2008:
2012:
————————————————————————————
2008:
2012:
————————————————————————————
2008:
2012:
Yep. Life is good. (Also, I need to take more pictures of Lucy with my real camera instead of my phone, or she’s going to wonder why I have all of these crystal-clear pictures of her sister, and everything of her is grainy and Instagram-my.)
Today is my dad’s birthday. This picture of him with Lucy makes me smile every time I see it.
And so does this one of him with not-quite-2 year-old Catie.
And as a throwback – this picture of me with my dad makes me smile too. But in this case, it’s more because of his sideburns and maroon leisure slacks. (Thank you, 1976!)
Happy birthday, Dad. Your girls love you very much.
Random update of stuff that’s been going on lately:
I went out of town about two weeks ago, and the girls stayed with my parents. It was the first time I’d ever spent the night away from Lucy, and it was stressful for me, but I don’t think she even noticed I was gone. It probably doesn’t seem like a big milestone to most people, but it felt like one to me.
Catie also did great while I was gone.
————————————————————–
Other Catie stuff:
On my way back from my trip, I had a layover in Chicago. It occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten souvenirs for my girls while I was out of town, and I noticed a plush toy T. Rex while I was at O’Hare. (It’s based on Sue from the Field Museum of Natural History.) I figured I could use this to my advantage. So, when I came back, I told her that I had a present for her, but I couldn’t give it to her unless she made me a promise: in exchange for the dinosaur, she has to stay in her own bed all night.
(Wait, have I mentioned that Catie has been getting in bed with me every night for months? I forget if I’ve mentioned that or not.)
Anyway, of course my little dino-nut went bonkers over her new T. Rex toy, and she agreed to the terms of my deal. She’s been sleeping soundly in her own bed ever since. Praise the baby Jesus and Hallelujah.
Also, I found out what kindergarten Catie will be going to in a few months, which is freaking me out completely. I’m going to leave that topic for another time.
————————————————————–
Other Lucy stuff:
She’s cruising around the furniture, and letting go/standing on her own for a few seconds at a time. I’m pretty sure she’s going to start walking any minute now.
It’s funny just to discover the things that she knows. Like, she has this little toy bell at my parents’ house, and if you ask her, “Lucy, where’s your bell?” She’ll find it, pick it up, and start waving it around to ring it.
She’s also starting to dance, which I need to get a video of, because it’s impossible to describe, and completely hilarious.
See also: eyelashes. I melt.
————————————————————–
Other me stuff:
Work is good. I’m still working on a diet and hitting a lot of plateaus, but I’m doing my best and figuring that I’ll get there eventually.
I’m also… um… dating. Which is weird, and I don’t really know how much I want to talk about it on the blog.
I will say this: When I first mentioned this to my mom, she freaked out about it (in a bad way). But she’s chilled out significantly, after I explained my motives. The thing is, I work full-time, and I have the kids full-time, so I’m not out looking for a full-time boyfriend. Quite frankly, I don’t have the time. But you know what? It’s really nice to sometimes put on a shirt that doesn’t have a smear of baby snot on it, and to do my hair and make-up, and to feel cute, and… you know, FLIRT.
It’s fun. And there’s been a serious fun shortage in my life for the past year or so.
See? No baby snot anywhere. Also: HAPPY.
The other thing I told my mom: the girls will not be introduced to anyone that I date. They’ve been through enough instability and upheaval, and I’m not about to add to that.
If/when something starts to get serious (and I don’t expect that to happen aaaaanytime soon), they will be introduced to that person as my friend, just like they’ve met female friends of mine. And there will be no public displays of affection in front of the kids, because it’s inappropriate. Just like there wouldn’t be PDA in front of my parents – again, because it’s inappropriate.
I don’t know why I feel like I need to be defensive on that subject. Maybe it’s because I’m not officially divorced yet, that it all feels kind of unseemly. But I also don’t see how this is doing any harm, and it’s been a pretty big ego boost to find out that there are guys out there who think I’m cute. So I think it’s a good thing.
Lucy’s 9-month well-baby checkup was this morning.
She weighed in at 19 pounds, 14 ounces (I thought for sure she’d break the 20-pound mark this time, but she was 2 ounces shy), and she’s 27.8 inches tall. For those of y’all who care, that puts her in the 76th percentile for weight, and 52nd percentile for height. (I’m thinking that awesome potbelly makes up for the height/weight discrepancy.) She’s also in the 97th percentile for head circumference, which puts her as slightly smaller-headed than her sister. Catie was always off the charts for head size.
The doctor diagnosed her as basically perfect except for her eczema, which she’s had since she was a newborn. I could’ve told you that. This little baby girl is freaking awesome.
She crawls all over the place now, and she is FAST. She’s also pulling up to a stand on just about anything she can grab. If I happen to be sitting on the floor near her, she often uses either my hair or my boob to grab and pull herself up. Not so nice for me, but she’s so pleased with herself, I can’t really get mad at her, either.
She took two steps yesterday, pushing a little ride-on toy car in front of her, so I know that walking for real is just around the corner. I’m kind of terrified.
She mostly sleeps through the night now. Not always, but generally. Our routine lately has been that she goes down sometime around 8 or 8:30, and she might wake up sometime before midnight for one last bottle, but then she’s good until morning. So, it’s not too bad.
She eats like a champ. Baby food, finger food, regular table food… whatever you got, she’s game for trying it. Catie was always a bit of a picky eater, so this is kind of awesome to be able to just toss anything on her high chair tray and know that it’s most likely not going to go to waste.
She’s starting to get words here and there, too. The most popular ones are “hi” and “bye,” complete with hand wave. She’s not totally consistent, sometimes she waves and says “hi” to the door, or she’ll say “bye” a minute or two after we’ve left. Still, she’s getting it.
