Back and Forth

Tonight, as I read Love You Forever to C while rocking her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until her eyes grew heavy, I had a flash back to over two years ago. As my belly grew and due date neared, I would often spend the evening reading that very same book to her. I would sit in the glider in her nursery, admiring the chandelier Husband and I had just installed, and rock back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, while reading to her, wondering what it would be like to hold her in my arms.

Fast forward over two years and I am holding a tired toddler in my arms. Her eyes flutter as she fights the inevitable, a night of heavy sleep following a day of running and jumping and giggling with a friend. Two years have passed since her birth and I am still in awe every single day of her existence. 

I still smile as I watch her sleep. I still tip toe into her room late at night and hold my hand just above her nose to make sure she is breathing. After two years, I still pinch myself every day to make sure I'm not dreaming. Our baby is here with us and she is amazing.

At two years old, she is doing and saying so many things. We have a tiny person walking around with us in the morning, chatting while we get ready. There are opinions about shoes and clothes and acceptable breakfast options. She tells us when she wants us with her by grabbing our hand and saying, "come"; and calls herself "super Catherine" while jumping up and down on our bed. She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night just to talk to us. 

Her vocabulary really has blossomed into that of a conversationalist. Most of the time, we can actually understand what she's saying and carry on a conversation with her. She says too much to list it all, but these are some of my favorite Catherine-isms right now:

• "All done" and "all clean." She uses these appropriately (at dinner or bath time) but also when she just doesn't want to do something (as soon as she gets in the bath).
• "I scared" or "scary monster" - We're not sure she's afraid of monsters because she loves the movie Monsters, Inc. But, she says this a lot whenever something is an odd shape. 

She turns this ballerina over and calls it a "scary monster"

• "Oh no! Gwankie!" (Translation: blankie) Whenever she realizes she doesn't have her blankie with her - usually when she's tired.
• "This is..." - She uses this to ask for something she wants while pointing to it (milk, Elmo, slide). It is usually followed by a "peease" (please).
• "Yay! I dancing!"
• "Biiiiiiiinks (Banks)! Puppy come!"

She counts to 13, knows all of her colors, and sings all day long. She strings together Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Wheels on the Bus into a never-ending sing-a-long. She loves animals - every single one of them. She grooms her stuffed animals before bed. Banks is still her best friend. She won't go to bed unless he is in the room.

Even though she has a pile of books, she chooses the same ones to read every night before bed - The Cow Loves Cookies and Smooch Your Pooch. Lately, Pete the Cat has made it into the mix a few times, but only as an addition, never a replacement. We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star together before bed. Sometimes she lets me sing with her. Sometimes she tells me, "shhhh, stop it. Night night."

Her favorite shows are still Sesame Street ("Elmo") and Winnie the Pooh ("Watch Pooh"). Her favorite movies are Finding Nemo ("Memo"), Happy Feet, Monsters Inc ("Scary Monsters"), and Cars. If she wants to watch something and thinks you don't hear her, (ie: we don't turn it on) she starts naming all the characters for clarification. She will point to my iPad and say, "this is Pooh" because we use it in the car.

She plays contently with stuffed animals, dolls, and babies, rocking them, wrapping them in blankets, and telling them goodnight. She kisses and hugs them. She also throws them on the floor. I'm not quite sure what to think about that! Sometimes she calls one stuffed animal "Mommy" and one "Daddy" and makes them kiss. She loves princesses and calls any female on tv or in a movie a princess.

She loves making music and dancing. She loves the loudest instruments most, favoring the drums and the cymbals. Coincidentally, we have recently learned that Banks is terrified of cymbals. 

She likes to cook in her play kitchen. This mostly involves "mixing" and "stirring" until everything ends up on the floor. She recently discovered play-doh and makes a lot of "pasta" (aka monsters or worms). She likes to color, but loves to paint; and bath crayons just made bath time way more fun.

She would play outside all day if we let her, rain or shine. Bubbles, sidewalk chalk, swings, slides, and just running around, throwing sticks to Banks. Luckily, she has her new swing set to entertain her! Sliding is her favorite.

She is the sweetest, funniest, smartest little girl and I simply can't believe it's been two years since she entered our world and we were forever changed. 

I only hope she knows how much she is loved and that we are thankful for her every moment of every day. 

Happy birthday, Angel. You make me happy every day.

Dance Party

It isn't often that we get Husband home for dinner. Today, he was not only off work for the day, but he cooked dinner! Catherine and I took a two hour nap and woke up to the smell of a steak dinner being prepared. What a nice surprise!

C was dancing to some Sinatra during dinner, so we went to the living room for a little family dance party. She loves to dance to most music, but really loves pop music. We danced to some favorites from the fifties, but when Husband changed the station to Gangnam Style, she really started to move!

Funny girl.

Birthday Week, Day Two: Sunglasses and Monsters

Since we gave C her big birthday present yesterday, we are doing little things to celebrate each day this week until her birthday on Saturday. Today, Husband was off work, so we got to spend the whole day playing together. He spent the morning playing outside with C while I had an appointment and when I got home, we gave her today's little present.

New sunglasses! They are pretty sassy.

While we were playing outside, C pointed to a stump from the crab apple tree we cut down yesterday and exclaimed, "a monster! Roar!" She kept saying she was scared, so Husband took care of it...

Scary "monster"

Daddy to the rescue!

We watched him work and then clapped and cheered, "Yay, Daddy!" I love her little imagination and love Husband for indulging it. Our backyard is now monster free.

