singing a lot of Hanukkah songs right now, which amuses us.

I am working at Kate's school today. This morning, I was about to get out of the bath-tub when Kate informed me that I needed to shave my legs. She said I should not have hairy legs for school. Nice. She also told me that she wanted all of my hair to be brown, to match my roots. And, that it needs to be longer. Wow. I am not sure how I feel about all of the style tips from my 3-year-old, but I am going to try them out. The next time you see me, I will have smooth legs and long brown hair.

And the acting update... Kate is going to be a sheep this weekend in the church Christmas play. It is a non-speaking role. I am a little worried, as expecting Kate to sit around in a sheep costume for a long time while not speaking should be something to see. I am the play videographer, so I will share this at a later time.

We just started with a house-cleaner, so I feel like a pampered princess now. Mel must have overheard that I was going to shave my legs, so now I am being rewarded... :-) Now I have more time to learn Kate's spanish and Hanukkah songs.

More soon...

Benny

Kate has a new best pal.  Actually, she calls him her cousin.  His name is Benny.  She wants to have a play-date with him EVERY day.  She might become a stalker when she grows up, as she will not let him out of her sight when they are together.  They met in the summer at a Messy Arts class and have been hanging out ever since.  Below are a couple of photos of Kate and Benny.  At Thanksgiving, we went to NYC.  We went to FAO Swartz and Kate adopted a baby there.  She named it Parker Benny.

Visiting Tamara's Parents

Kate and Great-Granny      Kate with new loot!         Kate and Great-Pappy     

Kate and I visited my parents for almost a week in mid-December.  It was a bittersweet time.  It was great to see my family (parents, grandparents, cousins, etc. all pretty much live in the same small area).  The sad part was that my grandmother was in the emergency room much of the time and was diagnosed with Stage II Alzheimer's over the weekend.  We visited my grandparents every day, so spending this much time with them was awesome.

We also had Christmas #1 with my parents, brother Calvin and his wife Virginia.  I was worried about the amount of stuff Kate received, but then her last present was a suitcase - genius!  So, we were able to carry the loot home on the plane.  Brilliant, Mom and Dad!

Below are a few more photos of Kate hooking up with a stranger at the bowling alley.  Cute kid. I think his name is Tyler.  She put nail polish, lip gloss, beads and a crown on him.  Not a good 
thing to do in rural West Virginia.  Most of the adults were appalled, but the two kids were
having a blast!

Nail polish application     Lip gloss application       Off to Royal Tea Party!!

My Life as Paris Hilton

Okay, i just had the best 3 nights of my life - in a row, anyways... :-)  And, let me just say that Mel's company is awesome!!  It paid for the entire weekend.  I felt like a star  

November 1st - My mom flies in to watch Kate.  I take the train downtown to meet Mel at the Ritz.  Our room there was awesome.  Pepsi fully stocked our room with lots of water and soda and gave us a huge gift basket (wine, chocolate, cheese, etc. - yum!).  After a long bath in the giant tub (with no kids toys), Mel and I were off to a great evening of drinks and dinner with her fellow team-mates.

November 2nd - I had to get up in time to have breakfast at the Ritz with Rachel and then off to my Ritz Spa treatment at noon.  I was rushed for time...  :-)  I had a wonderful time at the spa, including a great massage.  Mel got one, too!  Then, we were off for some shopping.  We had to be back in time for afternoon drinks before going to dinner on the 95th floor of the Hancock building.  What a view!!!!  The windows are floor to ceiling, so after a couple glasses of wine, I thought I was going to fall out of the building.  Then, we were taken to see Wicked.  What a phenomenal performance.  I loved every minute of the oh-so-clever production.  Afterwards, we went to the 96th floor of the Hancock building for drinks.  I am too old for this.  

November 3rd - A car service picks us up in the morning, as we are off to LA!!  
We go there for a celebrity charity event that Pepsi is sponsoring.  There were 
celebs there from Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, etc.  It was so much fun!!  I have never seenMelanie so extroverted.  After a couple glasses of wine, she went up to everyone tochat!  She went right up to Judith Light and told her she was her first crush!!  Veryfunny.  Judith hugged Mel and told her she was very flattered.

The next day, we flew home.  It was a fun time to live the high life for a
few days, butit was also wonderful to get back to our little Kate.  The
pets were especially happy to see us, as they acted like my mom
starved them to death.  Pigs.

