Goodnight Caitlin

Our neighbors have halloween decorations up in their front yard this
month. Nothing ghoulish, but just scary enough to be intriguing for
the little Walch girls. Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? These
girls are like Scout and Jem always sneaking out to poke around at Boo
Radley's house.

Caitlin (2) cried and cried at bedtime last night asking for her
dolly. She already had her favorite dolly… and her birday, and her
rocky dog, and her star bear, and her glow worm, and her other bear,
and her favorite pink polka dot blanket. Then she got more specific
and said "little dolly still in car". So, Joe went out and found her
other little dolly and brought it upstairs. Caitlin hugged her little
dolly and said "It's okay dolly. No more scary Halloween."

Mystery solved. She's like the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine to
go seeking the one lost sheep.

It also makes me smile when every day Caitlin loads all the
beforementioned friends into her toy wagon and hauls them around the
house and insists on dragging them upstairs when shes up, and
downstairs when she's down (usually causing a scene half way when she
and the wagon get stuck). And if ever she wakes up in the middle of
the night, it takes her three trips to bring all her friends into our
room. Now I've drawn the line when she wants to bring her growing
menagerie into bed with me. Funny girl.

Morning Conversation with Miriam

Miriam (4): I had a bad dream last night.
Mom: Were you scared?
Miriam: Yes, and my elephant and hipo were scared too, and even my
blanket was scared.

Reporting on a Wonderful Saturday

Heading to bed very happy tonight. We sure packed a lot of fun into
today, so much fun that I don't think we're even missing Miriam's
cancelled T ball game…

We started off with a pirate and princess themed birthday party for
the Jenks twins. Tons of kids. Joe missed part of the action since he
was helping clean the church, but that was good too I suppose.

Next we moved on to kitty cat shopping at the animal shelter with
Grandma. We picked up a pair of mouse munchin moggies (my words not
hers) to keep the rodents at bay. Plus, Grandma's house has been
pretty quiet since the recent loss of the old boxer dog Rocky and the
other kitty that wandered. Looking forward to fun with the new ginger
and calico duo.

Next Joe and I scored free Fiesta Texas theme park passes and a
generous Grandma who kept the kids for the afternoon while we rode the
roller coasters. This was an unexpected diversion that beat the
previous plan to wash the car and prepare Sunday school lessons. Time
later for that.

Got home in time to pick up our usual babysitter and we took the
tandem out for an early evening bike ride, then finished off by
bringing home pizza and watching a movie. Kids safely tucked in bed
long ago.

Best day we've had in a long while.

Remembering Caitlin's Birth

Caitlin is about to have her second birthday: Here's me filling in the
gaps from the few notes I jotted down two years ago...

Babies don't often arrive on their due date, but Caitlin did.

09/30/11 The day previous
I walked to the Lockheed Martin park about 1.5miles away with my
neighbor, Sharlyn Richardson, (a sheep farming girl from Idaho. Miriam
and Sharlyn's son, Travis, were best friends and we spent a lot of
time together either at church, at the apartment pool at River Park
Place or out on the Trinity Trail biking, walking or running. We were
the resident stroller brigade.). So at nine months pregnant I was
still out walking the trail with Sharlyn, and upon arrival at the
park, the parking attendant made some comment that I don't remember,
but as we continued Sharlyn told me with a smile, "You know, I've
delivered hundreds of lambs." We both really laughed at that and hoped
she wouldn't have to try out her skills on me. It wasn't until the
next day that we realized how close we could have been to that
situation though…
Joe and I drove an hour that night to the Ikea furniture store and
stayed up late building a set of drawers and a book shelf. I guess it
was the nesting instinct working against us. We stayed up until about
2am, and then I sprang awake at 4:30am when my water broke! (I leaped
so fast that I made it without getting my sheets wet; I went from
sleeping, to feeling a pop, and then I was in the bathroom five paces
away.) The contractions started coming every couple of minutes.
Although they weren't yet painful, I had to lie down to calm myself
while Joe got dressed and helped me get a little cleaned up. Sharlyn
came to the rescue and stayed with sleeping Miriam while Joe and I
went to the hospital at 5:30am.

10/01/11 The nurses took one look at me with a towel wrapped around my
lower half and all made the correct conclusion; I was ready for the
delivery room.

My first pain was around 6:30am. I received an epidural shortly after
that (I could have withstood it a while longer, but why not right?).
Active labor began at 8am and before thirty minutes (barely enough
time to savor the occasion) Caitlin arrived! I was so surprised and
felt a bit cheated that it didn't last longer (something I'm sure I
would have been overjoyed about if not for the pain blocker). Until
then I assumed labor would always be like the three hour full body
workout Miriam required.

After greeting our beautiful newborn girl, my next thoughts were,
great—we're all here in plenty of time for the Saturday morning
session of LDS General Conference. So efficient. We listened via
internet and iphone in our comfy hospital room, by chance the same one
we stayed in when Miriam was born. The other coincidence not yet
listed is that the delivery nurse's dad lived in Toowoomba,
Queensland, Australia. Such a small world.

I had prayed for a speedy recovery, and I really received it. It
seemed like I was in far less pain and able to move myself much
quicker than after Miriam's birth. the whole event was seemless
really. I was spoiled and I know it.

Good, Bad, & Ugly

July 4th was fabulous. Joe had an unexpected day off and we went to
the Fredericksberg parade. The girls were so cute with their arms
around eachothers shoulders and waving their little flags. We also had
kolaches (Czech hotdog things), doughnuts, and raspberry snowcones for
lunch, barbecue for dinner with Joe's mom, and a wild neighborhood
fireworks show at night. Seriously, when it comes to fireworks, these
Texans are nuts! It's a wonder none of the houses on our street caught
fire.

Now for the bad and ugly in no particular order; Miriam gave herself
and Caitlin haircuts and Caitlin threw my iphone across the room and
cracked the screen. I was so mad I had to put myself in timeout.

Now circling back to the good stuff... I bottled a couple of boxes of
fresh Fredericksberg peaches with joe's mom in preparation for Lorna's
wedding. We're having cobbler for dessert. I marvel at the skills of
previous generations. Makes me want to go read the Anne of Green
Gables series again.

Pretending to Swim

I heard Caitlin screaming downstairs; The expanation I got from Miriam
standing there with her floatie was "I was pretending to go swimming
and Caitlin was pretending to be the pool. I was diving in."

Triathlon Here We Come!

I neglected to tell you all earlier, but tomorrow joe and I are doing
our first mini triathlon! I just found out two weeks ago that a nearby
neighborhood is putting one on, so we signed up. We'll see how we do.
It starts with a 5km/3.1mi run, then a 16km/10mi bike, and a
400m/437yard swim. Hopefully this doesn't do me in! I think I'm ready
enough so long as the swim part goes alright. Joe has the advantage of
running with me at about half his usual pace, so he should be nice and
fresh for the other legs. This is a fun event to celebrate our 10th
wedding anniversary which is this coming week.