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Just a few months late…..

Someone said I needed to update this.  Yup! It’s been kind of awhile.  I could throw all the excuses out there such as “I got busy”, “It was summer”, “Playing with and teaching my baby”, etc etc etc…..Truth is….they’re all true :)

The summer flew by quickly—it was so much fun getting out with Aubrie and helping her discover new things!  We made plenty of trips to the nearby park and playground – especially the one with the wading pool! Aubrie was not a fan of splash parks…she bawled everytime we got near a fountain, so we stuck with the 3 foot deep wading pool!  We had lots of playdates with her favorite little people: Cami, Grant, Myla and Kaylee, our neighbor Zach, to name a few.  We went to the Science Center a lot to discover scientific things and build and learn.  We took many many trips to the Zoo (it sure helps that it’s less than 2 miles away!), and she especially liked feeding the fish!  Still leary of those goats and donkey and llama….we’ll get there!

New tricks:  She is sure talking up a storm!  She knows her first/last name and when asked, our names are Mommy Burcaw and Daddy Burcaw.   She can put together sentences and responds appropriately to our questions, which is much easier than trying to decipher grunts, whines and babbles!  She still throws her tantrums when we don’t quite understand what she’s trying to say. She still loves her baby dolls (I counted them today—she has13 baby dolls—13?!?) and has recently become very interested in pushing them around in a stroller, or lining them up to read them a story.

I also think we have a future gymnast on our hands—she’s always jumping like crazy—on her bed, around the house, off the furniture, down the stairs (eek!).  If there is something to hang on she’ll hang and swing herself like she’s on parallel bars…and she loves to climb onto just about anything. I’d really like to get her involved in a Mommy n Me gymnastics class, because once she turns 3 (the age Kris wants to enroll her) she’d be on her own…I’d rather get her started in earlier so she can get familiar with the activities before she has to be on her own.

 

Aubrie and Gizzy are really starting to play well.  It’s so cute—she’s always trying to give him hugs and kisses, but she’s also very bossy to him.  “Zizzy ky-it”, “Zizzy um-ere” and “Zizzy way ah you” are common phrases around our house!  She likes to play with him—correction: she likes to take his tennis ball and egg him on by running around the house with it while he chases her.  She also gets mad when he won’t eat the imaginary concoctions she cooks up in her play kitchen!  This girl has got quite the imagination!

We’ve recently been stricken with a case of the “I do it’s”.  Now that she’s a big girl (the 2 year old adult syndrome) she has the power to do it all.  Everything we try to help her with she has to undo and start all over again by herself!  For example:  she has to struggle with putting her jacket or shoes on for a few minutes before you can even attempt to help her.  If we carry her up or down the stairs she yells “I do it” and marches back the way we came just to accomplish the feat herself!  If I put her in her carseat she screams until I let her crawl out and then back into it on her own.  Washing her hands takes 5 minutes because she has to turn the water on, then twist the faucets a few times to make sure she gets the right temperature, and has to get the perfect amount of soap onto her hands before she can start washing (OCD much?!). 

The whole potty-training process is quite tedious as well: she has to pull the stool to the light switch to turn it on herself, pull it back to the toilet, undo her pants and attempt to pull her diaper off for 30 seconds, and only when she finishes all of those (without parental assistance) will she sit down and attempt to go. Someday I’m sure I’ll be grateful for her independence, but not when I hear her in her room, an hour past her bedtime, chanting “help diaper, help diaper” and open the door to find her completely naked (for who knows how long!) holding up her diaper and trying to put it on herself.  Sheesh…..

My sister, the bride :)

On June 11, 2011 my little sister up and got herself married.  And I’m so incredibly happy for her, beyond what words can express (though I’ll try my damndest to express them in a way that I can).  Waaaay underneath all the excitement a teeny tiny part of me is an itsy bitsy jealous—in that never-ending sibling rivalry type of way—not jealous of her per se, but jealous that she has done something that I haven’t.  Geesh, sibling rivalry really never ends does it?!?  But like I said before, I am so thrilled that she has found her other half, the man that makes her laugh and smile and feel safe and loved.  Some of you have probably heard part of this before, but here it is again…..

Katie was always the littlest sister.  We tease that she was born to be my playmate (since there are 5 yrs between my older sister and I they needed to have another baby so that I had someone to play with ;)).  We used to tease her a lot actually, probably way too much. 

 

But that’s what sisters do I guess!  But all teasing aside, she’s always been my very best friend in the world!  She was my buddy growing up and we had a lot of amazing childhood memories together.  I remember the year The Lion King came out and we both got Troll suitcases to house our Barbies and their endless wardrobes, as well as the magnetic nosed Simba and Nala.  I remember decorating Christmas trees, dying Easter Eggs, fighting over the pickles and olives at family celebrations, choreographing dances, hurling oranges against the wall beneath the stairs to “peel them”, playing “can’t touch the floor” in the basement using the rafters and furniture, pretending to be twins on family vacations, sliding down the stairs in laundry baskets, taking the cross country skis to the golf course to try and downhill ski, sledding down the golf course hill, swimming in the flooded golf course, terrorizing our foreign exchanges student with our zebra finches, going to grandma and grandpas and halter breaking our calves….the list really goes on and on. 

