Todd's Night Out

Todd was in town babysitting his niece Paige, and we met up at Great Lakes Crossing for dinner and playtime.
First, it was off to the Carousel, which is an absolute "must," every time we go to the mall.

Then, we headed over to the Rainforest Cafe. Caitrin used to really like this place, but the last few times we have gone, she has been afraid of the thunder and the gorillas. But, she and Paige both really liked being there. Todd and Paige:

Jeff and Caitrin:
After dinner, we headed back to the play area for a little while. The girls got along well, and had a great time playing around each other. They didn't necessarily interact, but they knew that each other was around.
I think we all had a pretty good time. And Todd is an excellent uncle. You'd never have known it was his first time babysitting! And now, every time we drive by GLC, Caitrin asks if she is going to play with her "friend Paige."

The Chuck Stops Here!!!

Caitrin is lucky to have the best aunties and uncles a girl could ask for. And her Aunt Patty is obsessed... with Chuckie Cheese, that is!

On a very cold day, Patty came over with the intention of going to the Chuckie Cheese on Dixie Highway. Apparently, though, that one is no longer there. We ended up in Rochester at the CC, after driving all over the place trying to find one. I think Patty was desperate to be the first one to take her there. And although I don't think she cared very much for the Big Cheese himself, Caitrin had a great time. And Aunt Patty did too... she even climbed up in the giant tubes with Caitrin! What a great aunt!

I collected all of the tickets... I think we'll save them up to get a giant inflatable princess couch or something like that.

Easter Sunday

Caitrin woke up on Easter to an Egg Hunt! And she was a good seeker, but next year, we need a list of where everything is hidden! Inside the eggs, she found Gummy Lifesavers, beaded bracelets, tattoos, and Tinkerbell socks!

After searching the house for all of the hidden eggs, it was onto the hunt for her Easter Bucket!! She was on a mission!

Found It!!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Pre-Easter with the Brunzell's

We were fortunate to spend an afternoon with Dennis Brunzell (our friend from way back in high school) and his 2 kids, Bridget and Aidan (Sorry, D, if I butchered the spellings...). Julie, his wife works for a well-known area Theatre, The Purple Rose, and was out of town for the weekend. Dennis was back in Romeo visiting his folks for the weekend, and rang us up to get together.

Dennis and the twins came over and shared a meal with us, and generally caught us up on their lives. Dennis is a high school guidance counselor (a job he is made for) and has the best stories about his students! We determined that we hadn't seen each other since our 10 year reunion in 2004. As pathetic as that is (the reunion and the lack of keeping in touch), it was really as if we hadn't talked since only the previous week. There are certain people that you fall back with easily, and he is one of them.

Dinner was a controlled chaos, with three about-2-year olds taking on three about 32-year olds. And after we ate, the kids got to work out some of their energy. Caitrin absolutely loved having kids to play with. Just look at that messy hair!

She almost seems to be directing them where to go. I think she gets that "bossiness" from me. Here she is hugging Aidan before they left.

Now, it's almost as if the Brunzell kids are saying, "Let's get out of here!"
The Brunzell Clan (minus Julie)
It was great to see them, and hopefully, we can get together again soon.

Tenting in the Family Room

Jeff usually works second shift, but since American Axle is on strike, his GM plant is not running production, so he has been working first shift this week. So, instead of waking up and getting to spend the first part of her day with her daddy, Caitie has to wait until he gets home from work.

Each morning this week she has come into our bedroom and asked, "Where's my father?" When I tell her that he is at work, she says, "He not at work," and proceeds to look around for him, under the covers, in the bathroom, in the closet...

So I tell her all day long that she will see him when she wakes up from her nap. Today, she especially missed him. Since it was Friday, we let her stay up a little bit later than normal so she could spend a little extra time with him.

I brought up her little IKEA Igloo tent from the basement and got them each a small pillow and a blanket. They settled into the tent in the family room and watched a movie, "Snow White." Now, Snow White is one of those movies that she says is "too scary," so Jeff had to skip through most of the beginning to get to the seven dwarfs. After that, they watched it intently together, while munching on popcorn.
Actually, it looks like Jeff is the only one that is in the tent.
Truly, she is her Daddy's girl. It's the most wonderful thing to watch them together.

Caitrin's New Friend

This is Caitrin's new friend, Cora. She was born in December to DJ and Kristen, who live all the way on the other side of the country. Kristen and Cora came to Michigan to visit the new Grandparents, and we had the opportunity to see them today.

Cora is a beautiful baby. I have been checking her mom's blog often, so even before I met her today, I felt like I already knew her. The internet is an amazing thing. Cora is a perfect blend of her parents, and Kristen is glowing.

It was a lot of fun to see Caitie interacting with another little baby. It is sad that Cora lives so far away. It would be nice to be able to let the girls grow up together and to get to spend more time with Cora's mom and dad.

Pirates, Ghosts, and Loud Noises

No More Scooby-Doo!



Well, it has finally happened... Caitrin has fear... First she was afraid of the Pirates at Auntie Sara's house, then, she was "afraid of everything (according to her)." And what is it she is afraid of these days? Ghosts!

