Day 329 - November 25

I am such a sucker!

I went to Kohl's today to make a return and an exchange, and maybe spend some Kohl's cash. While waiting in line, Cate got antsy in the cart, so I let her get down and run around a little. She found the Kohl's Cares for Kids display rack.

And Woodstock.

And then I put Woodstock back.

And then she found another one. And hugged it. And walked around like it was already hers.

And then I bought it for her.

I'm a sucker.

Day 328 - November 24

I don't usually get excited about movies coming to the theater. I'll think, "Oh! I want to see that one!" but I don't go all crazy and stand in line for midnight showings or anything.

But "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" came out last week and it was killing me that I wasn't sure when I'd get to see it. Jason and I wanted to go together, but we still don't have a regular babysitter, so we weren't sure when it would happen.

Then a friend was looking for someone to go and Jason kindly told me it was ok if I went to see it before him.

It was fantastic!

I just need someone to explain to me how $8.25 is a bargain at all.

Day 327 - November 23

Michaela was born 4 years and 4.5 months ago (roughly). I have waited that long for this to finally happen.

To this point, both of my girls have both managed to be the kind of kids who fight off sleep like champions once they get past the age where all babies fall asleep anywhere. I think they even fought it off in circumstances when most babies wouldn't be able to.

But Cate finally took the high chair nap.

She's still in the in between stage of kind of needing a morning nap but kind of not, so most time we try to keep her occupied so she doesn't take one. Today we went for a walk before lunch to get everyone out of the house and burn off some energy. It had been a slow start to the morning for the parents, so we had a couple restless kids on our hands. Plus, Cate was trying to fall asleep waaaay too early and a walk will keep her awake.

When we got home, it was lunch time. Cate enthusiastically dove in to her lunch. Until sleep slowly took over. So she had a little snooze and, when she woke up about 15 minutes later, she immediately scooped up a grape and went right on eating like she'd never stopped.

My only regret is that I didn't get the big camera out to take a picture of this. Because it's literally never happened before and probably won't happen again.

Day 326 - November 22

Somehow, Michaela got to be old enough to go to school and to do school programs while there.

All I've been hearing about for weeks now was her up-coming Thanksgiving program and how hard they've been practicing for it. I got a whole dissertation the other day about why she wanted to be able to say "Bang bang" like the pilgrim men and didn't want to say "Mercy me!" like the pilgrim women. I guess she didn't think it was fair that only the boys got to be the men and the girls had to be the women.

She embraced her part, though, and the little program was adorable (if not just slightly gender and racially insensitive....).

There's my little pilgrim woman in the midst of saying her "Meeerrrrcy meeeeee!" line.

Day 325 - November 21

I looked around tonight after dinner and I wondered if maybe some extra kids snuck into the house at some point and helped make the mess. Because I honestly don't know how two children, one of whom can't even talk yet, can make this kind of a mess.

Day 324 - November 20

It got to be 9-ish tonight and I realized I hadn't taken any pictures today either (like yesterday).

Michaela was already in bed, so Cate was my only choice. Thankfully, she was mesmerized by "The Voice" on my laptop and I could get a quick picture of her without it being all blurry like they usually are when trying to capture the perpetual motion machine!

*sigh* This kid.

Day 323 - November 19

This is a horrible picture - it's a screen shot from a blurry video. But I took no regular pictures for the day so this is what you get.

Cate will dance to any music. Today it was the "CupiG" shuffle, courtesy of the little dancing pig that Mimi gave the girls for Valentine's day last year. She kept getting either Michaela or me to push the button so he'd sing his song again, and then she was dancing in a circle around him.

Crazy kid.

Day 322 - November 18

I'm so proud of Michaela!

When I picked her up from school today, her teacher told me the greatest story!

Apparently, there's a boy in Michaela's class who won't play with anyone at school. He won't do anything when they're in the gym for PE class, he won't play on the playground. The teacher has been working with him for the whole year so far, to no avail.

But somehow, in the gym, Michaela got him to play! I asked her how she did it and she said, "I don't know, I just rolled a ball to him and then we rolled it back and forth!"

Even when she's totally infuriating at home, I can't help but be so darn proud of her for what a great kid she is!

Day 321 - November 17

Because the outfit the other day wasn't enough...

Michaela has decided she wants to wear a bathing suit around the house all day, every day because (as she says), it's too cold to swim so she needs to have an indoor beach party.

