Turns Out, January Isn't Quite Over

This is mah kitchen window. As you can tell, it's highly efficient and keeping the heat in nicely. *sigh*
We've been bitten once again with frigid temperatures. Poor Cailin and I have been staring at the same walls all week and neither of us is taking it well. Aside from making a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (and both of us eating our weight in cookie dough) we've had a long-ish somewhat trying week. We've cleaned and tidied, made forts out of pillows and furniture and tormented Cailin's baby dolls. Er, I mean we played nicely with baby dolls.

In a word, we are bored. There's only so much cleaning a person can do before they're labelled OCD or some such. Cailin doesn't watch TV, and I don't care much for it either. This rules out movies or cartoons, although Cailin can sure hoover back the popcorn.

Although. I have been watching a little HGTV (Home and Garden TV) here and again, and have big ideas for our house. If it would ever warm up, we could get started on a little painting and furniture rearranging. Thankfully, it's supposed to warm up over 30 degrees by Wednesday. While that still won't be warm enough to throw open the windows and vent some paint fumes, I'm excited that spring is just that much closer.

The next problem is that Cailin is awfully hard on the walls. Her toys have scratched up my chocolate brown dining room walls and chipped up the corners. I have some paint left over for touchups, but I'm thinking it won't help much. The first time she chases Bailey with her doll stroller, the scratches will be right back where they were.

Poor Bailey. She has taken to slinking off to her doggie bed and napping when Cailin has her afternoon nap. Those two play hard all day long. Apparently it's really hard work chasing a toddler with tasty snacks around all day. They run up and down the hall, and from the front window to the kitchen sink. Over and over until Bailey is panting. She can't wait until Cailin naps so she can get a break.

Lately, Cailin has been insisting on walking Bailey inside the house. She brings me the leash, points at the dog and says, "Peese?" I hook Bailey's leash on her collar and away the two of them go chasing each other all over the house. Eventually Bailey will mosey over to me and sit on my feet while shooting me 'please have mercy on a fat old dog' looks. Right before Cailin drags her off down the hall one more time.

Of course, Bailey still outweighs Cailin and can pull her around like she wasn't there, but for some reason she defers to Cailin on their 'walks'. I can't say the same when I'm in control of the leash on outside walks. That dog can almost pull me over.

In the last few days Cailin has been putting her pants on by herself, and surprised me by putting on her own shoes. On the right feet yet. She has a pair of shoes that squeak with every single step she takes. It's on purpose - they have squeakers in them. When she finally took them off, I wouldn't put them back on her. Finally, some peace! She simply sat down and put them on all by herself. Then took off running all over the house. SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAKY.

Maybe if it warms up enough she can actually go outside with me? We have some energy to burn.

January Comes to an End

Since Nana and Papa moved out to the farm, we have been there quite often visiting in this warm weather. It's been such a nice break from the usual January cold. It warmed right up and all that snow we got has been steadily melting. And it rained some too. What a mess the roads are right now with all that running water!

Cailin has been enjoying herself at the farm. She found an old fashioned desk in the foyer and enjoys climbing on it.
The view off the front porch is so pretty. At night, the lights from the nearby town twinkle and shine. It's so quiet there, and peaceful.
Sunset at the farm. This is off the front porch looking towards town.
Cailin helped Papa plow the yard in the Ranger. She isn't scared of machines at all and hops right up in the cab and tries to steer.
We simply couldn't deal with all the snow in our driveway, so we had a skidsteer come and plow our driveway for us. There is a pile of snow on our front lawn now. And it's melting rapidly into ice in the driveway. I would love to be spending some more time outside before winter comes back, but it's way too icy for us to walk anywhere.

For now, we have all the blinds and curtains wide open letting in the sunshine and feeling very chipper. It's supposed to get cold again this weekend and snow some more, so we're going to enjoy the sun while we can.

Wake Me Up When January Ends

This month has been super trying on us. First, it was too cold to safely take Cailin anywhere - plus the roads were fairly icy. We sat around in the house getting cabin fever. Our trip to Sears was like a vacation! Sad, I know.

Last weekend, Nana and Papa moved to their new acreage (the farm). Cailin and I carefully followed Papa out to the farm on the snowy and icy highway. The weather wasn't on our side however, and I had to leave my car at the farm and ride back to town with Ryan when it was time to go home. We haven't had a chance to bring the car home yet since it snowed over two feet in the last week. Add the fresh powder to what we got the week before plus warmer weather, and you have a town that is completely choked with snow. The roads are so bad in town that I wouldn't be able to get my car into the driveway, much less drive it around.

