Heading into a new week

The Katy Report: Michael and I took Katy on a shopping spree at Springfield Mall on Saturday afternoon. She has outgrown so many of her clothes and needed some "footy pajamas" for the still-cold weather. Since all of the stores have their spring and summer clothing on display, we found good deals on winter clothing on the sale racks. We hit The Children's Place, Gymboree, Gap Kids, and Macy's, and she came away with lots of new goodies. Unbelievably, she is wearing mainly 9-month clothing. It's roomy, but fits better than any other size.

Last night she got a "manicure" from her Daddy. We have to clip or file her nails just about every day; they grow so fast. Yesterday she scratched one of her nails down the side of my neck and left a burning red mark so Michael took the nail file after her pointy nail corners. I heard him up in the nursery saying, "So Sue told Ruth that she wants to go out with Bob..."--his version of nail salon gossip!

Right now Katy is hanging out in her play gym, partly watching her reflection in the hanging mirror, and partly watching me on the computer. We don't have any big plans for a few days, but it won't be long until we all head up to Connecticut to visit Michael's cousin and her family. Now that we have done the church retreat, we feel better prepared for hitting the road with Katy for a two-night trip away from home!

Mom-Tip Monday: I realized that my previous two "Mom Tips" came from Better Homes and Gardens, and not from Parents magazine, as I think I had written. This comes from BHG, too: A mom from Virginia suggests that you take all of those "not-so-great photos" of your child and turn them into gift tags. The photos may not be good enough for the photo album, but you can attach them to birthday gifts and they make great tags. When your child is a toddler and going to friends' parties, this kind of gift tag makes it easy for the recipient to remember who gave him/her the gift! I like the idea for family gifts at Christmas too!