Category Archives: Cate

I am not the bionic woman

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I mentioned last week that I was going to take some time off from The 30-Day Shred, because my knees were swollen and achy. So I took a week off, but I worked out with the Wii Fit almost every day, because I didn’t want to undo all of the good that I had done. Yesterday, I decided that my knees were feeling fine, so I did The Shred during Catie’s nap. And it was great. It totally kicked my butt, but I enjoyed it and felt good afterward.

Then last night, I went to sit on the couch, and I folded my left leg underneath me, which is how I usually sit. And I felt a sudden pain in my left knee that took my breath away. I don’t know how to describe it, except that I imagine it’s what it feel like to be stabbed. It really, really hurt, is what I’m saying.

My knee is still pretty painful today. It hurts every time I bend my leg to sit down on the floor, which stinks because that makes up a pretty big portion of my day. How do you play with a two year-old, if not on the floor? So this is not good, and I’m really hoping that I don’t end up needing to go to a doctor about it.

Hopefully I’ll bounce back quickly. I don’t want to give up on The Shred because I like it a lot, but it seems pretty likely that I might need to find a lower-impact form of exercise that doesn’t make my joints go all explode-y.

Luckily, the weather’s been really lovely lately, and Catie and I have been going for walks on our neighborhood greenway. And walking is about as low-impact as you can get.

out for a walk on the neighborhood greenway

No, I don’t take my kid out for walks in a crash helmet. She always wants to bring her tricycle along on our walks, even though she’ll only ride it for a few minutes here and there, she mostly wants to run alongside it while I push it. (Thank heavens for that parent-height steering handlebar.) She wears the helmet because I enforce the “we wear helmets anytime we ride anything with wheels” rule. I think it’s better to establish the habit sooner than later.

Also, as long as I’m posting some of the pictures I took yesterday, can someone explain to me how something as simple as a ponytail can make a toddler go straight from “baby” to full-on “little girl”?

Catie laughing at the neighbor kids

It kills me how grown-up she looks with her hair up. I sort of love it, and it sort of breaks my heart just a tiny bit at the same time.

The Shred, tricycles, etc.

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* I’ve been doing The 30-Day Shred consistently for the past couple of weeks, and I seem to have overdone it at some point. I have wonky knees to begin with (my right knee is worse than my left), so I was trying to be careful. I wore a knee brace on my right leg when I worked out, which I always do when I’m doing any type of strenuous exercise. Even with the brace on, though, my right knee is now all swollen and aching. And my left knee doesn’t hurt exactly, but I can feel it when I walk, which isn’t good – it’s usually a sign that I’m about one workout away from really hurting myself. And you know, I have a two year-old to chase around, I can’t afford to be incapacitated right now.

So, I’m easing off and I’m working out with the Wii Fit (which is a lot of fun, but let’s face it, it’s way easier than The Shred) for the next few days until my knees start to feel “normal” again. I do really enjoy The Shred, though – I love that it totally kicks my butt in such a time-efficient manner – so I look forward to picking it up again soon.

* All of the new behaviors that Catie’s picked up in the past week are blowing my mind. I’ve heard moms talk about how their kids suddenly changed when they turned two, but I don’t think I actually believed it until I saw it firsthand. But while she used to run away laughing when I tried to change her poopy diaper, now she wants me to change her as soon as she poops (“Mommy, help! Stinky!”, complete with a tushie-grab to make sure I understand). I’m starting to think that potty training is in our near future.

And she no longer just says, “Hi, [name].” Now it’s, “Hi, Mommy [or Daddy]! It’s me, Catie!” Oh, that’s a relief. I’m glad you clarified that, or I might’ve gotten you confused with that other blonde two year-old that lives here. So there are some developments that are right on track for her age, and some that are just flat-out random. But luckily, she’s pretty hilarious most of the time, so it makes up for some of the more… er, annoying toddler traits.

Also, my parents got Catie a tricycle for her birthday. She hasn’t figured out the pedals, but luckily we have the one with the parent-height handlebar so I can steer and push while she rides. I’m sure she’ll figure out the pedals eventually, but she has fun with it anyway.

helmet girl

testing out her new tricycle

* Last thing: I got a phone call this morning from my cousin Cat. It sounds like she maybe, possibly, might kinda-sorta be in early labor. She’s full term (37 weeks), but this is a little bit early for baby Jambuca to make his appearance. I’m waiting to hear more, but in the meantime, everybody send her “if this is the real thing, let it be quick & easy, with a happy, healthy mom & baby” vibes. (Boy, that was awfully specific, wasn’t it?)

the "best of the year" video

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Ok, my sister demands it, and I immediately cave and make a damn video montage.


Catie’s 2nd Year from poobou on Vimeo.

