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September, 2009:

Milestone: I’m seeing double

It looks like we have tooth #2.  Well, almost anyways.  I couldn’t feel it last night but I could totally see it.  If it’s not poking out today I’ll be really surprised.

It’s hard to get a good look.  I don’t like sticking my finger in there.  As soon as I do he clamps down as hard as he can.  So instead I try to convince him just to open his mouth but he just sticks out his tongue.

I checked our memory book and E didn’t receive her first tooth until she was nearly 1.  Just a couple weeks before her first birthday.  She had been teething since September that year.  It took her nearly 5 months.  C has been drooling up a storm since May.

Milestone: C is for Clapping

On Saturday I noticed something new, C was clapping his hands.  I thought maybe it was something random but Sunday & Monday he kept clapping away.  The memory book has it listed as a milestone so that’s what it must be.  Go lil C.  Oh, the memory book.  That wasn’t really on my list of things to do before, but now it is.  I’ve been keeping up on dates but I need to get some more pix in there too.  And that reminds me, I need to get to the store and pick up some scrapbooks.  Cari was awesome at doing that.  I printed out the pictures but now I need to get ’em in a book.  I’m sure I’ll be able to find the time 😉

In the meantime, while C is clapping up a storm, E begged me to watch some video on the camera.  She’s a big fan of expensive technology.  She’s already mastered the digital camera so now it’s on to video. 

Digital camera’s are one thing…my video camera is another.  We’ve gone through three digital ones in as many years.  A single drop and they’re pretty much a loss.  So how different is it to put it in my daughters hands; it’s eventually going to break anyways.  Plus this olympus kind of sucks anyways (i wouldn’t recommend it).   On the other hand the canon we had, which we really liked, was dropped on carpet and stopped working immediately.  It’s just as much to fix the damn thing as it is to buy new.  I could throw a disposable across the room and it would still work, but not the $400 digital … wtf!  We were going to buy a new one b4 C was born but just didn’t have the xtra $$.

Anyways, so E is interested in watching our video.  I have more than 2 years of it…2+ years of memories, 2+ years of Cari.  I wish I had more but we only bought it right b4 E was born.

We’ve actually scanned through many of the videos over the past week.  But this weekend we came upon a particularly special one.  It was E two years ago almost to date.  Just about 7 months old and basically the same age as C today.  She was in the tub taking a bath with Mommy.  We watched the whole thing.  It wasn’t easy.  I’m so glad I have it, but it (they) is one of the toughest thing to do.  To relive the memory.  It was a good one though.  It also reminded me that it’s time to get the camera rollin for C.  So that night I took him and the camera into the bathroom and attempted to tape.  I think it turned out well.  But he’s new to sitting up on his own so keeping him from falling into the water while taping wasn’t that easy.  However, now that I think of it he’s never fallen over in the water but I’m always on edge waiting for it to happen. 

I was in the tub at first but then E insisted she come in too.  She climbed in herself, obviously no longer needing my assistance … YIKES!  I guess that means one more thing I need to worry about; getting into and out of the tub without me.  Before I had that protective barrier and knew she’d be in that same place…not any more though.  So now it’s E, C & me in the tub.  It’s a bigger tub but not that big.  I got some good footage while we were all in there but then I got out and was able to take some of the two of them together.  Super cute too! 

She’s an awesome big sister.  I imagine it’s extremely beneficial that they have each other.

A new bedtime ritual

We’re attempting a new ritual anyways

Before our world got turned completely upside down, we had our bedtime rituals pretty much down pat.  Ever since though it’s been tough to get back into any sort of constant routine.  I really need one just so I can get some me time before I pass out from pure exhaustion

But I think we might be close

As long as we are at home I’m able to enforce some sort of normal series of events.  Here’s where we’re at.

When it’s dark outside, that means it’s time to start thinking about bed.  I don’t know how daylight savings is going to impact that though.  I haven’t been able to eliminate the bottle yet so I’m using it to instill this semi-consistent routine.  Before we get a bottle we must do a few things.  Brush our teeth and go potty (we’re trying our best to get on the potty).  And then we get to read 2-3 books at the same time as the bottle.  Every so often after putting E into bed I have to make up some excuse about something else I have to do in order to leave the room without much complaint.  However, when I finally leave she’s usually out within a few minutes. 

Hopefully this means we’re making a little progress.  Although I would give anything to go back to May 19th and put everything back to the way it was supposed to be.

Remembering … a meal we liked to cook

Sitting next to the stove, the stove which I’ve rarely used as of late, is a gigantic bottle of vodka I bought for my brother’s wedding (which nobody drank, btw…wtf).  And as I’m cooking some plain penne noodles for E, I remember …

Penne alla Vodka from the Soprano’s Family Cookbook.  A totally random cookbook purchase but a very tasty meal.  This and a Rigatoni w/Broccoli dish were made at least once a month.

This meal is made with garlic, prosciutto (which Cari often skipped mainly because I don’t think she knew what it was), a can of italian peeled tomatoes, crushed red pepper, heavy cream, vodka and a pound of penne.  I probably could have recited that from memory but I went and got the cookbook anyways.

I cooked it first.  That’s usually how it went.  I was the cook @ the beginning.  She kept to the basics.  She cooked it for the first time when we lived up by wrigley.  I remember her either not having the cream or not enough so I ran over to Jewel as quick as I possibly could.  She was kind of sensitive when it came to cooking so it was a close call.  She didn’t want to mess up.  But ever since then we make it numerous times.

She was getting really good when it came to preparing meals though.  It was tough for me to work and come home and cook since my commute was like 1.5 hours ea way.  I think I’m crazy to deal with the commute especially since, in my opinion, I’m underpaid and very much underutilized.  But given the state of the economy I can’t complain…because it’s certainly better than nothing.  Although if I had the income I wouldn’t mind ditching the job for a while…a long while.  Anyways, back to cooking.  I really tried my hardest to get her to enjoy it.  It’s pretty easy to do once you have directions in front of you and a little confidence.  I always tried to get her to understand that it never mattered if ended up tasting like crap b’cuz we could always order pizza.  I certainly have cooked a bunch of sub-par dishes but it never bothered me.  I would just throw it out and cook something else.  She, on the other hand, didn’t want to disappoint so it was a challenge.  But we were getting there.  We would have gotten there.   And we should have been given the chance to get there.

Now I’m preparing meals for just me and the kids.  I really can’t believe she’s no longer here.

Remembering … that last night @ bowling

It was just our 2nd season of bowling.  It was our adult time.  Our friday out.  Something to do away from the kids for a few hours.  It was always a good time.  And we weren’t all that bad either. 

Living in the city, bowling was close to the bottom of our list of things to do.  But with kids, living in the burbs, bowling quickly moved on up (really anything that could give us a break was something we would consider).

That last night @ bowling.  The Friday before.  It was only our 2nd or 3rd week this season with a whole summer full of Friday nights at the alley to come.   Yeah, maybe a little dorky and certainly not our crowd, but it was our Friday and our time together.

It was obvious, and anyone there would have agreed, how very much in love we were.  Regardless of all the other crap going on, we were madly in love.  We were flirting up a storm.  9 years in and things were great.  We were exhausted though.  2 kids.  Multiple jobs just to try and make ends meet.  But we did whatever we could to put all that in the back of our minds.   We were probably going to wait a year or two for baby number 3 (even though we weren’t preventing per se), because 2 is tough, but we lived life as much as we could and were looking forward to the next 50+ years together.

Little did we know that everything would come to screaching halt just 4 days later.  If we only could have known.