Our House is a Fortress

One lovely weekend Jason had a boyscout campout/hike. Normally if Jason is gone for a campout I will stay at my parents, but I ended up staying at our house this time. Since I was home alone with Kate I decided to lock our garage door. As I lock it I think “I better remember to unlock this first thing in the morning or I’ll definitely lock myself out.”

Next Morning: I realize there isn’t enough milk for Kate. I debate going to get it later in the day but Kate was just getting over being sick and she really likes her milk in the morning. I’m in pajamas/clothes, you know the pajamas you can get away with wearing to the store. I put Kate in her carseat and realize I don’t have my phone. Run back to the door and… I’m LOCKED OUT! I knew this would happen. I haven’t switched all my keys over to my new key chain/new car keys. It is 8:30AM I’m stuck outside and Kate is still in her PJs. Luckily I had my car keys and purse so I drove over to my parent’s house.

Growing up we used to get locked out of my parents house all the time and we could always break in. They’ve changed this since then but knew we would be able to find a way in our home. My Dad comes first and tries every credit card possible to get in through the garage. Doesn’t work so my Mom comes next. We try all the tools in our garage, the door won’t budge. Our next step is to scout out the rest of the house. Every window and door is locked. We have a tall ladder so we try the upstairs windows, locked. We even asked some carpenters who live near us for help and they can’t break in.

Really it shouldn’t be a big deal that I’m locked out. But Jason is doing a 12 mile hike with the boyscouts and won’t be home until late that day and it was Saturday! I had so many plans of all the things I was going to accomplish. I was forced to go to TJ Max to buy Kate some clothes and socks for her to play in that day and then borrow some clothes from my Mom/sister to wear. I got absolutely nothing done that done.

When Jason came home he laughed and laughed at how we couldn’t get the door opened. He then went on and on about how easy it was. I made him try and even HE couldn’t get in!

I hate when I do the exact thing I tell myself over and over not to do.

Kate's very own Pony

My parents were babysitting their friends, the Lyon's, Dog. This isn't your typical dog. First she looks like a show dog and is more the size of a pony than a dog. Jason and I were able to babysit her before and Jason loved playing with her and we even let her sleep in the bed with us. When I heard she was at my parents I took Kate straight over. Kate really is obsessed with dogs. I didn't know if she would be scared of Isabel because of her size but Kate loved Isabel and Isabel was really good with her. Isabel became her little friend and was protective of her and would bark whenever we picked up her Kate. Can you imagine being Kate's size and seeing an animal in your home that was this big?

Field Trip and Dirt

We had a brief period of amazing weather which allowed Katherine and me to spend tons of time outside. I had not previously realized how dirty a 13 month could get outside, even if it was only for a few minutes. Another messy moment we've been having involves eating. I usually give Kate finger foods while I'm cooking dinner. Sometimes dinner takes longer so I thought I would let her try out a spoon all by herself to take up some extra time. She was such a mess but did really good for never feeding herself with a spoon before. I let her try it another day and she did even better and barely got any on her face which was quite a difference from the first time. I need to make this a regular habit but it is much easier for me to feed her messy food. It really didn't take long to clean her up so I need to accept there will be a mess and just let her have fun!

A big pile of dirt waiting to be played with and thrown around

First attempt at using a spoon

I thought of the perfect place to take Kate and waited all week until Friday night. Jason and I took her on a field trip to the baby zoo (aka Pet Store). She loved it and was able to see dogs, her favorite/obsession, birds, fish, mice, bunnies... I love how the simplest things make for the best times. I also found my second dream dog. My first was a Havanese until I found out how much they cost. My new dream dog is a Teddybear! It's a mixture of a Shih Tzu & Bichon Frise. I had a bichon growing up and they are known for being for smart and lovable dogs but they get incredibly dirty and it's near impossible to keep the hair around their mouth from staining. Jason was determined to get a dog and I promised him he could get one after we had a baby. Very tricky of me since I knew once we had a newborn he wouldn't want a dog right away :) Now Jason doesn't want a dog but I still think we should get one when our "kids" are older so they can have a pet, which gives me a a couple of years to convince him. If you ever see Jason make sure you tell him how wonderful dogs are and how every kid needs a dog as a pet!

Katherine has also become a very good helper. I usually fold laundry in our upstairs hallway. She loves to take clothes out of the hamper and put them in the dryer for me or to take clothes that are neatly folded and put them in the hamper for me :) She also likes to do other chores around the home...

Helping Jason with the garden

Emptying the dishwasher

Eyeing tupperware that needs to go into the dishwasher

Got It!

My sister was also in town for her birthday this past week which is always fun and means I spend pretty much all day at my parents. Our home was sorely neglected during this time but I had fun hanging out with my family. Jennifer got Kate the cutest bathing suit/outfit that I can't wait for her to wear this summer. I wish warm weather would come and stay!

