One more day!!!

Grandma Pat will be here tomorrow and Kacey and I are soooo excited! Woo-hoo! I am really looking forward to having the company and the help with Kacey. I have stayed at the 95% healthy and cant seem to get to 100%. I actually may have gotten a bit worse. My throat is sore and I am sneezing a bit. Ugh.

Kacey is not doing too well either. I think the final movement of the molars or maybe her canines are coming in. When she wakes up she is screaming as if in pain. I keep giving her Tylenol and Motrin and that seems to help but it doesn't last. Her sleeping is definitely messed up. I have given up on Operation One Nap and will try it again when I get home. I think she might be ready for it but with this pain she appears to be in, nothing is going to take. Last night she went to bed early and woke up at a bit after 8 and was not back asleep until almost 10. She would only calm down when held and she is not normally like that. Usually when she goes down for the night she doesn't wake up. Damn this teething. Why is nature designed this way?

Anyways, here are some pics of happier times.

Walking down to the beach with mommy and daddy. Mommy made the mistake of bringing a Sprite. Kacey saw bottle and wanted to carry it the whole way. I never got to drink it :(

I LOVE this picture. She actually reached up and grabbed Jamie's finger. How cute is that??



Over the weekend was the big St Peters Fesitval (I think??) anyways, it was a big town fair and included "The Greasy Pole" It's this pole attached to a floating dock that they layer six inches or so of grease on and then men walk, run or slide across it to get a flag at the end. The winner gets bragging rights for the year. Crazy!! But fun to see.

Kacey is waiting for the boats to get going!

There was also a Seine boat race and the boat closest to us ended up winning!


The boat nearest us getting ready to go!!!
The boat load of mean that will take on the greasy pole!


The winning boat!!!

13 months...

We don't have her teddy bear and chair to pose in but this is even better.



She is pooped out from a long day. I will post about it tomorrow.

*** Why am I updating the blog at 4am you ask??? I'm wondering that too!! This lovely daughter of mine has been awake since 2am... I gave up and came to the computer. Don't worry, she's not crying... just talking and humming to herself. This is the HUGE downside to having only one bedroom. And no, there is nowhere else to put her!

Dear God, please grant us some decent weather!

Snapshot of the next week's forecast

BAH! on humidity!!

Who was complaining about there not being a sun?? Well I got my wish! It turns out that when the rain stops the humidity starts. Thank you but I think I want the rain back!!

I woke up feeling soooo much better and that lasted the day. I must have had a 24 hour flu of some sort. So Kacey went down at 10 for day one of Operation One Nap. she fell asleep at 10:15 and woke at 11:45. We had lunch and then went to the grocery store. Came back and got all ready to leave. We got to the door and I asked Kacey to get her bucket. She looked at me a little confused so I said it again. She turned around, saw her bucket, brightened up and picked it up. She turned back to me with a big smile. WOW, she understood! It's so amazing what she understands these days. We walked down the driveway and it started to sprinkle. For half a second I contemplated turning around but Kacey was so excited to have her bucket, shovel and hat that I quickly dismissed it. We spent the next 30 minutes walking the ONE BLOCK to the beach. She stopped to "talk" to every person we saw and stopped to see as many flowers as possible. She carried her bucket the whole way except when she would set it down to put her hat back on.

The sprinkles had turned into actual rain during the walk but stopped by the time we reached the beach. We spent some time in the sand, Kacey has decided she likes to shovel sand on top of her head now. Fantastic. She also chased some seagulls. Luckily they are faster than her and can fly :) She finally started rubbing her eyes with her sandy hands so I knew it was time to go home. She let me pick her up and carry her only wiggling down once. She took a couple steps then stopped and whined nad I carried her the rest of the way.

I was able to keep her awake until 6:30 but she was a very tired whiny mess. We'll see how the sleep goes tonight.

Here is a silly little video for the grandparents of her playing in her new favorite place. It also has lots of talking which I know the grandparents like to hear.

A fond memory of my father....

You won't see me typing very much about my father. I have good memories of him and I have bad memories but mainly the reason is that he has been dead for over 10 years so there really isn't anything current to say about him. Michael Jackson dying has brought up a very good memory of my dad though.

My parents were divorced and I spent every other weekend at my dad's. One weekend night when I was 10 years old or something like that (I suppose I could look it up but it doesn't really matter does it?) My dad came and woke me up from a blissful sleep around 11:55 pm. I said I was sleeping but he insisted I wake up. I had to come watch tv. WHAT? What father wakes up a 10 year old at almost midnight to watch tv? If you had met my dad you would understand. He was into music, very into music. So much so that I have 2 middle names and all three of them are named after songs (Diana Rhonda Layla**) He dragged me into the living room and sat my on the floor in front of the tv. I was surrounded by hundreds of vinyl albums and could feel the excitement coming from my dad. He told me that I would not regret this. That I was about to witness history being made. He was sooooooo excited. MTV was on and then it was announced. The world premiere of Michael Jackson's new video "Thriller" I sat enraptured as I watched it. I don't think I took a breath, it was amazing, it was exciting. It was worth it.

