Cambri Is All Grown Up!

I'm kind of having a baby crisis. Now that I can have any more kids, I really, really want one. While my reasons for not having anymore still stand, I feel like my little baby is slipping away because she will FIVE months old on Monday. Last night I woke up and I was sad that Cambri is growing so fast. It was two in the morning and those hardwood floors feel cold that time of the day, so I woke Chase up and sent him to go get her. Which he did. And she was so happy to see me that it made my day.

Changing Diapers

I think most parents would probably agree that changing diapers is not one of the most desired tasks. And it's not one of those things that you can do once and get a nice long break from which helps you slowly start to forget the torture. Like labor. Or football season.

So when Isabelle volunteered to change a diaper, who was I to stop her? I thought it might be a good experience. And it probably was for her. But not for little Cam Cam. If you think she looks uncomfortable in the picture above, then your surveillance skills are spot on and you can go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back. Isabelle treated my poor baby like she was a freakishly limber carnival side show. And her unmotherly parent was too busy taking pictures to attempt a rescue mission.

What you don't see in any of these pictures is the pile of diapers on the other side of the baby. This photo montage seriously took about 20 minutes to get through because Izzy would pull out a diaper, try to put it on and fail because she had no idea what she was doing. Which I find rather remarkable as she has been in the diaper business for 3+ years. But after she worked with a diaper for a few seconds, she would announce that it was intrinsically flawed as it was too small, too big, broken, not shaped the same way as baby or it made Cambri cry because she didn't like it. In case you are wondering, Cam Cam was crying because her ankles weren't made to bend 180 degrees. But alas, Izzy did finally complete her first diaper change (semi) unassisted and when she needs to do it again 30 years from now, she will be (semi) qualified. 

The Perfect Wife

Can I just say that I work with some amazing people? I love coming to work mainly for my coworkers. At both malls, I consider these people to be my friends above anything else. But lately I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have two especially wise ladies that I can count on to keep my head clear and my mind focused on the bigger pictures of life. Kelly is sooooo smart! One of the things I like best about her is her ability to look past the actions and see the intent of any given situation (especially of husbands, its her gift ;). Trust me when I say there have been a lot of times when I have been grumbling about people when she makes me see that said persons heart has been in the right place. For example, I once told her how frustrated I am because I will try to do nice little things for Chase, like buy him something special at the grocery store or run an errand for him, but he never seems to reciprocate without being asked. And she pointed out that if I was only doing it to receive something in return then I wasn’t doing these things for the right reasons and that when you give a gift, you really shouldn’t expect anything in return or it’s not really a gift. Like I said, I love her because she is so smart! She has listened to me so long some days that most people would probably have told me to take a hike. But she never does. She lets me vent and then points out the most insightful things that really add value to my life. And I also have Sherri. Let me tell you, Sherri has sent me home in tears more than once. Not because she has been mean or anything but because she makes me think about hard things. Just last week, she told me that the biggest obstacle for her in getting over her husbands passing is looking back and seeing little things that she would have changed and situations she would have reacted differently in. And now she is working on fixing them moving forward in her current relationships but what she really wants to do is go back and correct them for him, which isn’t possible. This of course got me thinking about things I would want to do differently. And it’s not too late for me, so I shouldn’t wait. I seriously woke up at 2 am bawling because I was remembering times where I have been a little too demanding and EXTREMELY unforgiving and I don’t want to wake up here on earth one day without Chase and have to remember these things. I keep telling Sherri that she is my therapist and it’s her job to teach me her life lessons. I’m sure she enjoys the job (insert sarcasm here). But she has always been very open and that is one of things I appreciate the most about her. Now don’t you all see how lucky I am? If someone could combine these two ladies in my head, Chase would have the perfect wife.

Thanksgiving 09

These are the only pictures I have of my last baby's first Thanksgiving. I forgot to charge my camera. But on to the point. I talked my ever willing, ever loving husband into coming to the mall with me to get everything ready for Black Friday early so I could sleep in for an extra hour. He graciously agreed. I had to put up directional posters so we loaded everything on to a flatbed. As we were rolling through the mall, Izzy was doing death leaps off the cart. When Chase sees Izzy rolling down her window in the car, you would think the world is ending because he is screaming about lost limbs. But death leaps off the cart? Not that big of deal. He was laughing and pushing the cart faster down the CERAMIC TILE. It's funny what battles we choose to fight...

Chase Vs. Katie

Chase's weekend view.

Katie's weekend view.

Chase was among his people at Invesco Field @ Mile High.

I was among my people at our little home on Royal Avenue (it's not as luxurious as it sounds and yes, we oft run around with our tutu's on).

