2 naps or 1??.....

we've definitely entered a phase where i have no idea what's going on with casey's naps.......for so long she was such a predictable and regular napper........2 hours after she woke up she'd be ready for nap 1 which would last about 2 hours, then after another 3 hours of awake time, she'd be ready for nap 2 which again would last about 2 hours, then there'd be about 3 hours before bedtime of playtime........obviously i knew the days of this wonderful predictability would end someday - probably around her 18 month birthday........and sure enough, last week was full of 1 nap days........and not only was there only 1 nap a day, the nap was lucky if it was 45 min long........so we were stuck with a super cranky baby in the late afternoon who didn't want to nap again, then she'd turn into giddy crazy clumsy girl by dinnertime and you'd have to watch her like a hawk to make sure she wasn't crashing into or over something because she was so out of it........we had moved bedtime up to 8pm those days because we felt so awful that she was so exhausted.......it was hard for steve because he got 30 min less time with her at night, but had to do it.......so this week's mission was to see if we could move the 1 nap later in the day and make it longer - so she'd nap from noon-2 or something like that........well my efforts of trying that seem to have been dashed by the return of 2 naps........yesterday she was ready for nap 1 by 10am and after about 30 min of playing in her crib at 3:30 fell asleep again for nap 2........today she went in about 10:30 and fell asleep - jury's out on if there'll be another nap today, but if it goes like yesterday there should be........i can't figure this girl out!!.......i don't care if she does 1 nap or 2, but pick one!.......it's hard to plan anything at this point never knowing when she'll be zonked or not........hopefully it'll all work itself out by the time #2 comes.......i know the new baby will throw things off some, but hoping casey's nap schedule will remain somewhat intact........about the only way i can envision myself being able to handle 2 little ones is if casey's napped well and isn't super cranky or super overtired/goofy.......

playing catch and jumping.......

so steve's been teaching casey to play catch and how to jump off the couch into his arms.......she's getting pretty good at both........although the jumping off the couch scares the life out of me, we haven't had any injuries doing that yet........she's just starting to try to jump up and down too - which she can do pretty successfully on the bed or couch or anyplace "bouncy", but not so much yet on the ground.......she's getting there though and i'm sure by next week we'll have a jumping bean.......playing catch is also going pretty well.......i think the biggest hurdle with it is that she gets kind of bored with it easily, so she doesn't really stick with it long enough to call it an official "game of catch".......but she does enjoy chasing the ball after she throws it........

our little 18 month old weed......

just got back from casey's 18 month check up.......she weighed in at 24lbs, 2oz. (47th percentile) and measured 33.5" (90th percentile) - although at home our reading on that was only about 31"......she had to get one vaccine, which she did totally awesome with - i was so relieved after how completely horrendous she was after her round of shots last time we were there.......she's now done with shots until she's 4, which seems like a complete eternity to me away........unless we get the flu shot or something for her, which since she's not in daycare, i don't see as really necessary.......but i'm kind of anti-flu shot anyway.......don't see the need of giving a little dose of the flu so you get immune to it.......from what i hear there's a fairly good chance you'll actually get the flu from the shot, which seems dumb to me.......why not just take precautions and most likely you won't get it anyway.......of course if she gets the flu, i'm sure i'll be kicking myself for not having them give it to her.......

anyway, it was a good doctor visit........she loved all the toys out in the waiting room - they always take us so fast into one of the exam rooms when we get there that she didn't get much time to play before our appt, so since she was doing fine after her vaccine, we stayed for a while after our appt so she could play a little.......

6 more months until her next checkup!.......

out and about.....

so the last few weeks have been filled with outings.......casey's been to the franklin park zoo, boston children's museum, the new england aquarium, the little mini water-jet park near quincy market, the cape house, camping in NH, and the easton children's museum all in the last month or so.......


friday nights are $1 admission to the boston children's museum, so we picked steve up and headed over there a couple weeks back......casey had a blast in the under 3 years old play-zone area.......she had been there one other time about 4 months or so ago with her buddies caroline and sam, but at that point she still seemed really young for a lot of the activities in the room.......this time she was a master......into everything, and yet coordinated enough that i didn't fear she was going to get hurt at every turn like our last trip.......so it was a really fun time there.......


then the following weekend, the three of us and uncle danny (steve's brother in visiting from california) headed into boston.......after a lunch and tantrum at pizzeria regina in the north end, we went to the aquarium which casey really liked - much more so than the zoo a while back.......and then on to the water-park thing - which is really just water jets shooting up from the ground.......steve took casey in the water area.........she didn't totally freak out or anything, but i think the idea of water coming up that fast took her a little by surprise......after drying off we headed back into the north end where casey proceeded to mow down watermelon gelato and cookies that the waitress at mike's pastry was nice enough to give her for free.......

