Category Archives: Cate

back home again

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The trip to Mississippi was so much fun, and this post would be a mile long if I mentioned everything that happened, so I’ll try to keep it (relatively) short with some highlights:

  • I scored a ton of baby clothes, courtesy of my mom. At least half of them involve ruffles across the butt. They’re hilarious.
  • My dad and I took Cate for a lot of walks around the neighborhood. My dad walks at least 2 miles a day, in addition to his daily golf game – not bad for a 71 year-old guy. Since we went on his usual route, he got to stop along the way to show Cate off to the neighbors, which he loved. It’s so funny to see what a softie he’s become in his old age.
  • My parents, Cate and I had dinner with Sally and Larry Ferrari. Sally is just as funny in person as she is on her website, so if you ever have the opportunity to meet her, I highly recommend it. We ate at a place called Hamil’s, which was a buffet of all kinds of old-fashioned Southern food. I managed to resist the urge to shovel the fried okra into my mouth by the handful, but I think I probably talked with my mouth full. A lot. I didn’t even realize I was doing it until afterward, I just could not. stop. eating. Go me with the fabulous first impressions.

    Oh, it was also funny trying to explain to my dad what a “blog” is and how Sally and I sort of already knew each other even though we hadn’t technically met in person yet.

  • The second stop on my meeting-other-bloggers tour was to have lunch with Danielle and Emily. Emily is such a cutie with her big blue eyes and 2 bottom teeth. She’s one of the smiley-est babies (yes, I just made up a word) I’ve ever met. It was a lot of fun.
  • After lunch with Danielle, I had the most surreal part of my trip: since I was in the neighborhood, and Cate was asleep in the car seat, I drove past my old school, where I went from 2nd through 11th grades. The school closed down in 2000, so it’s been sitting there abandoned for the past several years. The playground is all overgrown with weeds, the buildings are falling apart, and the gymnasium was gutted by a fire a few months ago (apparently vagrants had been living in there). It was so bizarre, like seeing something from your childhood in a dream. I can’t say I felt sad about it, since I don’t have very many happy memories associated with the place. It was just strange.

    Interesting tidbit: before my school bought the facility in the early 80’s, it had been a White Citizens’ Council school. It’s ironic that the neighborhood surrounding the school is now almost entirely African-American. There seems to be some sort of poetic justice in that.

  • Continuing with the baby-oriented theme, my sister and I met up with a couple of her friends who have babies too. One was her former college roommate, who has a baby girl exactly one month younger than Cate. The other was a friend who now has three girls: a 9 year-old, a 6 year-old, and a 9 month-old. I’m exhausted just writing that sentence, I don’t know how she does it.
  • One little self-discovery that I made on this trip: in the past, I’ve always been very tense when I go to Jackson. Growing up there wasn’t a happy time for me, and every time I’ve gone back to visit, I’ve emotionally gone back to that very insecure and unhappy place. But it didn’t happen. I’m not sure why – maybe it’s my age, the fact that I’m married, that I’m now a mom, or maybe it’s a combination of all of it. But I was totally fine and happy this time. Weird.

    One of the nights that I called Dave to check in, I told him how I was surprised to feel completely un-stressed, and he asked if that meant that I wanted to move back to Mississippi. Um, NO. Even though his salary would take us a lot farther there than it does in Washington, and he works from home so theoretically we could make that work. And it would be nice to live closer to my parents. There’s still the issue of the heat and the bugs, and the fact that I absolutely love the Pacific Northwest. So I think we’re staying put for the foreseeable future.

  • The flight home was pretty easy – I had nice flight attendants, Cate slept most of the way, fussed very little, UNTIL. About 15 minutes before we started our descent into Seattle, it occurred to me that it had been about 5 hours since I changed Cate’s diaper, so I’d better hurry up and do that before she soaked through her little outfit. We grabbed our supplies and headed off to the restroom. (Cue the music of impending DOOM.)

