Couch Potato

I was drying my hair this morning and Caitlin's nap unfortunately came to a quick end (again) - all she wanted to do was hang out with me. So I brought her down to our bedroom and turned on Treehouse to capture her attention while I finished. What did she do?

She climbed into the hamper in front of the TV! I came out of the bathroom when I heard her grunting, and there she was all chilled out. What a monkey!

You can tell by her glazed look that she's still fighting this nasty cold - it's not actually because she's a couch potato :)

Worst. Night. Ever.

Mike and I agree that last night was THE WORST night that Caitlin has ever had to date. Even when she was a newborn and she cried and we had no idea why, those days didn't have anything on last night.

She's come down with one heck of a nasty head cold. I got her to sleep tonight but 10 minutes later, she was up and full out balling. I know what it's like when your head feels like it's stuffed full of cotton balls and there's nothing you can do to make it feel better except take meds... which we gave her, but they made NO difference. My poor sweet child. I felt absolutely helpless. Usually mommy's magical arms instantly calm her, but she was trying to claw her way away from me only to scream in pain. It went on like this for almost an hour before I got her settled. Except when she did sleep, it was for 45 minutes intervals and the misery would begin all again. I only hope this will be a quick cold; it kills me to see my happy baby in such distress.

Of course, with such a terrible night, she woke up crying, cranky and with a temperature. Not Caitlin. Although she refused all naps today - save for 25 minutes this morning - Mike and I tried our best to keep her calm and happy. We even went for a drive to try to get her to sleep to no avail. We stopped by the grocery store for more Tylenol and daddy tried his best to make her laugh by taking her to the sunglass aisle (with some success!).

Big Anniversary

Today is our 5-year anniversary. WOW! I can't believe how quickly 5 years has come and gone. And so much has happened! Technically it's our 15-year anniversary because we got married 10 years to the day we started dating.

Happy Anniversary my love! Thank you for bringing so much life and love into our home :)

Here are the gorgeous flowers my groom got for me - they are absolutely beautiful.

We were planning on going out except our little munchkin has suddenly become quite sick. So we did take-out from our favourite restaurant, Chinook, and dined with a little girl with the sniffles instead.

We of course did an extra-quiet toast with ice wine after she went to bed :)

New Snowsuit

Yes, you heard right, it's snowsuit time!

Caitlin's grandma and aunties went a little crazy shopping for our munchkin, and got not only a fall jacket, a down vest, sweatshirt and pajamas, but a cute pink snowsuit too!

It might be August, but Caitlin had fun trying on her new winter garb:

She had fun colouring afterwards... just look at the concentration!

She was quite proud of her pretty princess - particularly the permanent marker on her fingers :)

And then snacked on some delicious watermelon. Her fav!

When we got back from the cottage yesterday, I hosted a baby shower for my friend and Caitlin's godmother, Janina; she's due in a about a month so it's officially countdown time!

Weekend Fun

Caitlin had her friend, Caleb, up to the cottage this past weekend. The two of them had a blast banging away on the xylophone and reading Cottage Life magazines:

It was a nice getaway but unfortunately he was pretty sick - we managed a couple boat rides nonetheless!

The kiddies even got to drive Grandpa's big boat:

I had to run into town at one point to grab some ingredients for lunch, and I left Caitlin with my parents. When I came back, they were laughing hysterically, and I got to witness photographic evidence of some tom-foolery while I was gone!

And with the constant battle of getting Caitlin to eat and drink, Grandma figured out a great way to get Caitlin to take her sippy willingly this weekend... host a tea party!

Ahhh... delicious milk!

I did manage to feed her... but it was more like dinner and a show with toys at the table.

Visitors

Caitlin, Mike and I had some very special guests from BC for the past three days; my friend Emily and her two kiddies! We had a great visit with her 2 and-a half-year old, Liam and new little guy, 2 month-old Rhys.