Again, there are some battles that aren't worth having. So she wears a bathing suit (it's now Wednesday as I'm writing this and she's worn one every day since Sunday).

Day 320 - November 16

We had a pretty busy day! It started with a 5k and fun run (Jason did the 5k, I did the fun run). And it ended with a fall festival full of bounce houses and a hay ride.

The 5k and fun run were the important part of the day, though. It was the Miles for Midwives run, which is put on by the Alabama Birth Coalition. In Alabama, it's illegal for a midwife to attend a home birth and that's just ridiculous. Home birth certainly isn't for everyone, but everyone should have the choice to have one if they want, and to be able to do it safely and with the help of a trained midwife. This run (which I went to last year, too) helps to raise both money and awareness to help get midwife-assisted home births legalized.

This year's shirt is wicked awesome, too.

Day 319 - November 15

*sigh*

No one can say she's not her own person.

I'll just break this down for you...

Pajama top.

Zebra and flower skirt.

Babylegs on her legs (blue with brown polkadots) and arms (pink with fairies on them).

Fairy wings on her back.

Fancy black shoes with rhinestones on them.

Flower headband.

And I think there were shorts under the skirt, even though the skirt has it's own built in bike shorts.

This is what I saw first thing this morning, after laying out her actual school clothes last night and telling her to put them on when she got up so we could save some time.

Following directions is apparently not a strong suit.

Day 318 - November 14

First of all, Happy Birthday, Dad!!!

More importantly, though, Jason surprised me with this beautiful thing when he walked in the door after playing golf on the other side of the bay today.

Yes, that IS a Dunkin cup. The one in Fairhope is now open and the countdown is on for the one if Mobile to open, too!

Day 317 - November 13

Cate very nicely helped me unload the groceries this morning.

She pulled all of the bottles of essence water out of the bag they were in and nicely arranged them on the kitchen floor. Then she moved them to another spot on the floor. Then she started to walk away from them so I had to take them away, which resulted in a tantrum.

But for about 10 minutes, they kept her very entertained. And me, too!

Day 316 - November 12

I don't recommend what I'm about to talk about.

Michaela went to the dentist today. It was her first trip. And she's 4. That's the part I don't recommend.

Thankfully, she handled it just great and my delay in getting her there didn't impact her dental health at all.

Day 315 - November 11

Chili's restaurant very nicely offered free meals to active duty and veterans for Veteran's Day. So we took advantage of that and headed out for some dinner.

Michaela caught me in a moment of weakness and I let her order chocolate milk for the first time ever.

She said, "It tastes like candy chocolate!!!!!" and smiled the world's biggest smile after her first sip.

I squashed her spirit immediately and let her know not to expect it again any time soon. Ha!

Day 314 - November 10

Cate is a creature of habit. She goes to sleep at night at about 8 or 8:30. Generally, she nurses before she goes to sleep and theoretically shouldn't need to nurse again for quite a while.

But she wakes up from her first sleep cycle around 10:30 or 11 and the only thing that will get her to conk out again is to nurse again.

I can't say I mind too much... it gives me the chance to snuggle for just a few more minutes before I head to bed, too. I would say "until the morning" or something silly like that, but I'll see her again in a few hours.

It's a good thing she's so good at cuddling and being cute. Otherwise it might bother me that I'm on over 16 months of not getting a full night of sleep.

Day 313 - November 9

Michaela spent some time in my office after dinner tonight, making a "special surprise" for me. She panicked when I went anywhere near the office door and was very excited when she was finally finished with her picture.

At first, she just gave me the picture. But then she told me it had a story, so she pulled her chair up next to mine at the table and proceeded to tell me the story of Princess Josephina and the bunny and chick who went for a walk to the castle.

It was probably the sweetest moment of my day.

Day 312 - November 8

This is what happens when you leave a toddler alone for a few minutes while you help a pre-schooler figure out what she's going to wear to school.

You come back to your room to find all of the bottles of various hair and soap products from under your bathroom sink nicely arranged on the floor of your bedroom. (Plus, you might find a deodorant and something else on the floor in the living room.)

Then, the preschooler decides to play with the stuff while the toddler is still at it. And then the toddler pretends that a bottle of baby soap is hairspray (she's seen me spray my hair twice, ever, I think), while circling her handiwork.

Never a dull moment in this house.

