Katie is 3

In the afternoon we went to Katie's birthday party. When I asked Casey what we should get Katie for her birthday, she answered emphatically, "CAKE!" Of course, what else. Casey had been looking forward to this party for weeks and she was not disappointed. Her other buddy Tobey (a.k.a. Bobo) from daycare was there too and the kids played really well together. There were lots of other kids there but the pictures I chose make it look like it was just the three of them.

.

When Casey saw the fourth picture she said, "Casey need help?"

Finally!

We finally got to see Brynnie B today after months and months! Either they were sick or we were sick but now everyone is mostly healthy. The girls had a great time drinking smoothies and getting pulled around in the wagon.

.

Before Casey could say Jeanine she used to point at her shoulders and say "Neen". I think that was the only person she made up a sign for. Now that she can talk I figured I should ask her what that meant before it's been so long that she can't remember. It's still an unsolved mystery. She just laughed and pointed to her shoulders and yelled "Jeanine!" All I can guess is that it's because Jeanine always has a giant backpack, but Casey used to point at her back and say "ba pa" for backpack, so I'm not sure.

Don't blame us

If we ever dine with you and Casey sticks the spoon to her nose, this is why. She was very impressed with Papa David's tricks. And she had a great time putting valentine stickers on her grandparents.

.

Every morning Casey woke up saying, "Nanna Papa?" This morning in the car she showed me where everyone sat when they drove my car to Home Depot yesterday.

.

It was the weekend for my day and a half trip to the spa with my girlfriends, and lucky for Casey she had so much extra attention while I was gone. Friday night was the first night where I didn't see her before she went to bed or when she woke up in the morning. I got lots of sleep, food, exercise, and time with my friends.

Mommy's Spa Day (Day 2)

[Eric posting] Today we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in SJ with Nana Carol and Papa David. We actually met up with Jonah and Baby-Ellie there. Really, though, she's less and less a baby every time we see her. They were literally thrilled to see each other.

.

Casey had a grand time - and, yes, the pictures above show her in 2 outfits. The water play area is guaranteed to soak the kids in spite on the smocks the museum provides.

Mommy's Spa Day (Day 1)

[Eric posting] Jamie is off for the day (and the night) for some much deserved spa-time with Max and Audra. Casey, Gramma, Grampa and I went up to the city today to check out The SF Academy of Sciences. There wasn't really much of a line, and the last time we went there were literally 2-3x the number of people, but it was still very crowded. Even so, the little girl was pretty in to the touch-pool. I love her expression in the last picture. ("Wow!")

She was pretty tired out by the time we walked through the aquarium and checked out the penguins, and I thought that she'd pass out on the way back to the car. But she ralied with a goldfish snack, so we decided to do a late lunch in the city. We headed on down to the Beach Chalet. We all helped Casey color her menu, and Casey had mac-n-cheese and a great moo-moo.

After a 2 hour-nap, she woke up to new books from amazon and a Nanna Carol to read them. A great day so far!

The Tao of Chopsticks

[Eric posting] Gramma Carol and Grampa David came for a weekend visit yesterday. (Or, if you are listening to Casey, "Nanna Cai-oh and Pappa Dah-wih!")

On their first night, we went out for Chinese and both Casey and Nanna Carol demonstrated their skills with their training chopsticks. Nice work, girls!

Dogs playing poker

Yesterday morning Casey had some gross ear thing going on. We made an appointment for her at the doctor; the soonest appointment they had was for 12:45. Before that I had to return my rental pickup truck to get my car back from the shop. Casey was thrilled to get to ride in the truck and pointed at every truck we saw on the way there. I think that was almost as fun as seeing the trash guy empty our trash. Then we went to the doctor and she was very brave. She let the doctor look in her ear and didn't even cry. I won't say there weren't bribes of orange lollipops, but she did really well. The poor girl has an ear infection and a ruptured eardrum. I felt so horrible. No wonder she didn't sleep well the prior two nights. The second night she said her cheek hurt and then said her ear hurt, and boy she wasn't kidding. The doctor said it's fairly common and that it will heal itself and that there is nothing we could have done to prevent it. I'm not sure if all three are true but I certainly wanted to hear them all.

Fun with Katie

Monday night Katie and Marie came over for dinner. The girls wanted to color so we got out the giant pad of paper. Katie started coloring and Casey stood right on the paper. I thought that could be trouble but somehow Katie knew that she was supposed to trace Casey's foot. Those girls have so much fun together.

