Category Archives: Cate

our house is not that fun right now

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Dave has been sick with a horrible cold all week, which means I’ve been spending the week torn between nagging him to wash his hands ten thousand times a day before he picks up the baby, and fervently praying that Cate and I don’t catch it from him.

So far? I think I’m catching it. I’m fighting it off pretty well: drinking tons of fluids, taking vitamin C and zinc every few hours to keep my immune system boosted, and doing saline nasal irrigation several times a day (which is really disgusting, but I’ve found that it sometimes can successfully fight off sinus infections, so why not give it a shot?). It’s funny because if we didn’t have a baby, I’m sure that I would’ve surrendered a couple of days ago and just declared myself sick and that would’ve been that. But now I’m all, “oh HELL no, you’re not taking me down without a fight, cold germs!” I ain’t going out like that.

Cate seems to be fine. She’s a bit snottier than usual, but I think that may be because she’s been crying a lot more since her second tooth just broke through. Poor baby.

Today, Very-Sick Dave, Almost-Sick me, and Weepy-Bitey Cate headed off to our local district court to get Cate her first passport. Fun! As you might have expected, it was a fully dramatic trip involving two separate trips to the courthouse because in spite of all my planning, we were unprepared for everything we were going to need. Who knew they’d only take checks and not my debit card? So off to the bank we went, where I learned that they will, in fact, print off a sheet of three personal checks for you. Isn’t that nice? I had no idea that service existed. And it’s only a $1 fee per check, so that’s a lot better than a $5 money order. (It was either that or drive ten miles back to the boonies to get the checkbook which lives in my purse, not my diaper bag. And, dude. No way.)

I’m not sure when we’re going to the UK to visit Dave’s family, but I wanted to get all of our paperwork in line so that we can go whenever we want. I also had to get my passport updated, since it still had my maiden name on it, and also featured a pre-gastric bypass photo of me that I will be quite happy to never see again. Luckily mine can be done through the mail, no courthouse trips necessary.

But if Dave isn’t feeling better by tomorrow, I’m sending him to the doctor. The last thing I need is a husband in the hospital with pneumonia.

not to be read during or near mealtime

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The only reason I’m writing about this is so Cate can read it someday when she’s older and be mortified that this story is published on the Internet for all to see.

This morning started off like normal. Cate woke up, I fed her, and then I went to get her dressed for daycare. I let her crawl around naked for a while, which she loves to do. Seriously, y’all have no idea how many naked pictures and videos I have of this child. She gets mad when I try to put clothes on her. So I try to let her have plenty of naked time every day because it makes her happy, and I love hearing her laugh. And ok, occasionally she’ll pee on the floor, but you know, when you’ve cleaned up as many cat hairballs as I have, that’s really no big thing.

Today, she pulled a first: she pooped on the carpet. Normally when she poops, she does the whole red-faced, grunting thing, and it takes her a while to produce anything. Obviously, if I had seen any signs of an impending poop, I would’ve slapped a diaper on her and that would’ve been that. But this happened so fast – she slowed down mid-crawl, and PLLLLBBBTTTT!!! It just exploded out of her butt. And all over her legs and feet.

The next ten seconds are still replaying in slow-motion in my head. She turned around, sort of surprised, like “hey, looky at what I just did!” Then… she grabbed it. Oh, the horror. I grabbed her arm to stop her from making more of a mess, and in doing so, she managed to smear her poop-covered hand all over my pajamas.

So that’s the story of Why We Were Late for Daycare today, since a bath for both of us was mandatory after that little incident. God, my gag reflex is still acting up when I just think about it.

Also, on our way out the door, I tripped on our front step. This same thing happened back when Cate was about ten days old. I didn’t skin my knee this time, but I did manage to twist my ankle, stub my pinky toe and slam my back against the side of the house before landing flat on my butt. Don’t ask me how I pulled that off – I’m sure I couldn’t demonstrate it if my life depended on it. The good news is that no clothing was ruined, and Cate was totally fine. I wasn’t even carrying her this time – I had set the car seat down to turn around and grab my cell phone (which I had dropped) when I fell. She got a little upset because I screamed when it happened, but she got over it quickly. (I yelled the Queen Mother of All Dirty Words, too – good morning, neighbors! Sorry about that!) I don’t think that bodes well for a good day, do you?

Unrelated: Sally is having a baby! I’m so excited for her, I’ll bet she’s just about the cutest pregnant lady ever, and I can’t wait to have playdates when we’re in my hometown. (Also, Sally, I hope the above poop story doesn’t make you re-think this whole baby thing. I promise it’s totally worth it 99.9% of the time.)

you just know "redrum" is next

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This video is a bit longer than most (a little over 3 minutes), but if you watch until the end, you get to hear Cate say “mama,” in both normal and demonic, possessed-baby voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHoJ4J3OvD4

You can also see her do the Baby Fish Mouth face that she’s been making lately, which totally confused me for a while, but now I think it’s related to teething. Every time she does it, Dave says we should hold her up against the window and see if she sticks, because her mouth looks like a little suction cup.

toofies!

