Category Archives: Cate

back to school day

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As I’ve mentioned before, Catie goes to a year-round school. It’s generally a 9-weeks-on, 3-weeks-off system, but the breaks at both Christmas and in the summer are a little bit longer. She had a 2-week Christmas break, followed immediately by her 3-week school break.

Long story short: she started back to school today. I don’t know why they’re starting back on a Thursday, calendars and county school systems are weird like that. But after 5 weeks off – and a whole lot of changes to Catie’s life in the past five weeks (like, oh, her dad moving across the street after living 3,000 miles away for the past 2.5 years) – I kind of guessed that she was going to have a hard time with the transition back to school. Catie isn’t an easygoing, go-with-the-flow kind of kid, so I was anticipating a few curve balls.

I was not, however, anticipating that the rest of us would have curve balls too.

Last night, I got the kids to bed, and Chris and I hung out, talked, and watched TV for a while. When I was getting ready for bed, I went to take my pills (I have a few that I take in the morning and at night for various and sundry reasons, mostly vitamins). And this is where, I am guessing, based on the next few hours, that I forgot to take the pill that helps me go to sleep.

We went to bed, and I could. not. sleep. Which normally isn’t a problem for me (because, again: I take a medication for insomnia). So, midnight rolls around, then 1:00… sometime around 1:45, Lucy came in and wanted to get in bed between me and Chris, and I let her climb up, because it was easier than fighting with her about it. And then I still couldn’t sleep. I think I finally dozed off sometime after 2:30 a.m. (That’s the last time I remember looking at the clock.)

So, the alarm went off and I (obviously) felt like hell. Catie woke up and said she had a tummy ache. I know from past experience that this had very little probability of being an actual physical ailment, and was more likely due to being nervous about going back to school. I cuddled with her a little bit, we talked, and then I got her to eat some toast to settle her stomach.

After that, it was like a normal morning: got myself dressed, got the kids dressed, got Catie’s lunch packed, the whole thing.

Then, it was time to brush Lucy’s hair. Which she hates. Because her hair tangles like crazy and I always end up yanking it too hard and hurting her. (Oddly enough, she will sit patiently and let Chris brush her hair, but if I try it? No way, no how.)

She started throwing a tantrum because of the hair-brushing, and Lucy is the type of kid that when she cries too hard, she pukes. And that’s what she did. Everywhere. At the exact moment that I needed to be taking the kids to school.

And this right here is when it comes in really handy to have a second adult in the house, because Chris basically saved my butt. I left my puke-covered toddler (and puke-covered bathroom) with him, while I took Catie to school. I got her there 5 minutes before the bell rang.

Then, I rushed back home (thinking how thankful I am that the kids’ school and daycare are both less than three miles from my house), picked up Lucy – who was calmed down and cleaned up, because apparently Chris is a wizard, I don’t even KNOW – and took her to daycare.

And now I’m at work trying to catch my breath and wake the hell up because I got a really lousy night’s sleep.

So yeah. First day back to school didn’t go quite like I’d planned. Here’s hoping it goes a little more smoothly from now on.

thirty-eight

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Thursday was my 38th birthday. I tend to think that past, say, age 21, any birthday that doesn’t end in a zero feels pretty unremarkable. And really, I spent way more time planning Catie’s birthday party than even thinking about my own. I guess that’s what happens when your child’s birthday is 11 days after yours.

But my birthday was good. The kids were with Dave, but Chris brought me flowers, and we went out for dinner.


He remembered tulips are my favorite. Points for that.

It was really nice just to have a little grown-up night off, where I got to dress up a little and not worry about whether or not the restaurant would have crayons or if I should bring our own from home.

After work on Friday, I picked the kids up and went to my parents’ house for dinner. My mom had gotten some fancy cupcakes from a little bakery here, and the girls blew out my candles with me. It was nice.

(And yeah, I’ll admit that I gave up on the detox diet long before the 3 week point, because I totally ate the hell out of those cupcakes. I’m still working on more “mindful eating” and I’m back to running at least 2 miles a day, and I guess I’ll just take it from there.)

Today, Catie and I dropped Lucy with my folks and went to see “Frozen.” After trying to take Lucy to the movies twice now (for “Despicable Me 2” and “Walking with Dinosaurs”), I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s really just not old enough to sit through a movie in the theater, because both times she got antsy and I ended up walking her around in the hall for a good 15-20 minutes to keep her from having a meltdown. So I think I’m going to add “movies” to the list of thing to reserve until she’s a little bit older and has a longer attention span.

