Bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Last night, I woke at 4 am to hear the aquarium on Cailin's crib through the monitor. The bubble feature of it is LOUD. I wonder if they have re-formatted it so that it will be a touch quieter... if so, i might need to invest in one. Anyway, it ran for the 10 minutes and as soon as it stopped, I could hear her turn it back on again... and again, and again... I went down to peek on her. She was curled in a ball on her pillow just under the aquarium sucking her thumb. She wasn't asleep though. I figured either she was snotty, and the coughing kept her up, or her teeth were sore and keeping her up. I got out the Robitussin and Motrin and went to join her. She sees me, leaps off the bed and says "I naped mom. I nap". This is normally her way to say i took my nap and am done now. I told her that we weren't taking naps, it was night night time. She took her medicines and lay back down. Lately she wants her bed EMPTY except her, a pillow and a blanket. She throws everything else on the floor. She curled up again and i put my head down next to her. It was uncomfortable, so after 2-3 minutes, i stretched out on the floor and tried to rest some. every so often she would peek her head over the edge of the bed to make sure i was still there. She would ask if i was sleeping. I finally realized she wasn't going back to sleep with me there so i went back to my room. She cried for a minute or two, but then was quiet. I am not sure how long it took her to fall back asleep, but the aquarium was quiet for the rest of the night. It is 9:30 now and she is just waking up.

Stop Banging!!

To the little one living in my tummy, PLEASE stop banging on my bladder. It isn't a tambourine. You are making me have to pee 6 times an hour. That is a little extreme, don't ya think?

Better than what it could have been.

I read this article over the weekend that I loved. When I first heard of the dog fighting ring that Mr. Vick decided to fund and start, I was sick. I am an animal lover. I went to school to learn how to make these creatures better, and I worked for many many years in animal hospitals trying to do so. One of my biggest pet peeves is the bad name that a lot of the bigger dogs get because of their breed or size. You always here “don’t go near that dog, it’s a Rottweiler, it might bite”, or my favorite of all, “Pitt bulls have no right to be in this world, they need to all be put down. The only thing they are good for is fighting, so just get rid of the breed”. This bothers me. After working for more than 10 years in the veterinary field, biggest thing I learned is fear the little dogs (or the cats with cute names like “fluffy”) because they are the ones that are going to try to eat you. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a Doberman or Rotti, knock me off my feet by leaning up against me wanting attention, wanted to get their ears scratched. I have dealt with the huge dogs called Presa canarios, you know, the ones that were euthanized and feared in CA because they mauled a woman to death. That is an unusual circumstance… I had two come into the office where I worked and I patted them hello before I knew what was wrong. Little did I know that one of them was injured pretty badly in the area that I was patting. Did I get bit? No, did the dog get mad? No… he whimpered and lay down until it was his turn. I apologized and he licked my hand as if to say “that’s okay, you didn’t know”.

Anyway, when I first heard about this dog fighting ring that was broken up, I was glad. Those dogs had a horrible lifestyle. Then I got to thinking… most likely, all of these dogs are going to be euthanized because they were bred to fight and nothing more. It made me sad. This article that I read really brightened my day. MOST of the dogs are in foster care. Most are going through obedience training. Some are going to be working at therapy dogs in the future. There was one line in there that really struck me… a lot of shelters were seeing this and realizing they didn’t have to euthanize every pitt bull that came into the shelter.

I am glad for the happy ending!!!

Thank you!

Yesterday after church, there was an appreciation luncheon for all nursery workers for the church and their families. My church is Big. My church is growing. My church is amazing with how many different ministries there are and how many ways you can become active in the church. I help in the children's department every other month. They want you to only go every other month so you can have time in bible studies with your family as well. I teach in the "pink 2's" class. There are sometimes 5 kids in my class, and sometimes 15. It is the "pink 2's" because there are 4 different 2 year old classes... we have to split them up because of how many there are.

There were between 150-200 people at this lunch yesterday. Normally when I think of a luncheon to say thanks or whatever, you think of deli sandwiches, chips and drinks... right? Nope, not here. They started us off with salad and rolls. Then there were baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, there was this stuff which I thought was dessert. I was wrong. It was awesome though. There was peach Jell-O on the bottom, and then bananas, pineapple, mango and some other type of tropical fruit in a sweet creamy sauce toped with toasted sliced almonds. It was awesome. Then there were green beans with diced up onion and huge chunks of bacon to add flavoring and the main course was ham. It was sliced about 1/8th of an inch thick and rolled. Stuffed inside I am guessing it was spinach and cheese mixture. I am not for sure on that, but whatever it was, it was good. Then it was topped with a hollandaise sauce. AMAZING doesn't do justice when you are describing this!!! After we had been eating for 15-20 minutes, they came around with desserts... white cake with this chocolate covered wafer thingy, chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a chocolate covered strawberry (this was my choice), cookies, carrot cake, or mousse.
What was even more amazing about this meal was this... ONE WOMAN made all of it for us. She worked most of the week getting it prepared so that she just needed to warm it on Sunday. I am appreciative of all of her hard work. I would like to tell her thank you, however, I am not sure of her name. SOOO… to the lady who made an amazing meal for us, thank you.

