Work and Money

Yesterday after Jeremy left for work, Cassidy went to the baby gate, let herself through and closed it behind her. Then she announced, "Mommy, I'm going to work." We've explained on several occasions that even though Daddy would love to stay and play with her he has to go to work so he can get money to buy clothes and food. I said, "Great." And then she said, "Mommy, I'm going to work and give you monies." No joke. Not bad if I get her to work and give me the money. At least she's starting out with a good work ethic.

Sacramento Visit

Well, we headed off to Sacramento for the weekend despite both girls having colds and Jeremy coming down with it too. The entire trip was for the girls to see their great-grandpa. Which they did on Sunday, as well as my Aunt Kathy, my cousin Teague, and Sam and Dee. It was great for Jeremy and I. A few hours of talking and swimming with no worries about what the girls could be getting in to. It was fantastic! When everyone was leaving, Oma and Grandpa had to head out for a bit too. Good thing as Cassidy told them, "Goodbye Oma and Grandpa. Get out." I guess she needed some quiet time after all that. Under the category of kids say the darndest things: Cassidy woke up yesterday morning, and her tummy was making a lot of noise, so I told her to tell Daddy to get her breakfast. So she said to him, "Daddy, get up and get me breakfast." Jeremy said, "Ok, can you say 'Get me breakfast please'?" Cassidy responded, "No! No, please. Get me breakfast." We had a great visit, and it was just enough to make us think about visiting again.

Yawn

Well, Keira has a cold. *groan* It didn't hit until close to midnight, so at least I had a few hours of sleep before the crying started. Jeremy had been up playing in an on-line poker tournament so he missed out on those precious hours. (Even with a screaming baby distracting his play he placed in the money.) Thankfully, he decided to let me sleep (although it's hard to get good sleep when there is a baby screaming in the house) since he was already up. I took the 5 am shift and got her relaxed and ready for sleep, but she just couldn't drop off. So after an hour of trying to get her to sleep, I passed her off to Jeremy again. The only interesting thing about all this is how I noticed that in the middle of the night when the baby is crying is the best time to go-off on your spouse. For example, when you offer some useful advice on ways to stop baby from crying, you might hear, "Why don't you stay up with her for 3 hours then?" Or perhaps after the baby has decided to use her new teeth and refused to stop crying even though her eyes are closed you might hear, "Here's YOUR baby. Why do they need pacifiers anyway?" Now that Keira is peacefully snoring away and Cassidy is reading books in her bed, life seems a little more rational. I would like to apologize to Jeremy for snipping at him in the middle of the morning. And I'm sure he didn't mean to snip at me either. ;)

I'm blogging this!

Jeremy teased me the second post I did that he was going to buy me a T-shirt that said, "I'm blogging this". I thought it was funny, but who would get it?? Then I'm having my mental breakdown in Target on the phone with Ashley, and she tells me, "You have to put this in your blog". Now every time the girls or Jeremy do something I joke, "I'm blogging this." My biggest problem is that it sounds too much like "I'm lovin' this" the new McDonald's ad campaign. So everytime I think of blogging now, I think "I'm blogging this" and yes I would like fries with it... or perhaps just an apple pie.

Last night we headed out for dinner, as Cassidy had taken a nap and so wasn't going to bed at 6. We went to our favorite chinese place, and after all day Sunday her telling everyone "Mi-hau" (chinese for hello, I think) she wouldn't say it at the restaurant. Cassidy picked that one up from watching Caillou, a PBS kids show from Canada. She has also picked up that there are monsters in her room, although she doesn't seem to be afraid of them, and that she needs medicine because she's sick. I'm just waiting for the episode on Euclidian Geometery.

"I'm busy, ho-knee"

Isn't it amazing how kids learn? How they hear what you say and then repeat it back to you at some odd time. Like when you are watching TV and she's playing with her Noah's Ark and animals, and you ask her to get you the remote and she says, "No, I'm busy." Oh really? You're barely moving that giraffe in your hand and you're busy, eh? "Please get Mommy the remote." "I'm busy, ho-knee." Proving that she picked up that we call people 'honey' as well. Now I'm just waiting for Keira to say "I've got a stinker"!

Trip to Target (sans Jeremy, Cassidy and Keira)

Perhaps I should preface this entry by announcing that my hormones are back on that monthly cycle. So today I headed off to Target, all by myself. *happy sigh* It was crowded and lots of little kids were there, crying, or just making noise. Then there was me, in the blissful state of non-with-me-childhood. Floating like a jellyfish with no real direction but somewhat of a purpose. More diapers, hmm..Majic Eraser, yeah that sounds good, there was something else, but oh look...shoes! So I found myself in the middle of the sale rack looking at funky flip flops when I HAD to call Ashley. Her wedding is in Hawaii this October, and suddenly I felt that she MUST have flip flops (remember how I opened this blog??). "What size are you?" "They have some with red and flowers, and a few white ones with sparkles." So after much searching I found a pair of white size 9 for her, and a nice red pair for her Mom. I even found cute little shoes for Keira that match shoes that I just got for Cassidy and myself. How grossly cute, I know. Get home. Man, did I forget chap-stik? That was half the reason I went!! (remember how I opened this blog??) Oh well. Start to tell Jeremy story of flip flops and pull them out to show him. WHAT?! Size 6 not a Size 9! I guess I'll be returning them and finally get my chap-stik.

