This Old House

Catherine told me this weekend that she wants to move to a "new house". We moved into our house three years ago after completely ripping it down and rebuilding. This is our "new house"! I asked her what she didn't like about our house and she said "the garbage disposal is too loud and I can't hear my cartoons".

Well, pack your things, kids! We wouldn't want you to miss a minute of Caillou whining.

Springing Ahead

So the kids never got the concept of an “extra hour of sleep” in the fall. They did catch right on to “lose an hour of sleep” this weekend. In fact, I think they were confused about the just one hour part of it. When we turned the clocks back in the fall it was such a long day. When you move it forward it’s like you’re in a race to keep up. The kids went to bed pretty late the night before (9pm) because we were having dinner at a friend’s house. I said to Bill as we were going to bed “maybe they’ll sleep late!” Oh you fool. You never learn, do you? Catherine was standing by our bed at 7:15am (which was actually 6:15am to us)

I jumped out of bed and rushed to keep up with the clock. I got the pancakes on the table by 8am. The whole family was dressed by 9:30am and ready to head out for a visit. Naptimes were 12pm sharp. Things were looking good!

We served dinner a little later than normal because I think we got overconfident. Maddie rewarded our schedule keeping by crying for a solid hour before falling asleep. You can’t put one over on her.

Random - part 1

I can’t stand how most toys need a screwdriver to get the battery compartment open. The worst part is that it doesn’t even say what type of battery it needs on the outside.

The ladies room at the Stop & Shop in Hudson is surprisingly beautiful. Catherine insists on visiting every public restroom. Did you know that the Lowell Five in Dracut has a bathroom? Well, it does.

Where do babies learn how to pinch someone?

Catherine is obsessed with infomercials. I had given her an empty spray bottle in the bathtub to play with. I overheard her saying “with this yellow bottle, CLR it!!”

So I'm a little competitive....

I had a very stressful thing happen last weekend. We wanted to take Catherine to her first sporting event and we decided on the Lowell Devil’s hockey game since they are really kid-oriented. I checked the “promotions schedule” and found a game that included a “Mr. Potato Head giveaway” to the first 2500 attendees. GAME ON!! I quickly booked our tickets. I was going to get the Potato man. There was no stopping me.

I mentioned the game several times during the week to Catherine and told her all about the Mr. Potato head she would receive. She was very excited about this. It was her first Mr. Potato head –ever!! The game began at 7pm on Saturday. I could not decide what time we should arrive. 5:45? No, that was a little early. She’s only 4 years old and would lose interest in being there by the start of the game. 6pm? Yes, surely there wouldn’t be that many people there that early. By noontime I started to get nervous. I got her so excited about the new toy she’d receive…what if we didn’t get one??!! That would be a complete disaster. She’d see other kids in the stands playing with their potatoes, laughing while changing his face and arms, and there she’d sit….potato-less. We pulled into the parking lot right at 6pm. There was a HUGE line of cars waiting to park. They weren’t moving. There were streams of people going in the building already….all with small children! What to do???!! I hopped out of the passenger seat and unbuckled Catherine and said “come on, we have to hurry!!!!!!!!” Bill took the car to be parked. We got in and went to the box office to retrieve our tickets. Got them – now we can get our precious potato man! But wait, how will Bill get in? I had all three tickets and no cell phone on me. People continued to stream in through the doors and I could see them handing out the Mr. Potatoes. I grabbed Catherine’s hand and pulled her back out side and we ran down the sidewalk to our minivan that was still in a huge line of cars waiting to park. I threw Bill his ticket and we took off back to the arena.

We got in line…the panic set in. Please please please….. We got it!!! He was the perfect potato man. He had a hockey stick arm and one face with a broken tooth and one with a black eye. I was shocked when Bill arrived at his seat with his very own potato! Apparently they really did give them out to the first 2500 (I assumed it was only kids). We had a great time at the game. Catherine asked a lot of questions about hockey and I think she really liked it. And do you know that she has not played with that damn potato ONCE??!!

The tooth fairy visits Gilmore Street

Catherine lost her first tooth this week and she was very excited to have a visit from the tooth fairy. Bill and I had to decide the going rate for these visits. He suggested $5 but I reminded him that she has six loose teeth. We are in a poor economy, people! Even the tooth fairy has to cut back. We agreed that she would get $2 for each tooth. For some reason Catherine thought that she would be receiving stickers and a coloring book from the tooth fairy. I have no idea where this idea came from and I certainly did not have a stock of these things hanging around the house. I explained that the tooth fairy was far too small to carry around coloring books so that is why she left money.

And so began the millions of questions… How big is the tooth fairy? How does she know I lost a tooth? Does she make a list? Will she look in my mouth? What does she wear? I truly have no idea! I was very prepared for questions about Santa. I had an answer for every possible question. I never even thought to prepare myself on the tooth fairy. I tried my best to explain all about the tooth fairy but with every sentence it just seemed more and more ridiculous. “The tooth fairy is very tiny…like Tinkerbelle. She flies into your room at night and takes the tooth from under your pillow and replaces it with money.” Sounds kind of scary if you ask me. Bill & I went into her room to get the tooth and leave the loot. She opened her eyes just as I started to put my hand under her pillow!! Bill made a mad dash out the door and I put my head under her bed. I had to lay there for quite a while until I was sure that she was back asleep. She was very excited the next morning to find the $2 under her pillow. She has another tooth that is ready go to any day now. I still have a few days to decide what the tooth fairy wears.

I slept like a baby...a newborn baby

Let me sum up the past 4 1/2 years for you. I haven't slept. Okay, so there have been a few times that I got a full nights sleep. Not very many. I think new parents are prepared for the fact that there will be sleepless nights ahead of them. I don't think I was prepared for how long this would last. Maddie is going through the "let's see what Mommy is doing at 2am...and 4am...and I'll just wake up for the day at 6am. I'll take a nap!" phase. When I do go in there to check on her she laughs at me. Its a conspiracy, I tell ya! The other night I was awakened by Catherine at midnight. "Mommy, you want to play a game with me?". Ya sure, kid, let me go get candyland. Last night she woke up in the middle of the night to tell me that she did not want to use the little spoon when she had pudding. Good to know. Now can I go back to sleep???!!

There have even been mornings that Bill wakes up and says "the kids slept really good, huh?". It is all I can do to keep from knocking him out! I am resigned to the fact that I will never get a good nights sleep. I will always have dark circles under my eyes. I will live for my morning coffee and I will be eternally grumpy. Does anyone want to take my kids for a night? Cause Momma needs a tylenol pm.

Santa was trying to be creative....

Christmas this year was a lot of fun. Catherine really seemed to be "getting" the concept of everything. She was excited about Santa coming and had learned some Christmas songs at school. I was worried that she would wake up at the crack of dawn to open presents but she didn't. She came down the stairs and went to the tree and got a huge smile on her face when she saw all of the presents there. She unwrapped her first present and said "I didn't order this!".