NaBloPoMo Day 21: babies and cats

Posted on by

I’m sure that some people who read this site must have dealt with this issue before, so help me out here: how on earth do you have pets and babies in the same house?

Since Cate has started crawling, I have had to swipe cat food out of her mouth on at least three occasions. (I only successfully retrieved it two of those times, the other time it went down the hatch too fast. Oh well, a little extra protein in her diet won’t hurt, right?) And twice in the past week, she’s overturned the cats’ water dish onto the floor and all over herself. She hasn’t yet discovered the litter boxes, but I know it’s only a matter of time before they become her own personal sandbox. And oh my god, eww. I don’t know if there’s enough soap in the world.

So what do you do? I thought about baby gates, but the problem is, our cats haven’t figured out that they can jump over the gates, they just stand at them and yowl for us to come open them. (I now prop the gate at the top of the stairs open at night because I got so sick of Beaumont’s four a.m. wake-up calls.) I have no idea what the next step is, short of keeping Cate on a leash. And I have a suspicion that most parenting books would frown on that. Help?

NaBloPoMo Day 20: family visits and holidays

Posted on by

I just realized something that I haven’t mentioned here yet: my in-laws are coming for a visit soon. They’ll be here from December 4th to the 18th. It’ll be Mags (my mother-in-law), Roger (her boyfriend), and Steve (Dave’s brother). This will be the first time that any of them have met Cate, so we’re pretty excited about it.

I’m actually not sure how Cate will react at first. She tends to freak out if new people try to pick her up, but I’m guessing that she’ll get over it quickly. The last time Kris came over, Cate didn’t seem to remember her because it had been several weeks since the last time they saw each other. Even though Kris didn’t try to hold her, Cate sat on the floor a safe distance from her with a “right on the verge of bursting into tears, trembly bottom lip and all” look on her face. I’m not sure why, I was sitting right next to her, but she kept sort of whimpering and acting like she was about to freak out. An hour or so later, she was fine. When Kris went with us to the grocery store, Cate even let Kris carry her around. So my guess is that she’ll react similarly to the in-laws.

For that matter, she’ll probably react the same way when we see my folks at Christmas, because she hasn’t seen them since July, so I doubt she’ll remember them either. It’s gotta be tough to be so little and have no real long-term memory yet.

Anyway, maybe it’s because the in-laws are coming and I know I’m going to be busy with them for the two weeks that they’re here, but I’m getting prepared for Christmas freakishly early this year. I’ve already ordered my Christmas cards, and I’ve bought at least one gift for everyone in my family already. This is highly unusual for me, I’m typically one of those people who doesn’t start shopping until December 15th or so. It’s kind of nice to feel prepared, though.

Of course, this means I don’t have very long to get the guest room tidied up to the point that it can be considered usable. Lately it’s been the catch-all room for outgrown baby clothes, gear, etc. So it looks like it’s time to get out my label-maker and some boxes.

NaBloPoMo Day 18: baby singing

Posted on by

In the interest of continuing my lazy weekend, here’s a video of Cate “singing” along with the theme song to My Friends Tigger & Pooh. It’s more like she’s yelling, and normally she rocks back and forth, Ray Charles-style, but she was too distracted by me and the video camera to give the full performance in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuWzxhAafuk

You can also kinda-sorta see those two bottom teeth toward the end of the video.

Happy Sunday!

NaBloPoMo Day 17: Saturday love

Posted on by

The last couple of weeks, Cate has been going to daycare four days a week to allow me to meet a couple of deadlines, and it’s been going pretty well, so I think we might keep it up. She really seems to be enjoying it there, and she comes home in a happy mood, so I think this arrangement is working for us.

During the week, though, it seems like we’re always in a rush in the mornings. We wake up and I immediately have to get Cate fed, dressed, medicated (since she’s been on antibiotics), load up her daycare bag, and then get myself at least somewhat dressed so I can get out the door. I’m sure Patsy wouldn’t care if I dropped her off in my pj’s, but I don’t much like the idea. So I try to toss on jeans and a sweatshirt, and I make a half-hearted effort at dragging a brush through my hair before we head out. The whole process takes maybe 30-45 minutes, but it feels like longer because I’m constantly rushed.

(To be fair, a couple of days a week, Dave drops her off, and on the days that I take her, he picks her up. So there’s a very equal distribution of the workload there, which I appreciate.)

But I have to admit, it’s made Saturdays all the more enjoyable, because now we have these lazy days that are so nice. Today, Cate woke us up around 8:30 in the morning. We all got up, had breakfast, played for a few hours, and then the three of us took a nap in our bed for a couple of hours. We were finally changing out of our pajamas at 3:00 this afternoon. Then we headed to the grocery store, grabbed stuff to make dinner, rented a couple of movies, and we’re about to settle in for a lazy evening.

I know this might seem like an unbearably boring waste of a weekend to some people, but I cannot think of a way that I’d rather spend a Saturday. It’s been absolutely glorious, and at the risk of sounding like a total cheeseball, I feel really blessed to have this little family of mine that I love so much.

NaBloPoMo Day 16: TV talk

Posted on by

Since it’s NaBloPoMo and I have nothing to write about: Who saw the season premiere of “Project Runway”? Who thought it was kinda boring? Just me? I’m hoping it’ll pick up as the season goes on. I really hope it doesn’t turn out like “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” which I barely managed to watch three episodes of, and oh my god, it is so very, very dull. What can I say, I’m not a huge fan of makeover shows. (Unless they’re home makeovers, as I think I’ve already mentioned my “Clean House” obsession.)

Also, does anyone else watch “Kitchen Nightmares”? I have a bit of a crush on Gordon Ramsay, which is probably because I have a thing for blonde British men (case in point: my husband). But I really love this show. Dave and I have been watching the version on BBC America for ages, but the American version of the show is great because now I get to read the recaps on Television Without Pity, and they’re fantastic. I generally don’t care much for cooking or food-related shows, but this is my one exception.

NaBloPoMo Day 15: blah

Posted on by

I gotta say, I did not think that comma usage was going to be the thing that was going to get a whole bunch of comments, but man, y’all have some serious opinions about that.

Today has been kind of hectic. I tried to clean the house and work while Cate was at daycare – that never seems to work, I usually end up getting not much of either done. Then one of my windshield wipers fell off (don’t ask) so we got to spend some quality time at Jiffy Lube this afternoon. Always fun.

My mom heard back about her biopsy. It’s not Paget’s disease, but it is breast cancer. The good news is that she might not need a full mastectomy (yay!), but the bad news is that she might need chemo (boo!). She’s going to meet with the doctor tomorrow to find out more information, and she’s supposed to get her second opinion sometime in the next few days. We’ll know more after that.

Meanwhile, hey look, cute baby!

I know we shouldn’t let her watch TV like that, but she gets so excited over “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” and it’s so funny to watch her “sing” along with the theme song. It’s more like yelling while rocking back and forth, there’s no discernable tune at all. Hi-larious.