Big Girl

Catherine slept in her big girl bed for the first time last night. All night. This is how I found her this morning as I walked up the sidewalk after getting the morning paper. And she was clothed. I think all the smudges on the door add some charm to the picture. Now if I could only find a way for dust and rings in the toilet to be charming.

Good thing Catherine is finished with the crib because Stuart's legs are now hanging over the bassinet. He'll be glad to stretch out. And did I mention that he's sleeping 8-10 hours every night now? Sweet.

The Jay Bird

Catherine has a new gig. She takes off all of her clothes, including her diaper, and suddenly appears in front of you. It takes you by surprise, especially the first time it happens. For me it was the other night while Andy and I were trying to fix dinner.

You know I've shared that generally speaking the time preceding, during, and following dinner is absolute and total chaos. Mainly because Stuart is screaming bloody murder. He usually starts out in the miracle swing which, by the way, is no longer a miracle. By the time we're ready to eat I move him to the farthest point in the house and close all doors between us and him to muffle the sound. I still need a Mylanta cocktail to combat the indigestion it causes.

So during such a time as this the other night, Andy and I were putting dinner together and he had just started telling me something that happened at work that day (which I always find extraordinarily interesting because it usually doesn't involve tales of curdled milk spit up or explosive poopy diapers which is all I have to share at the end of my day). About 3 seconds into his story I turned around to find Catherine, naked as a jay bird, standing in the middle of the kitchen. I interrupted Andy saying "um, Houston, we have a problem." And pointed out the nudist among us.

William announced, as if we needed an alert, that "Cafrin's naked." I started out after her telling her we needed to get our clothes back on, at which point she turned not into Sybil, but rather Linda Blair circa 1973 (The Exorcist). I tackled her in the middle of her room and practically sat on her to get a diaper and some clothes back on her, as I tried to keep her head from spinning 360 degrees. After about 15 minutes of our wrestling match, I returned to the kitchen where I brushed myself off and returned to my spot, picked up my bell pepper to resume chopping and calmly said to Andy, "...you were saying?"

This was not an isolated incident as this scene has repeated itself several times since then. We had to have babysitters for the kids the past two nights, and I put Jay Bird to bed at 6:00 because I don't want our house to be known as the nudist colony.

"Nobody sleeps naked in this house!"
-Nathan Arizona

Boo. Hoo.

Living Green

So Andy, in a sudden burst of environmentalism (is that a word?), has been really encouraging us all to conserve and not be so wasteful. Ok that's just a kinder way of saying that he's actually just cheap and is sick and tired of buying diapers for everyone (not me...I'm happy to say I haven't wet my pants in at least 8 weeks).

Anyway. He's really wanting Catherine to get potty trained, and he's really wanting William to be completely dry at nighttime and give up the overnight pull ups. So last night I gave William the chore of emptying all the trash cans and taking the trash to his Daddy to take out. I next overheard Andy, apparently upon finding several dry pull-ups in the trash, giving William the "wear them again if they aren't wet, don't let me find anymore dry pull-ups in the trash, wear them 'til they are filthy" speech. So William sets off back to his bedroom with a handful of previously worn but not yet filthy pull-ups to recycle.

This morning Andy and I had just walked into the kitchen to get our coffee when William comes walking up, naked from the waist down and holding a pull-up on the tip of his finger and he announces:

"It seems to me that I can throw away this pull-up that appears to be very very filthy."

I take it and start off towards the trash and Andy says, "Is it wet?"

"Well yes it's wet. It's going in the trash."

"How wet?"

Ugh.

So today I went through the dirty laundry and pulled out all of Al Gore's underwear in order to save on electricity and water washing it. I'm just doing my part.

Happy Father's Day

Daddy got some framed artwork of little hands and feet lovingly made at school last week and a new dress shirt. He wore it to church. Unlike the rest of the crew in the picture though, his didn't have an appliqued turtle on it.

The Mexican Store

William came down with some kind of respiratory issue last week. We thought it might be pneumonia. He was coughing and having trouble breathing. Took him to the Dr. on Friday and they did an x ray and said they weren't sure, but they put him on all kinds of meds, including an inhaler like they give asthmatics. Well....the inhaler seemed to cure the respiratory distress, but put me and Andy into major distress because our usually calm, sweet boy turned into Jim Carrey. On speed.

The effect after his breathing treatments was a cross between inhaling laughing gas and sucking on helium. For instance, after running errands with Andy one night just before dinner William ran into the house and said:

"Hey Mama Mama Mama....can we go to the Mexican Store for dinner tonight, can we can we can we? We can get chips and cheese dip and quesadillas and it would be a great dinner and I'll share my chips with Catherine and it would be so good and we would like it so much whataya think, huh Mama, huh Mama, HUH???????"

