Category Archives: Cate

tea, a drink with jam and bread

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Ok, I didn’t get a video of Catie singing the alphabet song, but I did get this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItjtLfsBSD4

Since she’s starting to like The Sound of Music, I showed her this video of the people dancing to “Do Re Mi” at the train station in Antwerp, Belgium, and she absolutely loved it. We must’ve watched it at least five or six times this morning.

For the record, I filmed it early this morning, which is why her hair is so messy. She was still in her PJ’s with a major case of bedhead.

Also, last night we went to see Rhythmicity, a local band that does African/Cuban tribal drumming, who we’ve seen a few times now, but I finally remembered to bring my video camera this time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EZptEMxj54

The band always brings a big basket of small rhythm instruments for the kids to play with. Catie loves them. You can also see Elizabeth and Cat (with Austin in his sling) dancing in the background. The girls always have so much fun at these drum shows.

And no, I don’t know why Catie grabs her own butt halfway through the video. Maybe she farted? Two year-olds are a mystery.

random stuff that is probably not nearly as funny to anyone else

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Since I think the mood is in dire need of lightening around here:

1. This post of Sally’s from 5 years ago. Read the comments. Had me laughing until tears ran down my face.

2. This video, no matter how many times I see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj-x9ygQEGA

3. Oh, and while I’m linking videos, let’s really hope that this isn’t the house we’re buying. (Thanks, Angie. I love this one.)

4. Catie, who in the past couple of days:
4a. Has started trying to sing the alphabet song, and OMG I have to get a video of that, because it’s hilarious.

4b. Was really good at the gym’s nursery while I worked out yesterday, so as a reward we went to the pool afterward. We haven’t been to the YMCA’s pool yet this year, I forgot how nice it is. They have a “splash zone” which is basically just an area of fountains that shoot water out of the ground in various formations. Watching Catie run around sticking her hands and feet in the water was so much fun. (She never jumped into the fountains, she’s way too cautious for that. And she got pretty mad when she stuck her hand in one fountain and it splashed water in her eyes.)

4c. Bashed me in the face with the back of her head during a particularly overzealous toddler bounce and split my top lip open. When I told her that she hurt me, she wanted to kiss it to make it better, which was sweet, but my lip was gushing blood at the time, so, NO. I let her kiss my lip when I finally got the bleeding under control, and she said, “All better now?” I said, “Thank you, sweetie, but no, it still hurts.” She said, “No. It all better now.” Well, thanks for setting me straight then. Guess there’s no need for this ice pack I’m holding to my face.

4d. Got irritated with me for getting too interactive during our bedtime routine. We lie in her bed together and read books, and the Curious George alphabet book has a line about “C is for a crab with two clamping claws,” and I tried to do a crab claw and tickle her tummy. Usually she thinks that’s funny, but I guess she was particularly tired and grumpy on this night, because she pushed me away, sighed exasperatedly and said, “Mommy, go to bed.” Nice.

4e. Has started calling me “Mom” as well as “Mommy.” It’s cute because using “Mom” makes her sound like a grown-up, but I thought I’d be Mommy for a few more years. I’m not sure I like it so much.

4f. Sang “Do-Re-Mi” in the car this morning on the way to daycare. I didn’t realize that she knew all the words, but she does – complete with holding her hand to her chest during, “me, a name I call MYSELF.” It was so cute I almost cried.

how I rock Friday nights these days

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This morning we had an appointment with our mortgage lender. We were already pre-qualified for our mortgage, but there was a lot of paperwork we needed to sign to make our application official. I woke up early and headed to the bathroom to start putting on my make-up (a process that is so. much. easier. without toddler interference).

Suddenly, the door opened and there was Catie, with her hair in her eyes, and whining, “Mommy, milk pwease!” This made me realize two things: 1) she is getting really efficient with opening doors (a relatively new trick; must remember to lock doors in situations that demand privacy, if you know what I’m talking about and I think you do), and 2) she’s figured out that she can climb out of her big-girl bed. Crap. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

It took a while, but eventually we all got out the door and over to the mortgage lender’s office. I felt bad for Catie, because I know that not much in life could be more boring for her, but I had brought a bag full of distractions: toys, books, Color Wonder markers & paper. Overall she was pretty good; she got a little whiny, but she did way better than I expected. Toward the end of the appointment, the guy left the room to photocopy all of the paperwork so we’d have copies for our records. While he was gone, I put Catie in one of the swivel chairs in his office and spun her around. She laughed and laughed, and thought it was so much fun. At least, she did for a while, until she got dizzy and took a flying leap out of the chair, and face-planted on the floor. Ouch. I had to carry her outside to calm her down, and the secretary brought her some M&M’s, which was very sweet.

Since Catie had been so good at the mortgage appointment, afterward we went to McDonald’s and let her have some chicken McNuggets and play in the indoor (read: air-conditioned) playground. She had an absolute blast running all over the place, I think we were there for about an hour. On the way home, both Dave and Catie fell asleep in the car. It was only maybe 10 or 15 minutes, but unfortunately, that meant that when we got home, Catie was all refreshed and ready to go. No more nap. Oof. Somebody kill me now.

So, this afternoon has mostly been comprised of whining and meltdowns (on Catie’s part, not mine, although believe me I was tempted). I gave her a bath around 4 p.m., then we came downstairs and had an early dinner. She asked for “milk and book” afterward, which is our bedtime routine: I lie down with her in her big-girl bed, and we read books together while she has her sippy cup of milk. Honestly, that’s like my favorite part of the day, even if it does mean that I can now recite “The Cat in the Hat” from memory. Tonight, though, Catie fell asleep while I was still reading to her. She was officially out before 6 p.m. Hell yeah. Mommy FTW!