Another rainy day

It was a rainy weekend. Since we had a holiday on monday we went to see Veronica and Ted and the kids. As soon as we arrived they were at the door with their stuff, apparently they were tired of being cooped up too. They told us we were going to the indoor play structure at Carls Jrs.

Adults weren't allowed in (you had to be over three years old and under four feet tall) and Casey was too short to climb from one level to the next, so Kyle (sweetest kid ever) lifted her up. Once Casey had a boost up a few times, she realized she could lift her leg up about as high as her shoulder and pull herself up. As soon as she had almost pulled herself up to the next level you would hear her yell out, "Yay!" and then she'd be up. It was pretty impressive. Very stressful to watch though, especially since there were tunnels and a tunnel slide at the top and we couldn't see where she was a lot of the time. We were trusting an almost six year old to tell us if it was safe for her!

Here are some pictures. They aren't the best pictures but at least they give you an idea of what she was climbing.

She's still talking about the incident at Pump It Up. "Mommy, girl pee peed. Why?" And, "Daddy go get man? Why?" I try to explain the best I can that kids don't always make it to the potty in time, and you'd think she'd understand THAT, but then five seconds later she asks again. I even tried, "Remember the bird poopoo on my car? How 'bout that time Mommy lost her credit card?" She will not be deterred. Finally I told her to go ask Daddy.

Actually, it's in my head too. That was so gross. I spent the whole time we were there alternating between trying to imagine all the possible things that could happen and trying not to think about them. Landing in a giant yellow puddle wasn't even on my list.

Girl likes to party

This afternoon we went to Pump It Up for Arjan's sixth birthday. Girl likes to party. She ran, she bounced, she climbed, she slid. It was crazy and so much fun. I was pretty impressed with how well she climbed and how brave she was. She did great with all the big kids.

.

She was doing so well on the obstacle course that led up to the big slide. It's really tiring and Eric and I kept taking turns following her. Since Casey could climb up the walls herself and then slide over the other side, I was hanging out behind her and taking a video while she climbed up. Eric was watching over the side and he yelled to me not to let her go over. I thought he was worried that I was letting her go over by herself and I assured him she was fine. He told me we had to wait and I climbed up and looked over and saw a little girl and a big yellow puddle. Eric pulled the girl over the wall and took her to her mom and totally saved Casey from sliding right into it. I still cringe (and gag) when I think of it. Daddy totally saved the day. The party would have been over for us. We took turns guarding the entrance to that slide until the staff closed that room and we went into the next room. I don't even want to think about how often that happens or how they cleaned it for the group that was 15 minutes behind us.

.

Near the end she wanted me to carry her and she started sucking on her hand and I thought she was done but it turned out to be an intermission and soon she was ready to go for another few rounds.

.

Then it was time for pizza and cake. Casey ate a lot (for her). Great party.

Lunch date

Today Casey and I went out with Audra and Cole for lunch. Casey was very excited to hear she had a date and all morning she kept telling me she was ready to see Auda and Cold. She brought a couple of books with her and made sure she had one of the tiny little books for Cole to read. She loves the little ones. She ate lots of tomato basil soup and she ate half of the little tub of butter from the basket of bread. Impressive.

.

Then we met Davina and Lisa for second lunch. Afterwards we all walked over to this place that has baby scales and I tried to weigh her but she tipped the scales. I couldn't figure out why the scale wouldn't work, and I wasn't giving up (there were two scales and I was trying them both), but then Lisa realized that they only go up to 24 pounds. So I guess she's more than 24 pounds.

.

Casey has two new dogdogs. Davina bought her a big one today and at daycare yesterday they let each of the kids pick a stuffed animal for Valentine's Day. Dede showed her all the choices: giraffe, teddy bear, dog... and of course we both knew what she'd pick. The owner of the daycare is always buying her dogs too. And getting Happy Meals so she can get a little dog prize to bring to Casey. She loves them all. I'm hoping the new big one will distract her from my teddy bear.

.

Casey called Tyler while we were walking. My little big girl.

Rainy day picnic

Last night Eric was out of town so Casey and I stopped to pick up a sandwich on the way home. I had to scrounge the quarters out of the ashtray in my car because when we went to the zoo I lost my credit card which is also my ATM card. The next day Casey went to the bank with me to order a new card and ever since she's been asking me, "You lost credit card, Mommy?" It doesn't sound exactly like that so after a few seconds I figure out what she asked and I say, "Yeah, I lost it." Then she asks, "Why?" The other question she's been asking lately is why there is "bo-ee poo poo" on my car. I said, "boy poo poo?" and she said it again and did the sign for bird. Birdie poo poo, got it. Thank goodness it's been raining and the poo poo is gone. I'm sure she'll forget about it in a few weeks.