Kate's Halloween 2007

Rosemary, Mel and Kate
Kate at her school
Kate on her way to trick-or-treat!

Kate had a big time this year for Halloween. She was Dorothy, as she is a bit fixated on the Wizard of Oz movie. She went to Charlie's birthday party, which was a costume party. I have a picture of Kate giving Charlie a kiss. He did not seem too interested in the kiss, but this did not stop her. The girl has good self-esteem.

Rosemary was in for Halloween, so she attended Kate's festivities at school and also took Kate trick-or-treating with Mel. Rosemary dressed up as the Wicked Witch.

Kate's new Vans

Thanks to Rosemary, Kate has a "hip" new pair of Vans. I think Kate has more shoes than us.

Kate's 3-year-old photos

We found a great photographer in the Chicago area. I HIGHLY recommend her. She even made me look decent, so she must be a pro. :-) Her name is Lesley Arlasky, and her link is over to the right. If you go to her link, click on "your story" and put in Lewis as the password, then you can get to our photos that we just had done. Of course, I love the story-board that she did above of me and little Kate.

Photo Update

Just wanted to post some initial photos of our family. Kate is our daughter and just started pre-school in September. She is the youngest in her class, and by far the smallest. Poor thing, she has my genes. Her latest thing to say when we tell her "no" is "Please, Mom, this is a hard time for me." She is also in Spanish classes and walks around the house speaking in Spanish. We have no idea what she is saying.

Hero (dog) and Bart (cat) are our pets. It has been a challenge keeping Kate's toys out of Hero's mouth. Of course, at times, it has been difficult to keep Kate out of Hero's mouth, too. Bart is difficult to capture on film, so stay tuned for a photo of him later. For a cat so large, you would think he could not hide. We just took Bart to the vet, as he was looking like he had a bad skin condition. We paid $55 for the Vet to tell us that he was just really fat, and therefore not cleaning himself. Okay, I thought being a lesbian meant that I would not have some fat old man living with me that I would need to groom. :-)

Spain - 9/07

We had a blast in Spain. We stayed at a fantastic resort in Marbella and traveled to Granada, Mijas, Ronda, Gibraltar and Morocco (see separate post for Gibraltar photos). I highly recommend all of the places we visited. I think our favorite was Mijas, though. We loved the views and the charm of the old town.

Our favorite might have been Ronda, but we nearly died on the way there - NO KIDDING!! If anyone has been to Ronda, then you know it is miles and miles of a windy, steep road to get there. Scary driving on it, for sure. Well, we were running out of gas, so we pulled over to get more. My Dad and Mel handled this task while Mom and I stayed in the car eating chocolate. It was a good time, given Kate was napping. Once we were fueled, we started back on our way. We were going down a pretty steep hill, coming to a very sharp turn. Then, Mel noticed the engine was off and she had no brakes and no steering capability. I think I saw the white light, as we should have been dead. All of a sudden, we noticed a small dirt road to the left, with no oncoming traffic, so I yelled for Mel to turn into this to stop. Thank God this worked. Then, Mel and my Dad hitched a ride back to the station to see what they did wrong and try to find some help. Well, leave it to us Americans. We put regular fuel in a Diesel car. Ooooops. The good news, besides being alive, is that it only cost us a couple hundred dollars to get the car towed and drained, new filters put in and our car refueled. I felt this was fair, given it was a Friday late afternoon. Oh, and thanks again Mom and Dad for paying... :-)

We did love Spain, though. The weather was phenomenal. And, Kate practiced her Spanish over there. She even practiced it in Morocco, although they speak French and Arabic. :-)

Gibraltar - 9/07

Here are some photos of us in Gibraltar this year. Kate loved the monkeys on"the Rock" and of course enjoyed all of the caves and tunnels for running around. The views were spectacular from the Rock. We had fun walking the busy streets of the town - lots of pubs and shopping.

Hero

Hero is our little french bulldog. Kate named him. She almost went with Big Bird, so we are thrilled she settled on Hero. Pretty comical, given that he is afraid of his own shadow.

I love the picture of him reading with Melanie. I think they are both honked off reading how this f$#%ing war is going to cost us $2.4 trillion. So much for healthcare and social security for our children. I know Hero is thinking this, too. :-)

Hero does not get along with Bart (cat), so he is constantly getting bopped on the head by Bart. He loves to eat Kate's toys, especially her beads and Polly Pocket parts. I know this for a fact, as I have to pick up his poop on our walks.