Category Archives: Cate

the no-fun snow day

Posted on by

Like most of the east coast, we got a pretty decent amount of snow on Sunday night. I’m not sure exactly how much we got in our little section of North Carolina, I heard it was around two to four inches. It was enough for all of the schools to close down, anyway.

My plan for Monday consisted of, well, nothing. I wanted to get a couple of freelance articles written, maybe tidy up the house a little and make dinner, but that was about it. No major plans on the agenda. I was thinking how fun it was going to be to get more pictures of Catie frolicking in the snow like we did on our last snow day. As is usually the case, life had other plans.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know this, but on Monday morning, we ended up in the emergency room. Dave started having chest pains, his face turned all red, and it seemed like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. I’ve never seen him have any sort of episode like this, but it scared the living hell out of me, so we immediately set off for the ER. I paused for about 90 seconds to drop Catie off with our next-door neighbor, but that was the only thing that slowed me down. (And seriously, our neighbors? LOVE. SO. MUCH.)

Fortunately, if you find yourself at the admitting desk of an ER, and you use the words “chest” and “pain,” they tend to get you to a room tout de suite. They ran some tests on Dave: EKG, chest x-ray, bloodwork. And of course, as with all hospital visits, there was a whole lot of sitting and waiting. So much waiting.

Everything came back normal, so we don’t really know what happened. Panic attack? Too much stress and caffeine? Weird reaction to some new medication? No idea. They sent him home with a few Valium and an order to follow up with his regular doctor for more tests. Which I fully intend to make him do, because Dave’s granddad died when he was 50, and I’m terrified of something like that happening to him. Dave keeps reassuring me that his granddad had some sort of heart defect, plus he ate bacon and fried bread (i.e., white bread that’s been deep fried in bacon fat) for breakfast every morning, but still. I don’t eff around when one of his symptoms includes chest pains.

So yeah, it was basically a horrible, terrifying experience, and it seems that we have already broken my “no hospitals in 2009” goal, but at least Dave seems to be ok now, which I’m thankful for. And Catie had a great time at the neighbors’ house. When I went to pick her up, Meredith (the mom-next-door) was feeding about 8 of the neighborhood kids lunch, and Catie was sitting at the dining table with the big kids, chowing down on chicken nuggets and apple slices. Kind of hilarious to see my relatively tiny girl sitting with all of these other kids who are about 7-10 years old.

That night, I was in the kitchen making dinner. Dave came over to give me a kiss.
Him: “Thanks for being such a good wife today.”
Me: “That’s ok, thanks for not dropping dead.”
Him: “You’re welcome! Anytime.”

We joke, because sometimes that’s the only way we know how to cope with these really scary things.

on Sleeping Beauty

Posted on by

Catie is currently in love with Sleeping Beauty, which I bought on DVD last year. She calls her “Teedee,” which is as close to “Beauty” as she can say. I’m surprised that she loves it as much as she does, I thought movies with plots were still going to be another year or two from now for her. Also, I expected the witch to freak her out (because Maleficent is scary), but she seems totally unphased. She tries to imitate the witch’s evil cackle, and a couple of times she’s tried to scream, “Fools! Imbeciles!” along with her, so obviously she’s not too spooked. (And btw, a 2 year-old trying to say “imbecile” is just about the funniest thing ever.)

For the record, I don’t encourage the Disney princess stuff, but I figure that most little girls go through a princess phase at some point or another. And if it makes her happy, fine. I don’t mind the movie that much, at least the music is nice. A lot of the Disney movies grate on my feminist nerve, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Sleeping Beauty is really not all that bad. Because really, the three fairies are the ones who save the day. The prince would’ve stayed chained up in the witch’s dungeon forever if they hadn’t sprung him from his cell, plus they save his butt about a dozen times on his way to rescue Sleeping Beauty. (Remember? They turn the arrows being shot at him into flowers, the boulders into bubbles, etc.) Heck, they were the ones who gave him the sword and shield he needed to kill the witch. So yeah, Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather can rock on with their bad selves. They kick butt in their own little flibbertygibbet fairy way.