More sleep news

Many of you know that Cassidy has been having some 'sleep issues'. Just when we thought that things were getting to a reasonable state, she decided to start over and while Nana and Grampa Noonan were out visiting, Jeremy and I were exhausted from trying to get her back on schedule. Ugh! But now it seems that Cassidy is over her issues with 'going' to bed, and last night she decided to finally get caught up on all of her missed sleep. She went to bed at 3:30. That's right, ladies and gentleman, you read correcctly, she went to bed at 3:30 in the afternoon. Even more amazing, was when she didn't come in to wake us up until 5:30 am. Which seems like plenty of sleep, but ha! no, our little princess needed something to eat and to play for an hour, and then it was back to bed for another hour and half! Woohoo! No more dark circles under her eyes, and a happy toddler. Life is getting better.

Who needs sleep?

So Jeremy and I have finally found a baby sitter and have been attending 'date night' for most of the summer. How nice it was to get out by ourselves ... for the first month. But then Cassidy decided to stop taking naps, and not going to bed until 9:30 at night. She was sleeping the same time as I was so I knew she had to be tired. I was! Well, we did a lot of work, and Cassidy is now more rested, but she's ususally in bed by about 6:30. Which would be 1 hour after date night starts. So we have been taking 'brief' dates. Which usually just involve some dinner. Date night has became a pain for me since Cassidy usually stays up past her new bed time, and gets tired, and then stays up later, and is fussy. So that 45 minutes of peace and relaxation just doesn't compare to the 2 hours of torture after. Well, last night Cassidy had fallen asleep when we got home. Woohoo! I was looking forward to relaxing and getting some of 'my' stuff done (reading a book, working on crafts). Ahh...it was so nice and quiet. Went up to bed at 9. Thinking, what a perfect date night. So at 10, was it a surprise when Keira started fussing? No. Was it a surprise that she was up from 10-12 screaming her head off if you laid her down? No. She has a cold, so she's been pretty stuffy Was it a surprise when she woke up at 6 and didn't want to go back to sleep? No. And what about when Cassidy came in at 6:20? No. So we are changing 'date night' to a 'date afternoon' on the weekend. Now I have to see if I can take a nap while the Keira's napping and Cassidy's watching Sesame Street. *yawn*

Poop

If you are weak of stomach (aka, my brother), perhaps you should skip this blog. It is all about Poop. We will start with the funny and end with the gross. In the process of 'potty training' you point out everyone and thing that goes pee pee and poop to help your child understand that it's a natural process. For example, you point out that your dog is going poop. Little did we know our little angel would become obsessed with poop. It turned out to be her best friend. She would go over and look at the poop, then run and shout, "Come on, poop, let's go!" Or she would point out things like, "See, poop, look at the airplane. Do you see the airplane, poop?" Very cute, if not slightly emabarassing as a 2 year old's voice is loud and carries. Who knows what the neighbors thought!
Now Keira's dealings with poop have been more of the 'explosive' in nature. She has several times gone through 3 clothes changes before lunch. As Cassidy had probably 3 incidents where she 'exploded' it was a shocker to have a baby so adept at shooting it out the back. We have become used to her incidents and only need a few minutes to clean her up now. And then, there was this morning. *begin dramatic music* It was a quiet morning, Keira had been snoozing in bed with Mommy and Daddy, when Cassidy came in asking for breakfast. We put Keira in her crib and all headed downstairs. After a few minutes I heard some happy noises from upstairs, so I blissfully went up to retrieve my sweet baby. When I walked in, everything seemed to be fine, and then I saw it. It was down her leg, up her tummy, and I was walked in to the room, I saw all over her back! And when I say all over her back, I mean the back of her shirt was Crayola color 'baby-poo'. I'm assuming from how it had soaked into the bumper that she was leaning against it when she did the deed.
As a mother of two still in diapers I could have filled several entries with stories of poop, but I think this covers the range and I'll leave it at this.

Smart Kids, a curse?

I remember my Mom telling me how amazing are little ones memories. I had my first experience with Cassidy the other morning. While getting her dressed we were talking about the dog on her shirt. She suddenly told me that Oma (that's my Mom) has a dog. Which isn't true. So I thought perhaps she was telling me a story. So I asked what is the dog's name. She paused, and I suggested, 'Sparky'. She immediately said, "No. It's Shelby." And like in a movie, my memory flew back through images to May when we visited my parents in Lake Tahoe and there was a dog who played on the beach with us one day and it's name was....SHELBY! Amazing! A steel trap I tell you. Good thing I don't drive in bad traffic anymore!

Yesterday morning, while waitng for Nana and Grampa Noonan to arrive, Cassidy asked to watch TV in Mommy and Daddy's bed. We let her, and came downstairs to play with Keira. After several minutes, "Daddy!" comes from upstairs, so Jeremy yelled back up, "Yes, Cassidy?" "I want a peanut butter granola bar." "Then come downstairs and I'll give you one." *pause* "No, Daddy, you bring it upstairs." "But everyone is downstairs, come down and you can watch TV and have your snack." "No, Daddy. *I'm* upstairs, bring it upstairs." How do they figure things out so quickly??