I love this picture, but she does look a little sad in it, so I thought it would work for today!
Boy what a couple of days. Yesterday Caitlin went to school while I worked on my to do list. I got a lot done, but also doubled the list as I thought of more things I needed to get done. At about 4pm I took a quick shower. My sister-in-laws were borrowing the Irishman’s car, so I picked up Caitlin and then Morgan. Caitlin was thrilled to see her Daddy.
We also acquired stroller #7 yesterday. I hadn’t cleaned out the trunk, so when the Irishman wheeled it out it ended up in the front seat. As luck would have it that put the Irishman in the back seat with Caitlin.
We were about 10-15 minutes from home when Caitlin got sick. She has never thrown up like that. The car seat and her outfit were destroyed. I was able to pull over and we used extra diapers, a roll of paper towels, and a change of clothes to make the rest of the drive home slightly more tolerable.
It is about this time that the low fuel light came on.
I’d planned to send the Irishman out for gas when we got home. I guess I miscalculated. We had to make an extra stop on the way home with a crying, sick baby. Yep…cue the Mommy guilt.
When we got home we bathed Caitlin and tried to get her rehydrated. She was starving and decided it was not possible to watch Mickey Mouse without a snack. We were able to steer her towards Cheerios instead of Goldfish. All attempts and anything else were unsuccessful.
At about this time I decided to call my mom. As it turns out I scrolled one number too far through the preset numbers. I learned last night that “Michael” is the preset after “Mom” in our phones. I’m not sure who was more shocked…me or my brother-in-law who answered a phone call in the middle of the night. (This is not the first time I've done something like this!) Thankfully I managed NOT to wake his two kids…
June and Christina stopped at the store on their way to our house and picked up some pedialyte. By the time they got here Caitlin was dancing around. The Irishman did surgery on the car seat….he took apart and rinsed everything he could.
Caitlin has not gotten sick again, but she is cranky and running a slight fever. She has also decided she does not like having her temperature taken or Tylenol. Fun times.
Me? I woke up exhausted. So tired I ache. As part of our morning routine, Caitlin watches 1 episode of her 2 daily 20 minute episodes of cartoons while I get dressed in the morning. This morning I dozed through it…and thankfully she let me.
She fought her nap this afternoon. I was terrified that she would make herself sick. Thankfully she is now asleep and I was able to return phone calls and such. Now if you will excuse me…I have a nap to take!
Friday was the last day I was able to get into my classroom before they started construction. I’d pretty much finished everything on Thursday, but I wanted to feed the worms and bring home my houseplants. Caitlin and I made plans with her aunties for the afternoon, so she came along with me. I was a little nervous that she would end up making friends with the worms, but my fears were unfounded. It seems she was distracted by something else.
A blue frog to be exact.
It was a gift from a student many years ago. I have about 10 stuffed animal frogs in my classroom. He was the second largest and the only blue frog to be found, but he is the one she picked out. I let her carry him around the room….and of course he came home with us.
(The photos are from her after bath snack and sippy cup of milk time. She was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and eating, so she mostly ignored the camera!)
Blue Frog is currently second fiddle only to Pink Bear. I thought I heard her call him, “Cookie” the other night – the Irishman was thrilled. I guess he does very slightly resemble Cookie Monster. Meanwhile, we are running our of room in the crib for Caitlin with all her furry friends!
My mom bought the Irishman and me a new blender for our anniversary. We love to make smoothies for breakfast, but we have gone through multiple blenders and have not had once since Caitlin was born. We tried out the new machine and let Caitlin have a little smoothie with her breakfast.
As promised, here are more photos from our beach picnic Friday night. In typical fashion Caitlin had a blast playing in the sand. She also may have eaten more sand than the rest of us combined, but that’s okay. She had fun!
We had a lovely evening with Christina and June! Caitlin is loving having her aunties around to play with her!
Today is our sixth wedding anniversary. One of the things I love about the Irishman is his creative thinking. Two of his sisters are in town and we’ve had fun doing special things with them all week. Last night Morgan decided that we should all have a picnic at the beach to commemorate the six year anniversary of our rehearsal dinner.
For the rehearsal dinner we rented a pavilion at the beach and had an Irish-themed Luau. now anyone who was there will tell you I arrived late. (This was the running joke on my Facebook post last night…) It was a lovely time though! He thought we could all head to the beach to celebrate together.
For our picnic the Irishman picked up a rotisserie chicken on his way home. We packed up the picnic basket and beach blanket we got as wedding presents and headed to the beach.
Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!
(Note: I took about 125 pictures yesterday, so there will be more about the picnic…I try not to post photos of other people without their permission so I will have to talk with June and Christina before I post the rest of the picnic photos. Caitlin is having a lovely time with her aunties!)
