Twelve Month Check-up: Caitlin Edition

I finally took Caitlin in for her one-year check-up, only about three weeks after she officially hit that one-year mark. Considering I had to find a new pediatrician in order to take her in at all, and I am TERRIBLE at committing myself to finding a new anything in the professional services area of life, I'm pretty impressed with how on top of this I was. Nothing like a little vaccination schedule driven motivation to put the pressure on me to suck it up and be an adult, I guess.

 Twelve months stats, Caitlin:

Length: 31.25 inches (95th percentile)

(Nine months - 28.5/78th)

(Six months - 26/67th)

(Four months - 24.75/69th)

Weight: 20lbs 15.4oz (42nd percentile)

(Nine months - 19lbs 3oz/54th)

(Six months - 16lbs 6oz/59th)

(Four months - 13lbs 4oz/56th)

Twelve months stats, Brigid:

Length: 30.5 inches (90th percentile)

(Nine months - 27.5/50th)

(Six months - 26.25/75th)

(Four months - 25/80th)

Weight: 22lbs 14oz (70th percentile)

(Nine months - 20lbs 14oz/80th)

(Six months - 17lbs 9oz/85th)

(Four months - 14lbs 10oz/75th)

Steve thinks we need to take Caitlin back in to ask the doctor if the poor kid has a tapeworm because there is absolutely no way that anyone who eats as much as she does on a daily basis should be anything under the 95th percentile in weight. Brigid is just mad at me because I took Caitlin in to get shots without her being there, and 'I promised baby Caitlin I'd sing to her when she got a shot so she wouldn't cry!'

She tried to make it up to her little sister by singing to her when I took the bandaids off of Caitlin's legs that night, but she got a little squeamish when I went to pull them off, and went running into the other room, because 'I just can't watch that, mommy.'

I'm not sure HOW she thought she was going to make it through the shots, honestly...

First Day of School! First Day of School!

One of the best things about finally getting the housing situation settled is that Brigid is, once again, officially enrolled in school. The preschool that we'd chosen, the one where I'd felt so lucky to land the last available spot in the three-day-a-week class for her, the one that I was so afraid we were going to lose when closing fell through, agreed to hold our spot in December while we tried to get everything worked out. It may have taken us a week longer than we'd originally anticipated, but on Monday, we dropped her off in her new classroom for the first time.

There were tears on the drive in, mostly because I think Brigid was nervous about meeting new teachers and classmates, but once the teachers got her settled into a seat, and she realized she had access to an entirely new set of toys, she calmed down quickly. She even found time to sass Steve when he asked if she needed him to show her how to put together some kind of connecting/building toy on the table in front of her...'No, daddy. We had these at my OLD school.'

Duh.

By the time I picked her up at the end of the day, she couldn't wait for Steve's mom to drop her off again on Wednesday morning. 'I can't wait to show Grandma my classroom. She's going to LOVE it!'

And in true 'my children are trying to drive me crazy' fashion, Caitlin took a longer nap than she had at any point the previous weekend, when I needed her to sleep so I could work on unpacking, which meant I had to wake her up when it came time to pick Brigid up from school.

Because of course she did...

Turd.

(She's lucky she sleeps with her butt up in the air like that, because I find it adorable, and it's the only reason I'm keeping her around this week.)

It Finally Happened

After what felt like absolutely forever, but was really only about two and a half months from the time we officially listed our house for sale, we finally, finally, FINALLY closed on the sale last Friday. And even though we'd postponed the purchase of the house we wanted when the previous closing on our house fell through, the seller had extended our contract on the new house, with the provision that if they received another offer before we sold our house, we would be bumped from the primary spot.

Luckily, that didn't happen, and within three hours on Friday afternoon, we'd sold one house, bought another, and finally put all of the uncertainty behind us.

To say I was relieved when we left the lawyer's office on Friday evening might be just a bit of an understatement.

Also, the person who bought our old house? Is now absolutely terrified that he's in for a rough ride on selling his other house, after listening to us relive our horror stories with our realtor while at the closing table. Maybe we shouldn't have been quite so chatty with him in the room?

After learning our lesson with the first cancelled closing, we worked the closing agreement to grant us an additional 48 hours of occupancy after the sale of the house, so after sending Brigid, Caitlin, both dogs, AND both cats to my in-laws' on Friday afternoon, Steve and I spent the last night in the house putting the final touches on the packing process, for Saturday's scheduled move.

