weekend recap, pink hair edition

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Cindy

This past weekend we had a visit from the lovely and delightful Brittany. She and I have been chatting online for a while, she lives in South Carolina, and she was in dire need of something that approximates a vacation. So yeah, I invited a stranger from the Internet to stay at my house. I met Dave on match.com, so it didn’t seem like that big a deal to me.

And of course, she’s darling. I want to adopt her as my, um, well I’m not old enough to be her mother, but I guess she could be my little sister or niece or something. And Catie freaking loved her, as I expected.

Seriously, they totally bonded in less than 5 minutes. The only problem was that Brittany’s name was hard for Catie, so sometimes she’d call her “Britty” and sometimes she’d call her “guy.” As in, “C’mon, guy, let’s go this way!” (I swear, that’s an actual quote.)

I think Catie is ready to sign up for her first Twitter account. (“OMG my parents suck. They made me sit in time-out and all I did was throw my toast butter-side down on the carpet! Injustice!”)

Brittany has an insanely nice camera, I’m really jealous of it. We got some fantastic action shots of Catie.

And one extreme close-up for good measure.

We had a great time. We ate a ton of food, we played with Catie, we geeked out with our cameras and computers, we had lots of long talks. And on Saturday night, after a couple of cocktails, we ended up on Room 704’s blogtalkradio show. (If you decide to listen to it, we’re on in like the last 5-10 minutes. And it’s mostly Brittany, not much of me. I was too busy refilling our beverages.)

So yeah, it was a great weekend. And I think we even convinced Brittany that Raleigh is a nice enough place that she’s now trying to find a job and an apartment in this area. Which would be very cool, I’m always in favor of having friends that live nearby.

P.S. To follow up on the last blog entry, we’re officially making an offer on house #2 tomorrow morning, but I don’t want to talk about it for fear of jinxing it, so SHH! We’ll talk more about it later if the guy accepts our offer.

for what it's worth, Cookie Monster is still my favorite

Posted on May 30, 2009 by Cindy

We’re having one of those weekends where it feels like we’re doing a good job of keeping Catie on the move. Last night we met up with my cousin Cat, Tony & their two little ones to listen to an African tribal drum band. It sounds odd, I’m sure, but it’s very kid-friendly. They bring a big bin full of rhythm instruments for all of the little ones to play with: maracas, tambourines, etc. So you can play music with the band, or you can dance, or you can just sit and listen and eat. (The concert is in sort of a food court area of an outdoor mall. We had Greek food for dinner and Coldstone Creamery for dessert. Nice.)

Catie found some bongos that the band didn’t happen to be using at that moment, and went to town on them.

I love that Elizabeth will smile for the camera when I ask her to, even if all I had was my crappy iPhone camera.

(Actually the iPhone camera isn’t that bad, I just wish it had features like zoom, or a flash.)

The girls had a really great time, and so did the parents. We figured that with all the activity, surely Catie would sleep well that night. Ha! We’ve had to move her to a Pack n’ Play in the guest room while her ceiling was being replaced (which just reminds me that I think I forgot to blog about that, but basically the A/C in the attic was directly over Catie’s room; it died, water leaked everywhere, her ceiling turned to mildew, and they had to tear the whole thing out and replace it. But they had to replace the A/C first. So I have had random repairmen in my house WAY too much over the past few weeks. Anyway, digression over, sorry!). I think the change of scenery has sort of thrown off her sleep patterns. Sometimes she’s fine, but if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she’s all confused and freaked out and can’t get herself back to sleep. And that’s usually when she ends up in bed with us, because at 2 a.m., the ONLY thing in the world that I want is to go back to sleep, and if letting her sleep in bed with us is what’s going to allow me to do so? FINE. I realize this is lazy, but whatever. YOU try living with someone who interrupts your sleep on a regular basis for 2 1/2 years and see what kind of adjustments you make to YOUR parenting philosophy.