Day 311 - November 7

Jason made it home in time for us to have a family walk before dinner (can't go after anymore because it gets dark so darn early). It was a bit brisk out, and it took everything we could do to get Michaela to understand she had to wear a sweatshirt. 

She was sad because "fairies never wear black. Ever." So she started out the walk with slumped shoulders and a pout. But after a few minutes, she decided she was no longer a fairy. 

I can't remember what she told us she was, but eventually it ended with her telling us she was going to stop us with her evil powers. And this:

Day 310 - November 6

Wanna know what happens when your youngest, sweetest, loveliest toddler child decides she wants to be the crankiest, whiniest, clingiest toddler child in the world on the day you were planning to do your weekly grocery shopping?

And your husband isn't home for dinner because he has a meeting?

You eat $5 Little Caesar's pizza on the living room floor while watching "The Little Mermaid." For the second time in a week.

Enjoy, kids!

Day 309 - November 5

So let me tell you about my crazy ways.

Ok, I don't think they're crazy, but I know some people do. When we were in Kodiak, I was exposed to a more natural way of doing a lot of things and I've continued to go in that direction since we've been here in Mobile, too. (It was easier to do in Kodiak - not a whole lot of naturally-minded people down here!) I'm still pretty conventional to my "crunchy" friends, but I can be pretty "crunchy" to my more conventional friends.

One of the things that's been fairly easy for me to look into is non-pharmaceutical methods of fixing ailments (sorry, pharmacist family members!!). This was easy for me because I've never liked taking medicine anyway. But I also don't like hurting, so I've had to find some different options. Also, as a nursing mom, you have to look for different options because sometimes the medicines you might take can either diminish your milk supply, or they can be bad for the kid who gets the milk. So you learn to look for other things.

I have pretty significant sacroiliac joint pain. It got really bad when I was pregnant with Cate and it flares up pretty often. I did a two-week course of naproxen a while back (it was bad enough for me to go to the doctor AND take medicine), but it flares up all the time and I don't want to keep taking that.

Enter "golden milk." I'm going to be honest, it looks weird, tastes a little funky, and is generally one of the stranger things I've tried, but I'm hoping it'll work. Basically it's a paste made out of turmeric and water, which is cooked down and then mixed with milk, some kind of sweetener, and an oil to help coat the joints. Turmeric is a natural and powerful anti-inflammatory (among other benefits), so theoretically, it should work. Time will tell.

Day 308 - November 4

This kid's hair just cracks me up.

It's so fine that it just goes all over the place all the time, but it gets really stuck in funny places when she sleeps.

I call this "the Albert Einstein."

Day 307 - November 3

We seem to have a new Sunday night tradition - at least on the Sundays when I don't really feel like cooking whatever I've put on the menu plan that week.

Or on the Sundays when I don't even pretend to put anything other than pizza on the menu.

So we order delivery pizza from the place down the street (Marco's for my local friends), we set up a picnic on the living room floor, and we watch "The Little Mermaid" while we eat our dinner.

Michaela loves it. She is utterly mesmerized by this movie. So much so that she had no idea I even took this picture.

Day 306 - November 2

I'm seriously slacking in the getting-my-kid-to-the-playground department these days.

I think that, when we first moved here, I was so desperate to not suck at being a stay-at-home mom that I did everything I could to keep us busy. So Michaela and I spent a lot of time at the playground, we did story time, we spent a lot of money at Target, and whatever else I could come up with.

With kid #2, I'm a little more comfortable in my SAHM status and I don't feel like I'm going stir-crazy if I don't make it out of the house on any given day.

So Cate doesn't see Target that often since I figured out we don't have all that money to spend there anymore, I haven't even considered story time, and she really hasn't spent much time at the playground.

Thus, at 15.5 months old, Cate finally went down a slide by herself today.

Day 305 - November 1

Michaela has taken to giving Jason some kind of toy or trinket every morning before he goes to work. I'm not entirely sure what the reason is for that (I'm usually either still asleep or in the shower when he leaves), but every afternoon when he comes home, he gives whatever it is back to her.

He's taken Chip the teacup from her Beauty and the Beast tea set, a Madagascar airplane they put together as a part of the Lowe's (or Home Depot) kid's workshops, Mardi Gras beads, and various other items.

Today, she gave him stickers. And she put them on him herself.

I'm SO glad I was awake and out of the shower when he was leaving!!