I think I have told that story 100 times. My dad was right and I am still glad to this day that he woke me up.

** Diana - by Grace Slick (from Jefferson Airplane fame), Rhonda - by the Beach Boys, Layla - by Eric Clapton. Side note, Eric Clapton was in Derek and the dominoes and my brother's name is Derrick.... another side note, it was supposed to be Derek but my mom spelled it wrong on the birth certificate. hee hee. One more side note, in a slight nod to my dad, this is why kacey has 2 middle names and the second one is Layla.

Let the sunshine in!!!!

So yesterday the sun finally came out to play. I was all set to enjoy it. Had plans. Plans of going to Rockport. Plans of going to the beach. Plans to go grocery shopping.

I got sick. Ugh.

I woke up with a sore throat but decided to press on and ignore it. We went to Rockport. Ugh. Rockport sucks for lunch when you don't eat seafood! Oh well. We went to a fish restaurant and i got a cheeseburger. I started to feel nauseous so Kacey ended up eating more of my burger than I did! We had a lovely view...



We then went to walk around Bearskin Neck which I thought was a fairly car free pedestrian area. Turns out it is only like that on very rainy days when people aren't out. I spent more time picking Kacey up and out of the way of cars that she was't having much fun. I then decided it was time to head home and she would not walk the right direction. I finally had to pick her up and carry her (I didn't bring the stroller because she loves walking so much and it's much easier to follow her around without the stroller.) She screamed and twisted and kept trying to get out of my arms. I then started to feel hot and dizzy and that is when I knew I had a fever. I sat down on a bench and watched her for a minute. She then reached across the bench and grabbed onto a slat and pulled herself up onto the bench! So proud of herself!!!



I finally wrestled her back to the car and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get her to nap so I could nap too. By late afternoon I was burning up but had the chills. Every time I stood up I got dizzy and nauseous. Mercifully she finally passed out and I did too.

At 5:30 we both woke up and I called Jamie asking if he could come home from work early and fortunately he was able to. He came and rescued me and spent some wonderful daddy daughter time with her. I was saved.

Even better, work called him and asked if he could stay late tonight and go in late in the morning!!! So Jamie was able to get up with Kacey this morning and they left to go to breakfast while I slept in. I woke up feeling 95% better and ready to try again.

Today we are trying a one nap day. Kacey has been doing very odd naps lately and spends more time talking to herself than sleeping. At night she is sleeping less and less, sometimes only 9 hours. Something has got to give, it's obviously taking it's toll on me. So maybe with one nap, she will be exhausted for that and fall asleep right away and then go to bed at a decent hour at night and sleep longer? Who knows but it's worth a try. So instead of going down at 8:30 this morning I kept her up until 10:30 (I have been putting her in the crib at 8:3 or 9 and she would talk until 10 so 10:30 is not a stretch.) She talked for about 10 minutes and then was out. So my hope is that she will sleep 2 hours, get up for lunch, we'll grocery shop (since we couldn't yesterday) and then the park or the beach or something. Get her good and worn out and hopefully bedtime by 7. If she would sleep 11 hours and wake up at 6 I would be in heaven. We'll try this for a few days and see how it works. feel free to leave me comments and opinions about this! I would love to hear stories of moving to one nap. I think this is early since she is only 13 months but I am out of other ideas.

Gag me with a spoon..

Kacey has been really working on her spoon using skills. The last couple of days Jamie and I have almost completely given up spoon feeding her. She pretty much feeds herself. Every now and then she will use her fingers with bowl foods but mostly the spoon. Here is a little video of her eating grape nuts (YES! Grape nuts, she loves them and has them every morning now. I think they remind her of the sand she loves to eat. In other odd baby foods, she also loves bread with yellow mustard on it and pastrami. Guess she is not a boring food girl!) in the video she also eats some cottage cheese and at the very end hears Jamie come into the room and says "HI!" to him. Enjoy!

Boston Childrens Museum

Yesterday Kacey and drove into Boston and rode on the "T" (subway system) to the Childrens Museum. Grandma Rie and Grandpa Babu met us there. Kacey was so excited to see them again, she practically ran to Grandma! She loved the museum and played with everything she could. As she started to wind down she started to watch. When I say watch, I really mean WATCH, everyone around her. She would walk over here and watch this kid, then walk over there and watch that kid, then walk back over to kid #1. This went on for an hour or so. All in all we were there for about 4 hours and she was pretty exhausted when we left. She threw an amazing tantrum including screaming, back arching, tears, etc. We said goodbye to the grandparents and took the "T" back to the car.

