Alternate title: I have a headache and a deadline, but feel the need to post something anyway.
Edited to add: I only realized when my friend Danielle pointed it out that today is actually Thursday, not Wednesday. Um, oops? Clearly I’m a moron. Sorry about that. But hey, look! Cute pictures of my kid! Carry on.
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.
Dear Catie,
Today you’re 28 months old. I haven’t done a monthly update in a really long time, and I don’t know that I’ve ever written one addressed to you. I guess it’s because when you were a baby, it felt silly to write these letters to you when there was no way you’d understand the words. But lately, you suddenly seem like such a little grown-up person, I think that if I read this out loud to you, you’d understand a pretty good portion of it.
Catie-bug, you are so much fun right now. Every day is a new little adventure, and I love getting to see what you’re going to come up with next. Last night, you were bored and you so desperately wanted my undivided attention, but I was putting away groceries, then doing the dishes and getting dinner started. I felt bad, but once I had dinner going, I went and sat with you in the living room. We pulled out your little toy farm animals and they all had conversations with each other. They said night-night and went into the barn to go to sleep, and then they woke up again in the morning and everyone greeted each other with such enthusiasm. And that was all you; I was playing along and providing bits of dialog here & there, but the game was all yours. You have a ridiculous amount of imagination, I love watching you play out little storylines with your toys.
Of course, once your Daddy came home from work, you wanted nothing to do with me anymore. That’s fine, you’d spent the whole day with me and I know you really missed him. You threw quite a fit when I took you upstairs for a bath; you kept screaming, “Daaaaddy!!” Normally I would’ve let him give you a bath, but he was exhausted and needed some downtime to recover. I know that’s hard for you to understand, but you’ll get it someday. After your bath, the two of you snuggled in our bed and watched cartoons together until bedtime. I barely heard a peep from either of you except when you laughed. There are times when I like to eavesdrop on you two. You chatter away to him and he pretends to understand everything you say. It’s so sweet, the special little bond that the two of you have.
And to be fair, he does get a few keywords here and there, but for the most part, I’m still your primary translator. Which I suppose makes sense, because I spend more time with you than anyone else. Last week you got sick with a nasty stomach virus, and after you threw up on yourself, your Daddy took you upstairs to clean you up while I cleaned the floor. You were crying, “Jamas!” and he thought you were asking to watch Thomas the Tank Engine. I had to explain that you were asking for your pajamas. He was close, but not quite there.
Later this summer, I’m going to be gone for 3 days, and it’ll be the first time that you and your Daddy will be on your own for that long. I’m going to be trying to get him up to speed on his Catie-speak so you don’t have too many communication breakdowns while I’m gone. I’m less worried now than I was a month ago, because you’re getting so much better at making yourself understood.
Catie, you astound me with the things you remember. You left one of your Thomas trains, Toby, at the baby-sitter’s house two weeks ago. You asked me where Toby was, and I told you that he was at Miss Nicole’s house. A few days later, you asked me, “Toby at Miss Nicole’s? He with Kiersten and Carissa?” [Kiersten & Carissa are Nicole’s 2 daughters.] You’ve asked this every couple of days, like you’re just checking to see if the status has changed. Today is your first day back at daycare in over two weeks (we had a visit from Mimi & Pop-Pop, followed by you getting sick, then a holiday weekend), and I already warned Nicole that probably the first thing out of your mouth is going to be along the lines of “Where’s Toby?”
Catie and Kiersten
And not to brag, but oh my lord, you are so smart. I recently cleaned out your toy chest of all of the old toys you no longer play with, and to reward you for being so good about me putting a lot of your stuff in storage, I got out a toy that your Grandma got you for Christmas. It’s a toy laptop that’s meant for kids ages 3 & up. I never opened it because it seemed too advanced for you. And truth be told, there are some games that you probably won’t be able to play for at least another year. But you love it, you call it “my ‘puter” and carry it around with you. (You even wanted to bring it to bed with you; a request that was denied because I knew you’d stay awake playing with it instead of sleeping.) You know how to turn it on & off, and the game where you’re asked to identify a number or a letter? Baby girl, you rule at that game. You have almost 100% accuracy with the numbers; you sometimes need help with the letters, but good grief, you’re not even two & a half yet! Seriously, you blow us away.