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I had a huge “duh!” parenting moment yesterday. Cate’s been super-fussy this week, just a lot crankier than normal. Normally she takes two naps a day that are about 1-2 hours long, but she was taking several 20-30 minute naps instead, and waking up still tired and even grumpier than when she went to sleep. We assumed that it was the daycare transition, and that we were just going to have to suffer through it.

Yesterday afternoon, Dave took her outside to calm her down – since simply walking her outside almost always makes her stop crying instantly – and when he came back in, he said, “Hey, did you notice that she has a tooth now?”

Um, what? No, I hadn’t noticed that! She hasn’t been showing any of the typical signs for teething (excessive drool, etc.), so it never occurred to me that was the source of her crankiness. I knew from my mom that I got my teeth on the late side of normal (around 10 months, I think), and I just figured Cate would do likewise. But I felt in her mouth, and sure enough, there’s one corner of one little tooth poking up through the gums, and the other one feels like it’s just about to break through.

[For the record, Dave only discovered the tooth because she bit his hand and he noticed something a lot sharper than usual. So I’m not a totally neglectful parent, I just normally try to not let my child bite me. She already tries to pull my hair out, I don’t need the extra pain.]

Of course, this explains why she woke up at 1 a.m. shrieking the other night, which is highly unusual for her. And when I got her, there was a tiny bit of blood on her lip and some on the sheet of her crib. Dave and I thought maybe she was trying to stand up in her crib and banged her face on the bars, which didn’t really make sense because the spot of blood was exactly where her head would be when she’s sleeping. Now I realize that must’ve been when the tooth first broke through, and that must’ve been why she was so distressed.

Last night she got extra screamy right around bedtime, so I gave her a tiny bit of baby Tylenol before her last bottle. Girlfriend slept like a log for 10 straight hours. Poor baby must’ve been exhausted, and we had no idea what she was going through.

I’ll try to get pictures of the tooth (or teeth, but I’m not sure when that second one is going to show up) as soon as she lets me see them.

wednesday woes

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Ok, so it’s Day 3 of this whole working-from-home gig, and I have to say that so far? I am not a huge fan of it.

Monday was the day that we kept Cate at home with us, and Dave and I tried to take shifts so that we could each get our work done. I would now like to laugh at myself for ever thinking that could work. Basically, when it’s Dave’s shift with the baby, I have to hide in my office, because if she so much as catches a glimpse of me, she will scream her ever-loving head off until I pick her up. And have I mentioned how it’s impossible for me to concentrate on anything if I can hear her crying? I know God gave us that Protective Mama Bear instinct for a reason, but man, sometimes I wish it had an off switch and I could just tune it out.

Tuesday and today, Cate’s been at daycare, which is good as far as my work productivity, but man, I hate leaving her there when she’s crying. It just rips my heart out. I know she’ll get over it as time goes on, but I’m not sure I will.

I just keep reminding myself of how much we really need this money – especially since our stupid adjustable-rate mortgage is about to go up again next month, and oh my god, I just want to finish getting this house fixed up (which, again, requires money) so we can get the hell out of here. And you better believe we will read every single word of every document before we sign another mortgage. Stupid AmeriQuest bastards.

Totally unrelated: I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here, but my dad is not a big animal lover. When I was pregnant, I lost count of how many times he told me that we should get rid of all four cats before the baby was born. I told him that was ridiculous, because it’s not like we’re raising pit bulls here. When was the last time you read a story in the paper about a small child who was mauled by a housecat? It just doesn’t happen.

“What if one of them scratches her in the eye?” he said.

“Oh please, what are the odds of that?” I replied.

You see where this is going, right? This morning, Cate was playing happily in the bathroom with me while I was getting dressed. Teenie was lying on her side on the bathmat – because, you know, when Mama goes to the bathroom, everybody has to join the party. Cate crawled over to Teenie and tried to rub her face on the cat, like she always does. Teenie got up really quickly, and in the process of doing so, she scratched Cate across the cheek with one of her hind legs. It was a total accident, not malicious in any way on Teenie’s part, and in fact she ran and hid when Cate started to scream.

Luckily the scratch didn’t get her eye, it was just a couple of inches off. It was pretty minor, didn’t even break the skin. But just so I never have to hear “I told you so” from my dad, I’m going to avoid taking any pictures for the next couple of days until it heals completely. And hopefully he’ll never read this blog entry. (Not a big stretch, since I don’t think he ever reads this site anyway.)

And another random topic jump: it’s national delurking day, so say hi.

The Great Mofo Delurk 2007

soon-to-be working mom

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Ok, this is going to be quick because Cate is finally asleep and I need to get to bed myself. So I’m going to be lazy and number things. Sorry, it’s just easier for my frazzled brain.