I can't really figure out how she even knows about ghosts. Maybe from Halloween, but I doubt it. Ghosts weren't anything we talked about back on my favorite holiday. I wouldn't have wanted her to be afraid. Maybe from the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney. My more likely answer though is from good old Scooby-Doo.

Now, don't get me wrong... Caitrin's TV viewing is VERY, VERY limited. She gets maybe 1 hour of TV a day, give or take a Signing Time DVD.
(For those of you that aren't familiar, you need to check these videos out. They are amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how much I LOVE Rachel, Alex, and Leah. Caitrin is talking up a storm, recognizes most of her letters, and can sign an ever expanding amount of words. And it is fun to learn with her. http://www.signingtime.com/ )

We have our normal after nap routine... she gets up, goes potty, and then settles on the couch for her half hour of Curious George on PBS. And while I'm fixing her dinner, I was letting her watch Scooby-Doo on the Cartoon Network. Now, I remember loving the show when I was little. Granted, I was not 2. I also remember thinking that the show was a little scary, or at least suspenseful. I also thought that Fred was kind of cute, which is really strange to me now, being that he is a cartoon and all, and that I wanted to be Daphne, Patty was Velma, and poor Amy was Scrappy-Doo...
Anyways....

So bedtime rolls around and she gets in her pajamas and settles into bed. We read a few books, and then I sing a few little songs to her/ with her ... "Good Night Baby," "You are my Sunshine," "She'll be coming 'round the Mountain..." I turn on her Signing Time or Baby Signing Time CD's and her Tinkerbell night light. At this time she is telling me over and over, "Don't turn off the lights, mama." "Don't shut my door, mama." "Don't leave me, mama." She then says that she is scared. And when we talk about it, she says she is scared of ghosts.

Now, we have been having this conversation for a few nights and she then says, "No ghosts, only on Scooby-Doo." This is what I have been telling her, so she's got it in her head. (It worked with the Pirate fear... no pirates at Aunt Sara's house except on Halloween.)

Because I'm me, I did a bit of research and I know that at her age fear of separation from her parents is perfectly normal. It doesn't surprise me that she might be fearful of this, since she is rarely without one of us (but we're working on this!). Also, I found that most fear in 2 year olds is caused by loud noises (which could explain why her favorite phrase is, "what's that noise?"). Other common fears include fear of the dark, a bath, thunder and lightning, toilet training, animals, doctors, and strangers.

So she's perfectly normal, I know. But it kills me to think that this ghost thing was from something she saw on TV. I know I can't protect her from everything, but she's only 2. I want to protect her from as much as possible. I don't want her to even think about monsters at this point in time. I'd rather her be scared of a good rainstorm, than from some ghost she saw on a cartoon. So we made a deal last week... No more Scooby-Doo.

She asked for him today after Curious George, and then she reminded herself, "Too scary." So she strung some beads at the kitchen table instead until dinner was ready.

Hopefully this crying before bedtime bit won't last too long. It breaks my heart a little bit every time I have to leave her there in her bed. Caitrin and I have also compromised on leaving her door open. She whimpers for a few seconds once I walk away, but by the time I get to the end of the hall, she's quiet. And it is the last I hear of her until I check on her before I go to bed.
And then, she's my little sleeping angel.

Our Baby is a Little Girl!

Caitrin is growing up... there is no way to ignore or deny this. She is a tall girl... above the 100th percentile for height for her age. And she was outgrowing her crib. She also slept on a twin bed on the cruise with no problems, so we knew she was ready... It was time for us to make the jump to a big girl bed.

We spent the next few weeks searching every furniture store in the metro area for just the right bed. I wanted her to have a daybed since she has a pretty small room and I thought it would leave more floor space. Jeff had other ideas... he liked more traditional twin beds, and I think he secretly wanted bunk beds. So needless to say, we had a hard time finding just the right bed. Finally, we made the drive down to IKEA. And we found a bed we could both agree on. It's really cute, it has 3 drawers below it, and will even pull out when she has sleepovers.

So last Sunday, Jeff assembled the new bed. Of course, we were missing a piece, but it is a cosmetic one, and she is still able to stretch out and enjoy her new bed while we are waiting for it in the mail. Here are a few pictures from her first days in a big girl bed.

Reading with her dad before bed

Surrounded by all of her "babies"

Barrett checking it out:

Ivie and Barrett making themselves comfortable (maybe someday they'll sleep with her!):

Before I said goodnight, I told Caitrin that she needed to stay in bed in the morning until Mom or Dad came to get her. We gave her a few books to look at in the morning, like we used to do when she was in her crib. When I woke up in the morning, I could hear her jabbering away, talking about a crocodile. When I went in her room, to get her up, she greeted me with,

"Mom, look at my crocodile!"

After making her bed for the first time!
On Monday, Caitrin and I went to the Pottery Barn to get her a quilt and some pillowcases for all of the new pillows we had gotten. After I narrowed it down to three different choices, this is the one she picked. She also got a little bedside table!

Check out all of the pillows! (You can never have too many!)

We are so proud of this happy little girl!