And ok, yeah, the whole idea that she meets the prince one time and decides she’s in love with him, and the presumption that of course she’ll be married off on her sixteenth birthday… yeah. I know. But they do say something about it being the 14th century, and really, both of those plot points are no more absurd than anything in Romeo and Juliet. Why not get married at 16, since the Black Death will probably kill you before you turn 30? Go for it. Carpe diem, whatever.

Anyway, since I’ve now seen Sleeping Beauty approximately 10,000 times in the past few weeks (how else do you think I came up with such a thorough analysis of how it isn’t as anti-feminist as it might seem at first glance?), I decided it was time to try something else. When I was pregnant, I bought a ton of movies on DVD for Catie to watch when she was older. I have E.T., Dumbo, Lady & the Tramp, Charlotte’s Web, Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz, you name it. But since Catie is kind of digging the whole princess thing, I suddenly remembered that we have both Cinderella and the Little Mermaid. Score!

(Don’t get me started about how awful an example Ariel is for little girls. She gives up her freaking voice in order to get the man of her dreams. I know. I KNOW!! But the music is gorgeous and fun, and right now I figure that Catie is too little to understand the plot anyway.)

So I went looking for either movie, and… they’re gone. As in, not on the bookshelf that contains all of our DVDs. And nowhere else in the house as far as I can tell. And now that I think about it, I haven’t seen them since we moved in this house. I can’t think of any other movies off the top of my head that are lost, but I’m just baffled. Did the movers lose yet another box? Were the DVDs in a miscellaneous box that got shoved in the attic? I don’t have a clue. And I’m feeling a little ridiculous, since we moved here almost seven months ago, and I’m just now noticing things that are missing.

Oh well. Seems we’re stuck with Sleeping Beauty in the meantime.
—————————————————————
Quick note on the health front: We’ve been really lucky with this cold, Catie’s only had a few minor asthma attacks which have cleared up with a dose of albuterol. She’s been generally pretty perky and happy through all of it, she’s been sleeping semi-decently, and she’s kept her appetite. So overall, it hasn’t been that bad. I keep waiting for it to take a turn for the worse, and maybe she will, but she’s on Day 5 of the gunk and so far, so good.

technologically-advanced toddler

Posted on by

Today, Catie decided to make my head explode with a new trick: she knows which remote goes with the TV and which one controls the DVD player. I kid you not. She brought me a DVD she wanted to watch, and I said, “Ok, but first I need to find the remote.” She picked up the silver TV remote, studied it for a second, then put it down and said, “no.” Then she found the black DVD remote, handed it to me, and said, “Here ‘mote, Mommy.”

Of course, then she freaked out because she brought me the wrong DVD – she wanted Baby Beethoven, which has a giraffe on the cover, and she brought me Baby Galileo, which has a kangaroo on it (same color scheme). When the movie started, she threw herself on the floor screaming, “Giraffe!!!” because she couldn’t understand that I couldn’t change the disc with a press of a button on the remote.

Still. She’s TWO, for crying out loud. She’ll be 25 months old on Friday. She’s a baby! The fact that she already knows which remote goes with which appliance completely freaks me out. Now it’s only a matter of time before she figures out how to actually operate the buttons on the remote, and then she’s going to be charging all sorts of pay-per-view movies to our cable bill. Next thing you know, she’ll be on MySpace and Facebook, and she’ll probably start sending Twitter updates from Dave’s iPhone, and oh my lord, I need an ibuprofen and a nap.

health update

Posted on by

Dave and I are slowly recovering from our colds, but as of yesterday, Catie has it too. So far her only symptom is a seriously gross runny nose, which has been keeping her from sleeping comfortably. But her energy level is about the same as usual, which is good. I’ve basically resigned myself to not having a pillow to myself until she’s over her cold. When she’s sick, she wants to sleep in our bed, and she wants to be as close to me as possible. Which is sweet, until my arm falls asleep or I get a crick in my neck.

