Posted by Cindy W on 25 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Blog Stuff
Ok, I tried to install a plug-in last week that would allow for threaded comments (you know, where you can reply to a specific comment rather than just tacking it on to the end), because I thought that sounded cool. It didn’t work, and now nobody can leave comments on my site at all. I’m talking to my web host tech support people to see if they can help me. Hopefully I’ll be back up & running soon!
Posted by Cindy W on 17 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cate, Funny
This was an actual conversation tonight at bathtime.
Me: Hey Catie, did you have fun at daycare today?
[Note: I ask her this probably half a dozen times in the evening, because each time she tells me about a different part of her day.]
Catie: Yeah. I kissed a boy.
Me: What? You kissed a boy? Which boy?
Her: Um… (long pause while she tries to remember his name)… Roman.
Me: (thankful it’s a kid from her class that I know, not some random stranger-kid) Oookay. So, did you kiss Roman on the cheek?
Her: No. On the lips. And on the nose.
Me: Really?
Her: Yeah. And Miss Meeko say (mimics stern finger-wagging gesture), “You gotta stop all that kissing!”
That’s my girl. Also? Come 2022, when Catie is about 15 or so, I have a feeling that I am gonna be in for a world of trouble.
Posted by Cindy W on 15 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cate, Pets
It occurred to me recently that I haven’t written much (if at all) about the dynamic between Catie and the cats.
When Catie was a baby, Beaumont was her buddy. At first, he was just curious about this new strange thing we’d brought into the house.
They quickly fell in love with each other. They were playmates.
He would comfort her when she was sick.
And after she became mobile, he followed her around all over the place. He seemed to get nervous that she might wander off.
I would take Catie for walks around our neighborhood and Beaumont would follow right alongside with us. This was when we lived in the sticks, so we generally didn’t pass that many people, but a couple of our neighbors stopped and commented that they’d never seen anyone take their cat for a walk before.
In fact, when we moved out here from Seattle and decided to re-home a couple of our cats, it was understood that even though Beaumont is painfully stupid and prone to annoying the crap out of me and Dave, we couldn’t possibly get rid of him because he and Catie had such a bond.
Unfortunately, their relationship shifted when we moved to North Carolina. I’m not sure if it was the trauma of the move, or if Catie just got a little too big and manhandled him too roughly (both, probably), but he’s a little skittish around her now. I imagine that’ll change again, as time goes on.
But the one dynamic that hasn’t changed is the one between her and Teenie. Teenie is my cat, always has been. I’ve had her since I was 20 years old. She seemed to understand from the time I first brought Catie home from the hospital that this new little creature belonged to “us,” somehow.
When I was breastfeeding, I’d typically nurse Catie sitting in bed. I just found it to be more comfortable there than anywhere else. Teenie would sit on the bed in front of me, and if anyone came near me while I was nursing (including Dave and my mom, both of whom Teenie knew and trusted), she would growl, hiss, and swat them away.
And over the past 3 years, that hasn’t changed at all. Teenie still loves Catie, and lets her totally manhandle her. When we come downstairs in the morning, the first thing they do is curl up on the couch together.
Teenie is getting pretty old for a cat, she’ll be 14 this year. And I know it’s part of nature, and that our pets aren’t supposed to out-live us, but I dread the day that I have to explain the concept of Kitty-Cat Heaven to my daughter. Because seeing the two of them all happily snuggled up on the couch together is one of the highlights of my day.
Posted by Cindy W on 11 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cate
Four freaking days. That’s how long it took for Catie to come home sick from daycare.
I knew something was up when I picked her up today, and she immediately started crying about something silly (a Valentine’s Day stamp on her hand, which she didn’t like and wanted to wash off). We went to the grocery store, and she said she wanted juice, but then she started crying as soon as she took a sip. I asked her if her throat hurt, and she said yes. I asked what else hurt, and she said, “My eyebrows.” Which, ok, that’s kind of funny, but you know, a sinus headache does hurt right around your eyebrows, so I thought that was actually pretty smart of her to be that specific.
So, quick side trip over to the pharmacy section of the grocery store where I promptly ripped open a box of children’s Tylenol meltaways and handed her two of them (don’t worry, I paid for them later). We finished up our shopping and headed home. She ate an Otter Pop and a couple of strawberries, but that was it. She’s had a fever and chills all evening. I managed to get about a 1/2 cup of watered-down juice in her before she went to bed, and I consider that a small victory to keep her from getting dehydrated.
It’s just amazing to me that in the course of a day, she can go from this:
Taken this morning.
To this:
Taken tonight. Note she’s wearing a hoodie over her winter pajamas and still shivering, my poor girl.
