stairway to disaster.....

so casey has learned the art of climbing.......she tries to climb up on anything and everything......most recently she's figured out that if she stands onto the warming drawer handle on our oven and holds onto the oven door handle she can reach the stove knobs and the grates over the burners on the stovetop.......lovely......we bought a stove guard to prevent any major disasters but because nothing is ever that easy, the strip on the oven that it's supposed to adhere to should ideally be flat but thanks to the "innovative" design of our stove, ours is slanted, thus attaching it the way the directions suggest make the angle of the thing too close to the burner and it's going to melt in a matter of days.......so still working on trying to make that work......and she's also climbing on our dining room table chairs......until today i've managed to keep that under control, but this morning when i literally turned my back for 1 minute, the huge crash i heard was her falling down and the chair falling on top of her.......really sounds worse than it was - but still frightening.......didn't stop her from trying it again this afternoon......short term memory man.......anyway.......i know she needs to learn how to climb.......it's part of growing up, but i just wish all these new stages weren't so dangerous at first!!.......

calm before the storm......

don't know quite why this hit me today.......but i realized that casey won't always take 2 two hour naps a day.......and i won't always have one kid.......my days of having 4 hours a day of "me time" - even if "me time" is filled with laundry, washing sippy cups, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, cleaning the house, etc, etc - are numbered.......after number two's born i don't know if i'll ever have even 1 hour to myself......yikes!.......i'm not sure i can deal with that!!!......i know logically by then casey will be able to play by herself a little more so even if she's awake i might not need to be as "on" as i need to be now when she's up, but logic hasn't hit me yet......the craziness of never being able to pee or have a bowl of cereal without holding or entertaining a baby is the only thing that's with me right now!.......yikes!......

let me explain......

dear number two -
you're not really number two in our lives......you're just the second to come into our lives......i'm feeling the need to explain/apologize now, months before you're even born so that you can look back at this and know we love you just as much as casey......calling you number two is just kind of our nickname for you......and i'm finding myself a lot of times saying "well last time around..." - especially in your "belly book".......i don't want you to think that we're always comparing you to casey.......you're your own person and we love you just as you are - as similar or as different as you're going to be from casey......it's just that we don't have any other experience to compare it to......so for now, knowing that last time around i felt casey move around 20 weeks helps me to know that this time around at 18 weeks it's not strange that i haven't felt you move around yet......and it'll help us as parents know that last time around being so crazy about feeding casey every 4 hours on the nose probably wasn't necessary to be so precise - it'll help us know that if you're hungry at 3 hours or 5 hours from your last feeding, it's ok.......we'll know it's safe for you to swing on the baby swings when you're 6 months old, and that you might not roll over until you're 9 months old.......things won't be brand new for us when you do them, but we'll be better at being parents by the time you do them......and we'll love your first giggle, first smile, first hug, and first kiss as much as we've loved casey's.......so just know we love you very much and you're not in competition with casey.......just because we say "last time around" doesn't mean this time around isn't any less special.......

kisses......

casey has learned how to give kisses.......it's super cute.......i remember when she first learned to smile......first giggled.......first gave a hug........but the kisses are by far the best.......she kinda looks at you, leans in and is gone before you even know what happened.......the drool on your cheek is the only evidence she did it.......she's almost got the pucker down too......it's really neat......so far i'm the only one that gets kisses.......to daddy's dismay.......but i'm sure he'll get some in the near future too.......

big girl bath......

so we've graduated from baths in the sink to baths in the tub this week........casey had definitely outgrown her baby tub that fit in the sink and seemed ready to try the "big girl tub" as we dubbed it.......after a brief first few minutes of panic and uncertainty, she seems to love it now.......all kinds of stuff fits in there for her to play with (reminder: buy more official bath toys so she doesn't have to play with other random crap that floats) and it doesn't really matter if she splashes - no real mess with the shower doors shut.......only drawback is that we haven't quite figured out how to do it without getting in the tub with her........definitely a bizarre thing to put a bathing suit on to get in the tub.......the shower doors make reaching in a little awkward and it kills your knees anyway.......so for now we're getting in too.......

fun times......

