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I’m so far behind on blogging and reading other people’s blogs, I feel like I’ll never catch up. The family visit is now officially over. To sum up the rotten air travel luck that my family had:

* My sister sat on the runway at JFK for 4 hours before her 6-hour flight to Seattle. I’m not sure how she endured that without throwing herself out of the emergency exit door with no parachute, but she did. You can probably guess the kind of mood she was in when she arrived, but she was fine by the next day. I wouldn’t have been, I think I would’ve been grumpy about that for weeks.

* My brother flew home on Sunday, and the airline lost his suitcase. It still hasn’t turned up. How does an airline lose a suitcase on a non-stop flight? One can only wonder.

* My parents were supposed to fly home yesterday, but their flight was cancelled. Which was really no big deal, since it meant that they got an extra day of Grandbaby Time, so they weren’t too terribly inconvenienced. They left early this afternoon instead.

I love having my family around, and this was a really great visit, although poor Catie is exhausted. I guess it’s the over-stimulation of having so many people around, and everyone talking to her and trying to get her to smile and laugh all the time. She’s totally worn out. Last night she woke up screaming every half hour, which she hasn’t done in forever. She didn’t need anything as far as I could tell. I’d bring her to bed with me, she’d fall asleep in about two minutes, I’d put her back in her crib, and we’d start all over again 30 minutes later. Finally at 2:30 a.m., I told Dave that she was going to sleep in our bed, and he agreed. She didn’t make a peep until 8:30 this morning.

Now I’m worried that we’ve established some sort of precedent and she’s going to expect to sleep in our bed every night, in which case she will be sorely disappointed. Mama needs her elbow room, and I don’t particularly enjoy waking up to someone trying to grab my nose and yank my hair out. Crazy, I know, but that’s just me.

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My baby is half a year old today. I cannot begin to tell you how weird that feels to me. Cate had her 6-month pediatrician appointment yesterday, where we found out that she’s now up to 19 pounds, 11 ounces (ouch), she’s 26.5 inches long, and her head circumference is officially off the charts. That’s my big-brained baby.

As far as milestones from last month, we have:

* Teething. About three weeks ago, she started chewing on her hands constantly, and always trying to bite Dave and me as well. She’s always tried to shove our hands into her mouth, but the biting thing was new. I managed to check out her gums, and I can see her front bottom teeth just barely under the surface. I have no idea how long it’ll take them to come in, but still, that’s pretty exciting.

* Sitting. She’s trying to figure out how to sit independently. She can do it for a couple of seconds before she tips over. I have a feeling that she’s going to have that one nailed pretty soon.

* Trying to feed herself. If you hold a bottle in front of her, she grabs it with both hands and shoves it into her mouth. She’s starting to do the same thing with sippy cups (we have the kind with handles on both sides - easy to grip), but since she only gets water in the cup, she gets bored with that pretty quickly. And wet. I don’t know who first came up with the concept of spill-proof cups, but they need to improve that one.

And in honor of her half-birthday, Cate got her first taste of vegetables. She had carrots. They were a huge hit, and an even bigger mess.

We’ve been having a great time with my folks this week. My mom kept Cate occupied so my dad and I could finish painting my kitchen. My new hinges finally showed up today, so after I get my cabinet doors re-hung, I’ll have to take pictures of my pretty new kitchen to show off. I guess it would’ve been smart to take “before” pictures for comparison’s sake, but I sort of forgot about that until just now.

Oh, and my dad has been trying to mow our lawn. Our riding mower is broken, so he’s trying to use the regular old push mower. On two acres. And most of our yard is as tall as my hips. Thank God we’ve been having mild weather, I was worried he was going to give himself a heart attack out there.

My brother and sister are flying in for the weekend tonight. My folks are actually picking my brother up at the airport right now. His flight from Charlotte was supposed to get in about 8 minutes before my sister’s flight from NYC. He was on time, but unfortunately my sister has been delayed over 3 1/2 hours, so she’ll be here sometime after midnight. Poor thing. My sister is the family photographer, so I’m sure I’ll have tons of pics by the time the weekend is over.