Plus it was nice to have some alone time with my big girl, because that doesn’t happen often. And Frozen was a really, really good movie, so I”m glad we went.

So really? Yeah, ok, I’m one step closer to 40 and yadda yadda, aging, crows feet, whatever. But so far, 38 is off to a pretty good start. No complaints here.

life with Lucy

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On Friday evening, I went to daycare to pick up the girls. Lucy was happy to see me as always, but Catie burst into tears.

She said, “I thought Daddy was picking us up, I want to spend the night with him!”

We’ve been working on a custody schedule – basically, Dave gets the kids 2 weeknights and alternating weekends. It gives them a lot of quality time with their dad, it gives me a break, but it still gives them enough time at home to reinforce the idea that my house is their home base. And in theory, it’s a really good schedule.

But I also understand that in Catie’s mind, her dad has been here for about two weeks, and this is normally when he’d be leaving again, so she’s wanting to spend as much time as possible with him. I get that.

And while normally I’m the type who would say, “Sorry, kiddo, these are the rules and this is how it’s going to go,” I also know that I need to let her have time to adjust and feel secure with having her dad back in her life.

So, I texted Dave to see if he had plans, and he said he was fine with taking the kids. I asked Lucy if she wanted to go with Catie over to Daddy’s, or if she wanted to stay with me. She said, “I stay Mommy’s house!” Ok then, fine with me. Sometimes it’s nice to only have one kid at a time, even when that kid is a particularly energetic two year-old.

Dave came over and picked up Catie, and I honestly thought Lucy would change her mind when she saw Catie leaving without her, but she stood in the door and yelled goodbye to them, blew them kisses, then closed the door and asked me to play with her.

We spent the evening playing with all of Catie’s toys that Lucy is never allowed to touch. Every single Skylander action figure, Lucy would pick it up, say “What his name? Who he?” and then put them down. She wasn’t destructive at all, and she didn’t even really care about playing with them, it was just that she was able to touch them without Catie there to shriek at her to get away. Forbidden fruit and all that.

On Saturday morning, we goofed off for a while. At some point, she climbed up in my lap, handed me my camera, and said, “I say cheese!”

If the two year-old demands a selfie, you take a selfie.

Later, we picked up Catie from Dave’s place and headed over to my cousin’s house. The kids exchanged their Christmas gifts (we always seem to do our gift exchanges after New Year’s), and the kids played for over three hours while I hung out and visited with the grown-ups.

When we left, I really thought Lucy would be so exhausted that she’d be asleep in the car before we got out of my cousin’s neighborhood. I mean, she normally goes down for a nap around 2:00 (and she usually sleeps at least an hour & a half or so), and it was well after 4:00 p.m. But she didn’t, she stayed awake all the way to my parents’ house. I figured by that point, we’d just power through without a nap and I’d put her to bed early. We had dinner with my folks, and the kids played for a while before we finally came back home.

I’m not sure exactly when she got her second wind, but it was like WHOA. She was basically like a tiny drunk who wouldn’t sleep it off. She was staggering in circles around the house, eating Pirate’s Booty cheese puffs straight out of the bag.

Sometime around 9 p.m. when she was still hyper, I decided to film a video of her.

We did four of those, they’re all pretty similar. She loved watching herself on the replay and then she’d want to film it again.

She finally fell asleep at 9:50 p.m. Long after her older sister had already called it a night, and WAY past her normal bedtime (typically between 8:30 and 9 p.m.), and on no nap to boot. I don’t know how on earth that happened.

Oh, and she was still awake and trying to climb in my bed a few hours later. I don’t even know.

She’s lucky she’s cute, that’s all I can say.

First Night

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Last New Year’s Eve, I was still recovering from the flu, but I had this idea that I wanted to take the kids to downtown Raleigh for First Night, which is when they have a countdown and fireworks at both 7 p.m. (for the little kids) and another one at midnight (for the regular people, I guess – I predict I’ll never be there for the midnight event). My brother came with me, and we had a good time, despite me still feeling pretty terrible.

