Owies and proper procedure

For a long time, whenever Kaitlyn hurts herself, instead of rushing to her and asking if she's okay, we'll celebrate the incident. For instance, a fall when learning to walk is celebrated with "Bravo!" and clapping of the hands. We're trying not to make a big deal of the fall since that generally seems to add to the tears, but at the same time, we want Kaitlyn to know that we saw what happened and are there for her if she truly needs it.

Kaitlyn's new thing when she hurts herself is to ask if she's okay. A knock on the noggin will prompt an "Okay, mommy?", to which I respond, "I'm okay baby, are you okay?" Today we had a couple of spills and chills. I think she's getting another ear infection which certainly isn't helping any balance issues she might have. When I went into her room to get her to start our day, she was crawling to see a cat ("KEEEETY" in Kaitlyn's world) and banged her elbow. She said "K, mommy?" to which I responded "Okay, baby. Are you okay, do you need a hug?" She came up to me so I was all prepared to give her a hug. She shoved her elbow in my face and said "Muah!" I took that to mean she wanted me to kiss it, so kiss it I did and she went about her merry way.

Later, she tumbled out of the chair she got for her birthday.. She's still learning the balancing points of the chairs, so there have been some falls as she works to figure everything out. So, the blue chair tips over, scaring her and sending her scrambling for comfort. I snuggle her, wipe her tears and she gets down to finish her breakfast (priorities, people, priorities). Does she get back in the blue chair, the chair she fell out of? No sir, says she. She gets in the red chair and reorganizes everything on the table so she can finish her breakfast from there. It was the blue chair's fault, you see, and she will punish it by no longer sitting there. That's my girl! Always figuring out a way to get what she wants!

Curse you Wiggles!

Many people know that we are blessed with a child who loves to sleep in. It's not uncommon for her to sleep until 8:30 am. I often take advantage of this and sleep in myself. I was looking forward to sleeping until at least 8 this am, as we were up late for an ER visit for Brent (more on that later). And by we, I mean Brent and I, otherwise, Kaitlyn would probably STILL be sleeping.

7:30 am, the most shrill sound starts coming from Kaitlyn's room. I should note that she is VERY good about playing in her room until she's ready for us to come get her. What was that shrill sound sending chills down my spine you may ask? None other than the Wiggles in their big red car. I groaned and rolled over, but those Wiggles persisted! They were relentless! All around they went in their big red car. They bob up and down, the wheels turn and they drive all around as long as you want them to, singing the whole time! Who is that cheerful that early in the morning??? None other than the Wiggles, my friends. Apparently Kaitlyn wanted them to be world travellers as she sent them on the journey every 30 seconds! By 8:00 am I was done. As I clawed my way out of bed, I had the brief thought that I would exile the car to Miss Lida's to disappear forever. Kaitlyn, for her part, would have been THRILLED to take the car to Miss Lida's. The anguish faded and I reconsidered. However, I will be taking the Wiggles out of Kaitlyn's room tonight and will replace it this weekend so her father can experience that particular ring of hell.

As for Brent's trip to the ER, it was the best ER trip I've ever had! It took longer for Uncle Chris to get to our house than it did for Brent's trip to the ER. 11:00 pm, he staggers upstairs, limping and gasping in pain. He was doing the EA Active workout and felt a pop. When I asked him what it felt like he said "It felt like one of the cats punched me in the back of my calf." "One of the cats?" I asked. "Yeah, it was this big POW in the back of my calf. I looked around to see what cats were in the area." (Readers, I'd like you to consider the likelihood of a cat approaching a grown man who is jumping around to punch him in the back of the calf). "Ohhhhhhhhhhkay. Do you need to go to the doctor?" "No, I'll be fine." Twenty minutes go by. "Honey, I think you're right, I think it is my achilles." "So what do you want to do?" "Well, you see, it felt like a pow and I can walk, but it hurts when I stretch -" "No, that's not what I asked. I asked what you wanted to do?" "Oh, I'll just drive myself to the ER." "K (dials phone) Chris, can you come over, I gotta take Brent to the ER."

So over Chris came and off we went. 20 minutes after arriving (and a cool hospital bracelet later), they patted him on the head, told him to take Motrin and sent him on his way. It was eerily reminscent of the time we went to hospital for Kaitlyn's birth, complete with mountains of snow on the ground. We chatted with Chris and then all went to bed. Until the stupid Wiggles. CURSE YOU WIGGLES! Until we meet again!

Stars and Bars!!

Wow! I guess it's been awhile since I posted.