Birthday Week, Day One

Wow. We have had a rough week. It all started with a stomach bug that cancelled our Valentine's plans. Then, when I thought we were all well, I caught the bug on Saturday morning, and much worse than C's.  One cancelled babysitter and one cancelled dinner reservation later, our weekend plans changed a little. The only silver lining (besides shedding a few pesky pounds) was that it happened on the weekend so Husband was home to help with C.

Opening her Valentine's book from Mommy and Daddy

I am finally feeling back to myself today, and it's perfect timing because it is BIRTHDAY WEEK! Our sweet girl will be TWO on Saturday and I can hardly believe it. Her big present from Husband and me is a swing set. We've had it in pieces in the garage since Christmas, but finally got it together yesterday. There was no way we were keeping that a secret for a week, especially since the second she saw it through the back door, she exclaimed, "Wow! A slide!" Then, she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door saying, "outside."

She ran to her new swing set and immediately fell in love. Pure happiness. We let the sun set as we played together and watched her explore her new "house" as she calls it. This present will bring us years of memories!

I'm not sure I can think of a better way to spend an evening.

Portrait of a Tantrum

C is a week shy of being two. Tantrums, while they don't happen that often, are almost always over absolutely nothing. It's awesome.

Sometimes, you can't do anything but document.

We went from this...

To this...

 

In two seconds flat.

And another gem, which I believe was because her toy puppy 
wouldn't sit like she wanted it to.

And just a couple minutes after, happy as can be...

It's tough being two.

Princess

Today, we needed a project. C was already playing dress up, so I decided she needed a crown.

I cut out a crown, sized it to her head, and then gave it to her to paint. She did a beautiful job!

She had a chat with her cow and decided she needed to be a princess too.

And so did the dinosaur.

Valentine's Eve

We had some fun plans scheduled for tonight. There was a cute little Valentine's Eve party with Catherine's friends, so I tried to wear her out this morning to ensure a good nap. She got her bangs trimmed this morning at the salon. Then, we played and played with the train table and books and Barnes and Noble. We got lunch to go at Zoe's and talked and sang all the way home. She took one bite and said, "all done." I thought she must just be exhausted, so I put her down for an early nap. She slept for over an hour. All was well.

Then, she woke up, we came downstairs, and she looked at me with the saddest eyes before projectile vomiting all over herself, me, and the living room rug. Then, again in a trail as I carried her to the bathroom. I thought it was just a one time thing. It's never been anything more than that before. I cleaned us both up, settled her into her chair with a Pedialyte popsicle, turned on Elmo and waited for my spunky little girl to come back. 

She threw up the popsicle.

I gave her a tiny bit of watered down juice...

And back up it came.

Ice chips.

Nope.

I called the doctor's office and spoke with a nurse who told me not to worry and to try giving her liquids 1 tsp at a time and to go to the ER if she still had a dry diaper after eight hours or stopped producing tears when she cried.

Then she threw up bile.

So I packed us up and we headed to the ER. Eight hours, my ass.

I covered her with a beach towel (which came in handy when she threw up on the way) and we made it to Children's to join the party in the ER waiting room.

When we made it back to a room, the nurse played a game where she gave C a cup of Gatorade and had a "tea party" with her while she sipped a little at a time. It was pretty genius actually. I've been holding her down in a head lock just to get her to swallow Advil. Who knew the power of "tea"? They also gave her a dose of some magical anti nausea medication and she somehow kept all the Gatorade down. Hooray!

From start to finish, we were at the hospital three and a half hours, though it felt like much much longer. I hauled C back to the car and she was asleep within minutes of leaving the deck. As I took in the moment of silence and watched my sweet baby finally relax, I found myself so very grateful. I was grateful to live in a city with a Children's hospital. I was grateful for a iPad loaded with games and Winnie the Pooh movies. I was grateful that my baby hadn't thrown up in three hours. And I was grateful that I was taking my baby home, while so many were staying the night there. 

It was far from the way we planned to spend the evening. I just got to show her my love in a different way. Sure, we have a couple days of Gatorade and saltine crackers ahead of us, but this will pass. For now, she is a healthy, happy girl... just getting over the stomach bug. We may have to delay the sweets explosion of Valentine's Day until my sweet is feeling a little better. 

Pay for the Rest

Husband has a mantra: do what you do best and pay for the rest.

I tend to agree.

I try to do a lot of things. I don't necessarily do them all well.

I've been working on C's birthday invitations for a week. I was determined to channel my self taught InDesign skills from my nonprofit days and then print them on our awesome photo printer that I haven't used in months.

After a little work, it really looked pretty good. Then I tried to print...and we were out of ink.

So, instead, I just spent way too much money on super cute invitations from Tiny Prints. They'll be here Thursday.

Money well spent.

Sick Day

Little Bit has a bit of a cold-nothing serious but nonetheless pitiful. So, we're spending our day wrapped in blankets watching Disney movies while she wears a diaper and a tutu.

I don't hate today.

Friday Night

C and I were in the checkout line at Target tonight at 6:30. Perhaps it was the large coffee attached to my cart or maybe it was the wine and ice cream skipping hand in hand down the conveyer belt as I wrangled C back into the cart. Whatever it was, the guy at the register must have sensed desperation as he offered a small frozen yogurt up and said, "would you like this in a bag or do you just want to carry it?"

Like it was a pack of gum.

No, sir. I think I can at least make it the 6 minutes home, but thank you for not judging.