Two more Cadyisms

Snipper- n long vertical velcro closure

Raper Papper- n the paper that holds a cupcake AKA cupcake wrapper

Christmas and more

Oh the joys of Christmas. Last year was fun but it's nothing compared to this year. As I type this (in between making two cheeseballs, deviled eggs and a pineapple upside down cake) Cady is about ready to burst from the excitement that 1) Santa is coming tonight 2) She gets to go to Emmas later for a visit 3) She gets to open a present tonight 4) She gets to open lots of presents tomorrow. Right now, she is "orzan-gizing" the gifts under the tree for the umpteenth time. Much like her father she can spend mass amounts of time doing this. The gifts need to be in the right place and all of the little tears in the paper need taping. She announced to me about an hour ago, "I have a lot of work to do today mom" and she has been at it ever since.
Speaking of "Orzan-gizing" I have missed way too many opportunities to write down the cute expressions and word substitutions that come out of Cady's mouth. Considering I remember mostly NOTHING these days I'm not sure what made me think I'd be able to recall them at a later date. One night Cady was putting together a puzzle all by herself. The puzzle was of a little girl. Once Cady got the girl's hair together she yelled, "Look mom! I did a hair pile!" Now, anytime she says something cute, Rob and I have the code word "hair pile". This morning she told Rob she knows how to crack an egg. Rob asked her how and she responded, "Well first you get the egg and you go head-to-head..." The dot dot dot is because I have no idea what she said after that as I got stuck on the head-to-head part.

Meeting Santa was a joy this year. Santa is a very soft-spoken man and this was great for Cady who was a little reluctant to visit. Within minutes she was eating out of his hands. I say minutes because he spent a lot of time with her. He showed her his giant golden key that unlocks all of the doors of kids who do not have chimneys. He pulled out a small velvet bag that had a bell inside. Cady was able to ring the bell. He was absolutely magical. Coben, on the other hand, was not a fan. He was fine sitting on Santa's knee. And then there was a long moment of both Santa and Coben getting a good look at each other. The next thing that happened was Coben's little bottom lip came out, his eyebrows scrunched and then the tears came. He's had a little stranger anxiety lately as it is, but I'm sure it was compounded by the large white beard and hat.

So, we try not to use the empty threat of "Santa is watching and if you are naughty..." because 1)it's not a threat we are willing to follow through with 2)I can't tell you how bored of hearing it I was growing up 3) Santa is unconditional love. BUT I found that in desperate times it packs quite a punch. We had a little resistant hair-washing this morning and a big attitude to go along with it. All I had to say was, "Huh, if Santa sees everything then he can see this. I wonder what he would think" and the fight was over. hehe. I think used sparingly it's quite nice. :)

I LOVE watching Coben and Cady play together now. They sit on the floor together and play with toys. The love between them is beautiful. And Cady is our hypervigilant third set of eyes. She is so watchful of everything Coben is doing. She protects him and makes sure he isn't getting into anything that he shouldn't be. And there seems to be a lot of that lately as Cady's favorite toys seem to be non-toys. Little trinkets in boxes. Rocks and buttons and any small thing she can get her hands on. Moving infant and small trinket phase...fun combo let me tell you.
That's about it on the home front. I have Christmas goodies to make and I have a student's mom running some tamales by in a bit (lucky me!) so I should get dressed. Merry Christmas everyone.

Another one for the archives

I should know better than to use certain words. But I spent 18 years growing up in a dog grooming shop and around breeders and dog show people. And then the following ten were spent working in veterinary hospitals. The word "hump" was part of my everyday life so I didn't think twice before using it around Cady. Wall-E loves to hump Cady. It's part of his large personality and there is a constant battle for dominance between him and Cady. So anytime Cady is on the ground, Wall-E runs over and tries to hump her back. We tell Cady constantly, "Do NOT let Wall-E hump you! Get up off of the ground and be bigger than him!" It's getting better but can still be a problem.
One morning a couple of weeks ago, Rob walks up behind Cady and puts his arms around her and gives her a giant bear-hug from behind. What does Cady say?

"Daddy, stop humping me!"

Ay-yi-yi

The last month...

I know, it's been a long time. I can't believe how exhausted I've been. My normal bedtime of 11:00 has been altered. Lately, well, almost every night, I fall asleep around 8:00 on the couch watching tv. I usually get about three, "P, should we turn off the show and watch it laters" from Rob to which I always respond, "No, I want to watch it." After the third time Rob turns off the tv and lets me sleep. He wakes me up to go to bed after a couple of hours. I think this is my body trying to front-load two consecutive hours in order to make it through the night. Coben still wakes up a lot. Having him share a room with Cady is hard because we can't just let him cry for a bit to see if he can turn the corner on his own. Nope. We have to get up and do what we can to keep him quiet. We've learned the hard way. Once Cady has been awoken, the kids just take turns keeping each other (and us) up the rest of the night. So, Coben sleeps until about 2 or 3 and then he's up every hour after that and sometimes he's just up for the day at 4:30. It's so funny to think of the days when Rob and I would sleep in until 9 on the weekends. It makes me wonder if our bodies would even know how to do that anymore given the chance. I'd have to say the worst affect of sleep deprivation is doing dumb stuff. I've already been known to be a tad bit on the spacey side. Add in lack of sleep and I'm a flaming mess!

Rob: "Why did you put a bowl of pomegranate seeds in the cupboard last night?"
Rob: "Seriously? You are staring at the tv screen this whole time but want me to recap everything that happened on Survivor the last five minutes?"
My intern (quite often): "I'm not sure what you were thinking when you did that."
Cady: (several times now): "Mom, why are you putting Coben in MY car seat?"


Anyhow, what's going on in the Keenan house bedsides lack of sleep?



So, it's not a real blog without including Cady-isms. These are recycled from Facebook but my hope one day is to print this off for the kids so all Cady-isms need to make the blog.

The other night I was cooking ravioli. I called Rob earlier in the day to see if we had nutmeg. So as I'm cooking, I open the spice drawer to find nutmeg and I don't see it. I start talking outloud, Where's the nutmeg? I know we have nutmeg because daddy said we have nutmeg." Rob enters the room at which time my assistant chef Cady says, "Daddy, you are a nutbag!"

Every day Cady comes home from school talking about letters that she has learned. She usually gets the order backwards but the letter right. "Mom, C starts with Cookie! I know what Z starts with...Zip!" So she was playing by herself the other morning and brings me a box of peanuts and says, "here's some peanuts for you mom!" Then she stops in her tracks and lights up. "Hey mom, I know what starts with peanuts! Penis! Penis starts with peanuts!!"