I went with Vimeo this time instead of my usual YouTube because of a licensing issue – I really wanted to use that Jason Mraz song (“I’m Yours,” for those of you who haven’t heard it ten gajillion times already). It seems to fit the tone, and Catie loves the song; every time it comes on the car radio (which is, um, basically every time we’re in the car), she kind of bobs her head and tries to sing along. So it was perfect. But apparently the rights are owned by [insert major record company name], and there was some lawsuit between [said record company] and YouTube about copyright infringements, so YouTube flagged my audio file and wouldn’t let me upload the video with any audio. So, hey! Vimeo! That’ll work. Suck it, big corporate music giant.

(And yes, I do feel totally rebellious by violating somebody’s copyright laws somewhere. It’s kind of making me nervous, I’m waiting for the cops to show up at my front door and either arrest me or slap me with some huge fine over a bunch of videos of my kid. But I also feel good about it, like I’m sticking it to The Man somehow. God, I am so pathetic.)

Anyway, hope y’all enjoy the video.

EDITED 4/7/2009: Apparently that corporate music giant found my video after all, and Vimeo removed it. Argh. I’ve hidden the file on my site, so if you want to see it, email me and I’ll send you the link. But I really don’t need to get sued for some stupid copyright infringement b.s., so I’m not posting it here.

two, redux

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It’s official, I give up. I cannot make a video montage because it’s too hard. I can’t pick a song that accurately fits her year, I can’t narrow down which videos are my favorites, and I certainly can’t pick just a few seconds here and there to narrow it down even more. I’m just stuck. Also, the grandparents are waiting for the year-end DVDs that I make for them (a compilation of all the movies I’ve filmed throughout the year), and that’s going to be enough of a time-consuming project for now. Apparently I established a precedent by making DVDs for them last year, so now they’ll be expecting them for each year from now on, for the rest of my life.

Plus, someone apparently sent the child a memo that being two means she needs to kick the behavior issues up a notch. She’s the same as she’s always been, 95% of the time she’s completely hilarious and delightful. But the other 5%… wow. I think there are probably dogs hundreds of miles away whose eardrums have shattered because of my girl’s tantrums.

2 years old - birthday girl
Who, me?

So instead of a montage video, I give you the video we took of Catie’s birthday celebration at home. It was very quiet, just the three of us, but it was fun. (Be warned, it’s kind of a long-ish video, 4 & 1/2 minutes. This is one of those things that’ll probably only interest the grandparents.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPrt10HY8ho

Also, I finally uploaded the video we took of her playing in the snow on Inauguration Day. (This one’s shorter, 2 & 1/2 minutes. And infinitely funnier for all of the cackling with glee she does at the snow.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-TwrTxUDCw

Yesterday, the weather was crummy (windy and rainy), so to let her burn off some energy before naptime, Catie and I went to one of those indoor play spaces. She had a great time.

playing in the toy kitchen

...and then the dinosaurs trampled a poor unsuspecting village

After we played for a while, we met up with my across-the-street neighbor, Kimberly, and her baby, Morgan, for lunch. The girls had a great time playing with (or rather, near) each other, and when we got home, Catie went down for her nap with no trouble. I love it when that happens.

A couple of random vocabulary things she’s said lately that have cracked me up:
1) This afternoon, I noticed that Teenie had barfed on the couch (AGAIN! Cats in their golden years can be a major pain in the you-know-what sometimes). I muttered, “oh dammit,” to myself. Catie looked at me and said, “Wass wrong, Mommy?” That was mind-blowing enough on its own. But then I told her that Teenie had gotten sick on the couch, so she comes over, peers onto the sofa to inspect the situation herself, and says, “Oh no! Mess! Mommy, Teenie did mess!” Yes, baby, Teenie made a mess. And I have no idea where on earth you learned to say all that.

2) A couple of nights ago, she slipped and fell in the living room. I wasn’t watching that closely when it happened, but she landed with such a thud that I thought she might’ve hit her head on the coffee table. (She was right next to the coffee table at the time.) I picked her up and was trying to comfort her, and I asked her if she hit her head. Through her sobs, she said, “No, my tushie!” and grabbed her own butt to illustrate her point. That, my friends, is completely awesome.

two

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Catie is two years old today.

I’m sorry, I’ve got nothing else profound to say. I’ve been trying to think of something to write all day, but my mind is just blown. She’s TWO, y’all. Two!

I mean, good lord, didn’t I just take this picture last week?

happy

And now she looks like this?

wearing her Aunt Tracy's rings

How did that HAPPEN???

I’m trying to put together a little video montage of the past year, like I did last year, but I’m having a hard time because there are so many videos to choose from that I absolutely love.

Like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_oU7TAotzQ

She started off this year as a crawling, generally non-verbal baby – she had a few words here & there, sure, but I wouldn’t say that we exactly communicated with each other.

