Teeth

You know what makes my skin crawl? Plastic covered baby spoon scraping on newly cut baby teeth. Brrrrrr! I'm shivering just thinking about it! Cate now has two brand new teeth, and the whole process of growing human teeth totally creeps me out. She is quite excited though - she feels them with her tongue, pushing her tongue into her lower lip like she has a big wad of tobacco in there or something. Nice visual, I know.

More Words

Today we spent the afternoon at Granny and Papa's house. It was the second rainy day in a row. I simply could not be in this house anymore. So off we went for lunch, playing, and swimming. Fun!

Leaving Granny's house Maggie said, "Mom, that was a fun time at Granny's house today. We got to play, and swim. I thought I was at home! It was like I was dreaming! And then I remembered, Oh! I'm a Granny's house!"

Thought you'd like that one Granny. Now all you have to do is add a hot tub and it will be like I'm dreaming.

M and C jumps-a-lot

That Baby Sister is getting more and more fun each day. They are finally able to find a way to play together! I think my favorite part of this clip - aside from the spontaneous hug - is Maggie saying, "Wait! I've got to put some lipstick on!" A girl has to be camera ready! Listen for it right after the hug.

Save Me From Bedtime!

Seriously, someone, anyone please help! Save me from bedtime! How can this sentiment be felt by both mother and daughter at the same time? I don't know, but I often find myself bargaining, soothing, punishing, and explaining away my evenings as I attempt to wrangle a rapid bear into a twin-sized bed. And the whole time, I stand there and think, "Someone please save me, this sucks worse than laundry!"

Apparently the rapid bear feels the same way, which is probably why she spends all of her time negotiating, whining, begging, and literally bouncing off the walls. Tonight she was getting really desperate though. She had been warned that if she called out for "Mommy!" once Mommy had said nigh-nigh and left the room, Daddy would be the one to come and help (although this threat holds no disciplinary value, it is still undesirable enough to keep the bear's post-bedtime requests to a minimum). So I left the room and stood outside the door for a couple minutes just to be sure she didn't try to sneak downstairs (all of a sudden she's rather brave, damn it). She starts "fake" crying and whining, murmuring "Mommy" and making an incomprehensible request, then exclaims, "I JUST NEED SOMEONE! MOMMY, DADDY, CATIE, MY DOGGIES... SOMEONE PLEASE!"

I laughed... which sucks because it means my cover is blown... and go in to see if Peyton the dog might need some assistance in helping with whateverthehell it was she wanted. Apparently the blanket had fallen off her left-big-toe. I really hate bedtime. Good Night.

Cate 2.0

You'll live for weeks with a growing baby and think you know her so well, then all of a sudden there is one day that you take a second look and realize your baby has changed. She's baby 2.0. Yesterday was one of those days for Cate.

She's been loving mom lately, she'll get all bouncy when she sees me come into the room, but yesterday took mommy-worship to a whole other level. She literally tried to climb up my leg after I set her on the floor so I could hold Maggie. I picked her up to hold them both and she swung out her arm and Heisman'ed Maggie - hand straight in her face. You could practically hear her growl "Get off my Mama!" The whole rest of the day if I didn't want to hold her I needed to be completely out of her line of sight or she would start to complain and reach for me. You'd think I'd be flattered, nope! Just annoyed. I love that she loves me, but this new clingy-nees is not going to make our lives any easier.

Later that day we were sitting down to dinner with all of our Iowa peeps at Cheesecake Factory. The server brought a plate of sliced banana and crusty bread to entertain her. I was watching her closely, we haven't progressed by dissolving Gerber-stars yet. Imagine my surprise when she started shoveling it all into her big trap. You should have seen her tear into those bananas... and the bread... and the wedges of tomato from my salad... I guess she's ready to try something more interesting than banana-flavored packing peanuts.

Gallery Talk

"Maggie, do you want me to hang up your painting so it will dry?"
"Yeah, I need a hooker!"

Angry Bird

This is not a story about an app... just so ya know.

Cate loves her some baby mush. So much so that if she sees the baby mush she immediately starts grunting and growling and making all sorts of aggressive sounding noises. Then she starts screeching. You might think this ruckus would cease once she's actually ingesting the baby mush, but nope... after every bite she growls for more. I can't shovel it in her mouth any faster. So I'm thinking of fashioning a beer-bong type of device to suspend above her high chair. A banana-mush bong, or, ooh... this is better... a Baby Bong! Anyone want one? Anyone wanna invest? I'd guess the return on your investment will be, hmmm... zilch.

Moisturizer

Maggie calls me into her room for one last kiss and hug night-night. I had just finished putting moisturizer on my face and hands. She hugs me, then smells me, and says, "Peeee-uuuu! You smell like dog footprints!" Funny, the jar said hibiscus and coconut, and I highly doubt that the dogs footprints smell like that.

Pick

I'm staring at the back of Maggie's head and notice that she is either sucking on her finger or picking her nose, both of which are habits we're working on breaking.
"Maggie, is your finger in your mouth or in your nose?"
"Oh Mom, I'm just trying to get that booger out of my nose," and she rolls her eyes slightly.
"Oh. Well would you like a tissue?"
"Yes, that would be better. So I can get that booger out of there." Very logical.
I grab her a tissue and hold it while instructing, "OK, blow!" She gives it a good strong blow, but...
"Errrgghh... it's still in there!"
I leave the tissue on her lap, just in case she wants to try again, and not 15 seconds later she thrusts her index finger three inches in front of my face triumphantly and says, "I got it!"
To which I reply, "Argh! Gross!!!"
To which she replies, "Yeah, gross!"

She knows it's gross, that's a start.

Dog Food Dispenser

Catie is developing a very refined palate. Not only does she enjoy a good gooey jar of banana puree, but she is also a connoisseur of the finer magazines Borders has to offer.

She's really been branching out the past few days, and has been successfully gumming banana-flavored puffs to death and swallowing them. She's taken the first step toward independent eating and has only managed to choke herself twice!

She can she add "foodie" to her facebook profile* now, and also "dog food dispenser". She has two very loyal furballs encamped beneath her high chair at all meal times. It must seem like a waterfall of treats to them...aka, dog heaven.

*no, she does not actually have a facebook profile

Goose

I asked Maggie to tell her dad about her fall this morning. Here's the transcript....

"Dad, I fell. Yeah. I had my applesauce and my hard-boiled egg and I fell. I was standing on my chair, and mom and me were looking at those hooters..."
"GEESE! You mean geese honey!"
"Yeah, geese. And my chair fell and I fell and hurt myself here (points to knees)."