Just a Start

I wanted to start a list of words that Cailin uses on a regular basis so if you come around, You can translate. I will try to add more as I think of them... it is too close to midnight. I know I forgot something.

Cailin’s words/pronunciation

Om-eey = Homey
Omrey = hungry
Dashyrabul = Socksy and Rebel
Yesse = Jesse
Yaddy = Jesse
Euk = Look
Merry-mis = merry Christmas
Dov due = love you
Bobby = potty
Ewww = self explanatory
Mummy = bunny
Nay = horse
Melmo = elmo
Bibbit = frog
Dit = sick (she fakes a cough and says ‘I dit’)
Nanny = Nattalie next door
Nonny = snotty
Nan-due = thank you
Stesh = Steff
Un-til-tile = Uncle Kyle
Dasch = socks
Bosch = off
Poppy = Poppy or Puppy, you have to look at what she has, or is doing, or what she is looking at.
Dowl = clouds, and towel
Munch = lunch
Mimmie = binkie which she doesn’t use
Na-net = blanket
Pi-dow = pillow
Neeese = sneezed
Bat = bath
Mesh = mess
Mome = home
i-non-nont-no = I don’t know. The answer to EVERYTHING at the moment.
Bue = blue
Meen = green
nay-ned = naked
tuse-me = excuse me

2.5 out of 3 are sick. Not good

I have been fighting allergies and asthma for a good 2 weeks now. It sucks. I ended up in Urgent care on Saturday night for 2 hours. I had to have 2 treatments of albuterol before I could calm down. I am not sure if you can even call it calming down because when you take albuterol, you become so jittery that it is just nuts. I am currently taking albuterol inhalers, symbicort inhaler, Claritin-D, codeine now I had to get some Delsym cough syrup. The cough syrup works. I am glad. It doesn’t take the cough completely away, so now I am taking prednisone as well. Just what every pregnant woman needs… drugs to make you want to eat more, drink more and pee more… I’m doing this enough as it is! J I am feeling better finally though.

While I am sick, Cailin has been having allergies as well. She just has clear snot dripping down her nose. Over the past 2 days, she is starting to act a bit more congested. When we get home from MOPS, on Wednesday, I try to get her to rest and notice she has a fever. It was 102.7. OIY. I give her some Tylenol and she was able to rest. Today, she still has a fever, but is drooling profusely. I know and can feel that her 2 lower 2 year molars are close to coming in. I hope that the fever is due to those. She is feeling snotty and cranky.

While I am recovering still, Chris is loosing energy every day. Tuesday, he has a sore throat, Wednesday, he stays home from work because it is so bad. He has strep throat. He feels miserable. I am doing my best to take care of him, take care of Cailin, take care of the house and dinners as well as trying to get myself better. It is exhausting.

From now on, I want to put a rule into effect… Only one person at a time is allowed to be sick at a time in this household. Think it will work?

I'll Take it!

Apparently, this pregnancy seems to be going just as well as my pregnancy with Cailin. That makes life easier. If the worse thing I have to deal with is the simple fact that I am sleepy, I will take it. I can nap when Cailin naps and I know this phase will be over soon. Also, just like my pregnancy with Cailin, I can not eat Mexican food without investing stock into Gas-X. If I take that, I can enjoy my favorite El Charro’s whenever I want. (When I am not broke)

I miss This

From the day Cailin was born, until she was at least 16-17 months old, I rocked her to sleep every single night. Sure there was that occasional night that we were out late and she fell asleep in the car, but most of the time, we would rock to sleep. Cailin isn’t feeling well and was uber fussy today. I know she didn’t sleep well, I could hear her coughing quite a bit throughout the night. Shortly after she picked and barely took 3 bites of her lunch, she sits on my lap on the floor crying and I started to rock her. She calmed down, and becomes very quiet. Chris tells me that her eyes were starting to drift shut. I move into her room and we rock for a while longer. She was asleep within five minutes. I continued to rock her, letting those little drool droplets roll down my arm, but enjoying this moment that we used to share every single night. When it was bed time, Cailin asked if we could rock again. YOU BET!! She didn’t fall asleep this time, but we rocked for about 20 minutes before I put her into her bed. I sang to her, she sang with me once in a while. After I realized she wasn’t going to sleep on my lap, we moved to her bed. She wanted me to put my head on the pillow next to her. I did, and I got to watch my baby fall asleep again. I miss getting to hold her and rock every night. I did notice at lunch time where she used to fit on my lap between the arms of the chair, now her legs dangle down the side. She has gotten so tall and growing up so fast. I can’t believe she is going to be 2 soon!!