We had parked it at the hotel we had stayed at when we first got here. The movie has 30 reserved spots at the hotel for all the people that are still staying there so we were able to use one of those spots and park for free. I was pretty glad we had done this as she was a mess by the time we got there. Her snack bowl was empty and the world was coming to an end. We went straight up to the lobby and I found a quiet little out of the way couch. I covered up and went ahead and nursed her. She was sooooo happy with this idea. I have pretty much cut out the afternoon nursing session but the idea of having her scream for an hour solid on the drive home was too much to bear.

Odd little story about this though... there I am minding my own business, clearly doing "something" with a baby under a cover at my chest.... doesn't take a genius to figure that one out!! A man walks by and nods at me... not in a creepy way just a nod at a stranger as you walk by sort of way. Not weired yet, but then he sits down on the other end of the couch! I look around and realize there are 800 other places for him to sit in the lobby and about 700 of them would be by himself. Why is he next to me on the couch? Well... not next to me, at the other end, but still! He then pulls out his phone and starts doign something on it. Checking email maybe? I look at Kacey and she is starting to wiggle around because she can tell there is someone there. I try to make a deal of "sshhhing" her so he will get the hint. But then!!!..... He makes a phone call!!! There he is, 3 feet away from me, in the quietest corner of the lobby and he starts gabbing away on the phone. I had enough, I leaned over and asked him to please go away as I was trying to get my daughter to sleep. He profusely apologizes and leaves. I don't think he meant to be creepy, just completely clueless.

So we finish up, quick diaper change and drive home. Thankfully she slept. It was a good day overall.

This was right when we got to the 0-3 room. Kacey saw the train set and lit up. She played with it for quite a while with Grandpa.



Playtime with Grandma

She spent a lot of time with this, the "pen" is magnetic and even though Kacey couldn't quite work it she would not let the pen go. We finally picked her up and carried her to another room!
Let the watching begin.......













Such a fun day!!!!

and a video for Grandma Pat..

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

To the best daddy ever! Happy Birthday, I love you!

Love,
Kacey.... (and mommy too!)

Afternoon in Rockport

Jamie's parents came up for the weekend and on Sunday we went into Rockport. It was raining or drizzling of course but we braved it anyway. Kacey had a great time walking all over and trying to pick every single flower she saw.




Marie and I were drawn into an adorable shot because of the kids hats in the window. We went in and put a bunch of hats on Kacey and she promptly took them off. Eventually we let her walk around the store while we continued looking and she ended up finding a stuffed puppy dog. She grabbed it and cuddled it up to her neck and would not let go. Marie decided to give up on the hats and get her the puppy instead. It was immediately named "woof, woof" and after a tearful 30 seconds while the cashier handled it to get the tag off, it was in Kacey's arms not to be let go of for several hours.




A very lovely Father's day!!!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

How is it possible???

That I am actually jealous of pregnant women... scratch that, pregnant moms. I have started chatting on a toddler board and sooooo many of these moms are pregnant. I can't believe how jealous I am of them. I am NOT jealous of them having a baby, actually that thought terrifies me. I can't imagine trying to take care of an infant and dealing with Kacey at the same time... much less waking up every 2-3 hours and then being up all day... oh no. Definitely don't want another baby right now and maybe not ever. But I sooooo badly want to be pregnant. I loved being pregnant. I don't remember any of the negatives. I know I had aches and pains and trouble sleeping and peeing all the time but I don't really remember that in the same way that I remember feeling Kacey move inside of me. I want to feel that again. i want to anticipate holding a little 8 pound baby and having them just lie there and stare at me with wonder. I want, I want, I want.... I want to stop feeling jealous especially since I don't really want a second child now. So why do i feel this way? Anyone else?

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Complete change of subject.. we have decided to stop using cloth diapers while we are here. There is a washer and dryer but they are a mini size. I finally figured out how to get the diapers clean and dry and it ends up that I have to wash them every day (so that it is half a normal load) do an extra rinse and an extra spin cycle after that. It then takes 1.5 - 2 hours to dry them. UGH! Not helping the environment with that!!! I hate having the disposables next to Kacey's soft little butt though and all of her pants are wayyyyyy too big. Hoping that the sun comes out more so she can wear her dresses so we don't have to worry about the pants falling off!

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Today it was warm but rained almost all day. We had to run to the store for a couple of things so I got us ready and carried Kacey to the car. She started laughing right away and put her hands out to feel the rain. She kept looking up and would get surprised that she was getting wet! When we got to the market I put her in a cart and ran across the parking lot (it was absolutely pouring!). She loved it and was squealing with laughter. We were both soaked when we got into the store but the smiles lasted for a while.