Of course, with all the fun and happy memories come memories of guilt over the way we acted—as sisters usually do.  Fighting over stupid things like clothing, shoes, makeup, hair products, nail polish, boys, who’s smarter, who has more friends, who’s boyfriend is cuter, who’s better at sports.  I remember getting so mad at her that I threw the bowl of pudding I was making at her bedroom door as it closed.  Or getting so mad that I kicked a hole in the upstairs hallway wall.  I remember getting jealous that she made varsity basketball as a sophomore when I hardly even started as a senior, and when the cross country team made it to State the year after I graduated high school. 

And then came college.  As much as I hated to admit it, I was sad that she was home and I was away.  I missed her so much.  Even though we didn’t always get along the greatest in high school, I missed having her around to talk about the day with, or complain about boys or school or friends to.  I was more than excited to have her stay in my dorm room and hang out (aka party) for a weekend, to show her what college was like.  I was also pretty excited when she decided to follow in my footsteps and come to UW-La Crosse!  We eventually ended up getting an apartment together—which was so much more relaxing than sharing with friends!!  We already knew each others faults and weaknesses, so we didn’t have to spend time figuring out how to tell each other things that bothered us.  We just knew.  She had her own set of friends, and I had mine.  Sure, some of them ended up being in the same people, which was fine. 

We went to Spring Break with those mutual friends in 2007.  I will admit that I was a little bit unfriendly during this trip.  She knows how I acted, and I’ve since then apologized profusely for my actions.  Moral of the story is, I’m glad she was there even though I didn’t show it.  I’m glad we got to experience that together, even though I acted like she was that super annoying little sister.  I wish I wouldn’t have acted like that, I wish I would’ve put my stupid jealousy and annoyance aside so that we could’ve really gotten to enjoy the trip as close sisters should!

Well hey, this was supposed to be a blog about her getting married!  So maybe I should actually talk about that part??  Katie met Andrew (I knew him as Buck for 6 yrs prior to this) when we lived together in college.  He was a good friend from track, as we both participated in the sport in college.  He had moved to Colorado, and since my older sister lived out there I took the opportunity to visit with him when I housesat for her as they went on a trip.  When he moved back, I invited him to hang out when I found out he lived across the street from us.  He came over, we watched TV, then Katie came home from work or class (can’t remember).  We all hung out for a little while, then Buck went home and within minutes tried getting me to set them up.  I told him to get in touch with her on facebook—that I really didn’t want to get into the middle of it.  I more or less didn’t want to be blamed if things went wrong—I didn’t want my sister/best friend to be pissed at me and hold a grudge, and I didn’t want to lose one of my really good guy friends.  So I exited the situation…..but they ended up getting together, and after a few years of dating, realized it was serious.  They moved to CO together and bought a house, and got engaged!

Katie asked me to be her maid-of-honor.  I already knew it was coming based on the “deal” we made as kids (and she is my daughter’s godmother—makes sense!), but I was still thrilled to be asked, and loved the fact that I would be standing next to her as she married her other best friend.  I probably wasn’t the best MOH I could’ve been, being so far away made it hard to plan things and do things together like we should’ve :(.  But I tried!

Wedding Day:  Katie could never look more beautiful than she did on her wedding day.  She worked hard to get herself into wedding shape, and she looked amazing!! Her dress fit her perfectly, her hair was in gorgeous long waves, her makeup was flawless.  She looked stunning—lucky Buck!!  The whole day was full of emotions—I was so proud of her for the path she took leading to this day, and so excited for her.  I sat back and watched the happiness on her face, and I could just tell that even though she didn’t admit it, this day was one of the most special days of her life: she was about to marry her other half.  She had a radiance about her that only true love and happiness gives way to.  She was cool, calm and collected.  She was internally giddy in a way that only a sister can tell.  It was so much fun to be there for her on this amazing day! 

I found myself tearing up as she was walking up the aisle with our dad.  It was like our childhood was flashing before my eyes, and she was no longer my innocent (ha!) little sister, but was growing to be this amazing young woman.  Nothing changed—except her last name.  But I still felt like I was losing something, and I’m not sure why!  I was gaining an amazing and wonderful brother in law—one who I already knew I liked and had fun with, one who I could relate to, one who I could vent to if I needed to, one who I knew I could count on (not that I couldn’t with my other BIL’s—but we’d been friends for years prior to this relationship). 

To end this novel, I just want to say that the whole ordeal was amazing.  It was full of laughter, entertaining inside jokes, crazy antics, a lot of “what the..?’s”, and great times and memories.  I was able to spend time with family and friends I hadn’t seen in forever.  The whole way home to Des Moines I relived the weekend and all the fun we had.  I was sad to see the weekend go, wish it could’ve been a few days longer!  It made me realize just how precious our family is—and how close we all are, even though we don’t say it.  We are lucky.  We have each other. So Buck, you better treat her right or you have ME to answer to;)   I love you BOTH Mr and Mrs Buchberger!!