over the last two weeks or so casey has definitely figured out how to play.......she loves goofing around these days.......loves peek a boo......squeals her head off when she's chased, caught and tickled.......if we sit on the floor she'll run around us and "surprise" us when she gets to the other side.......and the latest is she'll carry around a sofa pillow with her, drop it on the ground and tackle it......face first......it's hysterical........she also loves putting toys from one bucket into another now too, and has FINALLY figured out how to put shapes through the corresponding holes.......pretty close to mastering the nesting blocks too - although she doesn't quite get the order thing yet.......at least she knows the blocks can go back inside each other........
anyway, she's a big ball of fun lately.......giggling her head off and figuring out new games to play......

what a difference a month makes.....

so i was just rereading my last post - and was first horrified it's been over a month since i last related any casey anecdotes, and secondly giggling about how bad casey's sleeping was going last month......giggling because i think pretty much after that last post (the night we re-instituted farber) she's been fine......like absolutely totally fine........back to two very regular two hour naps and bedtime at 8:30......i guess there were a couple weeks where she'd "play" in her crib from 8:30 until 9ish, but not like what was going on around last posting......

in fact, we just got back from a mini-cape vacation down at the cape house for memorial day weekend......steve and i were both very apprehensive about how casey would sleep down there - usually any break in routine - in this case her sleeping in the pack and play - creates havoc that lasts longer than just the trip........but she did fantastic.......aside from about an hour the first night when she woke up around 10 disoriented and kinda freaked out, she was a sleeping angel - for naps and bedtime.......it really made the weekend very stress-free and relaxing......it's great to have a happy kid on a trip........

the only down side of our trip was that merlin got sick......he started not eating and got sick a couple times.......we brought him to angell mspca hospital yesterday morning and he had to stay overnight.......they ruled out pretty much all the serious stuff.......and have narrowed it down to a bacterial infection.......so they gave him some antibiotics and tube fed him and he was doing good yesterday afternoon.......waiting to hear from them this morning to see if he can come home today.......we really missed him last night.......casey kept looking at merlin's cage and saying bird (well, her version of bird anyway which sounds more like "ber") and she was looking for him at bedtime to say goodnight to........she usually blows him a kiss before bed.......it was sad.......but hopefully he'll be home today and back to normal.......i'm so grateful we have such a great animal hospital so close to us.......it's nuts to think that they have doctors so specialized that they just focus on birds.......they administer antibiotics, anesthesia (which luckily so far merlin hasn't needed), do bloodwork, and take xrays all of these tiny little guys.......it's amazing.......

other news since last posting.......casey's first BFF, caroline, and her mom/my friend, maddy, moved to wisconsin.......it was very sad to see them go, but we tried not to tell them that because we knew they were happy about their new journey and didn't want them feeling bad about it.......judging by a facebook picture yesterday, it looks like they made it safely to their new home state.......it's funny that they'll now be living super close to anna and eliza who we were sad moved there about a year ago........i'm glad they'll be reunited!.......and i hope someday all our paths cross again!........it'd be great to have casey and caroline and eliza meet up when they're older - of course they won't remember each other, but we will!!.......

playgroup has ended for the summer which is also a little bummy......casey really enjoyed playing with the other kids and playing on the slide they had there.......of course we did get her a slide for our backyard since she clearly was loving it so much........and it was free!!........this great email group called freecycle is a place where people post things they have to offer or things they need.......so we got this fantastic slide from a woman named amy whose yard was too steep for her kids to use it.......casey loves it........we hope playgroup starts up again in september - right now it's subject to the pending funding........it's such a great thing to have a free place to go where casey can play with other kids.......

let's see what else.......well casey's turned into a very not good eater.......it's not so much about the food as it is about her mood.......she really hates sitting down at the table to eat.......whether it's reading a book or playing with my cell phone, she really needs to be distracted to eat these days.......it's hard to make sure she's not just eating crap like goldfish or pretzel sticks (her current favorites)........although she'd drink ANYTHING we put in a sippy cup........she's nuts about liquids........at least we know she's getting her calories somehow, although she seems a little skinny to me the last few days........so we're trying to get creative and hopefully this finicky stage will pass........

well i guess that's about it for now.......hopefully i won't wait another month to post again!......