Catie is getting her steroid (Pulmicort) via the nebulizer twice a day, and so far this cold hasn’t caused any asthma flare-ups. I hope that it’ll stay that way, although I’m worried that this is just the beginning and it’s going to get a lot worse. (I’m basing that on the symptoms that Dave & I have had so far.) Let’s hope I’m wrong, and that her version of this cold is much milder than ours.

playdates and sickies

Posted on by

I’m not sure what happened to my blog yesterday, but between two online chats with tech support and some major repairs, apparently all is well now. Annoying, but not fatal. Meh.

Yesterday, Catie and I went to Marbles Kids’ Museum, which is always fun. The problem is that downtown Raleigh is quite a hike from us, and with Catie’s tendency to get carsick… well. It wasn’t that bad, I had a change of clothes with us, and she seemed to feel a lot better after she barfed, so I just got her cleaned up and sent her off to play. She had a blast.

happy girl on her horsey

I love this b/c even though she's looking down, you can tell how happy she is

Or rather, they had fun until my friend Kimberly’s mother-in-law tried to get a picture with both Morgan (Kimberly’s daughter) and Catie at the same time. Catie had been so caught up with all of the toys and activities that she hadn’t noticed Morgan’s grandma up until the moment she grabbed her. And, um, Catie was not having it.

Morgan's grandma came over for a group pic. Catie was NOT having it.

I know it’s sick and evil of me, but that picture cracks me up. Besides, a few minutes later, all was well with the world.

playing happily again, after the whole "someone else's grandma hugged me" incident

On our way home from Marbles, I noticed that my throat felt a little scratchy. Dave’s been sick for the past few days, so I worried that I was coming down with it. As soon as we got home, I downed some Zicam and an Emergen-C to try to fight it off. I was supposed to play bunco with some of the neighborhood ladies last night, but I canceled on them since I wasn’t feeling great, plus Dave was miserable and Catie had an asthma attack that afternoon (nothing major, she’d just been running around outside in the cold weather too much), so I was worried about leaving them.

I was in bed by 9:30, and woke up this morning to realize that yes, I have indeed caught the plague. Yuck. I don’t mind suffering through it myself, I’m just worried that Catie will catch it. And since her colds tend to lead to major asthma issues and worse (i.e., hospital visits), I’m doing everything I can to keep her safe. Even trying to limit kisses, which is basically impossible. Cross your fingers that Dave and I keep the germs to ourselves. I’d like for 2009 to be free of trips to the pediatric ER, if at all possible.

giving up boundary issues

Posted on by

Today, I took Catie to the grocery store with me. She knows this store pretty well, and in fact, knows it so well that almost as soon as we walk in the door, she starts asking for a cookie, because she knows that the nice bakery ladies always give her one.

And you know? Fine. I’m not a food nazi with her, I’m pretty confident that the occasional cookie isn’t going to do any severe or lasting damage. We generally try to keep the house pretty healthy, and we’re lucky to have a toddler who will eat a wide range of foods. Case in point: today I tried to make her some Chef Boyardee ravioli for lunch – that’s a 2 year-old staple, right? Catie decided that she wanted my Lean Cuisine (salmon with orzo pasta, veggies and basil sauce) instead. And then she ate half of a nectarine. (Honestly, I have yet to find a fruit that she doesn’t like.) So you know, no real worries there.

Anyway, we headed over to the bakery to get her the requested cookie. The lady working there today is one that I’ve seen a few times before, but I don’t really know her. If I had to guess her age, I’d say that she’s at least 80. (I’m basing this on the fact that my dad will be 73 next month, and this lady looks at least a decade older than him.) She was very, very old, is my point. She came around the counter to give Catie a cookie, which Catie took from her, and then kind of turned her face away and giggled because the lady was talking to her (“well, hello! Look at you!”, that kind of thing). Then, Bakery Lady leaned in, grabbed Catie, and kissed her on the cheek a few times. A little machine gun “mwah-mwah-mwah!” Catie laughed, Bakery Lady told me how beautiful my baby is, and then she walked off.