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Now for some pictures, I know this is the only reason Grandma Pat is checking the blog these days!!!

Kacey was carrying her Pooh bear around this morning and hugging and kissing it. Here she is showing Pooh the rain.




She is 1 going on 16!!! Always talking on my cell phone! She looks so serious sitting in her chair (we picked this up for $1 at a yard sale!) and chatting away. When she "talks", she truly sounds like she is having a conversation.

Present from Dash

OOOOh, quite exciting yesterday when a big brown box arrived!!

Up, up, up!!

Kacey going up the stairs. She normally goes up faster but the camera was distracting.

Big Birthday Bash!!

Finally got through all the pictures! I combined mine, Gail's and Alex's cousins (I think!) together and got them in a type of order and somewhat labeled. I can't believe how long it took me! Anyways, here they are

Birthday Bash

Here are just a couple of my favorite pics....


This is my absolute favorite!!!!





Alex made this cake and all the animals on it! Just amazing!!!

Speak, Kacey, Speak!! and other accomplishments

Kacey has started to develop a bit of a vocabulary. She regularly says "HI!" to anyone, especially other children **Side story, we were at the grocery store and she was safely tucked away into the seat in the cart. A woman and boy, about 4 years old, walked by. Kacey said "HI!" with her big huge smile and reached out to touch the boys head. The woman gave her a dirty look and grabbed the boy and pulled him away saying "Come on!" pretty loudly. What a nut!

In addition to hi, ball is becoming the big word of the day. I bought her one of those big huge balls and she loves carrying it around. It's almost as big as her!!! Now when she sees them at the store she yells out "BALL!" and when she sees it at home she actually says "RED BALL". I am sure she doesn't comprehend that it is red but we always say red ball so she is just copying us. It's pretty cute.

When I am feeding her I will ask her if she wants more? and I emphasize the word more. She has responded saying "MORE!" and then opening her mouth like a little bird.

Almost always when a dog walks by or she hears one barking off somewhere, she will say "WOOF!" but if she sees the dog she usually doesn't say it until the dog has left.

When I break out the Gym.boree bubbles she will say "BUBBLES!"

She'll say "UH-OH!" when she drops something, "OW!" when she falls but isn't really hurt and "OOOOHH!" when she sees something neat or exciting.

All this is in addition to my favorites, "MAMA!" and "DADA!"

In other accomplishments, there is a staircase here. I bought a gate right away but we are letting her go up and down it when we are with her. She loves it and is soooo very proud of herself when she gets to the top or bottom. Going up is getting pretty fast but coming down takes a while as she likes to stop in the middle and just sit and look up and down.

There is a sunroom that we go in and out of to go outside and it is a step down from the house. When we are leaving she likes to go down by herself. We say "Careful!" and she grabs onto the door frame and carefully puts one foot down and then the other and is very good about doing it carefully. When she comes to steps outside and there is nothing to grab onto, she will raise her hand up for me to hold. :)

One more thing that I can think of right now, when I say let's go bye, bye! She will go to the door and wait and when I say let's go upstairs and I remove the gate she immediately comes over and starts going up. :)

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Yesterday we went to Jamie's work to have lunch with him (we went today too!) OMG, the food is soooooo amazing! They bring in their caterers from LA and they go all out. It's like eating food from a pretty nice restaraunt but in a summer camp feel. Everyone gathers in a big outdoor tent and we are kind of in the woods. Yesterday I saw Ch.ris R.ock and today he and Dav.id S.pade were at the table next to us. I haven't seen Ad.am S.andler yet but at the restaurant down the street they now have a picture of him with the staff hanging on the wall. It's a pretty big deal around here that there is a movie filming and most everyone knows about it.

After lunch we hung out on the lawn in front of the house where Jamie is working (they just rented a big house for post-production to set up in and they are also using the living room, dining room, basement and bonus room for filming other things. It's nice for Jamie because he has the den all to himself and they all can use the kitchen and the bathroom there. (Jamie has used it to shower in after riding his bike to work.)

Anyways, we were on the lawn and the local cat came over to Kacey. It's a super friendly cat and didn't mind Kacey at all. Kacey even got bored with the cat after a bit!! She was too fascinated with a cup we gave her. She kept trying to drink out of the straw (which she is pretty good at now). She would also take the straw out and put it back in the hole which I find pretty impressive!

Me enjoying the cat!
Kacey enjoying the cup!

Cat fed up with Kacey and ignoring her...

Kacey saying "It's ok kitty, I will pet you too! WOOF!"
Happily enjoying the sun together.




"Here kitty try this, it's yummy!"