Tag Archives: Catie

Not-so-Wordless Wednesday: Three

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Hey Catie, how old are you today?

hey Catie, how old are you gonna be on your birthday?

Smart girl.

We had Catie’s birthday party this past weekend since my brother and sister were able to come visit then. It was a lot of fun.

Catie & her birthday cake

Catie & Mimi in Winnie the Pooh birthday hats

loving her little zoo buddies

It was a great birthday party, and Catie was pretty distraught the next day when Tracy and Chris had to leave. She can never get enough time with the people she adores.

Catie & Tracy

Catie & her uncle Chris

But she’s recovering now, since we were able to pick up her birthday gift from Grandma, Grandpa Roger, Uncle Steve: a brand new toy kitchen!

loving her new toy kitchen

I’ll write more later. Right now my mom and I are going to make some birthday cupcakes to celebrate my girl’s actual big day.

that ol' work/daycare thing again

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I started my new job yesterday and so far I’m liking it a lot. I don’t really know what to say about it because I try not to talk about work on my blog too much. But I’m very happy. It’s good.

And of course, because things always work out like this, it was only last week (after I’d already accepted the new job) that my old job back in Seattle contacted me and asked if I could do a little freelancing project for them. I said yes, thinking, meh, it’ll probably take me two days, no big deal. And holy mother of pearl, this project is HUGE (nobody’s fault, just miscommunication about exactly what was involved) and so basically I’m now working on evenings and weekends in addition to my full-time job. Not cool, although the money sure will be nice when I get it finished.

Also, we’ve decided to change things up a little with the daycare situation. I’ve had some qualms about our in-home daycare situation since the time Nicole (daycare provider) emailed me to tell me that she thought Catie had Sensory Processing Disorder. Something about that was a red flag to me, so I’ve been watching Catie carefully, and here’s what I’ve noticed:
* Catie used to be excited to go to daycare, and now she cries when I tell her that she’s going to Miss Nicole’s house that day.
* Her behavior at Nicole’s house isn’t improving. She’s fine if she’s left to play by herself, but she shuts down & cries when Nicole tries to get her involved in an activity.
* She freaking loves the drop-in daycare down the street that she calls “daycare school,” and the lady who runs the place has told me repeatedly what a sweet, friendly little girl I have.

It’s become pretty clear that the in-home daycare is not the best fit for Catie. I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s because there aren’t enough kids there (just Nicole’s own 2 kids and another baby who’s about a year old), maybe it’s because Nicole is too rigid and doesn’t really “get” Catie (who I fully admit is a pretty quirky kid), I honestly don’t know what it is. I was originally thinking about trying to get Catie to go to Nicole’s 3 days a week until preschool starts in the fall, but something about that decision just didn’t sit right with me.

So, rather than holding out and waiting for preschool to start, I’ve started looking for a full-time preschool/daycare that would work instead, where she could start now. Last week, my mom and I took Catie with us and toured a few different daycares. I found one that I think will be a really great fit for her. Of the three places we saw, it was the first place where Catie let go of my hand and ran off to play. She really seemed to like it there, and I got an overall good vibe from the place. So, we’ll see. I’m optimistic about it.

Oh, and did I mention that my baby girl is turning 3 tomorrow? I can’t really believe it. More updates on THAT milestone (with pics from her birthday party last weekend) tomorrow.

34

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I sort of forgot to mention that I turned 34 yesterday. Which, like I wrote on my birthday last year, is not that big a deal since it’s not a number that ends in a 5 or a 0. You know, meh, whatever.

But, I’ve actually had a very good birthday. First, I got a job that I really wanted, which is probably one of the best gifts ever. Then Dave got me the Wii Fit Plus (at my request, he wasn’t dropping hints about the size of my butt), and he also got me the newest Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo DS, which was a total surprise, and I love it because I am a huge nerd. And we went out for dinner. We just went to O’Charley’s, nothing fancy, but it works because I like their food, and it’s the kind of place that Catie can be loud and obnoxious and it won’t really disturb anyone. (And honestly, she was exceptionally good in the restaurant. We sat in a booth near the bar, and when the bartender turned on a blender to make a frozen drink, Catie shushed him and said, “That is TOOOO loud!”)