This year, we decided to do it again, but my brother is back in Charlotte, so it was just me and Chris and the kids. Since Chris had to work on New Year’s Eve, we were a little late getting downtown, but we made it.

We got there around 6:40 p.m., and somehow managed to navigate through the crowd and find my cousin Cat – which was no easy feat, since she’s only 5’1″, so she’s fairly easy to lose in a crowd. Fortunately, her husband Tony is taller, and I spotted him first. My girls visited with their cousins (well, Catie did, anyway – Lucy was overwhelmed by the crowd and wanted someone to carry her the whole time), and Tony’s sister was there with her dog, who was UNBELIEVABLY well-behaved (the dog, I mean, not Diana), given the crowd and the noise and all the little kids pestering him.


Note the giant acorn suspended from a crane in the background. Raleigh is the “City of Oaks,” so they drop an acorn instead of a ball. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s weird. Whatever.

It was a little chaotic, but fortunately it wasn’t long until the countdown and fireworks show. Catie has seen fireworks lots of times, but Lucy is usually asleep by the time they happen, and she obviously didn’t remember them from a full year ago, so she was mesmerized.

After the fireworks show ended, we navigated through the mobs of people and somehow managed to track down my aunt and uncle (Cat’s parents), who had gone off to wander around on their own. We basically said hi, gave hugs & kisses, then made our way back to the car.

I had been planning to spend more time downtown to let the kids run around and explore (First Night is set up a little like a carnival with food stands and games and things), but it just didn’t work out that way, since we got there so late. Which was fine with me, since most of the stuff there is kind of expensive (last year, I ended up dropping $15 on a New Year’s bell for Lucy and a light-saber type toy for Catie), and this way, we basically were able to go for free.

But the girls didn’t want to go home so soon, and Chris pointed out that we were awfully close to the flagship Krispy Kreme store (oh, that magical place where the “Hot Donuts Now” light is always on), so maybe a little side trip might be fun.

Safe to say, we were not the only people in the world who had that same idea. The crowd at Krispy Kreme was pretty big. And while we were waiting in line, we saw… my cousin and her family. No pre-planning, just happened that we both decided on our way home to stop for donuts. Great minds, clearly.

Later, we got home, got the kids bathed and in bed, watched a little TV, snuggled up in bed, and watched Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin do the countdown on CNN.

So, basically: fireworks, warm fresh donuts, and snuggled up in my bed with my favorite guy.


(One of the very rare occasions you’ll see a picture of me with no make-up on. Thank you, Instagram filters.)

I could not have asked for a better New Year’s Eve.

Happy 2014, everybody.

Christmas 2013 recap

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Christmas here was a little chaotic, in the way that most holidays are when you’re dealing with a lot of family members all in one place.

For starters, Dave arrived from Seattle and moved into his new apartment on Monday, the 23rd. I had some extra furniture (things that were actually his to begin with) that I gave back to him for his new place. Chris and I helped him move it, which was challenging since his apartment is on the 3rd floor.

Also, this was the first time that Chris and Dave met. I expected it to be awkward and weird, but it was honestly fine. Dave texted me later that he thought Chris seemed like a good guy, and that it made him happy to see that Catie and Lucy both seem to like him so much. I thought that was a really nice thing for him to say, since he didn’t have to acknowledge it at all.

On Christmas Eve, I cooked like a maniac for our big Christmas Eve dinner, and helped Dave move more stuff into his apartment. (Chris had some relatives who were selling furniture on craigslist, so that helped.) And yeah, ok, technically, I didn’t have to help him move anything, and Chris certainly wasn’t required to help, but I think it was a good example for the kids to see that all of the grown-ups get along and are friendly with each other. And if it helped make Dave’s apartment feel more home-y, so the kids would be more comfortable when staying with their dad, then all the better.

That evening, we had our big dinner at my parents’ house, and the kids opened their family presents.

The girls stayed with me that night, and everyone came over ridiculously early, before the girls woke up, to be here to see them get their presents from Santa.

Later that morning, Dave picked the kids up and they spent the rest of Christmas Day and night with him. Since I didn’t have the kids and didn’t have anything else to do that day, I took a short nap, then went over to Chris’s house to have lunch with his family, and hang out with him and his kids for a while. His kids are really sweet and funny, and it was great to get to spend some time with them. I don’t think I’ve ever been around them without my own kids also there, so it was a different dynamic, but it was a lot of fun.

