Monday, November 14, 2011

Tired but blessed

The last few days have been exhausting.

We live in a two bedroom townhouse. We have no attic or garage. Storage is a constant battle. Other than a closet under the stairs we have no storage space. With two kids and lots of baby gear, we’ve had to get creative at times. I decided a couple of weeks ago that a ‘real’ entertainment center would help make the most of the space we have. I’d been scouting out Craigslist for a while and Friday I found two good possibilities.

Saturday morning the Irishman had to work. We kept e-mailing and phoning about the Craiglist ads. The one we really liked was a bit more than we had to spend, so we e-mailed them and made an offer within our budget. Our offer was a fair bit below what they wanted, but to our surprise they accepted it. Saturday night Uncle Ken and Morgan headed out to pick up our new furniture acquisition.

The thing is huge. I was a little worried when they first brought it in due to the size, but it really is what I had in mind. We were up until 1:30am getting it in place, but we still had books, DVDs, and the like all over the place. The last two days have been spent putting our house back together. We have swapped out three bookshelves, a coffee table, and a side table for the entertainment center and still gained storage space. (This also meant I had to arrange for a local charity to come and take away the now unneeded furniture!) We took down Caitlin’s play area in exchange for a more open plan. It has been a lot of work. I like what I see, but I am ready for it to be finished!

I had big plans for the week. I figured I would work on the house today while Caitlin was in school. I scheduled play dates for Tuesday and Thursday. It was all looking great!

Saturday morning I noticed that Caitlin’s lingering cough had gotten a little worse. We skipped a birthday party on Saturday and took her to the doctor on Sunday. It seems to be a sinus infection with a lot of congestion and drainage. She has not run a fever at all and is doing okay, but she just can’t quite shake this cold that she has had for the last month or so.

We kept her home today. On our walk to see the ducks this morning I noticed a rash on her arms. This led to our second trip to the pediatrician’s office in as many days. Fun times. They are pretty sure the rash is related to the cold/infection/ yuck that she has and not an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. We are going to keep an eye on her tonight and tomorrow.

All this means that we are moving into our fourth day of quarantine. Between the sick toddler, the new furniture, and the getting-out-of-the-bed-at-naptime issues, I am worn out. I managed to turn on the computer this afternoon but never even sat down. (As I discovered after bedtime when I found the pile of stuff I cleared off the table then they came to take away the furniture!) My guilty pleasures – blogging, Pinterest, and Google Reader - are calling my name, but I have to time to answer them!

Tomorrow is not looking to be much easier. We have been up late every night for the last week or so. I am tired, but it is a good tired. I look at what I have and I feel blessed. I can see the work around the house paying off. Several times today Caitlin has taken my hand out of the blue and given me a kiss. I may be worn out, but I am fortunate. A month from now when I am back at work I know I will miss these moments!

So, for now I’ll leave you with some birthday photos. There are SO many more to go through…these are just before bath time on the big day. The balloons were a huge hit. Caitlin opened all her birthday presents with one hand because she wouldn’t let go of the balloons. With Elmo AND Mickey you can’t go wrong! It was so darn cute to watch her with them!

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The shirt was a gift from Ruth. It is a personalized Elmo shirt. Caitlin LOVES this shirt. She actually went to bed tonight wearing the shirt. I was getting her PJs out when she found it. There was no way she was going to wear anything else!

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Ruth also got her personalized Elmo pillow cases. (They were in the dryer when these pictures were taken, but they are now a permanent addition to the bed!) Seriously adorable!

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Sean was also dressed in his Sesame Street gear for his sissy’s birthday. I wasn’t sure if she would notice, but it was the first thing she said to me!

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It was a lovely day!

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I’m starting with the end first. I’ll post more later about the goodies she got, the cupcakes I made, and our picnic lunch with Daddy. Eventually.

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For now I am off to bed!

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Love love love all of the ballon pictures! They so sweet. You can tell Caitlin LOVED the ballons and was very proud to have them. Sean, too, looked like he enjoyed them. :)