So yeah, Catie was up at 1 a.m. and ended up in bed with us. Then she was up again at 6 a.m. And then I had to get up at 8 a.m., because… (drumroll)… this morning we went to see ELMO! LIVE! On stage! I know you’re jealous. You are, aren’t you?

It was actually not a bad show. It was just maybe a little bit too long for the average toddler attention span (an hour and a half; includes a 15-minute intermission, but still). Cat and her family came with us, and Elizabeth was absolutely enthralled. She was an angel during the show, she was obviously having such a great time. So sweet.

Catie was sort of into it, but was also a little freaked out.

It was funny because during the second half of the show, at the end of every song, Catie would yell, “All done! Bye-bye, Elmo!!” She is not the most subtle creature; she was DONE and was ready for the show to be done, too. Luckily there were enough other screaming toddlers in the place that I’m pretty sure none of the Sesame Street characters heard her.

After the show, we all went out for lunch, and Catie promptly collapsed when we got home. After her nap, she played with two neighborhood girls who kept her on the run until she had an asthma attack. I was warning them to please slow down because I knew it was going to happen. Sigh. Kids. Luckily one dose of albuterol fixed her up and that was that. Still, I hate it for her.

Now I am praying that we all get a good night’s sleep tonight, because man, I am exhausted. Oh, and we have plans tomorrow too. Of course we do. More on that later. Right now I’m going to bed.

does anyone ever get used to being barfed on?

Posted on May 20, 2009 by Cindy

Dave came home last night, and my parents left this morning. I have a whole blog entry about this visit sort of working its way out in my head, but I’ll leave that for now. Here’s the important stuff, which is of course about my kid:

Last night Catie seemed to be doing great. She ate more dinner than normal. She took a big poop in her diaper without crying (a first since we started all of this wretched potty-training business), and then kept telling my very conservative father, “Pop-Pop, it was HUUUGE poop! And it was brown!” (God, I love that kid.) She was happy and playful and great. Then Dave came home, and oh my lord, the dancing and squealing and outright glee… she was fantastic. We finally got her to bed, although it was pretty late (around 11:30 – she normally goes to bed around 10 or so).

She woke up crying at 1:30. Dave got her and brought her to bed with us. I thought she had probably had a nightmare. She seemed a little warm, but I also thought maybe she was just overheated by the fleece blanket that she loves to sleep with. At 5:30, she woke up again and asked for milk. Dave took her downstairs because he’s good about that stuff, plus I think he’s making up for leaving me on solo parent duty for 5 days.

They came back upstairs, and as Dave was about to set Catie down in bed, she made this weird “URP!” sound. I bolted awake and said, “Did she just throw up?” Dave said no, but that it sounded like she almost did. Something set off an alarm bell in my head. I picked her up and carried her into our bathroom. About 10 seconds later, she puked her guts out all over herself and me. I got us both in the shower to clean us up (milk barf in my hair = EWW), then I passed her off to Dave so I could go clean up the bathroom and start some laundry. It took a while but we finally got her back to sleep.

Later this morning – just as I was about to leave to take my parents to the airport, in fact – she threw up again. This time it was only juice and I managed to catch most of it in a tupperware container. Nothing since then, but all she’s consumed is the tiniest sip of water and a tiny bit of juice (which has stayed down, thankfully). The main thing I’m worried about is that I know she has a fever, and I can’t get her to agree to take any Tylenol or Motrin. I know from experience that if I force it, she’ll barf it right back up. Purpose = defeated.

So that’s what’s going on here. Dave is home, which is great, but my parents are gone and my baby is sick. So I’ve spent a good chunk of the day feeling on the verge of tears. It sucks. I’m praying that this is just a 24-hour bug that will pass quickly, and also that Dave and I don’t catch it. Blah.

weekend recap, in photos

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Cindy

I’m being lazy and only posting pictures because I don’t have much time to write anything, since my dad seems to want to use my laptop all. the. time. (What is he doing online for hours on end, you ask? Mostly he’s shopping for golf clubs on eBay. No, I don’t get it either.) Anyway, here they are.