Obviously, there will be no daycare tomorrow. I predict a lot of time on the couch, watching cartoons and eating Otter Pops. Which is fine, as long as she starts feeling better soon. I hate it so much when she’s sick. I miss my happy chatty girl.
Posted by Cindy W on 10 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cate
For those concerned, Catie’s first week at daycare has been pretty good. She seems to like it there, and drop-off time is much less tense than it was the first day. But I think it’s also a little overwhelming for her to be there all day long, because by the time I get there to pick her up, she is ready to GO. HOME. And she informed me this afternoon that she was sad because she doesn’t want to go back to “daycare class” (her term for it), but I also think she’s pooped and might feel differently in the morning. Because the past two mornings, she’s been very excited to go.
Of course, she’s also throwing around a whole new world of attitude lately (complete with telling me, “no, ma’am!” with her hands on her hips, which is pretty much mimicking exactly what I do to her when she’s being a pill). But I don’t know how much of that is because of the daycare transition, and how much of that is just… being 3.
Random funny: when my mom came to visit last month, she noticed that Catie’s lips are really dry and chapped. (And they are, you can sort of see it in this picture.) So we went to Target and bought her some fun fruity-flavored chapstick, which Catie promptly decided she wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
But sometime this week, she changed her mind, and now every morning, after she gets dressed, she wants to put on her chapstick (not just one, she has to use all three different “flavors”), then she puts some on me, and then she wants to take a picture of the two of us “all pretty wif our lipstick on.”
Even though most of the pictures turn out super-cute of her and “meh” of me (at best), there is absolutely nothing about that ritual that sucks. I love that she wants to ham it up for the camera. Three year-olds are a freaking riot. Even when they’re obnoxious.
Posted by Cindy W on 08 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cate, Dave, Whining, Work
The past few days, recapped:
1. On Saturday, we went to my cousin’s house for baby Austin’s first birthday! I can’t wait until Cat gets those pictures uploaded because man alive, that little boy was covered in frosting. It was a great party, and Catie always has so much fun playing with her cousins. There were many tears when it was time to leave.
2. On Sunday, Catie “helped” me clean the house, then we went grocery shopping together. Dave spent most of the day in bed because he just quit smoking and feels like hell. (Everyone, give him a big cheer: yay, Dave! You can do it! Hang in there!) He did manage to wake up in time for dinner, and we watched the Puppy Bowl because we are totally not a sports-type family. I mean, yay for the Saints and all that. New Orleans is my mom’s hometown and I do really love that city. But, watching a bunch of grown men slam into each other over a ball? Not my thing.
3. Catie didn’t get much of a nap on Sunday, so she was in bed by 8:15. (Hallelujah!) Dave was already asleep by then too. After I got Catie settled, I started to head downstairs, but I slipped on the first step & went crashing down the stairs. I only fell down about four steps, which is not that bad, but I slammed the left side of my back into the steps when I landed. I thought for a second that I had broken a rib, it hurt so bad, but I think I just bruised it. And I knocked the wind out of myself so hard that I couldn’t speak (because believe me, I tried to call for Dave, but I couldn’t).
When I finally regained my breath, I realized that I was probably ok and didn’t need to go to the ER, so I just scooted very gently down the rest of the stairs. I tweeted about it, and a couple of people told me to ice it. And when the Internet tells me to do something, well by golly, I do it. So I iced my back while I watched “Big Love”. (And incidentally, did any of y’all who watch it cry during last night’s episode? Or am I just a hormonal, injured, still-slightly-sick mess?) I don’t know if the ice helped or not, because my back still hurts like a son of a b**** today.
4. Today was Catie’s first day at her new daycare. We’ve been talking it up a lot for the past week, about how she’s going to have so! much! fun! there, and she was excited to go. Then we got there, and I could tell she was nervous. I got her all settled in with her stuff in her cubby, and she grabbed onto me and said, “I stay wif you.” I told her that I’d stay for a couple of minutes while we looked around the room. We introduced her to the other kids and the teacher, and we walked around, looking at all of the various toys and activities.
I spent a few minutes with her, then told her that I was going to go, but that I’d come back this afternoon. She said ok and gave me a kiss, but her shoulders were still hunched up the way that she does when she’s feeling anxious. I stopped at the door and turned around to wave bye-bye one last time; she gave me this tiny, tight “putting on my best brave face” smile and waved back. I barely made it to the car before I started crying. I’ve left her places before when she was crying for me, and that was awful. But this was harder in a way that I can’t quite explain.
5. I’m going to have to pick her up early, because there’s no way I’ll make until 5:00.
The blog of a girl and her family, trying to re-adjust to life in the South after spending the past decade north of the Mason-Dixon line. Hilarity is sure to ensue.