    I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but Cate has a tendency to pee the second that I undo her diaper and she feels a draft of fresh air on her bits. Normally I’m on the lookout for it, and I’m able to catch the stream in the already-wet diaper. No big deal, right? Well, this time I thought I had caught it, but I was sadly mistaken. And I didn’t realize that the flip-down changing table in the airplane restroom was slightly tilted. And my changing pad is waterproof. So the pee went all the way up her back, thoroughly soaking her outfit, and made a little puddle right at the back of her head. She had pee IN HER HAIR. Oh my good lord. Eww eww eww. I tried to clean her up with wet paper towels and baby wipes, but seriously, how gross is that?

    Our plane got in at 10:45 p.m., so it was after midnight by the time we got home from the airport. I hadn’t been planning to give Cate a bath the minute that we got home, but after the pee incident, that plan changed. I started calling her Pee Head, and Dave came up with one even better: Catie Urinatey. I’m afraid she might have a new permanent nickname. Poor kid.

    • So now we’re home and settling back into our routine. And I have to go catch up on a week’s worth of blogs that I’ve been missing. Whee!

    blogging from Mississippi

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    I know I’m overdue for an update, but I’ve been having a blast visiting with my family and all sorts of other cool folks. Cate and I are headed home tomorrow evening, and we’re both missing Dave a lot, so we’re very much looking forward to seeing him.

    Until I get a chance to recap this whole trip, you can see the pictures here.

    baby's first flight

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    Our flight to Mississippi was really not so bad. The TSA folks were very helpful in getting my car seat & stroller on the conveyor belt, which was difficult for me since I was carrying Cate. One of the TSA guys even talked to her and called her adorable. Shocked the heck out of me, since I have never known them to be even remotely polite. I guess that shows what traveling with a baby can do for you.

    However, we were running a little late, so once we got through security, we had to go straight to the gate to board. No time to stop and use the bathroom, which was unfortunate for me since I had downed two Diet Cokes already. Hmm.

    We got on the plane, and I immediately whipped out the Baby Tylenol plus Cold medicine. I figured the decongestant would help Cate with the ear pressure, and maybe it would also make her sleepy, which would just be a bonus. I gave her a half-dose, and she dribbled half of that onto her outfit, so I figured it probably wasn’t enough to do any good. Five minutes later, she went from bouncing and laughing on my lap to being totally zonked. She proceeded to sleep for the next 2 hours. She’d occasionally wake up and look around, and she seemed completely stoned. I know it’s wrong, but it was completely hilarious.

    Oh, back to that other issue. So as soon as we were in the air and the “fasten seat belt” light was turned off, I got up and bolted for the restroom. There were 3 flight attendants: two women and a very obviously gay man.* I asked if one of them could please hold Cate while I went to the bathroom, and they all looked at me like I had three heads. Absolute disgust. Finally the guy stepped up and said he was afraid of babies. I told him that Cate didn’t have teeth, so she couldn’t bite, and I’d go as fast as possible. He held her out in front of him like she was an hors d’oeurve tray. Yeah. Totally natural. I peed at lightning speed and got us back to our seat.

    *Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    But Cate did really well – she fussed a little bit when the plane started its descent, so I popped a pacifier in her mouth and she was fine. Oh, and she did indeed poop on the plane, but there was a changing table in the bathroom, so no big deal.

    Our connection was in Houston, and the flight from there to Jackson was one of those tiny little 35-seater planes. I didn’t realize until we boarded that Cate and I were in one of the bulkhead rows, which is great for legroom, but that means there’s no seat in front of me to put my diaper bag under. I asked the flight attendant if I could please keep the bag behind my legs, so I could reach bottles/pacifiers/etc., and she said that was fine. I thanked her, and then muttered to the guy next to me, “That’s the first nice thing a flight attendant has done for me all day.” She overheard me, and said, “Really? Oh, bless your heart!” (God, I love Southerners for that expression.) After that, she kept coming over to check on us and see if we were ok, and she helped me with my bags after we landed, and she was just generally awesome. I really hope she’s on our return flight, although I know the odds are pretty slim.