Everything, so far (knock on wood), has gone about as smoothly as you can expect in this process. We don't seem to have anything broken, halfway through the unpacking process. We have internet and tv up and running. There were a few things for Steve to fix, but he's been able to tackle those with only a minimal amount of swearing, so that counts as a win. Brigid's IKEA bed went back together, which surprised me a little, because I was expecting it to disintegrate the moment we took it apart. We aren't scheduled to get a fence for another week+, which means we have to take the dogs out on the leash every time they scratch at the door, and our kitchen refrigerator won't be delivered until the 17th, which means we're using the beer fridge in the basement for all of our food cooling needs, but these are minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things.

And then there's Brigid, who has told me multiple times how happy she is that we've moved into this house, has taken my mom on a Facetime tour of the whole place, chattering like a goon the entire time and pointing out such fascinating features as the toilet in the master bathroom, and has told everyone that the house is named 'Golf Ball House' because you can get golf balls there, and you always name a house after what you can get there, 'like, I get waffles at Waffle House, and that's why it's called Waffle House'.

Well, then. It's hard to argue with logic like that, I guess. Golf Ball House it is...

Disney. Again.

Look, I'm sorry. I know Disney was forever ago, and I know I've already posted approximately one and a half million photos of the trip, but I'm sorry. I can't NOT include a few more from our park photographer photo card.

Because, COME ON.

 

 

Brigid wore her Chipmunk hat to get her picture taken with Belle, and Caitlin tried to kiss Minnie's nose. We SO win at vacation photos...

Caitlin's First Birthday

Caitlin turned one year old last Friday.

I don't even know how that happened. How in the world can it be possible that my sweet little peanut of a baby has been with us for a year now? It seems like just yesterday that I was telling Steve to put the hot dog back in the fridge, because even if I was momentarily frozen in pain from a contraction, my need to get to the hospital was a little deeper than his need to grab some dinner on the way out the door.

(Poor guy...he is NEVER going to live that one down, I swear.)

And yet, here we are. From this...

...to this...

...in twelve short months.

My rough-housing, trouble-making, general stinker of a baby is kind of closing in on that non-baby status that I think I'm just going to completely ignore this time around.

She shows no inclination to walk, which is actually a good thing for her, because the way she throws herself around and into things anyway, she doesn't need any added height to her falls. The four bruises on her forehead at this particular moment stand in testament to that, so I am perfectly content to stick with the crawling for right now. Even if that crawling tends to be in the direction of the dogs' food and water bowls the minute she can make a break for it, we'll deal with it. It has to be better than a bleeding baby, you know? We'll make it work.

She throws herself out of my arms if Brigid makes an appearance in the room, trying like crazy to get to her sister, because big sisters are just the greatest thing, ever. Let's just hope she still feels that way when she's old enough to look back at pictures of the respective first birthday parties that we threw the girls, because Brigid's Sesame Street themed birthday party, complete with hats and decorations and a detailed Elmo cake AND awesome Cookie Monster cupcakes on the side completely blew away Caitlin's 'hey, we're making a pineapple upside down cake for Thanksgiving, let's just stick a candle in it and call it a day' themed birthday party.

I mean, not that she minded, because sugar is sugar, but...still. I feel bad about it.

(I SWEAR the birthday dud was not because Caitlin is the 2nd child. Honestly. It's just...we're moving. And we were supposed to be settled by now, but we're not. And I couldn't begin to tell you what box holds Steve's Elmo cake pan. So. Pineapple upside down cake, from a bowl, on the floor. It is what it is...)

Caitlin is just special. Her dimpled smile, her excitement at seeing someone she loves walk into the room, the way she looks back to me or Steve for approval when she sees something that makes her happy or sad or nervous, the way she tries to kiss her distorted image in the front facing of the dishwasher, but refuses to give me kisses when I ask for them...she is a rotten little stinkbug, but she just fills my heart with happiness, every day.

She is such a happy baby, except when she's not. Then she is the ANGRIEST baby I have ever seen. It would be impressive, if that anger weren't directed at me at 2AM, when I've been trying to get her back to sleep for two hours already, and OMG BABY, JUST GO TO SLEEP ALREADY.

This is...new...for us. I mean, I don't want to compare babies or anything, but someone whose name starts with a 'B' and ends with a 'rigid' was the magical sleeping baby, and while Caitlin isn't the worst sleeper out there, nobody would consider her a 'good' sleeper, unless THEY had the worst sleeper out there.

And yet, sometimes, when the house is quiet in the middle of the night, and she's asleep in my arms, there are no words to describe how happy I am. I love this baby with all of my heart.

(Other times, when the house is quiet in the middle of the night, and she is screaming while I try to rock her back to sleep, I am not so happy. But you take the good with the bad. Or some such something like that...)

