Florida Ladybug

Our little Nugget turned a year old last week. As a friend said “it’s kind of great and bittersweet day”. Great, because you just can’t help but smile when you think or look at Katherine and bittersweet because it all seems to have gone too fast. Yes, I’m a bit emotional about the whole thing.

We’ve had lots of firsts from first breath outside of Mommy’s tummy, to first time holding her head up, sitting up, rolling over, crawling, standing... As it was happening I remember thinking “when is she going to X”… and then she did and I’d think, “next up will be Y”… All along enjoying the moments, but not realizing how quickly they were passing by. I keep looking for her “pause” button or a “rewind” and alas I can’t find it. It seems the only buttons there are, are fast & faster. Year two will be slower, right?

This week we had another first. Stephen and I thought for sure we’d be buying dentures on Katherine’s 5th birthday because we didn’t believe she’d ever get a tooth. Well, she did! On her first birthday!! How cool is THAT? We were playing on the floor and I happened to see a little bump on her bottom gums. I grabbed her up and started rubbing her gums with my fingers… Jackpot!!! We have a tooth! It was around 7:45 am and we’d taken the day off from work so we were still in our PJs. Stephen was outside mowing the lawn (since we weren’t going to be home for 5 days). PJs and all Katherine and I RAN outside to show Daddy. Okay, maybe Katherine didn’t run but she did hold on for dear life in a manner that said something like “oh my goodness my mother’s lost her mind”. Daddy was just as excited as we were. We think. He was covered in dirt and was sweaty so we didn’t get too close.

For breakfast, (well, breakfast #2) she had a munchkin. Chocolate. She liked it. A lot. Only one though! After the sugar high from the weekend before I didn’t want her to go too crazy since we weren’t home. For Katherine’s birthday dinner we had her favorite. Pizza. Girl after my own heart. She chowed down on a whole slice. While Katherine was napping Stephen prepped the car and I packed our things to go to Florida. Another first for the week included Katherine getting a new “toddler” carseat that she can sit facing forward in. She’s a mere two pounds away from the maximum weight for her infant seat so we decided to switch it out for the long drive. We wanted her to be able to stretch out. She’s got a lot of room to grow into this one!! We look at her in this carseat and remember how she looked this little in her infant carseat a year ago… Another bittersweet moment.

We started our drive to FL on Friday at around 3:50am. We arrive around 2:45-ish. The first 5 hours or so went great. The next 5… sloooooow! Katherine wasn’t such a fan of napping we stopped a few times to give her a break, change her diaper, etc. Needless to say getting her back into the carseat involved a bit of a melt down each time.

We stopped at the hotel to unload some of the “stuff” and then headed to Tootsie & Pop’s house. Aunt Jacki was waiting at the front door. I don’t think she’d been waiting there all day, but then again, I didn’t ask.

Katherine wasted no time in wrapping Tootsie & Pop around her wee fingers. I think it happened within nano seconds of the arrival. All she had to do was look and smile or giggle and it was all over. I’d try to act tough here, but really, you all know better. Although I do occasionally use the word “No” – I’ve learned that’s not a word that need be a part of a Grandparent’s vocabulary.

Katherine spent Friday and Saturday night with Tootsie & Pop in their bedroom. Yes, Mommy left Katherine both nights. And I didn’t even arrive on the doorstep at 6am waiting for her to wake up. It was Grandparent/Auntie time until after her morning nap. Katherine I’m sure was digging it. Aunt Jacki lovingly prepared Katherine’s favorite breakfast food (french toast) and gave her baths; Tootsie made her a bagel with some butter (I’m told it was just a little… but I’m not sure we define “little” in the same manner. Hehe) and some sausage. I’m sure Katherine loved her breakfasts… I’m not sure about bathtime. I only witnessed one bath (post cake) and the scene involved some crying. Aunt Jacki swears she did no physical harm. I’m sure the other baths were different, right Jacki? :P

I did make Katherine’s ladybug cake for her party. I think it turned out cute! I was pretty pleased with it – for it only being the 2nd time I worked with fondant. I don’t really know how it tasted because after messing with it so much I didn’t really care to eat any of it. I know the fondant wasn’t so much so good, but I’m told the cake was okay. And if it wasn’t, everyone fibbed and took one for the team quite nicely!! Even Katherine ate some cake – via a cupcake. She destroyed the cupcake. Two fistfuls that she’d shove into her mouth – in some cases at the same time. She didn’t wear nearly as much icing this time around (since there wasn’t as much to wear), but that didn’t seem to minimize the volume of mess!

Katherine got some pool time in this weekend too. She does love the water! In fact, this weekend she even put her face in the water – on her own. And believe or not, she didn’t attempt to drink the pool. She was trying, we think, to blow bubbles. Good sign!! Maybe we do need to go back to Mommy & Me. I didn’t think she was getting much out of it, but perhaps she did!!

We decided that we were going to leave by 6am on Monday so Katherine came back to the hotel with us on Sunday night. She went right down to bed – thank goodness – but she was up and chatting at 5:30am. Stephen and I were tip-toeing in the dark of the room when we hear a little shuffling. Next thing we know Katherine’s standing up in the crib, smiling and chatting away. Ma ma ma ma Da da da da ayayayayaya. She was clearly ready for playtime. When we carried her out to the car and started driving I thought for sure she’d fall back to sleep. Nope. She just stared at me. Big blue eyes… watching me, as if to say – Mommy, you’re still sleepy???

We arrived home by around 6pm and it was at that point that I learned a VERY valuable lesson. One that I will share with you in the hope that you too do not make the same mistake. You see… we were running low on diapers. We had 3 diaper s and 3 lil swimmers to make it through the day. We had a case of diapers at home so the thought of buying more diapers in a border line size, didn’t really appeal to us. So we thought… We’ll use the 3 regular diapers first and then use the lil swimmers. Here’s where it gets bad. Really bad. APPARENTLY, lil swimmers diapers don’t hold anything in EXCEPT, poop. Which I’ll be the first to say – in a pool – very important to hold that in should there be any. HOWEVER, I had NO idea that it didn’t hold in pee. Katherine wore a lil swimmers diaper for 2.5 – 3hrs. In that time I think she peed more than she ever has in her life. Cumulative. When we got home and I picked her up out of the carseat I initially thought – Oh my goodness!! You’re so sweaty!!! Then as I felt/smelled I realized, no ma’am. That’s not sweat. What you say was in the lil swimmers diaper? Nothing. Every last pee filled drop was either on her or in her carseat. The new one. Down to the foam. She was quite a happy little girl for being covered in pee. You never would have known it (and clearly I didn’t) as we were coming home. We played, she giggled, we sang songs, etc… never even suspected that the diaper was holding nothing.

This does of course enlighten me to another event that took place last week at the pool. Katherine was sitting on my lap with a towel wrapped around her. I felt something warm. I said “little girl did you just tinkle”? She giggled. Apparently she had. On my leg.

Note to Tootsie & Pop: Might want to increase the chlorine in the pool today. Katherine surely “left her mark” in there.

Note to self: Never use lil swimmers as a “sub” for a regular diaper. Bad call. Very bad, wet, call.

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