Our little munchkin enjoyed playing with her new friend, and even showed him around the neighbourhood in her Rolls Royce of a wagon. It was hard to get a picture of them both smiling at once because they were at the park and neither wanted to be restrained :)

Yaa, swings!

The pea gravel at the park was lots of fun to sift through…

We vowed to make a trip to British Columbia to see her digs – hopefully it will be soon!

Shop-o-holic

We did a trip to Chapters tonight for a quick browse through the children's section. Caitlin had a great time – she's such an avid shopper!

She just loved pushing the cart and looking at all the interesting books...

We purchased a 'belly button' book because she's learned where hers is, and loves to pull her shirt (and everyone else's) to see it!

Twins!

The last two monarchs have hatched... we have twins!

We came downstairs this morning to find two butterflies ready to pop out any minute...

We had our breakfast, and they made their magical appearance!

They sunned themselves to dry their wings, and before Caitlin went down for her morning nap, she said goodbye and wished them well on their trip to Mexico :)

Have a safe flight you two!

Test Results

So the results from Caitlin's blood and stool tests? Negative for everything. Which is good news, but I was hoping something would show up which would explain why she's still having diarrhea/loose stools; then we could treat and be done with it.

Her doctor says that gastroenteritis can take upwards of 3 months to heal, so we're to keep plugging away with the lactose-free milk and hopefully that will help her bowels heal because she's obviously got a lot of inflammation, and the lactose is aggravating it. She also pointed out that even snacks contain skim milk powder (like Mum-Mum's and cereal bars) so we have to stay away from those too and read all labels.

Damn! I've been giving those snacks to her all this time… Stupid mommy!

Rainy Day

The weather was yucky today so we pretty much stayed indoors with the girls - save for a quick boat ride to see the Pirate Cruise on the Wenonah. We all dressed up and joined in the festivities!

Except we had to bee-line it back to the cottage because the dark sky threatened to drench us while we were out. It did start to rain on the way back, so Dani's daddy Jeff broke out the poncho… but we all agreed it wasn't the most practical thing to wear with lots of wind.

When we got back, Caitlin tried to convince me she's a big girl now…

And so did Dani!

Before we left, we tried to take a nice picture of all of us. Except neither of them would stay still, and the only one that turned out was the one where Caitlin was pretending she was a deer.

While we were outside, grandma taught Caitlin how to splash in puddles…

But the sweetest thing that happened this weekend (aside from the delicious butter tarts), was when she learned what a chickadee says: 'de de de!'

Now she has another animal sound to add to her growing repertoire :)

Cottage Babes

Caitlin invited her friend Dani up to the cottage this weekend, and with such great weather today, they had a blast! They played at the kiddie table…

Got lubed up with suntan lotion…

And went for a nice boat ride!

Dani's mom Tanya even two-fisted the babes so I could get a picture of both of them (although Caitlin was on the verge of falling asleep with the gentle rocking in the boat).

It was a great day with lots of giggles, chasing and snacks.

Waiting Results

I called our doctor this morning to get the results from Caitlin's tests, but of course, they won't disclose them over the phone so we'll have to wait until Monday's appointment. It seems that she's doing better; whatever she has is now waxing and waning. I switched her over to the lactose-free milk as per her doctor and have also been giving her pureed food and they've definitely made a difference… I guess it's because purees are just easier to digest. I'll continue them for a little while – I'm just glad we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

That aside, I did mountains of laundry today and Caitlin helped out. Well she mainly played dress-up with daddy's clean underwear :)

Butterfly!

I came down to the kitchen this morning to a very dark chrysalis, so I knew that Caitlin's first monarch was about to make his appearance. I had to take her back upstairs for a quick change and by the time I came downstairs, he was already out and drying off!

She got to eat her breakfast with her new pal :)

He continued to ready himself all morning, and when Caitlin went down for her morning nap, he was ready to start this flight. I helped him out of our little butterfly aquarium and he crawled up my arm and flew away with the breeze.

Bye bye Mr. Monarch!