(This one is dark because it was taken at the Thomas & Friends Live show this past Saturday, and I couldn’t use my flash in the theater. But I love this picture because it basically sums up how she looked for the entire show.)

The whole Flickr set is here. My brother and sister went back to their respective homes today (my brother to Charlotte, my sister to NYC). Dave gets back on Tuesday night, and my parents leave on Wednesday. We’re having fun, but we miss Dave a lot, and these trips always make me wish that my family lived closer. But I’m enjoying them while they’re here.

Now, if I could just get Catie to sleep. As I type this, it’s 10:30 p.m. and she’s showing no signs whatsoever of slowing down. I know it’s just too much for her brain to process with all the visitors and the absence of Daddy and everything, but yeesh. I’m exhausted.

Constipation Watch '09

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Cindy

I think the worst of the drama is over. Last night Catie clung to me, screaming and crying “Mommy, it hurts!!” And after a few minutes of that, she finally produced a poop the size of a tennis ball. Which, OMG. Poor baby girl.

The other problem we’re having right now is that she was so distressed by the potty-training process and the sensation of pee running down her legs, that she’s now trying to hold her pee as long as possible. Which I suppose is a good thing, since it means that she’s learning how to go a long time in between trips to the bathroom. But she’s not going to the bathroom, we’ve let her go back to wearing diapers, and it seems like she’s afraid to use them. She holds it until she’s in pain, and again we start up with the screaming and the “Mommy help! Poop!” (It’s not poop, but the pressure in her tummy probably feels like it.) It’s awful because I hate seeing my little girl in pain, and there isn’t really anything I can do about it. She just needs to pee, and she’s scared to. So that sucks.

Seriously, who could stand to see that face go all sad and miserable?

I think that the one good thing about this failed attempt at potty-training is that it’s at least introduced the idea of using the potty into her mind. Catie has never been the type of child to adapt to something new really quickly. She was on the late side of the normal range when it came to crawling, walking, talking, laughing, and a whole bunch of other things. She is not the kid who’s going to jump into the deep end of the pool on her first try, and that’s totally and completely FINE with me. So we’ve let her know that this is something she needs to do; we often talk about all the big kids she knows who use the potty. She even goes through the list of all the neighborhood kids to check on their potty-usage status. (“Kenzie go potty?” “Yes, sweetie, McKenzie uses the potty.” “Jakey go potty?” “Yes, Jacob uses the potty too.” And so on.) It’s definitely on her mind a lot, but now I’m going to back off and give her some time to mull it over and decide when it’s time to try again. She’s a smart kid, she’ll let me know when she’s ready.

Other than that, the visit from my parents has been good. We went to the Life & Science Museum in Durham, which is so much fun. Catie loves the farm animals and the butterfly house, and although she was most excited to ride on the choo-choo train, she got freaked out when we went through the tunnel and all the kids screamed (at the train conductor’s instruction). But she had a lot of fun overall. We really should get a membership there, it’s such a cool place.

Oh, and my sister gets here tonight, so yay! Dave leaves for his trip to Seattle tomorrow morning – and yes, I am completely jealous that he’s going to Seattle without me, but I get to have my whole family here this weekend, so I guess that’s an ok trade-off.

fun aunt Tracy

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Cindy

My sister’s visit this weekend was so much fun. It was really cool that she was able to join us for the March for Babies on Saturday morning. That afternoon (post-naptime), she and I took Catie for a little walk, then came home, made dinner, watched “Wall-E” (Catie’s current favorite movie, plus Tracy hadn’t ever seen it), and vegged out for the night.

On Sunday, we went out for brunch with my cousin Cat and her family.

I love watching Catie and Elizabeth interact with each other, they’re getting very good at sharing and taking turns, and it’s just really funny to see.