Dazed and confused. I replied, "Well William I have already fixed dinner tonight so we'll just stay here and eat. I made fish."

"Oh WOW Mama. FISH!!!! Is it carrot fish* or some other kind of fish? I LOVE fish. Now that would be a great dinner. I can't WAIT to have fish. And what else are we having? HUH HUH HUH?"

Ummmm. "Rice. And Beans."

"Oooooooooohhhhm, I LOoooooooooove BEANS!!! I'm going to eat them ALL!"

Now I knew he was sick. And the crazy thing is, he ate ALL of his salmon, asked for more and then.....ate his beans. It was a miracle.

So the other night we went to the Mexican Store and got chips and cheese dip. He was in heaven. The other poor patrons around us, however, were in the exact opposite place, as Sybil threw one of her fits and Stuart howled. I couldn't look anyone in the face because I would have cried right there. But seeing William's happy little face with cheese dip dripping off his chin made it all worthwhile.

He's all better now. And off the gas. And we're all breathing easier.

*No clue what carrot fish is. But it might be related to chicken doodle soup which he asked about later.

Self Portrait

This is what I looked like before I got my weekly shower this morning. It was a good shower. I even had time to shave. And judging from this picture I needed to.

What Not to Wear

Having a baby at the beginning of summer means have a post baby body during the summer and the possibility of having to be seen in a swimsuit. UGH So....I went shopping for something with maximum coverage. Forget the swim skirt. I need a swim formal. I made the mistake of taking the baby with me. Not that I have much choice since I'm tethered to him. But I guess I thought he would sleep peacefully while I tried on swimsuits. Guess I mistakenly thought anything about the experience would be peaceful.

The moment I walked in the store he started howling. I was determined though. I grabbed a few suits and headed for the dressing room where the howling turned to all out blood curdling screams. Still I pressed on. I had just gotten undressed when someone knocked on the door of my dressing room and some lady said "Ma'am....would you like me to hold the baby while you try on clothes?"

Now let me just say, with my firstborn I wouldn't have considered it. In fact would have been horrified and would have reported it to Chris Hanson for his next segment of To Catch a Predator. With my second child I would have considered it momentarily but would have politely refused. Poor Number 3 though. I didn't think twice, didn't even look to see who or what was standing outside that door, just grabbed him out of the carrier, shoved him out the door and said "Here" and slammed the door.

Then about a second later I realized I'd just handed my child off to a stranger, so I cracked the door to see a really sweet looking lady rocking him back and forth. I did keep the door cracked and was prepared to run through the store naked if she took off with my child. But at least for about 5 minutes I was alone in that dressing room and it was quiet. Quiet enough for me to concentrate on what I was doing and realize that there's NO WAY I'm going public in a swimsuit this summer.

Who am I kidding though. Am I really going to be lounging by the pool at any point between now and Christmas? I remember a few months before the baby was born mentioning something about going to the pool to my friend Christy, who has 3 children - older now - but the same closeness in age as mine. She just died laughing. When I asked what was so funny, still laughing hysterically she said "You think you're going to be at a pool this summer. You think you're going anywhere this summer. Someone is ALWAYS going to be sleeping at your house. But it won't be YOU!"

Truer words have never been spoken.

Oh Happy Day

The summer session of preschool started today. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can't see me jumping up and down. I'm really trying to contain my excitement, lest my sweet darlings think I was ready to get rid of them. I mean, I'm sure they didn't think anything of going to bed with their clothes on under their pj's and backpacks hanging on their arms, or the fact that we were sitting in the parking lot at 6 am waiting for the doors to open.

Don't get me wrong. I adore these children, and wouldn't give anything for the privilege of being here all the time to see and experience it all with them, but you know what they say. My heart will grow fonder I'm sure with just a little distance between us two mornings a week.

We made quite the entrance at school though. Stuart started wailing as we walked in the door, the 4 of us, William holding Catherine's hand, me holding her other hand, and Stuart turning beet red and howling in the carrier. This "well meaning" lady I'm sure standing in the hallway gave me this look and said loudly "THREE little ones? You sure have your hands full!"

YA THINK??????

The Miracle

After nearly six weeks of slingin' this baby around - literally - we finally found something that works. Nothing we already had, of course. And we had just about everything (or so we thought) when it came to baby gear. At least all the clutter in our house made it look like we did. But nothing that #3 liked. Hated the bouncy seat. Hated the swing. Andy even out of desperation tried him in the exercauser (nevermind that it's made for babies who can actually HOLD THEIR HEAD UP....just let him hang over the edge and see if any of those little toys interest him. Sure.). Anyway....turns out he DOES like to swing....just not front and back. Side to side did it for him. Luckily we have friends who are letting us borrow their swing 'cause I can tell you there sure 'aint gon be no #4 to swing around here!

Anyway...here he is sleeping in the new swing. Glad someone is.