Cleaning Day

When I woke up Saturday morning, Chad had already left for work. Caleigh asked for "pink" pancakes for breakfast. So, with the magic of food coloring I managed to turn ordinary pancake batter into pink pancakes. As we ate our breakfast of pink, I tried to get Caleigh excited about the idea of cleaning the house. It was actually working in theory and I was getting myself psyched up to keep my cool with Caleigh's version of "cleaning" as I planned to do some much needed heavy duty housework. Then, the phone rang. It was Caleigh's Nonnie asking if she could take her to the movies to see the new Winnie the Pooh. OF COURSE! Then I would have a few hours to clean without having to "re-clean" behind my little "helper". Cleaning with a small child is almost impossible- or at least with my small child anyways. Within the hour, Caleigh was gone and I set to work. I went to the computer, loaded the Birthday Playlist Chad had created for my 30th birthday party onto the Zune and cranked the speakers. I proceeded to clean for the next 6 hours- non-stop! And no, the Winnie the Pooh movie is not that long. My very gracious mother-in-law gave me the day to finish my cleaning without Caleigh. And no, my house was not THAT disgusting. I just did some heavy cleaning. I mean it is not everyday that I wash the baseboards and light switches and scrub down the door and doorknobs in the house. Or after vacuuming the house, proceed to steam clean all the carpet. This is what I mean by heavy duty. These were the tasks that I had planned on trying to accomplish with Caleigh in the house but thankfully I was able to do them with her out of it. By the end of the evening I was tired and sore (that carpet cleaning is no joke!). I finished just in time to shower and fall onto the bed and have Chad come home from work and ask "What's for dinner?" I was too tired to cook and still needed to pick up Caleigh so I suggested we meet up with my sister and her husband for some hot wings and then pick up Caleigh. It was just what I wanted! Those wings were SO good! Just typing this has me wishing I had a few more right now! I say all this to say that I was extremely proud of my clean house. I believe that I worked harder than anyone else in my family this particular Saturday! And while I did receive a compliment from my husband as to how nice the house looked, the best part was Caleigh's reaction. She walked around the house from room to room with her hand over her mouth saying "Oh my gosh!" She seemed just as thrilled as I was to have a wonderfully clean house. Now, to tackle a few more projects, like the attic and the yard and I will feel even better!

Friday Night Out

Chad got off work at a descent hour last night and we did something we don't very often do. We sent Caleigh to my mom's for the night and off we went on a date with friends to Atlanta. The Automatic Improv show at the Relapse Theater is hilarious. I had been there before as part of my sister's bachelorette party and had a really great time. I had tried to take Chad to a show another night for our anniversary, only to get to the theater and they had a special event going on starring The Beards of Comedy. It was a stand-up show instead of improv but we still had a good time. My first trip there had made me laugh so incredibly hard that I hurt. This time was good, and I did have some good laughs, but it was not as rib-splitting as the first time. I realize that the show is based all on audience suggestions so I am guessing that the suggestions were just not as good this time. I do look forward to going back again (usually only $10 a ticket on a Friday night with free parking! and only $5 a ticket if you choose to go on a Tuesday night!) and coming up with some great suggestions of my own.

School shopping?

So, Caleigh will start preschool for the first time next month. This shall be interesting. Her only experience in a classroom type setting has been on Sunday mornings for an hour each week. She really enjoys the time she has in there...the battle is getting her IN there. We only do this once a week and it is still a "hit or miss" ordeal. Dad drop her off....Mom drop her off....Dad stay with her for a few minutes while mom disappears.....Vice versa......Tears......No Tears......you get the idea. And this happens once a week. Preschool is five days a week! She seems pretty excited and I am excited for her, but I am also nervous. Her tantrums here lately can be quite terrifying, to put it mildly. LOL! But that nervousness aside, she is ready to go school shopping. Mainly for her "own scissors". As stated earlier, this makes me nervous as well!