This is not to say that everything is roses & sunshine. You do have meltdowns, and man alive, they are some epic tantrums when they happen. But I’m guessing that it’s no worse than any other two year-old on the planet. And you’re very good about time-outs; you cry, but you seem to understand what it’s about and you sit there for the two minutes like you’re supposed to. And there have been other road bumps, like when we tried potty-training a few weeks ago. I would like to apologize for that, you clearly weren’t ready. We’ll try again in a few weeks, and if it still doesn’t work, well, we’ll just keep trying until you get the hang of it. No big deal.
Which reminds me. The whole issue of pooping has become a rather huge deal since the trauma of potty-training. Even with a diaper on, you usually cry and scream when you poop instead of just doing it. But the other night, you pooped while I was taking a shower. You came into the bathroom afterward and proudly announced, “Mommy, I did HUGE poop! I did it perfect!” And then you applauded yourself. Yes, the poop was in your diaper and not the potty, but the fact that you did it without crying and a whole bunch of drama was a major accomplishment in itself. I was so proud of you.
Overall, you’ve suddenly gotten so much easier, so much more self-sufficient, so much more grown-up, that it’s even got your Daddy and me thinking that maybe we could handle the idea of having another baby someday. [Aside to other people reading this: no, I’m not pregnant. Just considering the possibility.] I think you’d be an amazing big sister.
We love you so much, Catie-bug. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.
Love,
Mommy
We came home from Wilmington yesterday. But first, we went on a completely ridiculous detour to go to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. We saw that it was about 20 miles out of our way, but we didn’t know that we’d be going 30 mph on a local road most of that way. Argh.
As for the aquarium itself: well, to be fair, I’m a little spoiled. Once you’ve been to the aquariums in Monterey and New Orleans, it’s going to take a little more than a couple of sharks in a big see-through tank to impress you. And there are three aquariums in North Carolina, and we’ve only been to this one, so I can’t say that all of the aquariums here are bad. But, um… I was less than impressed. Dave and I agreed that on a scale of 1 to 10, we’d give it a 4 or 5. Still, we got some cute pictures.
My main complaint is that there were a few things Catie was asking to see, and they didn’t have them: not a single dolphin, otter, or octopus in the entire place. Boo.
Really, the best part of the whole aquarium was the gift shop. Catie isn’t huge on stuffed animals, but she’s really into little plastic action figures. Like the Little People type things? The animals are her favorites. They have conversations with each other and act out entire storylines – most of the dialog is jibberish to us, but it obviously makes sense to her. So we got her a few of their very realistic-looking plastic animals: a sea turtle, an alligator, and an otter. (Seriously, NC Aquarium? You sell toy otters, octopi, dolphins – even freaking penguins – but none of those creatures are actually in your facility? WTF? Lame!)
Anyway, these are Catie’s new favorite creatures:
I don’t get it, because I think the turtle and the alligator are both a little scary-looking. But she adores them, and even insisted on bringing them to bed with her last night. Personally, I wouldn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and see that alligator’s face staring at me in the dark, but maybe that’s just me.
After the aquarium, we stopped to gas up the car and grab some lunch, then headed home. Perfect timing, too, because Catie slept the whole way home. She woke up when we were about three miles away from our house. Lovely.
I think she was pretty happy to be back home. We were too.
Dave and I have decided we really love Wilmington, North Carolina. Our vacation so far has been great. Cocktails in the evening, naps during the day – basically an ideal vacation. Neither one of us can remember the last time we did this, so obviously it’s been way too long.
Of course, there is the small issue that we came to Wilmington to go to the beach, and Catie, um, well, pretty much hates the beach.
Really, I should’ve known. She hates all forms of dirt and messiness. This is a kid who eats a cookie and then immediately says “oh no! Mess!” and gives me her hands to wipe off. So why we thought she’d dig the sand? Um, yeah. Not our brightest move. The hotel pool, on the other hand, was a much bigger hit.
Tonight, we went to check out downtown Wilmington, which was a lot of fun. We had a fabulous dinner (actually, all of our meals here have been amazing; we’ve really lucked out). I didn’t really know anything about Wilmington before this trip, but it’s really a very cool town.
Tomorrow we head home; we’re going to try to swing by the aquarium first, to let Catie check out the fishies & burn off some energy so she’ll sleep on the way back.
Hope everyone else is having a nice holiday weekend!
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.
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.