The weird thing is, I’m pretty sure that if something like that happened in Catie’s first year, I would’ve freaked out. And today I just shrugged it off. The thought of “oh man, I hope she isn’t carrying any cold germs” crossed my mind, but… meh. I think Catie probably picks up more germs climbing on the equipment at the playground. It mostly just seemed sweet. I suppose it’s because I’m biased and I often find my kid too adorable to not kiss, so I sort of felt like, yeah ok, I understand the need to smooch on her.

out on a walk in our neighborhood greenway
Exhibit A: Still totally kissable even with messy hair.

Also, I feel bad for elderly people who have to work crappy jobs standing on their feet all day, so I try to go out of my way to be extra-nice. This lady was almost certainly somebody’s grandmother, if not a great-grandmother. I hope for her sake that she likes her job, but man, it seems like a pretty undesirable situation. So if it was just that she needed a little toddler snuggle to get her through her shift? Well, then, I was happy to volunteer my kid. And also glad that Catie laughed about it instead of crying.

Would any of you moms out there have gotten upset in that situation? I was kind of surprised at how indifferent I was about it.

Valentine's Weekend Recap

Posted on by

We’ve had a very nice, low-key weekend. Valentine’s Day is kind of a non-event for Dave and me. Nothing against people who like it, we’re just too lazy. We typically leave the big romantic night for our anniversary.

We did, however, take Catie to the neighborhood Valentine’s Day party on Saturday morning. I think it’s safe to say she was not into it at all.

this is how she spent most of the neighborhood Valentine's Day party

She basically freaked at all of the noise and people, plus we were in a strange place (our local community center, which we had never visited before). I’m not sure exactly why she was so scared, but she spent the entire party clinging to either me or Dave.

Catie & Dave having a snuggle

(I really love that picture of the two of them, even though Catie was in between crying jags at the time.)

Catie & me at the neighborhood Valentine's party

So yeah, not such a great idea on our part. Maybe next year, she’ll deal with it better. Once we got home, though, she was back to her normal self, and we had a lot of fun.

I love the motion in this pic: the legs flying & the ponytail straight out behind her

rocking her sunglasses

With the weather being so nice lately, both yesterday and today, Catie and I have gone out for walks on our greenway. Today, we were having so much fun that I thought it would be a good idea to walk all the way to our neighborhood playground. It’s maybe a 10 or 15-minute walk at a normal, adult pace. With a two year-old who wants to stop and check out all kinds of neat stuff along the way? It’s more like a 45-minute walk. Yeesh.

By the time we got to the playground, I realized that I had forgotten to bring any sort of supplies with me (sippy cup, extra diaper, whatever). Plus it was getting cold, and there was a big gray rain cloud heading straight for us. I wasn’t sure if we’d make the walk back at Catie’s pace, so I whipped out my cell phone (the one thing I had remembered to bring with me) and called Dave. Good husband that he is, he came to the playground and fetched us. Still, when you add up the time of our walk, plus the time we spent at the playground – oh, and then we played some more with the neighborhood kids when we got home – Catie and I were outside for almost two hours. I’m hoping this means she’ll be good and tired and not fight me too much at bedtime tonight.

Oh, one last picture that I have to share. Last week it was abnormally warm, and I had to break out some springtime clothes for Catie. I picked out this one outfit that my sister gave her for her birthday (and Catie totally understands that my sister gave it to her, because all day long, she’d occasionally point at her own shirt, and say, “Tracy!!” Such a smart girl). It’s completely adorable.

possibly the best picture I've ever gotten of her

Cute new outfit + ponytail + genuine laugh + actually looking at the camera for a change = this might be one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken of her.