Now, not only can she walk, she can run and dance. And she can talk your ear off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dh9fzG_QNU

It might be a couple of days before I get this montage video put together. Right now, I’m going to go make dinner for my birthday girl: chicken pie, her favorite. And then we have cupcakes (and a number 2 candle) for dessert. More pictures pending.

Just… two. My god.

Catie's Birthday Party

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Catie’s birthday party yesterday was so much fun. I’m really glad we decided to have the party at Chick-Fil-A. We had our own assigned person to take care of us, everybody seemed to have a really good time, and the best part? I didn’t have to clean up the mess afterward. Score!

close up of the previous pic: you can tell she dug the Pooh decor

party table

I have to say, our neighbors rock. All of the kids were so good, and the moms are so much fun to hang out with (um, not that I had much time to sit down and chat, but still). I guess the perk of having the older kids there is that at this point, they’re all birthday party pros. They know the drill: play, eat, play some more, cake & ice cream, squeeze in a few more minutes of play, presents, then go home. The whole thing was over and done in less than 2 hours. Perfect.

kids swarming the Chick-Fil-A cow

As I predicted, Catie hated the Chick-Fil-A cow. She freaked out if he got within ten feet of her. But the older kids loved him, so it was fine.

Besides the neighbors, we also had Cat, Tony & Elizabeth there. Since Elizabeth is around the same age as Catie, I wasn’t sure how she would react to the Chick-Fil-A cow. Her reaction was… different than Catie’s, to say the least.

Elizabeth LOVED the Chick-Fil-A cow

She freaking LOVED the cow. It took her a minute to warm up to him, but oh man. Love. She cried when he had to leave. Meanwhile, Catie was all, “Good riddance, cow. Don’t let the barn door hit you on your way out to the pasture.” It’s so funny, those two kids could not be more different if they tried. And yet they seem to like each other. Go figure.

My only two (tiny) gripes about the party:
1. I have no pictures of Dave at all because he was the one using the camera. He was there, I promise. We have witnesses.
2. You know how I was all excited about not having to clean up afterward? Well, it turns out, when all the kids bring presents for your kid, those gifts have to go somewhere after the party. And that somewhere is all over my living room. So there was still a pretty big clean-up job left for Dave and me today. Oh well.

But really, overall it was fantastic, and just so much fun. I guess I’m surprised because I thought having this big birthday party for a two year-old would be one of those migraine-causing, “sweet Jesus, remind me to double up on my birth control”-type experiences, and it totally wasn’t. It was busy, sure, but it was fun busy.

All the pictures from the party are here.

party preparations

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Catie’s second birthday is next Tuesday, but for scheduling purposes, her birthday party is tomorrow. We’ve been talking it up to her a lot, and she seems to be pretty excited about it. Of course, this could be because there’s an episode of “Thomas the Tank Engine” (her new favorite show) where they have a party for all the trains, so that’s what she thinks she’s going to tomorrow. I don’t know.

Oh, and she knows that when people ask how old she is, she says, “one… TWO!” Again, I don’t know if she knows exactly what that means. Dave and I have heard her count up to five a few times, but I don’t know if she’s really understanding the concept of counting, or if she’s just memorized the words in order. Either way, color me impressed.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon we will all be at Chick-Fil-A having a little shindig. I’m not that stressed about it, since there isn’t too much for me to do. I have all of the party favors made, all that’s left is that I need to pick up some cupcakes tomorrow morning, in case the cake isn’t big enough. (The CFA manager I spoke with couldn’t tell me how big the cake is, or how many servings it would make, just “well, I guess it depends on how big the slices are” – um, WTF?) I want to make sure the parents who come are all able to get a little sweet treat, too. I figure that when it comes to dessert, it’s always preferable to have too much than too little.

Oh, and btw – the bakery people that Chick-Fil-A use have never heard of the Wonder Pets, so we’re having a Winnie the Pooh themed party. Which is fine, I’m sure Catie will be just as excited about Pooh as anything else. I debated on going with Thomas the Tank Engine, since Catie is really starting to love him, but (a) as much as I hate to operate along gender lines, the Thomas stuff is clearly heavily marketed to little boys, and (b) the idea of a cake with blue & black icing didn’t sound terribly appetizing.

Honestly, my biggest worry is going to be making sure that Catie goes down for her nap early enough that she’ll be up in time for the party (or at least won’t be too much of a grouch when I wake her up). She normally naps from 1:30 to 3:30, and the party is at 4, so we’re cutting it a little close. I’m planning on getting her up early and taking her out with me to run errands, in an effort to hopefully wear her out early for naptime.

Anyway, stay tuned for pictures from the birthday party. I’m sure it’s going to be an experience!