1. I guess I kinda-sorta started my job on Friday, but all I did was find out the details about the project I’m going to be working on, signed human resources paperwork, etc. My official start date is tomorrow. AHH!

2. Dave is currently setting up a big fancy desktop PC (actually his old one, plus a few new bits of hardware) in my office for me. Because he’s a sweetie. And probably also because I’ve been kind of freaking out about this job – nothing major, I’m just nervous because it’s a bit out of the realm of anything I’ve ever done before. So Dave wants to do whatever he can to help me chill out. So I’ll shut up. I’m guessing.

3. We’re going to do a little experiment over the next couple of weeks to see if we can get away with sending Cate to daycare only three days a week. Since Dave and I both work from home, the hope is that we’ll be able to take shifts with the baby so we can each get our work done. I’m not sure how that’ll work, or how I’ll be able to concentrate if I hear her crying while Dave’s doing his shift, but that’s why one of the new hardware bits that we bought is a set of speakers. Hopefully I’ll be able to crank up some music and drown out whatever else is going on in the house.

4. Totally unrelated to the previous 3 points: today we got a visit from Liz, aka Lizardbreath, and her own little baby Catherine. That was a lot of fun.


She is such a cutie-patootie, blowing raspberries and smiling and everything. And she seemed to weigh nothing when I picked her up – which I know isn’t true, it’s just weird how you get accustomed to your own heavy load so any baby that’s slightly smaller is like, “woo! She’s a baby feather!”

It’s funny because we both named our babies for the same person (although, honestly Cat, as much as I love you, if your parents had named you Mildred or Bertha or something… um, yeah. That whole namesake thing probably wouldn’t have happened). And also funny because it occurred to me that I always write Cate’s name as – well, Cate – but when I’m talking to her or about her, I always call her Catie. Which is what Liz calls her baby as well. I imagine that it would’ve been really confusing for them if they’d been older. As it was, eh, neither one pays much attention to their name yet. Lucky for us.

Ok, bedtime. Work tomorrow. Woo-hoo, paycheck!

8 months

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Just to move on from the whole poop topic, today is Cate’s 8-month birthday, so it’s time for yet another milestone recap:

* Crawling, crawling, crawling. She crawls everywhere, and I’m quickly discovering just how very unchildproofed our house really is. We’re working on correcting that. Oddly, her favorite place to crawl seems to be our bathroom. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s a linoleum versus carpet issue, or maybe it’s because Teenie usually hangs out in there. (Teenie likes it because the bathroom has a skylight, so there’s lots of sun to bask in, plus none of the other cats bother her there.)

* Speaking of which, Cate really loves all of the cats – and she doesn’t just want to pet them, she wants to rub her face on them. Which I must say is pretty hilarious to watch. The cats are not so into it, but they can get up and walk away from her, and she isn’t fast enough to catch up with them. Yet.

* Standing up!


The first time she did this, I was on the phone with my mom, and not totally paying attention to Cate because I was preoccupied with our conversation. Then suddenly I realized she had pulled herself up on the coffee table, and I thought “holy crap, she’s never done that before!” She was quite proud of herself, and she tries to pull herself up on everything now. It’s pretty funny when she tries it on me, because she usually ends up just stretching my t-shirt and pulling it down to her level rather than her rising up to me.

* Now that she’s mastered all of this crawling/standing stuff, sitting up on her own is no big deal. She can sit for ages, and is totally content to do so. However, I think it’s time to retire her Bumbo chair, because she managed to flip herself out of it and land on all fours. And it just happened to be when the Bumbo was on the kitchen counter. It scared the bejeezus out of me, and I’m really glad I was right there when she did it so she didn’t get seriously hurt.

* More foods that she likes: peaches, applesauce, spinach, potatoes (she hasn’t had them on their own, just as part of veggie blends), chicken and beef. Oh, and she’s decided that bananas are a-ok now too. I guess she’s finally warmed up to the idea of fruit.
Dislikes: prunes. Can’t say I blame her on that one.

She’s at daycare today so I could have some more house-cleaning time. Which is great, although I was just getting on a roll when I got a call from the guy who will be my boss when I start back to work. And he wanted to know if I’m available to start working tomorrow. Yikes!

It’s good because it means money, I’m just having a minor freak-out over whether or not I’ve forgotten everything I need to know about my job, and worrying about how I’ll deal with taking Cate to daycare more often, when it almost killed me to leave her there this morning. She was crying and reaching for me, and I had to leave. Awful. I’m sure most working mothers feel this way, but there’s just something that feels vaguely unnatural about leaving your baby in another woman’s arms when she’s crying for you. Patsy called me ten minutes later to let me know that Cate was fine and happy (she put her in a stroller and took all the kids for a walk, which apparently worked for her like it does for me). I really appreciated that because she didn’t have to take the time to call me, and it makes me feel even better about choosing her for our daycare provider.