Ironically, we both dealt with a lot of screaming

Chase is sooooooooooooo spolied. He got to fly to Denver to see the Broncos play while I stayed at home.

Can I just say how much I love my husband? He deserved the trip because he works harder than any other person I know.

I know that I usually get caught up in my kids when I start to write. It really is a curse sometimes because as much as I love the girls, I sometimes forget to note the other good things in my life. Chase has been at work for three weeks (which means that I’m at work, on call or otherwise up to my elbows in diapers 24 hours a day but this really is more about him) and he is so committed to our family that he is already out there working with his brother on a new project. He really never stops. Whenever I get caught up in something bigger than myself (current project: A Burke Family Christmas, check back later for more details) he is always there to remind me that I am a better person for knowing him and loving him. I am so lucky!

The Media Does This To Me!

I think I have the swine flu.

My body aches, my throat hurts and I can barely move. I'm half tempted to run to the doctor so that he can make me feel better. But the sad thing is that I probably don't have the swine flu and I'm just becoming worked up because everywhere I turn I'm hearing horror stories. I swear that the media makes my life more difficult! My doctor actually recommended to me that I pull back a little bit from different news outlets because they STRESS me out! Hearing about this pandemic 24/7 makes every symptom seem life or death.

I think I just need a nap.

A Christmas Carol

Last night I took Izzy to see A Christmas Carol. We were so sick all weekend that all we did was lay around and try to recover. When I asked Izzy if she wanted to go, she asked if her daddy was “abaylable” to take her. When I said no, she said she was “unabaylable” to go with me. How do you like that? I lovingly carried her inside me for nine months, undergoing horrible heart burn, swollen body parts and losing everything that used to be symmetrical but I’m not qualified to take this child to the movies. I have to cut her a little bit of slack as Chase has been gone for going on three weeks now and we are all starting to feel the ache. But on with the story. When she decided I could take her, she would only go it she could wear her cowgirl boots. My brother-in-law was completely horrified that I would let her leave the house wearing them. I tried to tell him that as long as she wasn’t walking around with her underwear on the outside while sporting a tin foil hat, I wasn’t inclined to argue with her. When we got to the movies, Izzy said, “Hey this is the place Daddy takes me. Is he here?” What do you say? I have no idea but when I figure it out, I will let you know. The movie was actually pretty good but not quite as light and airy as the Mickey Mouse version. When we got into the theater, she sat one seat away from as not to risk humiliation of her preschool chums seeing us out in public together. By the time ghost one appeared, she was next to me. By ghost two, we were holding hands. Ghost three landed her right in my lap with her eyes peeking out from behind her chubby little fingers. I felt like I was traumatizing the poor thing but she didn’t want to leave. I’m glad I didn’t take her to the 3D version because life long nightmares probably would have taken hold. Why can’t these Hollywood types leave well enough alone?

Not Picasso

Well everyone, after a week off, I have a plethora of things to write about. But what I need help with now is releasing some guilt. My child loves to draw and she uses her mediocre ability to churn out at least a 100 “projects” a day. And lucky me, her preschool thinks enough of her talent to save them for me. Every single day, I dread opening her locker because I know I will have a ton of extra paper to haul home with me, hence the problem. I feel bad about getting rid of them. But my entire fridge is covered. My car is full. I have no more room but after they have taken the time to teach her, written her name on them and trekked them to the locker for me, I feel like a bad parent not keeping them, like I'm not as vested as some parents. But the clutter is starting to pile up and this in not a good thing. I want to leave my adult daughter a legacy of her childhood but this is getting out on control as she is by no means a child prodigy. So someone either needs to tell me its ok to throw them out or offer me a name of a good storage company. HELP!

I Hate Toys “R” Us

Hate may be a strong word for a store that I don’t believe to be intrinsically evil. But they know how to market to children and they take full advantage of the power. I have tried very hard to keep Izzy primarily focused on PBS for this reason as well. Toy commercials do weird things to kids. But back to the point of this story, yesterday Toy “R” Us released their “Biggest Big Book Ever!”

I woke up yesterday morning to my daughter saying, “Grandma, will you buy me this? And this? And this?” To which my mother was responding with, “We’ll see. We’ll just have to see. Is that all you want?” When Grandma failed to tell her what she wanted to hear, she just skipped right over me and went straight to Dad. When I heard her little voice on the phone say “Daddy, will you buy me the pink car?,” I should have known I was in trouble. I start hearing Chase say something to the effect that if Izzy is really good for Mom this week and used the toilet, he would take her to the store when he got home for her pink car.

I was screaming NOOOO inside my head and trying to get the phone from Izzy. Because while I’m sure Chase assumed he was committing himself to something like this:

He actually agreed to buy this.

I guess I'm in a predicwhat.