Cady is super-excited about Christmas. She circles and cuts out pictures of things that she wants in the catalogues. She is very adamant though about not wanting boy toys. The problem is that there are very few girl toys that she doesn't want! We're going simple this Christmas with the gifts and hope to spend more time making lots of fun memories. I can't wait to make Christmas cookies, sprinkle glitter on the lawn for Santa's reindeer and spend xmas eve Santa-watching. Three is such a magical age and I know that this Holiday season will be a good one.

Coben. He's doing great. He's still not crawling but he can do a mean scoot backwards. He's constantly stuck in corners and trapped underneath furniture. What he really loves to do is stand. He's just recently started creeping along furniture. He's all boy! Cady was so stationary at this age. We could put her somewhere and she'd just stay. If she saw gates she'd realize that it was an off-limits area. I have a strong suspicion that Coben will see gates as something to conquer. He's saying "mama", waving, and clapping. My most favorite thing is the car. Cady ALWAYS holds his hand in the car. And recently, as soon as he gets situated in his car seat next to his big sister (OMG I'm tearing up as I type this), he reaches out his arm for his sister to hold his hand. And no matter how far our destination, they hold hands until we get there.

First Parent Teacher Conference

It went well!
Some of the highlights:
*Cady is one of the most empathetic kids the teacher has ever had in her class. She said she cares about her classmates and is the first to help when they need help with anything.
*Her social skills are spot-on. She hasn't had any problems with any of the kids and plays well with everyone. She has one good friend who wants to play with Cady all the time but isn't always very nice to her. The teacher says that Cady handles it very appropriately by playing with other kids when that friend is acting aggressive. The teachers said that Cady plays with all kids regardless of their race which is not always the case with three year olds when they encounter kids who are different.
*The teacher said she is very smart and would like to start pulling her into the four year old group because she has mastered the three year old curriculum and is not very challenged by it.

I was the happiest to hear about her being so empathetic to her peers. Smart is great and will help her in life but what good is being smart if you don't care for those around you?

The Attitude

Wow are we in for it. The sassiness has gotten really bad around the Keenan house. Cady has learned all kinds of new ways to express herself lately and her attitude is growing by the day. Most of the time we can nip it by giving her a warning, sometimes time-outs are warranted, and other times we are dumbfounded and wonder if anything is going to work. A recent example that it blog-worthy.

This happened yesterday while I was cooking dinner. Cady was in the living room and I was in the kitchen.
I asked Cady to pick up the marbles off the floor and she ignored me. So I peek my head into the living room and ask her again to please pick up her marbles. She says, "Hold on, I'm doing something" which is a new one and one that she tries using ALL the time to avoid doing what she needs to do. There is always "something" to do that doesn't involve cleaning up, brushing her teeth, getting ready for bed, you name it.
Then I say, "Cady" in that "I'm warning you mom voice" and she says, "Paula" in the same voice. Gah!! So I walk into the living room and I say, "Excuse me Cady, what did you just say?" in that "you are past your warning mom voice". And she says... "Sweetie, you need to calm down and wait". Yeah, she really went there.

At this point I head back to the kitchen because I was at a complete loss for words and wanted a half a moment to think the situation through. But wait, Cady then follows me into the kitchen and says, "Sweetie, are you calm yet?"

Unflippingbelievable.

Rob and I are trying to stay one step ahead of Cady but we are afraid that our reality is more like being 1/2 step behind. Just when we think we have something figured out, she switches things up, our jaws drop and we have to get back in the huddle.

Fat girls and yet more wrinkles

It's been a while so I'll just throw in some tidbits.

Overheard Saturday night during dinner time when Emma was staying over.

Cady to Emma: Us girls are going to eat all of our food and we are going to get fat. We're going to be fat girls just like mommy!!

After defending me, Rob used that moment to divulge to me Cady expressed concern on the way to gymnastics that morning, "Mom sure is getting old, isn't she daddy? She has a big wrinkle on her eye"

Brotherly love. The older Coben gets the more enchanted he becomes. If Cady enters the room and he hears her voice he stops whatever he is doing and looks for her. Even if he's in an ultra-serious mood she can make him laugh like we never could. He laughs with us but Cady can get a full-on belly laugh with minimal effort. She talks to him and reassures him. She continues to hold his hand. She LOVES when I give them alone time (or what she thinks is alone time, my mama ears are turned on full-blast and I'm usually lurking). I lay him on the floor and she sits next to him and they have a great time together. It's a beautiful thing and makes me contemplate the absurdity of almost stopping at one.


Coben. Coben Coben Coben. What can I say about him. He's mellow but particular? He doesn't make waves about the small stuff but digs in his heels when it matters. I'm referring to his refusal to take a bottle. It still ain't happenin' and I'm in week three of work. The first couple of weeks I was running home which was fine then but totally unrealistic long-term. I was hoping for some words of wisdom at last weeks' pediatric appointment but was told by Dr. Bacon, "Yeah, you'd think they would eat eventually when they get hungry but some babies just won't do it." So, the solution is to feed him solids when I'm at work but she said breastmilk should still be his primary source of nutrition and that he needs to have between 24-37 oz a day. So that means when I get home she wants me to make up for it by nursing him frequently in the evening. Hopefully in the next few months we can get him on a sippy cup or something or I won't be able to venture off very far.

TMI Alert, TMI alert!

But too cute not to post.

The TMI part is that I wear thong underwear. Somehow Cady has never really taken notice until yesterday when I was getting dressed. She walks into the room, looks at me as I'm bent over putting on my pants and chuckles. She then says in her very Cady way, "It's okay mommy, sometimes my panties get stuck in my butt too!"

Back to work and more wrinkle material

I go back to work in two days. I am going to miss being with the kids like crazy but seeing as how it is only part-time there is part of me that is looking forward to it. It helps a lot that I like what I do. But I'm also looking forward to hearing myself think once again. I now understand the term, "I can't hear myself think". Sometimes I will have a moment where something pops into my brain that I need to stop and think about and Cady starts hammering away at me, "Mom! Mom! Mooooooom! Why aren't you listening to me!" and the thought is gone. This is a huge reason that I forget many many things these days. Facebook readers will probably see that Coben is still refusing a bottle. Man, it's hard enough to leave a baby but doubly hard when you have to worry about them while you are gone. Thank goodness it's only 8 hours. I don't know that I have more than that in me.
Anyhow, on to the fun stuff. Sometimes I make these mini videos where I just ask random questions so that one day Cady can watch them later and see where she was at in her development. Watch this short video. The last question is a hoot. And yes, I do realize that I probably caused anxiety by asking, "What happens when you sleep?" lol.