    Anyway, my folks picked us up, and everything’s gone well so far. The weather’s been nice, my dad and I took Cate for a walk around the neighborhood, my mom made an awesome dinner (fried shrimp, steamed sugar snap peas and baked potatoes… yum), and we’ve just been hanging out. Cate slept pretty well last night, probably because she was exhausted after such an adventure-packed day.

    Oh, and tonight we get to have dinner with Sally. And maybe Larry Ferrari too. Yay!

    mad poetry skillz

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    Cate and I are flying out crazy early tomorrow morning. 7:15 a.m. flight means that I have to get up around 3:30 in the morning, so I can be ready to leave the house by 5. Fun! At times like this, I really wish we lived closer to the airport. That also means that I’m spending most of today getting as much stuff packed as possible so I won’t have a lot to do in the morning. And cleaning, because I hate coming home to a messy house. (You hear that, Dave? You keep it the way I leave it, mister!)

    So since I need to go get back to work, here’s a post that I started last week and never finished. Enjoy.

    ————————–

    In honor of the fact that April is National Poetry Month, I present you with my own haiku (haikus? haiki? how do you pluralize that word?), titled “Why I Hate Spring”:

    Dave says the cats have
    fleas. I’ve only seen one so
    far. Yay! More vet bills!

    Mosquito bites all
    over. One on my toe. The
    hell? I had on socks!

    Spider in shower.
    Are you the kind that bites? Oh
    well. So long, Charlotte.

    Go spin your web in
    the comfort of my septic
    tank. “Humble,” indeed.

    Wasp in my bedroom.
    Fantastic. Clearly I can’t
    sleep there anymore.

    At least there are no
    cockroaches. Still, seems it’s time
    to call Terminix.

    einsteining

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    When I was about four months’ pregnant, Dave and I hit this big neighborhood-wide garage sale and bought some baby gear. We got a few toys and whatnot. We also picked up a collection of five Baby Einstein DVD’s for $1. I put them on a shelf and quite honestly forgot about them.

    A couple of nights ago, Cate was being fussy for no particular reason. She was fed, burped, diapered, etc. We had tried everything that we knew to do. Then I remembered the DVD’s. We figured what the hell, popped in the Baby Mozart DVD, set Cate up in her bouncy seat, and aimed her at the TV.

    Now, I know that some people have talked negatively about these DVD’s, and say that they only make babies dumber because the kids just stare at the TV and drool. And I get that. I can see how it would be very easy to overdose a small child on this type of thing, and I agree that too much TV can be bad for kids. Those are all very valid concerns.

    But y’all, Cate was enthralled. She smiled, laughed and kicked her little feet for the entire video (about 30 minutes). It was hilarious, it was like she was trying to dance to the music.

    And again, this afternoon, she was being a little stinker while I was trying to clean the kitchen, so I turned the DVD on and POOF! We went from Grumpy Baby to Smiley Happy Baby in about five seconds. I was actually able to clean the entire downstairs of our house because she was so into it.

    So ok, maybe it’s not the best thing in the world for her development, but I must say that for now, I am totally sold on this product. I think I’m even packing them for my trip to my folks’ house next week, just in case we need an instant mood-fixer.

    random wednesday

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    I forgot to mention the other weird thing at church on Sunday: the woman sitting behind us made a big fuss over Cate – oh she’s so cute, how old is she, etc. Then she asked if she could hold her. Um, how exactly is one supposed to handle this type of situation? I said, “oh, I’m a little germaphobic, and it’s cold season, so I’d rather you didn’t…” And she seemed fine with that, but I felt so rude saying it. What I meant was: dude, you are a total stranger. Yes, we’re in church, big happy community of Christians, blah-blah-blah, but hell no, you cannot hold my baby. Of course, it turned out that she was one of the people who passed around the offering plate and directed traffic for communion, so I had to make eye contact with her two more times after that. Argh. Awkwardness.