Let's play catchup:
Caramel and Zula both got adopted, along with the following kitties:
Conan
Ellen
Tyra
Rachel
Rosie
Jay
Lokelani
Iolani
Kailua
Ipo
Kalani
Venus
Mercury
Milky Way
Polly
Lucy
San
Ichi
Ni
Ferdinand
Isabella

And that's just the cats!
Dogs adopted:
Gordon
Gilligan
Swee'pea
Olive
Bluto
Rocky
Sugah Daisy
All 8 Sugah Daisy puppies
Penelope
Garth
Brooks
Coco
Benji

On the family side:
- Oct 08 - Kaitlyn's first Halloween - She was a lady bug
- Nov 08 - Thanksgiving at our house
- Dec 08 - Christmas at mom and dad's and I got Valentino as a Christmas gift!
- Jan 09 - Kaitlyn turned one
- Jan 09 - Brent got off active duty
- Feb 09 - Kaitlyn got her first set of tubes
- April 09 - Chris moves out
- May 09 - Kelly was hired as a permanent employee of CACI
- June 09 - Huge blur mostly due to replacing engine in Mini
- Aug 09 - Kaitlyn's first visit to the Jersey shore
- Sept 09 - Brent and I celebrate 7 years of marriage
- Oct 09 - Kaitlyn's second Halloween - She was a Care Bear
- Oct 09 - Kelly officially won Ladies Class for the Washington Region SCCA
- Nov 09 - Thanksgiving at our house
- Dec 09 - Christmas at Mom and Dad's
- Jan 10 - Kaitlyn's Second birthday

Busy busy year and a half for the Shoups. Now that you're all caught up, hopefully I won't be as remiss with my postings.

Household make up now:
Brent - Dad Extraordinaire
Kelly - A blur
Kaitlyn - no longer a baby, she's in a toddler bed and doing very well!
Mischief - Still queen B, but a little more svelte this time around
Rascal - powerful kitty in a small package
Sunshine - Still diabetic but now she can SEE!
Noelle - Still crazy. Just crazy!
Valentino - T-boogie! 'Nuff said
Patton - Foster dog. Good good sweet boy! Love this guy and hope others do too!
Elijah - Foster kitty. Hope he finds a good home soon.
Neko - Such a huge turnaround. She came to us afraid of humans and now seeks affection!!! She definitely misses her kittens, but has really come out of her shell.
Venus (aka Snoozy) - Visitor from another planet. Kind of her own kitty.

That's it. More when I'm more interesting and less into lists.

A TOOF!!!

That's right, you read it correctly! Little Miss Cutelyn (as her dadday calls her) has a TOOF! She's been sort of cranky and hypersensitive lately, so I guess I should have known. Today I yelled for Chris to come see something on tv and she got so upset with me for yelling. I felt so bad. I guess I should have known, but this is my first toof, so how could I have known? I was feeding her sweet potatoes and looked down and saw something white poking just above the gumline. I stuck my finger in her mouth and ran it along the gum line and lo and behold, it's a TOOF! I was dreading this moment, to be honest, when my normally happy child started teething because I was SURE it would mean Ms. Crankpot all the time. NOPE! She's been somewhat cranky, but not as bad as I expected! YEAY KAITLYN!

A HUGE yeay for Gordon! Mr. Man got himself adopted and is apparently adapting WONDERFULLY in his new home. He even slept in the bedroom of his new sister, which thrilled her to no end! Good work, Gordon!

Mom was up last week helping out with Kaitlyn while Ms. Lida and her family were in Disneyworld. It was awesome to have her here. I could work from home and help out with Kaitlyn when necessary (which was hardly ever). I got so much work done and had so much peace of mind....it really took a huge load off my shoulders. I can't wait to have mom up here again.

Chris has officially started his internship with Volkswagen and will be living with us for the next six months. We're in the honeymoon period, but so far so good.

Tomorrow I start physical therapy for my neck and back. They haven't been right since the accident, so hopefully I'll get some relief. I'm sort of bad about doing the home exercises though, so we'll see.

Last, but most certainly not least, Brent was promoted in the Army! He earned Sergeant First Class!!! Yeay honey bunches!! I'm so proud of him for continuing to serve our country and definitely proud of him for getting promoted. He fought long and hard for this promotion and as a result of his actions, others in his specialty can be promoted too! That's my honey!

Okay, that's it for now. More to come when I've had more sleep! ;-)

Where to beginnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn....

Okay, first off, Kaitlyn had her Christening. All went well, beyond some "church giggle" type incidents during mass. It's not my fault the priest told a funny story! And Kaitlyn got hungry in the quietest part of the service, so that was unexpected. Greatgrandma Langley, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma Connie and Grandpa Ken, Chris and Terri attended the service. We were the only ones dressed up, the rest of the congregation was dressed down. It was hot as BLAZES too! Either way, another notch in the belt of childhood for Kaitlyn.

The next day, we saw her boyfriend Grant at his parents' house. Parties are always fun Chez Harris. We were going to try to take Kaitlyn into the pool, but the temp was 55 degrees. No thanks!

In the household, the animal to human ratio continues to fluctuate. Chocolate and two of her kittens were adopted out. We had one kitten left and she was lonely so we added Zula. Zula and Caramel are still trying to figure out if they like each other, but they are doing very well with the dogs. The beagle boys and I are going to the adoption day this weekend. It would be cool if they got some interest.