Higher level of thinking

She's a bright one.
We went to the Wiggles Concert last week. Jeff, one of Cady's favorites, is approaching sixty. In the car, she was studying his picture and declared, "Jeff has wrinkles!" I confirmed that yes, Jeff has wrinkles. Cady then asked, "is it because he is getting older?" And I told her that it was in fact because Jeff is getting older. A few minutes passed and she then said, "Mom, Santa Claus is really really old and he does not have wrinkles." Good point.

Out of the mouth of our babe!

Today we were loading up in the car for preschool and Cady stops and looks around the backyard. I thought she was checking out our tomato plants but instead she says:

Cady: Mom, where is the cherry tree?

Me: What cherry tree?

Cady: Daddy's cherry tree.

Me: Daddy's doesn't have a cherry tree

Cady: (impatiently) No mom, the cherry tree that daddy used to have

Me: Cady, I'm not sure what you are talking about, there is no cherry tree and we've never had a cherry tree

Cady: (even more impatient) Moooooom, you told me that George Washing-machine cut down daddy's cherry tree.

Word!

I think there are some words that I just won't ever be able to correct. They are just too cute and I hate to mess things up by telling Cady how the word is REALLY pronounced.

An example:
While dad is out larming Cady is outside drinking who-leg while mom is inside cutting up Cue-mummers.

And speaking of words. Here's a video demonstration of making up words when you don't know the right words to use.



Coben has the belly laugh figured out now. I'd post a video if not for the babbling fool in the background (myself). I swear, when I watch back I realize that I'll do anything (and do) to get those first laughs. You'll have to come get some in person!

For those that didn't catch it on FB

One hour later....

What kind of day are YOU having??

Oh Crap!!!

Thanks to Cady for taking the pictures!!
So I went to the rec center this morning to register Cady for summer preschool. While I was sitting in the lobby filling out paperwork I first smelt it then I felt it. Coben was sitting on my lap and I looked down and saw a great big puddle in my lap (of poop). Then I see that it is also on my arms and my shirt. There were others sitting there in the lobby so all I could do was jump up and bolt out of there. I'm completely embarrassed as I'm running through the parking lot. This is a big center and I parked far away of course. I'm holding Coben who is still leaking, his carrier, all the paperwork and trying to grab Cady so she doesn't get hit. I get to the car. Oh yeah. I lost my keys!! I had to trek back through the parking lot looking like I pooped myself and go back into the rec center and try to find my keys. I was mortified. Really mortified. I find my keys and we are leaving and Cady decides to play in the rocks outside. People are openly staring at me. I snap at Cady, "Cady, c'mon!" and she says, "Mommy, you need to relax and take a deep breath." hehe. She totally put it into perspective. The pics don't do it justice b/c this is 1/2 hour later after my drive home and it had time to absorb and lighten.

Daddy's Girl

My little girl is so in love with her dad it's not even funny. I mentioned in a previous blog that she would like to marry her dad. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Most nights she still slips into bed with us in the predawn hours. There used to be a time that she would practically sleep on top of me and would get frantic if she wasn't touching me the whole time. Now? She sleeps pressed up against her dad. The other morning while Rob was getting ready for work I tried to cuddle with her. She woke up and demanded, "where's my dad?" and our first one-on-one date since Coben was born was this weekend. We went to "our place" which is Souper Salad. As we were eating I said, "Cady, I sure do love you" and her response was, "I love my dad". And I just don't do things as well as I used to. As I'm brushing my teeth the other day I'm informed by Cady, "Daddy taps his toothbrush when he's done to get the water out." and while getting slurpee the other day she says, "Daddy puts the top on first" and can you believe it? I even wrapped her up in her bath towel all wrong the other day. "Daddy tucks it in right here." It brings back so many memories of my own daddy worshipping days. The beautiful thing is that Rob doesn't even know the extent of it. He has a fan for life because even if we don't show it the same way as we get older, I think most of us girls will always worship our dad.

Keeping up the Gosslins

Cady: Mom, I wanted two babies. A boy AND a girl.
Me: Cady, can you imagine two babies crying all the time?
Cady: Well, John and Kate have eight!


Body parts

Cady is running around naked
Me: Woo-woo, look at that cute little butt.
Cady: No mom, my butt is big like yours.


On Calling 9-1-1
Me: Now let's go over it again. Show me on the phone how you call 9-1-1-
Cady: (dials 9-1-1 and says to me)-Now this is what I have to call if a witch flies in my window and I need a fire man.

Coben

Laughing, cooing, playing with his feet. Very sweet and getting more fun every day.
We attended CPR. We had the upper GI's and today was the "last" appointment with neurology. Nope, not really. Another $40 co-pay "I don't know" with a referral to a gastric specialist thrown in. Really small stuff in the big picture after spending time at Children's and seeing all the families that practically live there. I'll take the "inconvenience" of a lot of medical appointments any day over anything those parents are having to endure. :(

And finally---
Cady wants to go to the "Hair Porch" to catch a "Hairplane" to visit Sophie, Chris, Gigi and "Penny" (She actually said Penny instead of Mimi the other night while Starin was over). And Chris, Cady has been obsessed with your pony tail since you left. She wants to know why Uncle Chris has a pony tail. :)

LMAO

Dinner conversation:

Cady: I'm going to have a baby

Me: Cady, you can't have a baby until you are all grown up and have a husband

Cady: Daddy is going to be my husband

Rob: Cady, I can't be your husband because I'm your daddy

Cady: No no no Daddy. I mean when I'm all grown up you'll be my husband and mom will be old.

Dang.

You're rubbing elbows with Royalty!!

Cady and I were in the car together yesterday when "Crash" came on. I explained to Cady that Daddy and I danced together to "Crash" at our wedding when we were married. I told her that is when Daddy became my husband.
She thought for a moment and asked, "Mommy, is that when you were a princess and daddy was a King?" Awwwwwww. What could I answer except, "But of course."

Where is your hair?

 We were at Sunflower Market yesterday an there was a man in front of us who was in the process of balding. He had some hair left on the sides but was butt-naked up top. Cady said, "mom, that guy has no hair! He has no hair at all!" I reply, "Yes Cady." and in typical Cady fashion she repeats. "Yeah, but he has NO hair." I'm thinking, maybe this guy can't hear us. But he turns around and playfully bonks Cady on the head with a package of crumpets, hehe.

Baby Story

Cady is great. She protests going to school and then protests going home when I pick her up after school. She told me sadly (and quite dramatically) the other day that she doesn't have any friends at ALL! I'll be looking for summer activities so that she has lots of interaction with other kiddos. I bet she'll still tell me she doesn't have ANY friends though, lol. It's been two months now and she still will not let the kids at school (her FRIENDS) anywhere near her brother. They aren't even allowed to sneak a peak without suffering the wrath of Cadence. What else. Hmmmm. Quite often these days (Starin can attest to this) she lays down, grabs her ankles, grunts and says she's having a baby. Maybe I did let her watch a little too much Baby Story. My bad. I suppose it's okay as long as she doesn't do it at school, hehe.

Thanks for tuning in.

Hi Ho, it's back to work I went

Day 1.
Before leaving for work I cuddled with my boy. I then fed him, watched him drift back to sleep and then I headed out for the day. Yeah, it was hard. It would have been harder if I didn't have a crazy complex situation walk in my door at around 7:30that morning. Nothing like that to take your mind off of things. Mid-way through the day as I was getting back into the swing of things I thought, "I really should not have taken some additional sick days. I can do this" (I got cold feet a couple of nights ago and asked to use some of my sick time to change my work week to 1-2 days a week rather than 2-3). That thought dissipated when I pulled up in the driveway and could already hear Coben crying before I even opened the door. I walked in and Alicja was doing all that she could to console him but he wasn't having it. I scooped him into my arms and he grabbed onto my neck and stopped crying. He still had those pathetic little whimpery, sobby sounds which is totally heart-breaking but my presence calmed him down. (now, why this doesn't work when i'm with him all day long i don't know!)Alicja said that she thought he might be colicky which made me laugh on the inside. Nobody knows colicky until they've met Cady at that age. Alicja started caring for Cady around the 4 month mark when colic usually starts to recede. At any rate, Alicja said that he cried most of the day. So now I don't regret reducing my time. It's one month, he's still little, and it's mostly transition work right now anyhow. I love my job. I really really love it. But I love my kids more.

Drum Roll Please

We had Coben's two month check-up yesterday. All the tests are in:

Spinal Tap-Negative

Cat Scan-Negative

Blood Work and UA-Inconclusive

Ultrasound of the Heart-Negative

Chest Xrays-Negative

EEG-Negative

EKG-Negative.

So, the diagnosis is: "I don't know".

Nothing really fits and everything has been ruled out. I'm hoping that we can now just end this chapter and move onto the next one...please.

We are growing another big one though. He's 90th percentile for weight and 75th for height. Cady is still in the 75th percentile for both (she was always in 75th height and 90th weight just like Coben for her first year).

Cady refused to talk to Dr. Bacon. Dr. Bacon asked plenty of questions to assess verbal ability, processing, development, etc...and Cady wasn't budging on her refusal to speak. It's always funny to see her shut-down when 99.9% of the time she never stops talking! The pains that wake her up crying many nights? Growing pains. The knock-knees not expected to cause any problems.


Last thought. I overheard this in the bathroom tonight while Cady was brushing her teeth:

Cady: Hey, that's Piglet.
Rob: Yup, that is Piglet. What does Piglet start with?
Cady: P. Piglet starts with P, just like mommy's name.

Man is she smart.

Updated Update

Coincidentally, after blogging last night about all the new priveledges that Cady thinks she is getting when she turns three, she inititated a conversation about it this morning.

Cady asked me to make her some noodles for breakfast. Then she said, "I can't do it by myself because I don't have a baby yet. But I can do it when I'm five because that is when I'll have my baby."

Huh.

Catching up...

Whew! It's a little harder to blog now with two kids. Especially since my normal blogging time (after bedtime for the kids) is now spent doing Wii fit until about 11 at night since there really isn't any other time to do it. Speaking of bedtime, we are so lucky that we have a good sleeper. Coben is usually in bed by the same time as Cady which is around 8:00. He wakes up at 11 to eat when Rob and I go to bed and then goes right back to sleep. He runs like clock-work...for now. Clock-work includes his 4 a.m. "Let's Partay!" times when he is more vocal than we ever hear him during the day. He amuses himself by flapping around and cooing. I spend about 5 minutes thinking he is the absolute cutest thing in the world and just recently I've trained myself to roll over after those five minutes and sleep right through the rest of it.

So as I'm rambling on about sleep, many of you are probably wishing I would cut to the chase regarding Coben's incident and the follow-up to the incident. We do not have the EEG results back yet. Let me tell you what kind of fun that was! The EEG instructions are to put the child to bed after midnight and wake them up at 4 a.m. and KEEP them up. Do not let them sleep in the car and don't feed them close to the appointment time and then they want him to sleep during the appointment. Yeah, seriously! We did what we could to make sure he went in tired and that's all I'm going to say about that.

The Cardiology appointment was on Friday. They did an EKG and a really extensive ultrasound. The only finding was completely insignificant. He has a small opening which is typical for newborns and it is expected to close up. The cardiologist was unable to find anything that should have caused his oxygen saturation levels to dip down to 74. Her best guess is that he may have aspirated when he vomited. Having vomit in his lungs may have caused all of the things that I witnessed (not being able to wake him up, losing all muscle control, pale, etc...) and it would have compromised his lungs beyond just that moment causing him to still have low oxygen saturation levels after five hours of oxygen. But she said it is purely a guess. I was holding Coben upright when it happened and he immediately went limp. It would have been more likely she said if he was laying down and had cried afterward thereby inhaling vomit into his lungs. So, who knows. She said in the future we can experiment with taking him up into altitude and doing an overnight trip at an elevation level between Denver and Dillon. An airplane ride should probably not be our first experiment (although they do have oxygen I suppose).

Cady. She continues to do well. Last night in the car she said, "Mom, I think you are going to have another baby!" Very funny. She reminds me daily about how disappointed that she is that she did not get to see Coben come out of my belly. I'm sure I'll be hearing about that for years to come. She is absolutely excited about her upcoming birthday. Anytime something comes up that she is not allowed to do because she is too little, she interprets to mean that once she is three she can do it all. So she informs me on an almost daily basis that once she is three she can use the stove, light a candle and use sharp knives. Boy, won't she be surprised when she finds out that being three isn't all that it's cracked up to be. If anyone is at a loss for a good birthday present for a three year old, I was informed by her this morning that she would like a bottle of Saline Drops and a Booger sucker for her birthday. I guess Coben has it all and she'd like a slice of that action!

Ummm..that's about it over here. Spring is here and I'm elated to be outside again with Cady (plus one) and even more excited to be outside again and NOT PREGNANT!

Coben Update

Today we had our follow-up appointment with Coben's regular pediatrician. My friend Deb emailed me last night and said that she would watch Cady while I took Coben to his apopintment. I never would have asked nor realized it was something that would be so helpful, she just told that she would be by to help. It was a really nice thing to do and it gave me a chance to listen to Dr. Bacon with both ears.

Dr. Bacon checked Coben out from head to foot. She asked a lot of questions and she talked about different possibilities. Once I provided answers to her questions though, none of those possibilities panned out and she admitted that she also had no clue. She decided to submit a referral for an EEG to at least rule out the possibility that Coben had some kind of seizure although she said that she expects that nothing will turn up in that direction either. Once everything has been ruled out it sounds like it's just going to be a case of nobody knows and let's hope it was just a one time deal.

Rob and I already talked last night about giving up the sleeping in shifts. It's not something that we can maintain until he is grown and at some point we are going to have to have faith that he is going to be okay. It doesn't mean that we slept soundly, but we slept. I also realize at some point I am going to have to stop obsessively asking, "does his color look okay?" and poking him everytime he is asleep. He looks great and acts great. I wish that was a relief to me but it's not. He looked and acted great just moments before it all happened too.

I REALLY believe in the power of positive thoughts so please keep Coben in your thoughts so that one day we can look back at this and say, "Remember that ONE time that thing happened with Coben? Boy was that scary."

The REALLY bad day

Snowboarding season is almost gone and Rob hasn't been once. I've really wanted to make it possible for him to hit the slopes at least once before it all melts and then an email came over last week. One of the mom's in my mom's group has a mountain condo that she was renting out for less than 1/2 of what it normally rents for...A practical give-away. I talked to Rob and we decided to go for it. Rob could spend one day boarding and Cady could go sledding....something she has been dying to do. For me, just being away, even if stuck in the condos with the kids is still a vacation.
We almost didn't head up as all the roads from Denver to Dillon were closed because of winter weather. But by Friday afternoon, they were opened back up and we figured we'd attempt it and just turn back around if it was messy. Not the case. One could hadly tell that there was a storm, the roads were clear and dry.
That evening we hung out at the condo. Cady and I played "fancy ladies" and did some pedicures and a peeling face mask. Cady slept in her own bed all night long which is always a bonus. That night, Coben woke up only a couple of times but really didn't seem that interested in nursing. He did the same thing the previous night back at home. I figured that maybe he was just finally starting to slow down and that it was just something to watch. The only other significant thing that happened through the night was me having to take Coben into a steamed up bathroom because he was stuffy...AGAIN. I didn't think much of that either since Cady and I both have colds...YET AGAIN.
The next morning Rob got up early to go boarding. There was a huge winter storm in effect and the roads were pretty messy. He made it there safely and gave me a report of the roads because Stacy was thinking of coming up to keep me company. Coben woke up in a great mood. He still didn't seem interested in eating which was starting to cause me some concern but he was in a great mood. Very interactive and sweet. No more than 1/2 hour after Rob's phone call, I was carrying Coben into the living room and he vomited all over me, twice. Lots of vomit. Then his body went totally limp and he turned white. I called Rob who was up at the slopes and let him know that I was calling our Dr. I called our Dr's office, explained what had happened and was told to get him in immediately. I told her that I could call Rob now and probably make it down to Denver before their walk-in clinic closed for the day. She told me that she didn't want me to wait to get to Denver but to take him in NOW. The problem is that Rob had the car and I had no idea where to take him since it was our first night in town. I couldn't put Coben down to make phone calls or look things up on the internet so I called 911 and explained what was going on and asked for an ambulance. For a moment I thought it might have been an overreaction. Coben was starting to come to and was tracking me with his eyes (yet he was still limp and not moving). The operator called for an ambulance and kept me on the phone. Before I got off the phone with the 911 operator the medics arrived (which scared the bejesus out of Cady who unbenownst to me was putting on make-up at the time). They could not have come soon enough because Coben was getting worse now instead of better. His body was still limp, I couldn't inspire him to move at ALL and now he was a ghostly shade of white. His eyes were unfocused and just kept rolling around in his head. He was starting to close his eyes in this state and I was just plain scared out of my mind. The medics took him from me, asked a couple of questions, tried to wake him up but couldn't, and said "we need to get him out of here, NOW!" and started running with him toward their truck. I grabbed Cady's coat and we ran out after them.
They wanted Cady to ride in the jump seat in the back because we didn't have her car seat (they were reluctant to transport her at all) and she FREAKED OUT! (who can blame her). I didn't think we'd be able to get her in except (beautiful big sister that she is) when I explained that she needed to be back there to watch over Coben for me since I had to ride in the front. The kind medics gave her a stuffed animal to love on while we rode over. So, we are riding in this big tank of a mountain medic vehicle during a white-out winter storm. The truck is sliding around and having trouble getting started from a stop and we could MAYBE see only about a foot in front of us. It was a scary ride to the hospital which was in the next town over. Meanwhile, I'm trying to see what they are doing to Coben and I can't see a thing except they are crowded around him and doing stuff. I later learned that they couldn't even arouse Coben during a needle stick.
We get to the hospital and get him in a room. The nurses and the Dr. that we worked with were AWESOME. They were really kind to us and took great care of not only the patient but his worried parents (Rob was arriving soon, he had a long drive down from the mountain and no idea where the hospital was). The Dr. explained that they needed to rule out several things. Coben was raspy so they wanted to rule out infant pneumonia. They had to rule out head trauma. I'm embarrassed and totally ashamed to admit that he rolled off the couch the previous day on my watch. Yes, it only takes a second. And the worst case scenario is that they would do a spinal tap to rule out spinal meningitis. They did a CAT scan chest x-rays and both looked good, yay! No head injury or pneumonia. They catheterized him and took a urine sample. They poked just about every place on his little body (including the top of his head) to try and find a vein on his little roly-poly body that they could hit. The poor kid had band-aids and poke-marks everywhere and they STILL couldn't get blood from him. He was attached to monitors and oxygen the entire time. Finally, the Dr. informed us that they did in fact need to do a spinal tap to rule out spinal meningitis. So, five hours later they had ruled out everything and were still unsure of the cause of his strange behavior. They wanted us to get back to Denver ASAP though which we had already decided we were going to do. They took Mr. Butters off of oxygen and realized that he could not be taken off of oxygen without his saturation dipping below an unsafe level so we had to purchase an oxygen tank to get him down the mountain. We finally checked out five hours later and headed down the mountain only to run into a closed I-70 due to an accident. We were SO lucky that we were in the perfect spot to jump onto the frontage road and we avoided it all and got to town in a reasonable time. I cannot imagine being stuck for hours trying to get a baby on oxygen to Children's Hospital.
Anyhow, we got to Chilren's and they took another history. They looked at his CATscan, X-ray, Bloodwork and decided to take him off of oxygen and watch his levels. His levels stayed consistent during the three hours that we were there so we were given the option of leaving him for overnight observation but their recommendation (if we were comfortable) was to send him home and follow-up on Monday. They were unable to provide any answers for what had happend up on the mountain. Even though he was at a higher altitute up on the mountain his symptoms weren't quite consistent with "altitude sickness" He didn't turn blue around the mouth, his heart rate did not elevate and the fact that he was completely limp doesn't fit. I would love for them to say that it was altitude because then I would know that we were safe at home at 5280 feet and have nothing to worry about. How the heck are we ever going to sleep again? Even with him sleeping in our room, even if he's in our bed, turning white and going limp and losing oxygen are not things that cause you to wake up. And even if we wake up every hour, that gives him the potential to have an hour to go without oxygen. I've never been so happy to be home again with my family. I hope Monday finds more answers.

John Denver Fan

Sometimes I get lost when I'm driving. Sometimes it's me and sometimes it's mapquest. Okay, most of the time it's me. Cady's new thing, anytime we are in unfamiliar territory or I'm circling around looking for parking is: "Mommy, are you lost again? Do you need to call daddy for directions?"

And she's good for the mommy brain. Our first snow in a long time was last week. As I was dropping Cady off at school she asked:

Cady: Mom, did you bring my snowsuit?
Me: Yes
Cady: My boots?
Me: Yes
Cady: How about my gloves and hat?

And this was followed the next day by this inquiry as we were all loading up in the car.
Cady: Mom and Dad, Did you get Coben's diapers and wipes?

It appears that the kid realizes just how much help we need in our newborn fog. After all, we did forget diapers for Coben's first pediatrician appointment and had to ask the P.A. if they had a diaper on hand for us to have. And her response was, "It's okay. First time parents?" Aghhh. It was doubly embarrassing to answer that question.

Last night:

Rob was taking care of Coben in the office while Cady was eating dinner. Coben was letting out some good cries.
Cady: Hey Dad? Rooooob! You should try singing to Coben!

Here's something interesting. Cady has a song. Annie's Song by John Denver is Cady's song. The first time I realized this was when she was just over a year old. We were at the grocery store and the song came on. I could barely hear it and hadn't noticed until Cady stopped talking, got a look of wonderment on her face and said, "Mom!! It's my song!" And the other night I was flipping the tv and a John Denver special was on (okay, so what if I did stop and watch for a minute?) and he just happened to be singing Annie's Song. Again, Cady very excitedly started whapping me in the arm and yelling, "Mom, mom! It's my song!!!" I'm not sure what her connection is to that song, but it's clearly HER song!

And finally, she also has a tv show. She has declared that Good Eats (which she calls the Alton Brown show) is HER show. Good girl!

Unprompted

Unprompted and out of the blue Cady goes into the hall closet and gets out the blank stationary. She informs me that she is making a card for Gigi..."to help her feel better."

Shortly into her card-making session she asks me, "Is it Gigi's arm that hurts?" and I told her, "No, it's her hip." Cady responds, "That's a bummer!" lol. She's quiet for a few moments and then asks...

"Is Mimi holding her hand?"

Awwwwwwwwww!

More Snowboarding

I still have NO idea how snowboarding inspires these crazy outfit. This is Cady's latest. She walked out of her room dressed like this and once more announced, "I'm going snowboarding!" If snowboarding inspires outfits like this, I don't think she'll be snowboarding until she is college-aged! lol Another thing...no, she did not get into the St. Patty's Day Stout. She is wearing much too large rubber boots.

I showered while they slept

The kids slept in today. I had to get in the shower so that I would be ready on time to get Cady to school. What to do? Let them sleep? I decided I would take a super-quick shower and hope that nobody woke up. When I got out of the shower, this is what I found:

Adding insult to injury

Coben LOVES baths. He doesn't like "baby" baths. He likes to go into the bath with me and be submerged up to his neck. I suppose it feels a lot like home. So yesterday I brought him into the bath with me. Which naturally made Cady want to take a bath too. So there are thre of us crammed into our little tub and life is joyful until I hear Coben's stomach start to gurgle. I holler to Rob to come get him because he is probably going to poop. As soon as the words are out of my mouth I see a cloud of yellow shoot through the bathtub. Ick! So, I tell Cady to get up and I have Rob grab Coben. So, I'm sitting in poop water when Coben decides to hose me. Since Rob has him pointed right at me, I get a direct shot to the neck! Boys are fun.

Love

I was cooking dinner and Cady had a sheet of paper in the living room and was pretending it was a book. Here is what I overheard.

"C-N-B-E spells Coben. Coben is my brother and he is beautiful. I love him so much. He wears blue a lot and is beautiful. I love him very much."

Sigh.

Interview with Cady

I was tagged in facebook. Everytime I get tagged, I ignore it for a week, do it, then vow not to do anymore. Never happens. I feel guilty when I ignore tags. I'm probably the only person out there that can feel guilty about something as benign as ignoring a facebook tag that nobody will check-up on later anyhow. Here it is:

What Kids Say About MomShareShare
Yesterday at 5:22pm | Edit Note | Delete
The rules: Ask your kid these questions and then post their answers.

Interview with Cady, Sunday, March 8th:

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Thanks

2. What makes mom happy?
Doing a good job!

3. What makes mom sad?
Cinnamon Rolls (sooooo not true)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Do something funny

5. What was your mom like as a child?
She went to the hospital

6. How old is your mom?
Um, 6.

7. How tall is your mom?
Big!

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Trivia! (OMG, How did she even know about this???)

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Goes to work

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
(scowls and puckers up her lips) for Cady.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Bowling (OMG, she is cracking me up!)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Gymnastics (amazingly she is right!)