She can kind of say “bottle,” but it sounds like “bwuh”. And “all done” sounds like “nuh-nun.” She definitely has her own little dialect, but we’re figuring it out.
She can say “Pop-Pop,” which made my dad damn near melt. And she can say “Kay!” for Catie.
Still no consistent use of “mama,” but sometimes when she’s upset and wants me, she’ll say “mamamamamama,” which I figure is close enough.
For the most part, though, she is so much fun. We’re past the newborn stage and getting into the fun baby/early toddler phase where she seems to be learning something new every day.
And now that she’s getting bigger and a little more interactive, I’ve found that the dynamic between Catie and Lucy is changing too. Sometimes this is a bad thing – Lucy is mobile and wants to check out toys that Catie has deemed as “hers,” so we’ve had lots of long talks about how certain things have to be shared. Because, yes, of course, Catie has some toys that are very special to her and I don’t expect her to share those. But she also doesn’t get to yank every single thing away from Lucy with a, “That’s mine!” (And a lot of times, the things she yanks away are toys she hasn’t played with in months, if not years.)
But on the good side, it also means they play together sometimes now. Lucy loves watching Catie, and wants to do everything that her big sister does.
I have to say, this phase that we’re in right now is so much fun. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
I wasn’t sure how Catie would deal with the loss of Teenie. She’s known that cat her entire life. We talked for several days beforehand about how Teenie was very old and sick, and how it was almost time for her to go to Kitty Heaven. But I was dreading telling her about it when it happened. The poor kid has been through quite enough over the past year, she deserves a break.
She took it all really well at first. She knew it was coming, so it wasn’t a total shock.
But the next day, she walked into the room and said, “Mommy, I just don’t feel like myself without Teenie here.” I told her that I knew exactly what she meant. Then she burst into tears. There wasn’t anything I could do except hold her while she cried for a long time.
She asked if since Teenie had died, could she get a puppy?
I said no way, kiddo, sorry. Mommy is responsible for cleaning up quite enough poop around these parts. We aren’t adding a puppy to the mix.
She said, then can I get a hamster?
I said no, because hamsters stink and Mommy doesn’t want to clean its cage.
She said, then can I have a fish?
Sigh. Damn it.
I’m not made of stone, y’all.
Internet, meet our newest family member(s)…
(See the 3 blobs at the top of the green aquarium plant? Yeah. Them.)
Their names are Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. Catie named them herself. Obviously.
So, yeah. Fish. At least they’re really low-maintenance pets, right?
I found my cat, Teenie, sometime around my 21st birthday. I don’t remember if it was a few days before or after my actual birthday. It doesn’t really matter.
What I remember is that I was living off-campus in a house that I rented with two other girls. There was an ice storm, and I came home really late, like at 3 a.m. (I don’t remember why I was out so late – again, doesn’t really matter.) As I was walking up to the front door, I saw something run from the front porch. It was dark out, and the blob that I saw running was so tiny, I thought it was a squirrel. Then I thought I heard a meow. Just to be safe, I said, “Here, kitty-kitty-kitty?” She came running to me.
I searched all over the neighborhood for her owners. It quickly became apparent that someone had dumped her during the ice storm, probably figuring she wouldn’t last through the night. My parents told me that they were already helping to support my living expenses while I was in college, and I was not allowed to keep a cat. I lied and told them that my roommate had decided to keep her. But Teenie was mine from the moment I found her.
(For the record, she got her name because compared to my roommate’s three humongous cats, she was this wee little kitten, so she was, quite literally, teenie.)
I’ve had Teenie for over 15 years now. She’s moved all over the country with me. I found her in Memphis, TN, but she’s lived in Mississippi, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Washington, and North Carolina. She travels like a champ. I used to joke that she needed her own frequent flyer account for all the times she flew home with me.
When Catie was born, Teenie would stand guard in front of me while I was nursing her, and hiss/growl/swat at anyone who came near me and the baby. That included Dave too. She just knew that Catie was “ours.” The same was true with Lucy, too.
Teenie hasn’t been doing well for a while, and her health has taken a serious turn for the worse in the past couple of days.
This is part of the deal with pets, right? They typically live shorter lives than their owners. And it’s horrible and heart-breaking, but that’s what you sign up for when you adopt a pet.
I’m having Teenie put to sleep this afternoon. It’s a horrible decision to have to make, but it’s time. She’s been a really good cat and a great companion, and I will miss her terribly.
I don’t know what else to say. I’m just really damn sad about it.
May you rest in peace, Teenie. I hope Kitty Heaven is full of bologna and cheese.
Things that were good this week:
1. Nobody is sick. I’m almost scared to say that out loud for fear of jinxing it and bringing the Germ Fairy back to our house. But for the moment, nobody has The Crud. So that’s awesome.
2. I’ve hit the point in my diet/exercise plan where I can now see the difference myself. I’ve lost around 10 pounds, my clothes fit better, and I caught myself checking out my own butt in the mirror. Like, more than once. Not so much being vain, more “hey, look at that!”
3. Lucy seems to have figured out this whole “standing up” thing.
Now I need to hurry up and figure out the whole “baby proofing” thing, because man, she is into EVERYTHING. And unlike Catie, Lucy wants to put EVERYTHING in her mouth. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to stick my fingers in her mouth to fish out something she shouldn’t have gotten. Neither of us are happy when this happens, and yet, she keeps doing it. Babies really don’t catch on quickly, do they?
4. I’ve been having late night Skype dates with Matt after the kids are in bed. I think my crush on that guy is bigger than it was back in 1999. He makes me giddy.
5. I’m going out with a girlfriend tonight while my parents watch the kids. I can’t wait. I need to get dressed up and get out of Mommy Mode for a while.
So yeah. Pretty good week here overall.