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I really should’ve known better than to write anything about Cate’s sleeping habits. The past three nights, she’s woken up screaming because she rolled over onto her tummy and then scooted herself into the far corner of the crib, and she couldn’t figure out how to get out. Boo. I miss waking up to happy-baby-talky noises on the monitor.

New topic: Since my parents are coming, Kris came over yesterday to keep Cate entertained so I could clean. It was fun to have Kris over and catch up for a while, but it confirmed what I already suspected (because it happened when the neighbor girls were here baby-sitting while I painted the kitchen): if Cate can see me, but I’m not holding her, she gets cranky really fast.

Originally, I had been thinking that we might get a baby-sitter or nanny to take care of Cate when I start working again, but I realized that probably won’t work. If she’s screaming her head off, it’s not like I’m going to be able to concentrate on writing, y’know? So I’m exploring daycares in the area. I think that the exposure to other kids can only be a good thing - and by that I mean both the socialization aspect as well as the immune system boost she’ll eventually gain from being exposed to all those other babies’ germs.

I’d really like to do daycare just part-time, but I was worried that I’d end up paying for full-time daycare since it seems like most places don’t have a part-time option. (Which makes sense from a payroll standpoint - they still have to pay their staff even if the babies aren’t there all the time.) But I called around and found a couple of places that actually do have part-time care available. They’ll take babies anywhere from 2 to a full 5 days per week.

I know a lot of mommies feel guilty for putting their kids in daycare, and I totally get that. If I had to go back to work when she was only 6 or 8 weeks old, I know I would’ve been a mess. (I also would’ve been a zombie, since Cate was only sleeping in 3-hour chunks then.) But my goal was to stay home with her for the first 6 months, which I’ve done. And I’m only thinking about putting her in daycare for 3 days a week, so I feel pretty good about it. I’m sure that the first time I have to leave her there when she’s crying, it’ll probably rip my heart out, especially since I’ve pretty much convinced myself that I’m the only one who can soothe her when she’s upset. (Dave can do it too, although his success rate isn’t as high as mine. You know, not to brag or anything.) But I’ll figure out a way to cope with the whole “oh god, I’m abandoning my poor defenseless precious baby” mommy guilt.

Speaking of which, I’m sure that God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whoever had his reasons for giving us the mommy guilt. You know, it kept the cave mommies of yore from leaving their babies out as a pterodactyl snack or whatever. But I really wish we could’ve evolved past it now. Because the mommy guilt just sucks. So much for Darwin.

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be quite the big day for us: we’re going to take tours of two different daycare facilities, meet up with my friend Janet and her baby for a while, and then my parents come in late that night. And once my folks are here, the real fun starts, since that’s when I’m going to be painting the rest of the kitchen. Whee!

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I don’t want to jinx this by writing about it, so everyone cross your fingers…

The past two nights, Cate has slept over 9 hours straight. Without so much as a peep. And I got to sleep the majority of that time too, so I actually feel sort of (dare I say it?) almost sane. Wow.

The bad part is that I apparently slept weird last night, because I woke up with a wicked crick in my neck. It hurts down the side of my neck all the way into my left shoulder. Picking Cate up out of her crib this morning was a test of my endurance, to say the least. And I can’t really turn my head to the left, which sucks because I have to run a couple of errands today, and I generally think it’s a good idea to have full neck mobility when I drive.

Oh, and I’m not sure how I’m going to manage using either the Baby Bjorn or the backpack carrier to take Cate for our daily walk, since both of those put weight on my shoulder. I think I might have to drag Dave along with us and make him carry her.

Please excuse me while I go down a fistful of ibuprofen. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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There’s a whole big mess of stuff swirling around my head lately, but I’m having a hard time putting it into a string of coherent sentences. And trying to find the time to sit down and write is sort of a problem for me right now. I’d use the fact that Cate is demanding as an excuse, but actually, everything is a problem right now. I seem to be going through a lazy phase. My parents are coming in a week, and normally I would already be starting the Big Clean-A-Thon that I do prior to any family visit, but I just can’t seem to make myself get off my butt and do it.