Some interesting storms in the area. We lost half of a 12 year old Maple tree in our backyard, along with some siding. This happened on the day of the second HART yard sale, so Brent, Meg Hart and I were frantically trying to get the yard sale stuff back in the garage in tornado like weather. It was awesome....awesomely bad. Meg and I went to the adoption day, soaked to the bone. I told Charlene that if she ever needed proof of my dedication to HART, she need only remember me sopping wet.

All in all, the two yard sales combined raised about $1800+ for HART. Not bad. I'll definitely think long and hard about doing another one. This one drained me. So...much...stuff.

I had an autocross June 1. I didn't do so hot. 5th out of 8. I was pretty distracted the whole day since that was the first time Brent and Kaitlyn came out. Not sure if that had anything to do with it, but I was definitely outdriven that day. Gotta work on not getting skunked again.

Kaitlyn's rolling now. She rolls all over the room, giving her parents and the dogs fits! The dogs are never sure which way she's going to go and her parents are constantly wondering how she wound up where she is in the short amount of time she was on the floor. She's starting to dig the exersaucer more and more, even spinnning herself around ever so slightly to get to her toys. Babies are so much fun!

That's all the news that's fit to print. Until next time.......

Growed!!!

Well, he did it! Chris graduated from William and Mary! I won't publish his GPA, but soon enough, that won't matter anyway. If you are looking to hire some fresh meat, straight out of college to do technology consulting, hit him up. We're all very proud of him and he looked so handsome yesterday. I told him he's not my little brother any more! He's all growed. Brent took some pics of Chris with Kaitlyn. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Speaking of Kaitlyn, we got a TON of compliments of varying kinds yesterday. They ranged from "What a good baby" to "What an adorable baby" to "Thanks for carrying her for nine months, I'll just go ahead and take her off your hands now!" (you know who you are) Kaitlyn didn't cry at all during the ceremony and did really well meeting her great grandma Langley for the first time.

Which brings me to my next point and what a small world it is. My grandmother's nephew was sitting next to us the entire ceremony watching his son graduate. It wasn't until after the ceremony was over that it was revealed who he was. This is definitely a small world kind of scenario as both are originally from Pittsburgh, PA and found each other in Williamsburg, VA! WHO KNEW? It was later revealed that Chris had several classes with his 3rd cousin and that nobody was really a fan of that part of the family. But bygones!! That's a story for the ages!

One of the kittens will be going to his forever home this weekend. It's the only boy (Peanut) and his new mom spent 2 hours at the house on Saturday meeting him and playing with he and his sisters. I gotta introduce Peanut to dogs to see how he does as he will be a companion for the dog in his new home, but I think he'll do really well. He was so exhausted from all the attention on Sat that he sacked out on my lap. I love how kittens sleep, belly up and dead to the world. Kind of how babies sleep. Oh wait, that's not that much of a stretch since they are both babies, just of different species......See how smart I am? I figured that out all on my own.

Mother's day was kind of a jacked day for me since it was Chris' graduation, but it was kind of a surreal experience anyway. Every day is sort of mother's day with Kaitlyn. Her big gummy grin is so fulfilling and rewarding that I don't need trinkets or cards on mother's day. Just seeing her smile is enough for me. Of course, that feeling fades somewhat with a colossally poopy diaper (a daily occurence in case you were wondering), but nothing in life is perfect. Plus, we haven't had a blow out in MONTHS, so there's not much more I could ask for!

Happy Mother's day to all you mothers out there. It's moms that make the world go 'round!

Roll over, Beethoven!!

Well, okay, not Beethoven, but Kaitlyn did two flips from back to tummy this weekend. She gets a little frustrated as this then means some self-induced tummy time, but bygones! Brent and I realized that this means she'll be crawling in no time and started looking around the house to see what needed to be baby-proofed. Wonder if the dogs can be wrapped in bubble wrap. The cats won't be much of an issue as they are already used to being kicked by me and by Kaitlyn. They will tolerate anything as long as there's still a warm place for them to sleep at night!

So, this weekend was a busy one. Our household grew by four, courtesy of a Chocolate and her kittens - Caramel, Nougat and Peanut. I don't anticipate they'll be around for long as they are all very cute and very sweet. Currently they are quarantined until I make sure they are disease free. I think they'll probably stay quarantined as Chocolate doesn't seem very fond of dogs. I brought Sunshine down to meet them and it went better than expected, but still not very well. I can't imagine how Chocolate will do with all four dogs, especially since Gordon seems predisposed to chase cats.

I had a race this weekend and came in second. I was pretty happy with my performance and hope to maintain that level throughout the season. I think not being pregnant will help with that! Hopefully Brent and Kaitlyn will be able to make it out to the next event as I think some of my fellow racers are starting to doubt that I really had a baby!! Understandable as I have my svelte figure back....NOT!

So I'm getting ready to celebrate my first REAL mother's day ever. Kind of surreal, actually. I'm a mom! When did that happen? Either way, as if the universe didn't know it already, that makes Kaitlyn extra super special as she's the one who made me a mom. Nobody else will ever be able to say that. Thanks, Kaitlyn! I accept the responsibility gladly. I love ya bebe child!