.

We had a little picnic in the living room while we watched her favorite DVD, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Chicken Boom Boom) followed by Trashy Town (Mistah Gilly). Eric and I used to watch tv while we ate dinner every night pre-Casey but we decided that it would be a bad idea to do that once we had a kid. We'd all probably be happier not eating at the table, but anyway, Casey managed to eat a good dinner while sitting on the floor, watching tv, and eating a lolly she got in the mail from her friend Ashley. I told her to say cheese for the picture and she said, "No, I eating." She had to concentrate to keep that little sandwich together.

Happy birthday, Cami!

Last night we had a little party for Cami, who is turning 2 tomorrow! Eric made chili, I made cornbread, and all three of us made the cake. Max and Jonah brought Ellie over and she was a total party animal - she had a great time yelling and hanging out with the big kids. It's nice for Casey and Cami to be the big kids for a change.

.

In the last picture you can see a couple of things. Casey was very excited about the cake, no surprise, but in the bottom left corner you can also see the food that she served to our friend Karen. Casey kept coming back with more and telling her "I make this too." Kyle made sure to warn her that it was fake.

.

The kids played the "Goodnight Moon" game. (Don't they look like they know what they're doing??) Casey was playing it all weekend. It's for four players so before her friends arrived, DogDog and Tigger had to sit in. Casey was excited to play it with her friends. On the instructions it literally says that if your kid doesn't like it to try again in a couple of weeks. She got it in December but wasn't interested at all, and now she loves it. Just like the chili. Eric made chili a little while ago and she wanted nothing to do with it. This time she was eating chili out of Eric's bowl since we'd made ravioli for the kids, which she also ate. We need to weigh her soon.

Hayden

Here's Casey and her best buddy at daycare. They were happy to see each other when Casey got back from the dentist.

Dentist, take 2

If you don't get the answer you want, just keep asking until you get it, right?

I took Casey to a new dentist today. I asked four people for recommendations and three of them said Dr. Nick. He and all of his staff were so good with her. They talked to her (instead of just to me). He counted 20 teeth and she even let him floss her teeth and poke around with the dental tool, and let her hold the little mirror. (We often brush teeth with two toothbrushes, one for each of us.) He said we're doing a great job of brushing, aaaand,

* * * she has NO CAVITIES! I knew it! * * *

I asked if there was a cavity in the lower left and he said it's a stain and there is a little bit of a soft spot and he will keep an eye on it and it's probably fine. He said we should use a tiny bit of flouride toothpaste on it.

They had sent us a personalized kid-goes-to-the-dentist book narrated by dinobrush the dentisaurus (he has a toothbrush for a tail). It's a really really terrible book, but she likes it a lot. It has her name in it, for example, "I'll bet you like to snack on candy, Casey." Every time we read her name she says either "me?" or "ME!" They gave her a new toothbrush in a bag that had Eeyore and Tigger on it (Eeyore and DogDog were with us) so she showed it to Eeyore.

They put all kinds of stickers in her book (and on her) and then Dr. Nick told her that she was so good that she got to pick a prize from the treasure chest. She went over to the huge box with one of the assistants and picked something out while I talked to him. I was pretty surprised she went without me.

She picked the sidewalk chalk and sidewalk paint, in case you were wondering. They had pretty good prizes. I was wondering what she'd take.

Super Casey!

We've created a MMonster

Well, Casey has learned that if she pees on the potty 10 times she will get 10 M&Ms. Even if each time is only 5 minutes after the last time. Her eyes light up and she says "I want NS!" (That's how she says M&Ms.) I guess I'm impressed that she can keep that up because before she would just sit on the potty without doing anything while Eric or I sat on the side of the cold cold tub.

She wakes up in the morning with a grin saying "I want NS! I pee pee potty." We'll see how she does at daycare today. They give stickers and a sticker book. That would have been a good idea, if it motivates her.

Unfortunately she has a cold again. I don't know how it happened. I can hardly remember how many days she wasn't sick, but I know Friday at the zoo she was perfectly healthy. She's still happy and active but full of shnotty yuckness.

Yesterday we went to Target for a huge shopping trip and she was amazingly good. Walked along with us and helped put things in the cart. Later that night I commented on how good she'd been and she said, "I no run away, Mommy." Then we went out for Chinese food and she was incredibly good again. I think that was the best she's ever behaved in a restaurant. We brought her little trainer chopsticks and she did really well. She ate everything in sight.