Two of Caitlin’s Irish aunties are in town. We were visiting after my water aerobics class on Monday night so we decided to give Caitlin a bath in their hotel room before heading home. The back up outfit dress we had in the diaper bag became her PJs for the night.
The next morning we played with her hair. This usually involves me putting in some type of hair tie and her pulling it out and trying to put it back in herself. Repeat. Over and over. Well she apparently had gotten distracted and forgot that I’d put in a ponytail holder. (It lasted until after breakfast when she saw herself in the mirror and the game began all over again.)
Then Daddy left for work and Caitlin decided that she needed, “SHOOS!” as well so she put on her favorite pair of pink Crocs.
Next up she found an old bib of hers I’d washed for the new baby. We have a sudden interest in bibs…but I’m okay with that. It could be worse!
The final accessory was a pink sparkly cat toy. She has taken a much greater interest in the "BALL” than the cats do at the moment so it is all good.
I’m wallowing in Mommy guilt tonight. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it.
It sank in today that I am going to have a c-section again. I really don’t mind the surgery, it is the after that has me upset. Caitlin isn’t going to be allowed to visit me in the hospital. That means I will be away from her for three days. I’ve never gone a day without seeing her. More than anything I know she is too young to understand. There is no way to explain it to her. I know that there is nothing I can do about it, and that doesn’t help.
Last time I had Morgan with me in the hospital the whole time. This time he is going to be going back and forth taking care of Caitlin. We were just talking on the way home today that by the time I have the surgery and we actually get to see/spend time with the baby he is going to have to leave to pick Caitlin up from day care. We estimate he’ll have about an hour.
The Irishman is wonderful and has plans to spoil Caitlin while I am in the hospital. He is thinking about ways to set up Skype or something to talk with her for those three days. But I know it is going to be hard on him, too.
When I get home I am not going to be able to pick up Caitlin because of the surgery. Again, she’s not going to understand. She won’t understand that I can pick up the baby but not pick her up. I can already hear her protests. It breaks my heart.
I’m off this week, but she went to day care three of five days because of appointments and errands. On one hand I feel like I should keep her home and smother her with one on one time. On the other hand I’m tired. It is hard to play with her all day. It is too hot outside to do anything other than swim and I can’t take her swimming without help. We are trying really hard to stay on budget so I can take a few extra months off and the thought of lifting Caitlin in and out of the car seat is just about enough to make me need a nap (and a shower after sweating in the hot car).
(After typing this out I just researched some story times at the local libraries and came up with some free, kid friendly activities in the AC that should not require too much Caitlin chasing. I’ve calmed down a lot since I started typing this!)
Caitlin has to be at school by 9:00 on the days we send her in. I’ve said a few time that I would just pick her up early, but picking her up and taking her home to nap seems silly. If I wait until after naptime (and snack…I made the mistake of picking her up during snack once and she was not happy with me!) it is already 3:30. We have to pay for her spot regardless while I am off and she enjoys going. On days I’ve had appointments or errands to run it makes sense to send her to school. I still feel guilty though!
I had horrible contractions last night. (I honestly thought that might be it.) At my appointment today the doctor said the baby is no where near position yet though, so I guess you could say it was all for nothing. I asked about the date for the c-section and she said we can move it up to 39 weeks instead of 39 and a half. It is up to me. Again…bring on the guilt. I know the longer the better for the baby, but I think they have my due date wrong. It is a big baby. Thirty nine and a half weeks means we will need to find childcare for a weekend…thirty weeks means she can go to day care. I was so frustrated thinking about it all I decided to wait until next week’s appointment to decide.
(And just because I am not expecting it the baby could throw us all for a loop and decide to come early! I’m not going to hold my breath though…)
I know it will all be okay. I know things will all work out. Having two is going to be tough – but worth it. Morgan will be home the first two weeks and then my mom is coming for two weeks. So many people have done it before….we are not the first. I guess it is all just sinking in and a bit overwhelming.
**Edited to add: Morgan read this and reminded me that I was away from Caitlin for a whole week during the whole Irish flu/husband and daughter stuck across the pond while I went back to work/house broken into ordeal. I guess if I can manage to forget about that then I'll be just fine!
So this post is mostly for the family. There are so many little things that Caitlin does these days that I sometimes forget to mention on the phone. I’ve tried (often unsuccessfully) to catch some of these on video to share.
She loves to watch herself on the camera, so you have to work to get a video when she isn’t paying attention so she won’t hijack the camera!
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Last week Caitlin and I were in the kitchen. She wanted a banana and was being rather insistent. I had really been working on getting her to say please, but the more I asked her to say please, the more she whined. Finally I said, “Be nice!” and she stopped immediately and started to gently rub my leg. I had to keep from laughing.