She is going to be the toddler that pulls the Christmas tree over on top of herself, or breaks my favorite vase, or, if we weren't trying to move to a different house, throws herself off of the 2nd floor catwalk onto the couch below. She will be the one that causes me all of the physical, dare-devil, bull-in-a-china shop kind of problems, with Brigid handling the sassypants attitude, too-smart-for-her-own-good side of things.

I should be worried about what's in store for me with these two. And, hooooooo buddy, I am. But also? I kind of can't wait. There's not a dull moment in store for me anytime in the near future.

Happy birthday, sweet pea. Thank you for being part of my life. I couldn't imagine having things any other way...

Brigid and the Fire Truck

We went to a birthday party a few weeks ago at our neighborhood clubhouse that was a Fireman themed party, complete with a visit from a fire truck. Brigid was so excited when the truck pulled up because it was 'just like what Papa has!'

Apparently, our last trip to Indiana, when we visited my dad at work at the fire station, really stuck with her...

Boo!

Lost in the shuffle of the house debacle we were dealing with at the end of October was Brigid's excitement at getting Boo'd right before Halloween. I was feeling a little down about the whole process, because with the 'For Sale' sign in the front yard, and without our normal Halloween decorations all over the place, we weren't exactly ideal targets for anyone playing along. Personally, I would have avoided our house, too, because houses that are for sale are off limits for the fun, according to my odd way of thinking, so I just assumed Brigid would miss out on all of it. Our next-door-neighbors came through for us a few days before Halloween, however, and Brigid could not have been more excited about finding a random box of goodies on her front porch.

But...since it was so close to Halloween (I mean, seriously, it was something like the DAY BEFORE Halloween when this happened), and because we were in such a state of disarray around the house, I did not pay the Boo'ing forward to the two houses like I was supposed to. I skipped it entirely, in fact. And now I'm approximately 35% convinced that this bad karma is what caused our first closing to fall through at the last minute.

It's probably a good thing my neighborhood doesn't do something similar for Thanksgiving, because I'd hate to screw it all up again...

DISNEY!!! (the even better visual experience...)

I could, maybe, I guess, share something a little better than the crappy iPhone pictures that I was taking all week. Again, all of the thanks to my fantastic brother-in-law Greg for wanting to be that member of the family that everyone always makes fun of because he just won't stop taking pictures...

Did I mention that the first day of the trip was spent at Universal Studios? Where we visited Hogwarts and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? Because it was, and we did, and I could have ended the trip right then and still been happy. I want to live there, forever and ever and ever.

But nooooooo. I had to leave. So we could go to Epcot and Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and whatever. I'm bitter.

Then again, Brigid's face when she saw Cinderella's castle?

Totally made it all kind of worth it, you know?

Ok. Fine. I had fun. Damn you, Disney...

DISNEY!!! (the visual experience...)

Oh, Disney. The pictures.

Brigid's stuffed animals seem to have thrown a party every time we left the room, because they were never in the same place we'd left them when we got back. (Please notice how my dear daughter decided she needed to take EVERY DISNEY THEMED TOY SHE'D EVER RECEIVED with her on this trip...)

Digging for dinosaur bones at the Animal Kingdom is serious business. Serious. Business. Brigid almost had a meltdown when we couldn't find the place she'd seen on the Disney vacation planning DVD. She's just lucky her mother doesn't mind asking for directions.

MAGIC KINGDOM!!

MAGIC KINGDOM DURING A CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

Lunch at Belle's castle was only a Brigid approved activity, after we promised her that the Beast would not show up while we were eating. Also, even though it was 80 degrees and sunny when we went in for lunch, it was apparently nighttime and snowing at the castle. Damn enchanted castles, with their cold weather tendencies...

Hi Caitlin!

Steve beat the high score on the Buzz Lightyear game, and OF COURSE he did not google which targets would earn him the highest number of points if he hit them before he played. (*coughCHEATERcough*)

It took Brigid some time to warm up to the parades at the various parks. She was constantly afraid someone would try to come up to her, so she needed to hide behind something for protection. She was resourceful...

She'd changed her mind by the end of the week, though, and decided she needed to be front row for the action. (Steve tried to get her a Minnie Mouse hat from the gift shop, but Brigid wanted the Dale hat, instead. For someone who is constantly telling me how pink is her favorite color, this was a SHOCKING choice.)

 And a few more various moments from the week...

And...that was Disney. I wonder how long it's going to take us to recover from the week, before we start planning the next trip? I'm setting the over/under at 5 years, I think...