This is an old picture but I love it. It's completely out of character for Kate so she must have been exhausted to fall asleep like this!

The Worst Hour of My Life

Background:
Katherine had a small fever starting Tuesday. Besides a fever she was acting her normal self except more clingy than usual. A problem with her having a fever was no sleep for me. I would set my alarm for when her medicine would wear off, check her fever, give her medicine, wait 30 minutes, check to make sure the fever was going down, repeat all night with a few extra times of checking on her…

Wednesday night Jason and I went to check on her around 11PM. She was burning and her fever was 103.3! That’s the highest it’s ever been. Luckily her doctor has a 24hr nurse service. The nurse said they didn’t worry about numbers so much as they did behavior. Kate wasn’t lethargic, didn’t have any cold symptoms, and was still her active self. She’s so sweet that even though she had a 103 temperature and was just woken up by us she was laughing and babbling away. I mean really could she be any sweeter and cuter?!

Thursday afternoon she still had a fever so I took her into the doctors. Their concern was that this was the 3rd day of having a fever and she didn’t have any “sick” symptoms.

Worst Hour of my Life:
I wake poor Kate from her nap to take her to the doctors. Kate’s amazing doctor was out that day so we had to see someone else. The doctor does the usual check up stuff then I have to hold her down while she extensively checks her ears. The dr. checks and checks her ears while Kate’s crying. She told me they had to be positive it wasn’t an ear infection b/c when a baby has a high fever for so long with no other symptoms it can be a UTI. These are bad in babies since they can easily turn into a kidney infection. The doctor then tells me they’re going to have to give her a catheter. This is where I start to lose it.

I then proceed to hold Kate down while two nurses administer the catheter and Kate cries and I bite my lip while tears roll down my face. Well, Kate had just had a diaper so they couldn’t get anything. It was all for nothing! They then decide to prick her toe to check if her white blood cells were elevated (that would mean an infection). While I’m waiting for the nurse Kate takes her baby, hugs her and lays her head on me. Again, I’m about to lose it. When the nurse comes in, Kate looks at her and starts crying. They prick her toe but her blood isn’t flowing freely so it takes forever. Her blood work is fine and I’m sent home being told to bring her back in the morning if she still has a fever. I get in the car, try to call and update Jason, but break down and can barely talk to him over my crying. What makes it even sadder was as soon as we get in the car Kate’s laughing and being extremely sweet even after everything she’s been through.

Update:
Kate’s fever miraculously went down and stayed down! No more doctor! Here is where I’m conflicted. This was our first time taking Kate to the doctor for being sick. (Sort of; the first time I thought she had an outer ear infection but it turned out to be a mosquito bite :) ) I don’t know how it’s normally handled. On one hand I’m glad the doctor was so thorough on the other this wasn’t her fantastic doctor so I don’t know if it was handled well. Everyone was nice and understanding but was it really necessary to put Katherine through all that? It was awful and by far the worst hour of my entire life :(

Farewell Old Friend

It should have been a sad day but I was ready to move on so it was a fabulous day. I have had the same green Integra since I was 16 years old. I have only had one car my entire life! However, Jason was kind enough to switch cars for a few months while I was nannying and then for permanent after Kate was born, because it is a serious pain trying to get babies/kids in and out of a two door car. I may have been driving Jason’s car but it was still his car and I still called the Integra my car.

A month ago the Integra wouldn’t start when Jason was driving home from work. I did feel bad for him but all I could think was FINALLY! We’re the kind of people who aren’t going to buy a new car when you have a perfectly running car. That would be too wasteful for us. So, I had been hoping and wishing for months, no years, that my car would die and I could buy a new one. It turns out Acura makes amazing cars. In the 10 years I had it, we replaced the battery, radiator, and spark plugs. That’s it; the car would not die.

The following weekend we dropped Kate off at my parents and spent a rainy Saturday car shopping. I already knew my dream car so we just had to find one, which turned out to be a chore in itself. There weren’t too many around us because we wanted a 2008. Another thing we will never do is buy a brand new car. We ended up finding my dream car, it was even better than I imagined! Jason liked it too because he will only buy American stuff now and the car I wanted was American. Jason haggled with them for a couple of weeks but they wouldn’t go down quite enough. It was really disappointing, but I didn’t want to spend too much so it was understandable. We continued looking for my dream car and found a few but none as good as the original one. Two weeks ago Jason contacted them again and they agreed to our original price! He took the Integra and they actually bought it from us. Seriously, I didn’t think we’d get anything for it and was planning on trying to sell it on Craigslist. I’m so glad they bought it because that meant we didn’t have to clean it or fix it up… All that annoying stuff.

I love my new car and all it’s fancy features! Jason’s just as happy as me since he now gets his car back and doesn’t have to drive the go-cart, as he called it. I did feel I needed to say a proper goodbye to my Integra. We had a lot of good times together…