So, since I am old and lame, I am going to bed early for the first time in weeks. And I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about that. I know it’s Friday night, and the Cindy from 10 years ago would not even recognize this version of myself. But honestly? I don’t care. I am so looking forward to sleep, glorious sleep.

Now, let’s just hope that Catie stays in her bed all night. Fingers crossed!

weekend recap, pink hair edition

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This past weekend we had a visit from the lovely and delightful Brittany. She and I have been chatting online for a while, she lives in South Carolina, and she was in dire need of something that approximates a vacation. So yeah, I invited a stranger from the Internet to stay at my house. I met Dave on match.com, so it didn’t seem like that big a deal to me.

And of course, she’s darling. I want to adopt her as my, um, well I’m not old enough to be her mother, but I guess she could be my little sister or niece or something. And Catie freaking loved her, as I expected.

Catie & Brittany

Catie & Brittany
Seriously, they totally bonded in less than 5 minutes. The only problem was that Brittany’s name was hard for Catie, so sometimes she’d call her “Britty” and sometimes she’d call her “guy.” As in, “C’mon, guy, let’s go this way!” (I swear, that’s an actual quote.)

Catie & Brittany working on their laptops
I think Catie is ready to sign up for her first Twitter account. (“OMG my parents suck. They made me sit in time-out and all I did was throw my toast butter-side down on the carpet! Injustice!”)

showing off her toy lizards

Brittany has an insanely nice camera, I’m really jealous of it. We got some fantastic action shots of Catie.

Toddler On The Run

chasing Mommy around the house

And one extreme close-up for good measure.

HI!!!

We had a great time. We ate a ton of food, we played with Catie, we geeked out with our cameras and computers, we had lots of long talks. And on Saturday night, after a couple of cocktails, we ended up on Room 704’s blogtalkradio show. (If you decide to listen to it, we’re on in like the last 5-10 minutes. And it’s mostly Brittany, not much of me. I was too busy refilling our beverages.)

So yeah, it was a great weekend. And I think we even convinced Brittany that Raleigh is a nice enough place that she’s now trying to find a job and an apartment in this area. Which would be very cool, I’m always in favor of having friends that live nearby.

P.S. To follow up on the last blog entry, we’re officially making an offer on house #2 tomorrow morning, but I don’t want to talk about it for fear of jinxing it, so SHH! We’ll talk more about it later if the guy accepts our offer.

the big-girl bed

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Sometime back in April, we bought Catie a big-girl bed. She was really getting too big for her crib; she hadn’t attempted climbing out, but she easily could have if she’d tried. Mainly it was just becoming obvious that she was uncomfortable. She’d roll over and bump into the rails, she’d get her feet stuck through the slats, etc. Most of the time it would lead to her waking up in the middle of the night and demanding to come sleep in our bed, and Mommy was more than a little tired of that particular routine. So I found a mattress store that had a good sale going, picked out a cute girly headboard to go with the twin mattress set, and figured it was done. The sales guy told me we’d have the bed in two to three weeks.

In May, I called to find out where our bed was; by that point, it had been over a month since we bought it. The guy on the phone said, oh, I don’t know why he told you 2-3 weeks, that headboard was a custom order (WTF? I just picked it out of their catalog, maybe everything that’s not a floor model is a “custom order”?), so it’s actually more like 4-6 weeks. I was annoyed, but ok. What can you do?

Now it’s June and still we had no bed. So I called them after a very bad night’s sleep for Catie (and hence us too) and asked them where the eff my bed was. The guy said there was a problem with the headboard, and it’d take at least another 3 weeks. I basically went ballistic and he offered to go ahead & bring out the bed itself without the headboard, and then they’ll deliver the headboard when it arrives. FINE.

So, we got the bed. And Catie? Freaking. Loves. It.

First she had to give it a bounce test.

she immediately started bouncing on her new bed

Then we told her, no jumping on the bed. And I got this look.

this was the look she gave me when I told her not to jump on the bed

But seriously? I think she’s sold on the whole big-girl bed thing.

I think she likes it

Even her little fleece baby blankets, that she has slept with since she was itty-bitty because she likes to soothe herself to sleep by sticking her finger through the washing instructions tag? Yeah, she is officially shunning her baby blankets now, because she adores her bright-colored bedspread with the butterflies and flowers all over it.

So far she’s had two bedtimes and one nap in the new bed, and she’s going down without a fight. (And last night she slept through the night for the first time in, um, a while. So YAY for that!) She even seems excited to go to bed. I know this will pass, the novelty of the new bed will wear off. But hot damn, this is awesome, and I’m planning to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

P.S. Don’t shop at Mattress Warehouse. For real. Gah.

for what it's worth, Cookie Monster is still my favorite

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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.

Catie & bongos

I love that Elizabeth will smile for the camera when I ask her to, even if all I had was my crappy iPhone camera.

Elizabeth at drum night

(Actually the iPhone camera isn’t that bad, I just wish it had features like zoom, or a flash.)

Catie & Elizabeth at drum night

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?

Love this pic

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.

Elizabeth at Sesame Street Live

Catie was sort of into it, but was also a little freaked out.

Dave & Catie at Sesame Street Live

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.