After brunch, we went to Target where Tracy bought Catie a few toys and some clothes – you know, as aunts are wont to do. And after Catie’s nap, Tracy borrowed my bike, helmet, and trailer, and took Catie for a bike ride.

They had a blast, even though it made me nervous as hell to see them riding away. (I don’t know why, I guess because they were going to be crossing some busy streets to go to the park, and that’s my pweshus widdle bay-beee in that bike trailer.) But they came home safely, red-faced from the wind and totally happy. Catie even insisted on joining Tracy in the shower afterward. I think that Tracy and I are pretty much interchangeable as far as Catie is concerned.

Plus, you know, Tracy has all the cool jewelry that she lets Catie wear.

After dinner, we had to take Tracy to the airport so she could pick up her rental car and drive to Rocky Mount, where her business meeting is today. Catie cried when Tracy got out of the car and said goodbye, which of course made Tracy cry too. She’ll be back in a couple of weeks, but poor Catie has no real understanding of time yet, so that didn’t really help.

This morning, Catie asked a couple of times where Tracy was, and I had to remind her that Tracy went bye-bye. We had some tears and hugs about that, but hopefully she’ll be over it in a day or two.

I love that we’re so much closer to our families than we were in Seattle, but sometimes I do wish that all of Catie’s grandparents and everybody (two uncles and one aunt) lived locally so we could see them on a more regular basis. It’s so much fun to visit, and always so sad when they leave.

Raleigh March for Babies

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Cindy

The March for Babies here in Raleigh was today. We had a pretty big team marching for Maddie.

From left to right, that’s: me, Catie, Dave, my sister Tracy, (sitting) baby Austin, my cousin Cat, Elizabeth (in the stroller), Tony, and Megan. We’d never met Megan before today (if you’re reading this, hi Megan!), but she was super fun and a very good sport about us lagging behind with our slow toddlers and general foolishness. (We really are sort of a goofy bunch when you get us all together.)

That’s right, I painted my nails purple for Maddie. And I felt the need to document it with photographic evidence, since it happens so very rarely.

The walk was good. It was a little hot, but not as brutal as the weather forecast predicted. Also, no thunderstorms – that was the other thing on the forecast that had us worried. We felt a few random drops of rain here and there, but not even enough to call it a drizzle.

The kids had the most fun after the walk. There was a DJ playing all sorts of dance music at the finish line, so the kids (who had either ridden in strollers or been carried for the entire walk) needed a chance to burn off some energy.

I got Catie the smallest Maddie t-shirt I could get, and I still had to knot it in the back so it wouldn’t look like a dress on her. The part that broke my heart was that when Catie saw the shirt this morning, she pointed at it and said, “Maddie!” She knows her face from being on my lap so many times when I’ve read Heather’s blog. I almost cried then, but I just said, “Yeah, baby, that’s Maddie.”

Throughout the day, she kept pointing at her own shirt, or mine or Dave’s, and screaming “Maddie! Purple!” Yeah, sweetie. You got it.

After a while the toddler energy was contagious, and we all had to dance too.

And we had to snuggle on some babies.

There was one guy who came over to us to ask about Maddie’s story, because he read her dates on our t-shirts. I told him, and he told us that he has 2 daughters, both of whom were born around 26 weeks. One of his daughters is now 8 years old and the other is about to turn 13. He thanks the March of Dimes for them being here and healthy today. Talking to him for just a couple of minutes was really moving.

Oh, and I believe that when you factor in the almost $200 that my cousin raised through bake sales at her office, our team raised a combined total of almost $1,000 for the March of Dimes. So that’s a pretty great day right there.

PooBou.com

Mom. Stepmom. Nerd. Feminist. Pretty good wife. Outstanding ex-wife. I try to keep it light and funny. I'm not always successful.

Category Archives: Friends & Family

weekend recap, pink hair edition

for what it's worth, Cookie Monster is still my favorite

does anyone ever get used to being barfed on?

weekend recap, in photos

Constipation Watch '09

fun aunt Tracy

Raleigh March for Babies

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: