Thursday, September 24, 2009

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.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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.