13. What does your mom do for a job?
She has M&M's to eat (I keep them on my desk for students so she must think this is what I do all day)

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Macaroni (a little projection here I'm afraid)

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
I dunno

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Orange

17. What do you and your mom do together?
We paint

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Doing exercises (yeah, right)

19. How are you and your mom different?
We are white and green

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She kisses and hugs

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Your husband

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
To the Chidren's Museum (more projection, lol)

Day and Night

I'm referring to Cady and Coben. It'll be interesting to see how Coben's personality develops, but as for right now, he is pretty opposite in every way than Cady at this age. For starters he sleeps. All day long. And most of the night. I had to ask the P.A. at our appointment on Wednesday if this was normal. We looked back at the log of Cady's first few days home and she was awake probably 16 hours a day (can't sleep when you are busy yelling at your parents). Coben is awake for probably 2 and that's only because he has to eat. I also remember sleepless nights with Cady. I remember Rob playing X-box in the living room with her all night long and driving around the lake for more than an hour trying to get her to sleep...only to get her home and have her wake up crying the second we turned off the light. Coben on the other hand only woke up once last night to eat and fell right back asleep. Or if he wakes up, he doesn't cry he just plays with his hands and experiments with the sounds coming out of his mouth.

Cady had a loud, intense, persistent, "you must figure out what I need immediately" cry. Coben's cry is more of a suggestion that we should be doing something to meet his needs. Cady just seemed to come out of the womb with this well-developed alertness and a frustration that her body could not meet that level of alertness. She was just ready to grab life by the horns and swing it around. Coben is more of a take things as they come kind of guy. We couldn't be luckier to have both little personalities. One to keep us on our toes and one to keep us sane.

Birth Story...

This is the story of Coben's birth. There is a lot of information here and maybe even too much in some places so read at your own risk. :)

Thursday morning (2/26) I left work early because I was contracting a lot AGAIN. And as soon as I got home the contractiosn stopped AGAIN. I was starting to wonder when I would know it was really time since i was experiencing so many fake-outs. Despite the contractions stopping, I must have known because I spent the rest of the day preparing. I picked Cady up from school and we went and bought some things that I was going to need for the hospital. Plus I painted my toenails and shaved my legs, not an everyday occurance when you are nine months pregnant.

Just before midnight my water broke. I woke up Rob and told him it was time to go to the hospital. We packed our bags and then deliberated about what to do with Cady. This was the scenario that I had feared the most...a middle of the night labor where we would have to wake Cady up and figure out where she should go. I imagine that the whole scenario is a little scary for a two year old WITHOUT being woken in the middle of the night and shuttled off somewhere. At 1 a.m. we dropped Cady off at our friend's house (Cady's best friend, Emma). It was agonizing. Cady lost it when it came time for me to leave. She started sobbing and saying she wanted to go with us and it practically tore my heart out. If not for Gretchen, Jerimy and Rob pushing me out the door we might have had another observer in the delivery room. By then the contractions were really starting to pick up and I couldn't even think straight. It was a relief to get a text message as we arrived at the hospital that said that Cady had calmed down and was doing well, but poor Gretchen and Jerimy, because both toddlers were up until 3 a.m. and then only slept until 6:30 that morning.

So, most of you know that I had had a full day of pretty strong contractions about three weeks back. The OB visit following that day confirmed that my body had made progess and was dilated at 2.75. Well, I had several nights of contractions after that and then Thursday some really intense contractions that sent me home from work. Well, I was really expecting good things until Nurse Cratchett (our first nurse) after ramming her hand up informed me that I was only 3 cm dilated! What???? And by then I was already having the really bad, brings tears to your eyes type of contractions. The only upside I could think about this news is that knowing I had a lot of progress to make before delivery I could only hope that it would mean a shift change from Nurse Cratchett. I mean, this woman was scary. I already described her non-gentle cervical check. She was the same way when inserting the catheter into the back of my hand, she kind of rammed it in and kept twisting it around until my hand was coated in blood and yet it still wasn't in. Additionally she had a poor bedside manner, was really disorganized and just really didn't seem to have a clue. I have many examples of things that happened that really made me fear having her as a nurse, but I'll move on for brevity sake.

So, Nurse Cratchett floods me with fluids (2 bags within a short time) and then informed me that my choices since I was still not progressing much were to 1) Go for another walk 2)Start pitocin and an epidural and 3) Keep waiting. I agreed to the Pitocin and an epidural. OMG, I have never ever ever in my life felt what I felt when he administered the epidural. It is NOT what I experienced last time. He told me I might feel shooting pain through my legs. What I felt was like 10,000 volts of electricity running through my left leg and I started screaming. I couldn't even help it and I am EXTREMELY private when I'm in pain. I'm not a grunter, groaner or yeller I just go inside. That just gives you an idea of how bad it was. I was screaming, "No, no! Stop, My leg! OMG!" It was the most intense thing I have ever felt and I was extremely embarrassed at my reaction which seemed to be coming from another person. It turned out to be the best epidural EVER. I could lay any which direction I wanted (last time I had to be flat on my back) and I could feel the pressure of the contractions without the pain.

After the epidural my blood pressure started crashing and I was nauseous, dizzy and weak. Rob was awesome helping me through this part. At one point I leaned up on my elbows to throw up into a bed pan and the crazy nurse actually had the nerve to tell me that I needed to lay down or I was going to make it worse. Hello, I'm throwing up! Anyhow, they shot me with epinephrine a few times and got it up to 90/40 which is where it stayed. Then shift change, thank god! I got the best nurse ever which just reaffirmed how little confidence I had in the one prior who by the way stopped me from progressing by completely shutting down my contractions by flooding me with all that fluid I mentioned that she gave me before the epidural. Yet, she never caught on that I wasn't having contractions. She would walk in every time and go, "huh, you are not getting any credit for your contractions" because she thought the monitor was positioned wrong. She's reposition it and leave again, come back and go through the whole routine again. HELLO, I'M NOT GETTING CREDIT BECAUSE YOU STOPPED ME FROM CONTRACTING!!! Anyhow, did I mention how much we LOVED our second L and D nurse? She was great and got things going. When she arrived she took charge and started to make things happen again. She upped my pitocin, took off the stupid pulse monitor that the other nurse had forgotten about and was preventing me from sleeping, and cleaned me up since the other nurse thought that it would be a good idea to give me an epidural without a urinary catheter.

