Genius comment of the day

Scott to me, feeding Kaitlin at 4:18am Monday morning: "Why did you wake her up to eat so early?"

I know it's early, but let's think before we speak sir.

Too smart for her own good

Why, dear Lord, have you blessed Scott and I with both a dog and now a child that is too smart for his or her own good? We used to say that Chunkie got himself into trouble because he was too smart. For instance, he learned how to open doors so he could let himself into rooms looking for us when it stormed, and when he couldn't find us he would just start chewing on whatever he came across - door frames, garage door wires, ficus trees. You know, the usual suspects. So he was smart enough to look for us because he was scared, but not smart enough to learn that he was going to get in trouble for that when he got home. Similarly, Kaitlin has taken on some of those same attributes with her "Battle of the Bottle." I thought that after a week in daycare she would learn that in order to eat, she would have to start using the bottle. "Not so fast Momma!" she says. Instead, she's taken to stocking up in the morning and at night and continuing her standoff at daycare. Poor Miss Marvetta tries four, five, six times a day to feed her and she will have none of it! She won't even try to suck on it. Miss Marvetta has been resourceful though and squirts it in her mouth and lets her eat slowly like that, but she'll only take about 2 ounces and then she lets Marvetta know she's done by spitting it out. This plan of attack was working well for Kaitlin up until this morning. This morning was when, after gorging herself upon wakeup, she promptly vomited up all that she had worked so hard to eat in the early morning hours. I'm talking about 4 ounces here people that came spewing out of my dear, sweet child while I burped her. And then when I thouht she was done I put her on the changing table to clean her up, and here comes what must have been at least another 4 ounces! She had vomit EVERYWHERE! But again, no crying, just a look of shock on her face like "Man, how did I get so wet?!?" So she got an early morning bath, a new outfit and was ready to fight another day full of evil bottles that awaited her in Infant Classroom #1!!

Last week at home :-(

Well, this week has been bittersweet for me. I'm trying to enjoy every last moment with Kaitlin before I have to go back to work full time next Monday. It really is unfair how maternity leave works - just as she's getting more and more fun and full of personality I have to go and leave her! She smiles all the time now and even has a small giggle that is sure to become full blown laughter any day now. We have a game we play when we get up in the morning called "Who's that girl in the window?" It doesn't involve a window at all though, rather the mirror and it's us looking in and me singing "Who's that girl, who's that girl, who's that giiirrrlll in the window?" while bouncing up and down. She starts off just staring at me, and then a slow smile creeps across her face and she'll bury her head in my shoulder like she's shy, but then turn back and look and smile some more. These past few days she's capped it off with the giggle I mentioned. Such a sweet girl.

I took her to daycare twice this week for a couple of hours to get a handle on it before she has to go for a full day on Monday. It was tough, but I'm glad we went. Her teachers are really nice and were totally understanding when I was bawling my eyes out on the first day. She still doesn't take the bottle well, but the second day they actually got 2 oz in her so that's a start. Hopefully after a full week there she'll be a pro. Other than that we've just been enjoying this beautiful weather with lots of walks and time outside. She's able to ride in the Baby Bjorn facing forward now since she has pretty good control over her neck, so she enjoys getting to see the world head on, and Bud enjoys being able to come with us for walks again. He's not allowed when I take her in the stroller because he doesn't quite get the concept of not constantly cutting in front of us and his heels have taken a beating because of that. But now every time I strap on the Bjorn he comes running up to me with his expectant tail wag and won't take no for an answer. I will sure miss my family these next few weeks, but I just have to remember it's for a short while and January will be here before I know it!