So, Cailin and I are still fairly housebound. Except for Thursday when Ryan left us the truck and I took my sweet girl in to get her 18 month shots. Which went very well. She didn't make a peep for the first needle, but cried a bit for the second needle. The nurse said that's the one that stings. Cailin also got to see their resident dentist while we were waiting, and the diagnosis on her teeth is perfect. She's healthy, happy and I'm brushing her teeth well enough. Whew!

But oh, the roads! Getting to her appointment was excruciating. Even the major roads are caked in snow and turning left through the huge windrows of snow in the middle of the road is impossible. I had to make a detour around several blocks to avoid the snowbanks blocking the turn into the health center. Let me just say I have never seen such an ugly and disorganized mess trying to remove snow from any road before.

Getting to Sears to pick up Cailin's new bed was difficult too. Nevertheless, we have it now and I put it together last night. Didn't really think that one through very well though. The bed lived in the kitchen for a while, and now it's taking up residence in our dining room. Cailin likes it, and has been playing on it and putting her babies in it. Bailey has been all over it too. I really should have left it in the box for easy storage, but a it's a little late now. Also, Cailin scraped her nose on the side rail last night and it looks sore today. Poor kid! I have no idea where I'm going to put it until the big switch. I'm not ready for her to sleep with no confinement. The crib keeps her nice and safe, and most important: in bed. I can tell she would be up and out of the toddler bed many, many times at night if we switched now.

Cailin has been talking up a storm lately! Here are some recent phrases:

"Coat please!" while pointing to coat on hook

"Where doggie go?" while watching Bailey play in the snow

"Oh wait." repeated 356 times a day for no apparent reason

"Yummy nummy num num!" while waiting at pantry door

"Poop!" while watching Bailey - you get the point. I did not teach her that, by the way.

Cailin can now put on her own pants after much struggling. She can put her own boots on and wears them proudly in the house, clomping around after Bailey. She can take off her coat and does at any opportunity that presents itself. It takes about five whole seconds (or before you even pull out of the driveway) for her to pull off her boots and socks. If you let her run around with just a diaper or pull up on, she does so with gusto. She is a happy crazy kid.

Cailin's Balloon & Cleaning

When we went to Sears last week, the whole place was filled with yellow sale balloons. Cailin's mouth turned into a perfect O shape and all we could hear was, "Oooooooooh!" She pointed to the veritable sea of yellow balloons and grunted her request: Gimme one!

Being a responsible parent, I pulled one off a display (complete with pointy stick) and handed it to her. She loved it! She ran all over the place while we tried mostly in vain to shop for a bed and bedding for her. Bed? Ordered. Bedding? Ha ha ha. I'm making her a comforter myself. Or I might cheat and use the twin sized comforter from her Hello Kitty set. We're not entirely sure when we're even going to set up her toddler bed, so she might not need much of a blanket if it's closer to summer.

The balloon hangs out with Cailin for most of the day. It's used as a weapon to beat poor Bailey with, though she's not too concerned about the balloon. She's very concerned if Cailin is wielding a wooden spoon however. The balloon is getting smaller and more wrinkly as the days go by, and I hope I have a few replacements left over from Cailin's birthday to replace this one when the inevitable happens.

Also? Cailin picked something up off the floor yesterday and examined it. She's forever picking up lint and such, and true to form, tried to feed whatever it was she had found to Bailey. Bailey, normally a great fan of lint, bits of paper and other floor fodder, wouldn't eat what Cailin was offering to her. Instead, Cailin brought it to me and put it in my hand. It was a dog tooth. Specifically, one of Bailey's teeth. I searched her mouth for the missing tooth, and confirmed that yes, one of her bottom smallish molars had indeed fallen out. I'm not sure who's tooth it would be besides Bailey's; not sure why I had to check. This makes me sad, Bailey is going to be seven in a few months and this is the first real sign of her aging. She doesn't act a day over four though.

We've also been busy trying to fit all the Christmas stuff into our tiny house. Which brings us to our next big project. Operation: Make This House Bigger. Mostly? We're going to donate every single last thing in this house that we aren't using, haven't seen in years or are keeping in the off chance that we might need it one day. Anything that's not worth donating is going to the garbage. I might sell a few of the more pricey items, but we'll have to see. We need the space this junk is taking up.