Anyhow, neither Rob nor I slept at ALL that night and we hadn't eaten since 6:30 the night before. So by lunchtime the next day I was seriously questioning my ability to push when the time came. But my body took over when it came time at around 12:45. What a neat moment when you are waiting around for something to happen and you finally get that green flag. The words, "It's time to push" have to be some of the most beautiful words in the world. They encouraged us to do some practice pushes which I quickly stopped doing when Rob and I noticed that we were alone in the room because the Dr. and Nurse had run out to take care of something. But then they came back and it was game on. This time I kept the lowest amount of epidural even though I had the button to increase it. Rob watched me struggle with that decision. The contractions were really starting to hurt despite the epidural and I was a button away from not feeling again. I was scared out of my mind to feel, but also wanted to feel at the same time. I opted to be able to feel and I could feel EVERYTHING. I LOVED it!!! I could feel his head and knew how hard I needed to push. When he started to come out it was the coolest feeling ever to feel myself pushing him out, especially when I could tell that his shoulders were trying to come out. It took me only a handful of pushes and about 15 minutes to get him out from start to finish and thank god I got him out quick because he had the cord wrapped around his neck THREE times as well as his legs. It really saved him from being oxygen deprived. My big boy was 9 lbs and 20 1/2 inches and of course it was instant love. He is a quiet baby. His cry is quiet and he doesn't really use it! So far (knock on wood) he's one of those babies I've only heard about that cries when he needs something. You meet the need and voila, he stops crying. He is so mellow. Mostly he just likes to be held close and that satisfies him.

We stayed at the hospital for two nights after we had Coben. Cousin Starin (THANK GOD) stayed with Cady both of those nights which Cady was absolutely thrilled about. They had fun times together and Cady looked absolutely wiped out by the time we arrived home on Sunday.

It's now day 4 and Rob and I keep saying, "Did we just have a baby?" because for the most part it doesn't seem like he is even here. He sleeps the vast majority of the day and only hollers out at us if he needs something. Cady is the best big sister ever. She watches everything that we do with him and she is constantly bringing him things like a blanket or a pacifier. Rob being the best dad ever has really been great with giving her so much attention while I take care of Coben. She still climbs in bed with us sometime during the night but has an amazing ability to continue sleeping when Coben has a period of crying. I keep wondering if it is supposed to be this easy.

Daredevil

I'm due March 6, my other friend is due March 7, and another friend is due March 9. We all have mutual friends so this morning they had a brunch for us.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch Rob decides to take Cady to the park. She climbs up onto the play structure. It's 7' high with a big pole they can slide down.(Penny and Starin, you know the spot!) Normally Cady yells at one of us to catch her. A couple of times she has caught us by surprise but we've been close enough to catch her. Today? Today, Rob is talking to another dad while she is playing. She doesn't tell him that she is going to jump. He's not even anywhere close to where she is at. She just decides that today she is going to make a 7' jump down BY HERSELF. Success! She lands on her feet and no broken bones. She startled herself and Rob said there were a few tears b/c she had and instant group of adults and kids running over to see if she was okay. Rob said all the big kids at the park were surrounding her Oooing and Awwwwing and saying things like "I wouldn't even jump from there" so unfortunately she got lots of positive reactions (great!) I'm soooooo glad I was not there! I might have gone into labor watching something like that!

Cady calls out the crop-duster

The three of us went grocery shopping late this afternoon and ran into a cloud of stench. It seems as though one member of the couple ahead of us was crop-dusting (that's the term for passing gas, continuing to walk and leaving a trail of stench). When we initially walked into it, I made a comment like "Oh wow Rob, tell me that wasn't you!" to which Cady yells and no doubt the couple can hear her, "Ohhhhhh! Somebody farted. Daddy farted! Daddy did you fart?" and she continues to not let it go as the couple disappears from site and proceeds to the next aisle. Okay, that was semi-embarrassing.

Then we hit the next aisle and we have now caught up again to this couple. There's no smell this time, but Cady has positively identified them as Crop-Dusters and immediately YELLS, "Who farted? Somebody farted! P-U! Who fart-ed, who fart-ed?" Who knows if I even needed anything down that aisle because I am literally pushing my cart as if I am competing in a shopping cart derby to get the heck out of their ear shot. Rob's following me laughing and as soon as I round the corner Cady starts laughing because she knows that she has said something really clever and worth repeating. I'm laughing on the inside but horribly embarrassed at the same time.

I do have to admit that when we ran into the crop-dusters for the third time and once again had to endure a green cloud the entire length of that aisle I became far less concerned with Cady calling them out. Who does that????

A tender mother daughter moment

So, I woke up this morning having signs of labor. The contractions have been continuing throughout the day.

Cady actually took a nap today!! As she was sleeping and I was continuing to have contractions I thought, "I'd really love to just climb in bed with her and cuddle. If I have a baby today, there may not be many opportunities for moments like this."

So I go into her room, slide into bed next to her, pull the covers over us both. Cady eyes flutter open, she looks at me, and yells, "GET OUT MOM!"

LMAO...Gotta love toddlers!

Our snowboarding princess

Cady came out dressed like she is in the video and this is her tale of why she is dressed this way. Note, she really has no clue about snowboarding. Rob hasn't been at all this season and if anything she might have heard one conversation about it..as in, "Have you been boarding yet?"

It's very typical of me to take a video going the wrong direction. Not sure how to fix it.

Master Negotiator

Cady just went pee on her potty like she does everyday but today she wanted M&M's. Our system is that she gets one sticker on her chart everytime she goes. If she fills all the boxes on the chart she gets to pick a big candy from her Halloween Candy. She gets M&M's for poops since she is having problems with that.

But today after she peed she came into me and said she wanted M&M's. I told her we don't get M&M's for pees but I'd be happy to help her with the stickers. She said, "Yeah, but on John and Kate she gives M&M's for pees". I told Cady that when she was really little she got M&M's for pees too but now she gets stickers for pees, M&M's for poops and a big candy for getting all of her stickers.

Cady says, "What I get for farts?" [:|]

From the backseat...

The three of us were driving to Wes' Memorial Service and Cady was chatting away in the backseat.

"Mommy, look at my tummy. It's so big. I think I'm going to have a baby. But not yet, the baby has to get bigger. And then I'm going to go to the Dr. and squeeze the baby out and after that I can have a beer!"

Lordy, the conversations they remember. I'm driving and racking my brain trying to connect her thoughts and then it hit me. A few weeks ago we had this conversation.

Cady: "Only daddy drinks beer"
Me: "Sometimes mommmy drinks beer but not when she has a baby in her stomach. She can only drink beer when there is no baby in her stomach."

The things she remembers astounds me!