My sister and brother-in-law flew in on Christmas night, and they’re staying at my house. We got Catie and Lucy back on Thursday (the 26th), and they got a few more presents, because you know, my kids clearly aren’t spoiled enough.

Lucy is particularly proud of her new scooter.

Catie also got a scooter, but it may take her a while to warm up to it since she’s so cautious about new things. She still had fun, and she loved all of the clothes that her aunt Tracy picked out for her. (I gotta admit, my sister is far more talented at picking out kids’ clothes than I am.)

And now, it’s all over, and I don’t have to go back to work until Monday, so it’s nice to enjoy some downtime with my girls, and especially to get some time with this guy right here.

Hope you all had lovely holidays too.

Happy Holidays 2013

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Because Meghan started a good thing with this a few years back, here’s our holiday card, for those of you who didn’t receive one in the mail. (Which isn’t because we don’t love you, but I don’t have everybody’s addresses.)

xmas2013

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and sending wishes that 2014 could be even better still.

XOXO

when Lucy met Santa

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Back in 2007, it was Catie’s first Christmas, and Dave and I had this idea (or maybe it was only my idea, I forget) to take her to get her picture taken with Santa. Because, you know, that’s what kids are supposed to do. Or something. Who knows, I barely slept the first two years of her life, I don’t really remember much.

The visit to Santa? It… didn’t go well.

Cate's not sure what she thinks about Santa
Nailed it.

And that is the last time that Catie ever sat on the lap of a professional mall Santa. She’s been terrified of the big guy ever since. She likes the videos he sends through the Portable North Pole website, but the computer monitor is as close as she’s willing to get. (Btw, that’s not a promo for that website or anything, but if you have a Santa-believing-aged child, you can send them a custom message from Santa and it’s pretty awesome. My girls love it.)

But, you know, Catie and Lucy are very different personality types. I mentioned to Lucy that we could go to the mall, and she could meet Santa in person and tell him what she wants for Christmas. She flipped out with excitement.

“I go see Tanta Ho-Ho! I sit his lap! I tell him I want a mermaid!”

(Side note: she used to call him just “Ho-Ho,” so the fact that she’s now added something that vaguely sounds like Santa is… an improvement? And I don’t know what happened to the 3rd “Ho,” you can make up your own dirty joke there.)

Anyway, yesterday we went to the mall, but of course we got there when Santa was just about to go on his lunch break.

We killed some time by going on the merry-go-round at the mall.

On the merry-go-round at the mall.
One thing they do have in common: they’d rather ride on the benches of the merry-go-round than the horses. I don’t know why.

Then, since there were already a few people in line waiting for Santa to get back from his break, we got some snacks, made a coat pile, and waited for Santa’s return.

Camped out in line eating cookies while we wait for this mall Santa to get back from his break.
Lucy: “I think Tanta Ho-Ho had to go potty.” Probably so, baby girl. Probably so.

Finally, Santa came back, and the few kids in front of us had their pictures taken while Lucy said, “It my turn yet? It my turn yet?”

When it was her turn, she marched up to him, shook his hand, told him her name, told him that she was 2 years old, and sat on his lap for a picture.

when Lucy met Santa

The funny thing is that while she was totally cool with meeting Santa, she was actually a little bit scared of the guy who was taking her picture, which is why she wasn’t really smiling. But she was so excited, and she talked about meeting “Tanta Ho-Ho” the whole way home.

Meanwhile, when Lucy was having her picture taken, Catie refused to go anywhere near the guy, and Chris had to walk her away from the “Santa’s workshop” area, to keep her from completely freaking out.

And hey, that’s not a criticism of Catie at all. Mall Santas can be sketchy. And Catie is a cautious kid who is sometimes shy around new people. (Although, that depends on the person. Last month at my sister’s wedding, she met my cousin Cici for the first time, and she immediately hugged her and sat on her lap. When I asked her about it later, she said, “She felt like somebody I knew.” Who knows, maybe that’s just the magic of that bond that I have with my cousins that she felt.) Honestly, I think it’s TOTALLY FINE that Catie doesn’t want to meet Santa. But I think it’s kind of fun that Lucy does.

It’s not the first time they’ve shown me the contrast in their personalities, and I know it won’t be the last. But it still amazes me every time. They are so similar and so different at the same time, they just blow me away.