and a couple weeks ago casey and i headed to the easton children's museum during the week.......it's a super cute little musuem........3 floors plus this outdoor explorer area.......2 of the floors seemed a bit too old for her but the top floor had a play area that seemed just her age.......had a lego wall which she loved once she figured out you could stick the legos to it and a tumble area with a ballerina bar and mirror which she liked more than i would've hoped!.......i think i see a tutu in her future much to my dismay.......=).......just kidding.......i don't mind if she turns out to be a girly girl.......i'll support whatever interests she has.......whether it's ballet or boxing........actually i'm not sure which of those would scare me more!.......it's one thing if i box, but i'm not sure i want her to do it!.......


anyway, here are a couple pictures from our little recent adventures.......


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this was at the easton museum.......i'm sure it was accidental......she wasn't really trying to flip me off, was she??.......hahaha.......




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also at the easton museum - always the inquisitive one pointing all over the place lately asking what everything is.......














trying out the lego wall at the easton museum.......







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our future ballerina.......







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riding a duck at the boston children's musuem.......


















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checking out the water jet park with dad.........i think i might like this a little more in another year or so.......

finally!......

so after 5 months of not getting any new teeth at all, casey's getting 4 in all at once.......poor kid has eaten like a bird for the past 4 or so days and i'm thinking it has to do with mosquito bites (which it very might well have), but probably more likely she doesn't want anything else going into her mouth.......after seeing her with 6 teeth for so long, it's going to seem strange seeing her with 10 teeth!.......she's been eating pineapple, blueberries, coffee milkshakes, and juice but that's really about it.......fortunately, she hasn't really been super cranky about them - maybe 1-2 days of "not quite as happy as normal"-ness, but really not too bad considering.......now that we know what's going on, the orajel and tylenol have been working wonders for her.......hopefully they'll stop hurting her gums soon and her appetite will come back!.......we've definitely got a skinny minnie on our hands lately!.......

say what?......

casey has defnitely had a little language explosion lately.......she's now pretty adept at saying: bye bye (while simultaneously waving), up/down (lifting her foot up and down while she says it), meow (when you ask her what a cat says), moo (when you ask her what a cow says), in addition to the old standbys: birdie and apple........there's definitely more to come too - she's trying to say all kinds of things that we can't really understand yet........i read somewhere that by 2 years old they're able to say 50 words.......nutso........she's really turning into a little person!.......

house of germs.......

so we've had quite the germy couple of weeks......about 3 weeks ago i got this really bad stomach bug - actually thought i was going into early labor (really early, 24 weeks at that point!)......after a stint in the hospital where they pumped me with fluids and gave me some anti-nausea medicine, they determined it was just a GI bug and nothing baby related......obviously that was a huge relief......but the GI bug circulated through the house - steve got it pretty good, and casey had a bout of diarrhea, although she didn't show any other signs of discomfort thank god......i can't imagine her having the stomach cramps i had........then i got it back again for a bit.......finally it seems to have left our house........

then came our camping trip - first with casey.......while it wasn't a 100% disaster, it didn't go great.......casey didn't end up napping at all while we were there and was crankier and a lot more tired than usual.......it was hard to plan anything because we didn't know when she'd fall asleep, so we didn't get to hike or canoe or anything fun like that.......we got to the beach a couple times - she loves the water so she had a good time there.......and because she didn't nap, she was exhausted by bedtime and slept fairly well at night even though the nearby campsites were pretty loud at times.......and despite being drenched in bug spray, she somehow managed to get about 10 really bad mosquito bites.......they swelled up and seemed to really bother her......by monday she had a fever of 104 (scary stuff) and i'm convinced it was a reaction to the bites.......

she seems to be on the mend now, aside from not really wanting to eat anything at all.......she's on day 3 of her food fast and i'm starting to get pretty concerned.......she's getting stringbean like and i'm not loving that look on her.......she already wasn't eating great when she had the GI bug and didn't really need another bout of not eating.......she's even snubbing her favorites: fast food fries and hot dogs.......hoping her appetite will resurface soon.......she seems to be ok with drinking so we're just pumping her with milk, juice, and the occasional milkshake.......she's not so into my smoothies.......of course i'm not really good at making them so that might have something to do with it!.......

cross your fingers we've left all our germs and infections behind us and on the road to recovery!......