    The only other time anything like that has happened was once when I went to this deli place for lunch with my friend Janet. We were standing in line, and the guy in front of us turned around to talk to Cate (who was in the stroller). Then he reached in and grabbed her hand. I resisted the urge to scream, “UNCLEAN!!!” But just barely. My only guess is that these are people who don’t have kids themselves, so maybe they don’t know that this is inappropriate? Or am I a big weirdo for worrying about strangers’ germs?

    Of course, it occurs to me that one week from today, Cate and I are going to be on an airplane, and that I just might have to hand her off to a flight attendant if I need to use the bathroom. Because seriously, what else am I supposed to do? So I guess it’s a bit hypocritical on my part – I’m ok with strangers holding my baby when it’s for my own personal convenience. But I also figure that flight attendants probably wash their hands a lot, since they handle people’s food and beverages. I know that if I had that job, I’d be a total Purell addict. (I’d also probably have a drug problem, since I usually need either a cocktail or a Xanax to not freak out when I fly.)

    Speaking of the airplane, I am really looking forward to visiting my family next week (and getting to meet a couple of bloggers too! How cool is that?). But I am dreading the flight. The idea of having Cate on my lap for six to seven hours in a tiny cramped airplane seat doesn’t sound like that much fun to me. I’m sure it’s better to do it now than when she’s a toddler and needs constant entertainment, but still. I imagine that she and I are both going to be good and cranky by the time we get to Mississippi.

    Total topic change: As for that full-time job that I wrote about last week – I did update my resume and send it off to the recruiter, but I haven’t heard anything about it since then. The more I think about it, though, the more I think that I really don’t want it. I know there are a lot of working moms who love what they do, and I think that’s fantastic. I’m just not sure that I’m one of them. I could see myself getting miserable really quickly if I was doing the whole 40-50 hour work week again. But you know, I’ve never been all that passionate about my career to begin with. It was just something I did to make money, so I could afford the lifestyle I wanted. And sure, I liked it ok, but I’m totally fine without it too.

    So I’m now kicking around the idea of some possible freelance writing and work-from-home options, in addition to sticking a few ads on this site. If that works out, I imagine I’ll still need to find some sort of part-time baby-sitter or daycare for Cate, because I don’t know how Dave and I could possibly both be working and taking care of her all the time. But I think that maybe some type of Mother’s Morning Out program, just a couple of days a week, might be sufficient.

    Total topic change, part two: Does anyone else watch “The Riches”? Did the dentist in this week’s episode make you really depressed? Because I almost cried for him. I know I’m still a big hormonal mess, but god, that was sad.

    baby's first Easter

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    Today, Cate and I met up with Kris and went to church for Easter service. This was Cate’s first church experience, and she behaved amazingly well – she didn’t fuss once. She was just generally adorable and happy for the entire hour.

    At one point – during the part of the service where everyone greets each other – the old lady sitting next to Kris commented on the fact that I must’ve sedated Cate because she was being so good. Um, thanks? I figured it was an awkward attempt at humor, so I laughed and said that she was only happy because she ate right before the service (which was true). But before I even finished the sentence, she had turned away and was talking to someone else. Ok then, thanks for chatting.

    Later, the old lady (seriously, she had to be in her 70’s) asked Kris if she had any gum. Kris did indeed, so she fished it out of her purse and handed it to her. The lady said she needed the gum because she’d had champagne earlier and couldn’t get the taste out of her mouth. Y’all, it was eleven in the morning. Now, I know that a lot of people have mimosas with brunch; I’ve had more than a couple of them myself over the years. But she didn’t say she had a mimosa, she just said champagne. Right on! Happy Easter!

    Moments like that remind me that I’m not in the South anymore. If memory serves, I think it’s considered pretty taboo to admit to imbibing any type of spirit while in the House of the Lord. I mean, sure, people do it, but they don’t talk about it. Out loud. To total strangers.

    That was the point of the service, by the way, when Kris turned to me and whispered, “Dude, I love Episcopalians!” Hee.

    Oh, and here’s proof of just how good a mood Cate was in today.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kIPNF0bBZ0

    Please try to just notice the cuteness (and the dress! Look at that little dress!), and ignore how dirty my house is. I swear, I swept the floor three days ago. Damn cats.