Mind Your Manners Mommy!

Apparently Cailin has been listening when I am working with her on her manners, she now says Excuse Me (stuze me) before plowing into you with her stroller, she MOSTLY remembers to say Please, and almost always says thank you. I am very proud of her, however, she did remind me that I am not minding mine all the time and even though she is a child, I need to use my manners with her as well.

Earlier this week, Cailin found Chris’s stash of Pepperidge farm goldfish. She LOVES them just as much as her daddy does. She was eating some out of the bag when she runs to me with one in her hand saying “Ere mommy”. I stoop down and open my mouth. When it is less than an inch away from my mouth, she pulls is back and gets a grin on her face… “peeese mommy…. Peeeeeeessee…” I forgot to say please. I said please and she says “ere-go momma” and puts it into my mouth.
Thank you for that gentle reminder that even though you are small, I still need to mind my manners!!

Bad Mommy

I know that I haven’t been typing much on here lately, but it has been busy. I have been stressed and at a lot of times feeling like a rotten mom. I am not sure if this is because I am moody because I am pregnant, or if it is the fact that Cailin has hit the “terrible twos” with so much force, I am not sure what has hit me. I feel like a bab mom for fussing at her as much as we have to and

Please tell me that it will get better.. for my sanity, her sanity, and well, for the cat’s sanity as well. There are some days that chris comes home and I feel so close to tears because it has been a harsh day.

Cailin loves the cat. She loves the cat so much that she wants to hold him all the time. She tries to pick him up, unfortunately for the cat, it is by the head or neck. This is not safe for the cat. She for some reason will try to hit the cat… with anything. One day for example, she had a hard plastic book, she was whacking the cat with this and Jessie just lay there hunched down as low as he could to cower away. I tell Cailin to stop. I try to tell her that it hurts Jesse and it isn’t nice to hit. She stops, I try to work on dinner. Chris is in another room doing computer repair. Five minutes later, I hear Cailin screeching with delight. She got into my pampered chef crate and found a bag full of lapel pins and was now hitting Jesse with this. I take the pins away, tell Cailin again that she can not hit. It is not an acceptable behavior, and it hurts Jesse. I sit her in the timeout chair. This is DEVISTATING to her. She screams. She tries to hit me because she is angry with me for moving her away from the cat. After making her sit (calmly) for a whole long minute and a half, she gets up. I play with her for a while and then I have to go back to dinner. Chris comes back upstairs and it testing one of his repairs. Not more than 5 minutes later, Cailin lets out a scream. It is one of those drop EVERYTHING you might think between her sobs, I look closely at her and notice four small puncture wounds on either side of her face. Small wounds that a cat claw could very easily made such as if Jesse ‘boxed’ Cailin’s face by hitting her on either side of her head with his front feet. I can’t yell at my cat if my daughter chases him around this house hitting him with various things. Apparently Jesse’s retaliation did NOTHING to teach Cailin. After dinner, Cailin had the cat cornered on the couch and was whacking him with the TV remote control. I took the remote, told Cailin that it hurt and and it was not acceptable. She was mad at me for this and started to cry. Reminding her of her cuts on her face does nothing to make her understand. We have tried tapping her hands, we have tried spanking, we have tried the timeout chair, and we have tried to reason with her. Nothing is getting through. This was just one day. We have tried stepping back and letting her see the consequences of beating on the cat, that doesn't do anything either.

Today, Cailin is sick. To steal words from another mommy friend, she becomes Captain Insomnia when she is sick. She took a 30 minute nap. She didn’t eat much of anything which it totally unlike my bottomless pit of a child. She was miserable as far as her attitude. I kept telling myself it was because she was sick. She got mad and tried to hit me when I took a cup of water away from her in the bathroom after she dumped ½ of it onto a carpeted floor. She got mad when I told her she couldn’t pick up the cat. She got mad when we wouldn’t let her drink daddy’s pop today. Daddy has strep and with her having it as many times as she did when she was less than a year, I didn’t want to take a chance of her getting it again. She was mad. Threw herself onto the floor and screamed. Last week she was in the kitchen and got mad at me for something. Before she threw herself onto the floor, she ran across the living room to the dogs bed, so she would have something softer to land on when she threw herself down. I had to laugh at this one.

With Cailin hitting and kicking as much as she has been, and her temper tantrums, there are somedays that I feel like all I do is correct her, or fuss at her for hitting, or kicking or whatever. Other days we have great days and laugh and giggle all day long.

Please tell me this stage will end soon and I will have my sweet loving little girl back soon!!!

Heartbeat

Got to hear baby's heartbeat today. I was surprised because they said they normally don't even attempt to hear the baby's heartbeat till 13 weeks. I am just hitting 11 weeks along. Sure enough there was a loud, and strong little beat going on. I heard this so many times while I was pregnant with Cailin, but it still brought tears to my eyes. I am so thankful that God has intrusted me with another little one to care for.