Today I tackled the upstairs bathroom. One garbage bag of stuff later, I feel loads lighter. All my perfumes I've had for years? Gone. Hair product I don't use? Stinky shampoo that makes my hair feel like straw? Gone. It's all gone, the bathroom is super clean and I feel way better already. The downstairs bathroom I did a few months ago - installed a huge shelving unit, organized our things and I'm still happy with how it's working out.

I'm scared to start on the kitchen, so I'll probably save that for last. Cailin can reach and unpack all the lower cupboards and drawers, so it might defeat the purpose of cleaning and organizing it anyway.

Now to tackle the enormous amount of laundry.

18 Month Wellness

We went to the doctor today for Cailin's wellness appointment. No surprise, she's very well and healthy. She really behaved herself and allowed herself to be weighed, measured and poked and prodded. Cailin sure eye-balled the doctor as he went about his checks. She likes the light on the ear checker thingy.

The verdict:

Weight: 23.5 lbs (48th percentile)

Height: 34" (90th percentile)

Head: 45cm? Not sure... But still 90th percentile

The doc said she is very smart, tall and a little thin. In other words, she's perfectly healthy. He also said she is his best patient. No crying for her, just the curious eyeballing of him. We were so proud of how well behaved she was in the office. They sure like her there!

The Last Week or So

Hours spent googling toddler beds: 1

Hours spent shopping at Sears for said toddler bed: 1.5

Time spent wandering around looking for toddler bedding (unsuccessfully): 30 minutes

Effort in chasing Cailin all over Sears: Much

Level of daddy's annoyance: High

Number of yellow balloons on display on Sears: about 3000

Number of yellow balloons that Cailin insisted on keeping: 1

Times that Cailin has hit Bailey with said balloon: 5000

Amount of snow that accumulated: 1 foot

Times the whole family has gathered around the window to watch Bailey bunny-hop through all the fresh powder and laugh like crazy: 3

Level of mirth watching Ryan shovel all that fresh snow: Great

Number of bottles discovered with nasty sour milk in them: 1

Times gagging like a sissy while disinfecting said bottle: Don't ask

Hours spent watching the last season of 24: Lots

Disappointment in how the last season of 24 ended: Large

Number of times the words "don't feed the doggie" have been said: 1.2 billion

Number of times the words "be nice to the doggie" have been said: 2.4 billion

Successful potty trips: 2

Pairs of pants that Cailin was wearing at the same time: 2

Pairs of pants that Cailin put on all by herself: 1

Times that Cailin has been caught sitting in the tea towel drawer: Numerous

Times that Cailin has emptied all cupboards and drawers in the kitchen onto the floor: Too many to count

Light bulbs that burnt out at same time: 3

Joy at replacing said light bulbs and getting out of the dark: An odd amount

Grocery stores visited in hopes of finding raspberries: 3

Times Cailin whipped her coat off in said stores: 2

Toddler bedding sets to still find: 1

It's been a good week.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2011!Our New Years was very quiet. Cailin did manage to make it to midnight - and then slept til noon the next day. Since then, we are trying to get her back into a more normal schedule. The holidays are over, and we're slowly getting back to normal life. Holiday Season 2010 was wonderful, and we're sad to see it end.

I took the decorations and the tree down. Yesterday Cailin padded out to the living room and said, "Tree?" waiting for me to plug it in. It wasn't there, and she seemed pretty sad about it. Until! She stripped down to her pull up and ran around the house like a crazy person, laughing, singing and dancing. It was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while! I took some video.

Cailin may only be 18 months, but she has completely thrown herself (and me) into the Terrible Twos. Her favorite word is "NO". Usually said with great gusto and emphasis. Everything is "NO" from brushing her teeth, to getting dressed to changing her diaper. The toddler tantrum fits have also begun.

Speaking of diapers, she flat out refuses to lay down to get her diaper changed. She absolutely won't lay still! We switched to pull ups, and she's happy as a clam now.

Potty training? Came to a screeching halt over the holidays. There was too much to do, see, investigate and tear apart. Only this morning has she even given the potty so much as a minute of her busy schedule. A few days ago, she popped off the potty and peed on the bathroom mat. Good times, that potty training is. I have a feeling now that things have settled down somewhat that she'll get back into it.

The Sock Allergy has emerged. Thank you, Nana. When I put socks on her, I find them discarded on the floor approximately 2 minutes later. Bad news for me since Bailey is the Great Eater of Baby Socks.

Both Cailin and I seem to be suffering from a bit of cabin fever. I predict that it's going to be a long wait until spring. The sun was so bright yesterday that it filled the whole house up. I can't wait to be able to play outside.