Just to clarify: My parents don’t actually give a flip how tidy the house is. They are coming for one reason only, and that is for a week of Grandbaby Love. As long as the house doesn’t smell like cat pee, I doubt they’ll notice anything else. The cleaning spree is just something I do before people visit. I’m sort of nuts like that.

So… yeah. More stuff later. Right now it’s time for our (Cate’s and my) mid-morning nap. Whee!

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A couple of baby-related events:

1. I think Cate is teething. In the past week or so, she’s suddenly started chewing on her hands all the time, and trying to bite on Dave and me as hard as she can. She’s always been a pretty oral baby, what with the constant stuck-out tongue, but this biting thing is new, and it makes me think that those first couple of teeth must not be too far behind.

2. She finally figured out solid food! I was still doing my lazy “offer it once a week or so and see if she gets the hang of it” approach, and when we tried it on Monday, it’s like it magically clicked in her head that if she would just close her mouth on the spoon, the food would stay there long enough for her to swallow it. So she’s getting rice cereal every day now, and she’ll be ready to start veggies when she hits her 6-month birthday in two weeks.

I know that’s probably not a big deal to anyone except me, but mixing formula and washing bottles is a daily chore that I am very much looking forward to lightening over the next several months. I can’t wait until I can give her some finger foods and a sippy cup and let her feed herself a snack rather than being at her every little beck and call.

Unrelated: Yesterday we met up with my friend Janet and her baby Isabella at the park, which was nice. Cate particularly enjoyed rubbing her toes on the grass (something she can’t do at home, since our yard is… well, sort of scary). The grass was also fun to reach over and grab, since it doesn’t scream when it’s being yanked on. Unlike, say, Mommy’s hair. And we tried out the baby swings, but she was not a fan of them at all. She lasted about ten seconds before she started screaming. Oh well, we’ll try again when she’s a bit older.

Next on the agenda: Janet’s condo complex has a pool (actually, it has four pools - it’s a big place), so we’re going to try it out with the babies and see how they like it. Based on how much Cate adores bathtime, I’m guessing it’ll be a hit.

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On Saturday, we went to Scott and Cara’s wedding. The ceremony was beautiful, and Cate was really well-behaved, which I was a little nervous about. She got a bit fussy toward the end, but Dave ran her out to the lobby before she made too much noise, so it worked out pretty well.

Originally we were thinking that we wouldn’t stay too long at the reception because we wouldn’t know anyone. Dave and I have been to weddings before where we didn’t really know anyone except the bride and groom, and they’re always kind of awkward because we don’t have anyone to talk to except each other. I didn’t realize that apparently that rule gets thrown to the wind when you have a baby with you, because man, we met so many people that night. Although maybe that’s more a testament to Scott & Cara’s friends and family than anything else. Since neither of them are native Pacific Northwesterners, that might explain why everyone seemed a bit more friendly. (Nothing against the natives, they just tend to mingle amongst themselves at these types of events.)

Anyway, we had a great time. And I got to meet a couple of bloggy people that I had never met before (hi Alissa and Kelly!), which was very cool. And Scott & Cara had the same wedding photographer that we had at our wedding, who is so freaking talented that I just can’t stand it (free plug for her website so you can go see for yourself), and it reminded me that I want her to do some family portraits of us at some point in the near future. I just love her, and we got to meet her new husband - literally, they got married 3 days before Saturday - so that was very cool.

Of course, because I spent so much time talking with the photographer, I only took a grand total of two pictures myself, which I am kicking myself for, because it’s so rare that Dave and I get dressed up, it would’ve been nice to have a snapshot or two. Oh well.

So instead, here’s a little shout-out for Scott & Cara - or more specifically, for Scott’s employer, who I imagine is at least partially contributing to the financing of their honeymoon:

Cate says, “Nerds rule!”

(Ok, I actually bought that romper when I was pregnant and working for the Giant Software Company myself, but I think it’s hilarious. Dave says she isn’t allowed to leave the house in it, but whatever. We’ll see about that.)

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