My first thought was Moses. Every time she runs up to the cat, I remind her to “Be nice” or “Be gentle.” The way she was petting my leg is exactly the same way.
Then Wednesday morning her teacher at school stopped me and wanted to show me what she and Caitlin have been working on. Miss Betty asked Caitlin how she was going to treat her baby brother.
She has been working with her to “be nice to a baby” and to touch very gentle. The teacher was disappointed that she wouldn’t do it then to show me (Caitlin had already spotted breakfast being served…) but I assured her we’d seen her do it at home!
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Speaking of the cats, Caitlin LOVES Moses. She calls for him all the time. She will grab his bag of treats and try to coax him down the stairs. She waves to him as she eats dinner in her booster seat. She tries to put the food back in his bowl for him if I forget to put it away before she gets there.
Rafa on the other hand? She chases after him and tries to hit him. He scratched her once after she pulled his tail and neither of them has forgotten it. She will try to shoo him away as she eats her dinner in her booster seat.
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Caitlin will randomly break out with a, “Ooh!’ or a, ‘Wow!’ when she sees something that strikes her fancy. It might be fireworks, a stuffed animal, or a sidewalk chalk drawing of Elmo. She is too funny!
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While she still loves Elmo, Caitlin is currently obsessed with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog song. We have the song on CD thanks to Rylee’s birthday party.
Here is the song for those of you who may not be familiar with the song:
It has been playing on repeat in Caitlin’s bedroom every chance she gets for the last week or so. Caitlin does her own version of the Hot Dog dance each and every time the song plays. It is so darn cute it makes up for listening to the song over….and over….and over….
(Side note: I typed this and then she decided enough was enough and somewhat moved on. Thank goodness!)
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At school last week her teacher told me that Caitlin tells her which songs to sing during circle time. (The teacher in me heard, “Your child is bossy” but that’s okay – no question there where she gets it from!)
Most of the hand motions for songs we knew about, but Miss Betty said that Frere Jacques was one of her favorites. We tried it out when we got home.
Now at first glance it seems like she is holding her ears, but after talking with her teacher, it seems that it is supposed to be putting your head down to go to sleep. I think it is cuter Caitlin’s way!
Here is another one of her favorites:
She loves her music!
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They play Simon Says at school working on identifying body parts. I’d discovered this after bath time one night as I asked her to touch her head, her ears, etc. The Irishman was amazed by this. They play Simon Says every chance they get.
Yesterday when I picked her up from school she pointed to my ears and said, “Ear.” She’s really started picking up words this week!
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Caitlin is still quite attached the the silly pink bear she got from the urgent care center when she bumped her head. He seems to show up everywhere. I am also trying to get her used to the idea of a baby. I gave her one of her old bottles and a baby spoon to use to feed her baby doll. I took it a step farther and pretended the baby was crying and she needed to give it the bottle. She wasn’t so sure what to think of that, but she did show Daddy and her aunties how she gives the baby the bottle, so that was a good sign!
That baby never comes out of the stroller though. She got both the baby and the stroller from Nana for her birthday and she associates the two together. We did find her favorite doll in the Target doll aisle on clearance and we got that for her. It is a doll that you feed and it talks and laughs and cries. We are thinking it may be a present from her baby brother that she gets when she comes to visit him in the hospital.
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Now that it looks like a c-section is in my not-so-distant future I’d decided I was really going to try to not pick up Caitlin for a while. The stinker then decided to try out that, “please” I’d been bugging her about. She stands at the top of the stairs with big puppy dog eyes reaching out her arms and saying, “Puh-EEZE? Puh-EEZE? Puh-EEZE?” It is enough to make me want to melt.
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Elmo is still #1, but aside from Mickey, he has some new competition. Daddy has introduced her to this clip:
The Irishman LOVES Caitlin’s Cookie Monster impression at the end of this clip. She also loves to say, “COOKIE!” Thankfully she is not yet a cookie monster herself. Unlike her friend the blue monster, Caitlin is happy enough to announce that it is a cookie and walk around holding it instead of scarfing it down like….well, you know!
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She is such a character! It is hard to believe her little brother will be here so soon! At my appointment on Monday the specialist estimated his size to be about 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Now there is a pound or so margin of error, but the bottom line is that at 36 weeks, that is a very big baby. They have pretty much ruled out a vbac, and I’m okay with that. She also seemed to think that there is a good chance I could go into labor early due to the size.
I meet with my regular OB today. I'm sort of expecting her to move up the date of my c-section depending on how my appointment goes. We’ll see what she says! I’ve just about gotten things in order this week - the paperwork, the baby clothes, etc. Now all that is missing is a healthy baby boy!