We spent most of the day yesterday cleaning the house (Catie even helped put away her toys), because my mom is coming today (yay!). Cleaning the house is definitely not my ideal way to spend my birthday, but being able to relax in my nice, tidy house has been lovely.

Oh, speaking of my mom, she should’ve been here about an hour ago, but her flight leaving Mississippi was delayed and she missed her connection, so now she won’t be getting here until around 6 p.m. tonight. But we’re all super-excited to see her, especially Catie. She loves her Mimi.

And for the record, Catie understood that it was Mommy’s birthday yesterday, but she also seemed to prefer that it would be “Baby Jeegus’s birfday” again, because that would mean that she would get presents too. (And yes, she calls him Baby Jeegus. She makes it rhyme with Regis. As in, “Live with Jeegus and Kelly.” I don’t really have the heart to correct her.)

Big News, and also: Delurking Day!

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First of all, it’s apparently National Delurking Day.

Delurker Day!

So if you read this site but never comment, today is the day that you’re supposed to say something. Even if it’s just a simple “hi.” It’s kinda nice to know who’s out there in the big bad Internet, you know?

Ok, moving on to the BIG NEWS of the day…

I GOT A JOB!!!

If you read this post last week, it’s the one I referred to as “Job A.” It’s full-time, working-from-home. I don’t want to get into too many details about what I’ll be doing because I’m not sure how prudent that is. It’s still in the IT industry, although it’s in an area that I have absolutely ZERO experience with, but it still sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Now, I just have to figure out how to accommodate Catie in all of this. She already has daycare two days a week, and that’s great. I think I have a temporary solution for the other three days of the week for now. The main thing is going to be finding a preschool for her in the fall. And of course, most of the preschools around here are enrolling kids, like, right now as I type. I’m not worried, we’ll figure it out, it’s just going to take some research to find something that’s a good fit for all of us.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go wake up my baby girl from a nap and take her to the movies to see “The Princess and the Frog.” Because days like these needs a little celebration.

on jet lag & sickness

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I suppose we were lucky that on our way to England, we didn’t experience much in the way of jet lag. We stayed up late, we slept late. We were a little tired, sure, but it was mostly fine. Coming home, though? Totally different story. The jet lag is kicking all of our butts.

In the week since we’ve been home, Catie has been unable to sleep more than two or three hours consistently without crying for either me or Dave. Sometimes she needs to use the bathroom (which, OMG she’s waking up to pee, yay! Only I’m not so enthusiastic about it at 3 a.m.), sometimes she’s thirsty, sometimes she’s just upset because she kicked her covers off and she wants us to tuck her back in. And even though I understand that this whole trip threw off her routine and she just needs reassurance to get back to normal, it’s challenging to maintain empathy after the third or fourth time she wakes me up.

Oh, also? She’s been announcing that she’s tired and ready for bed around 8:30, which is fantastic. I’ve been wanting her to go to bed earlier for ages. But then she decides that she’s awake for the day at 5 a.m. Which, no. Sorry, kid. Mommy needs more sleep than that. I’ll gladly take that 10:30 p.m. bedtime back if it means that I get to sleep until 8:00 again.

sick day fashion

As if Dave and I weren’t tired enough – and we’re both just now finally starting to feel better after that Sinus Infection of Doom – Catie now appears to be sick too. It started on Saturday, she came down with a fever and a nasty cough. These things always make her asthma flare up, so we’re being very careful to stay on top of her meds to keep her comfortable. The poor thing is on Pulmicort, albuterol, Motrin, and Zyrtec. She takes all of them like a champ, which is great, but I hate that she needs it.

Anyway, this virus thing means even less sleep than before. The past 3 nights, she’s woken up every 45 minutes to an hour. If memory serves, this is actually less sleep than I got when she was a newborn.

She seems a lot better today, so hopefully we’re at the end of this phase of all three of us being sick. Which would be nice, because I’ve had quite enough of it already to last me for all of 2010.

surprise!
(Photographic evidence of her improvement. Keep it up, kiddo. Please keep it up. Mommy is exhausted and needs you to get healthy quickly.)