I do have to admit though, I have enjoyed looking for her first book bag. She is so little and some of those book bags are so huge. She gave the workers and customers at our local Academy Sports a real good laugh when she tried on a back pack that extended from her neck to her ankles and tried to walk in it. It was quite comical. I should have taken a pic to share. We did look at and try on some of the smaller ones, but per her instructions from the school, she needs a full size book bag to accommodate a full size folder to be sent back and forth with her each day. So, the search is on to find a full size book bag that doesn't swallow her whole. I think I may have found one at a local boutique but their order hasn't come in this week so we haven't been able to try one on yet.

In addition to the all important book bag and her "own scissors" we will be venturing out to get the rest of the list of needed supplies. I guess I should be happy that she isn't super excited about the glue!

(On a side note, we had Caleigh's post-op visit today. She's healing nicely with just a few scabs left to fall off. She has been such a trooper! I hope I never have to put her through anything like this again!)

Movies

I usually don't get the privilege of seeing a movie in a theater much anymore. However, this summer has proven to be on the contrary. Distraction seemed to be the one of the best ways of helping Caleigh cope during her surgery recovery period, so I planned to take her to see Cars 2 on day 7 since it was supposed to be the beginning of the most painful time for her. We were told to keep her away from crowds for at least 2 weeks so we went to an early morning movie where we were joined by just a few others in the largest theater there. I found to it to be quite a cute movie but was distracted by the three bathroom visits and the 50lb three year old in my lap that had reverted back to a baby due to being in some pain. Overall, I think I have to say that I liked Cars better than I liked Cars 2. Once I see it again, I may change my mind. Following the few "hellish" days that followed that trip to the theater, I needed a mental and physical break from my darling daughter. While my mom entertained Caleigh, Chad and I went to see a movie together. Just the two of us! Of course this movie was a sort of "have to see at the theater" movie for us. We had seen the previous two movies in the theater so we "had to" see this one there as well. Transformers 3 was awesome! In my opinion the best of the three so far. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell from the ending if there were plans for another movie or not. The previous two had left me hanging and waiting for more. This one, however, did not. And yes, I know that this movie is typically seen as a guy movie but I was mesmerized by the Transformers as a kid. I watched their cartoons and played with their action figures as much as I watched Strawberry Shortcake and played with her dolls. I thought that after seeing this movie I would be on movie hiatus again indefinitely. But, yesterday, my sister, Missy, wanted to take Caleigh to see Mr. Popper's Penguins. Caleigh wanted me to come along so I got to see another summer movie. This movie was cute and seemed typical Jim Carrey. Caleigh laughed and clapped and cheered the penguins on. This was the first movie that wasn't animated that Caleigh actually sat through and paid attention to. I was proud of her. She did have her few restless moments, but I believe that is to be expected from any three year old. The hardest part was telling her "No" to the persistent requests for popcorn! Her throat was just not ready for that roughness in my opinion. Didn't want any scratching going on since she has been doing so well. I think that will be it for us and the movie theater for a while. I did see some great previews for movies coming out this winter. Most of them around Christmas time. That is not typically a time when I desire to head to the theaters but I may just have to make an exception! (We never paid full price to see any of the above mentioned movies. We saw the first two before 12:00 so we paid a discounted rate and the third was a Sunday matinee!)

Blog Attempt

So, I seem to constantly be blogging in my head and then I remembered I actually made a blog site a long time ago. So, I thought I should return and actually post to the site instead of just having the mental blog running through my mind all the time. I mean, with this much good stuff going on, I should be sharing right? Over the past two weeks, the majority of my "mental blog" has been about Caleigh. Two weeks ago she had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Looking back now, I have to say, the recovery was no where near the total nightmare I had prepared myself for. The first seven days after surgery were EASY. Minimal pain controlled by Tylenol and lots of liquids with some soft foods to eat every once in a while. The worst part at this point was the terrible odor coming from her mouth. We washed her sheets and pillowcases one day and when she went to bed that night, she exclaimed, "UGGGG, we just washed these sheets today and they already stink again! We have to wash them again in the morning mom." I didn't have the heart to tell her that the smell was her breath. I just washed the sheets again the next day per her request. Then came the night of day 7 and then the following 3 days. HORRIBLE! We were told by the doctor to expect this, but since she was doing so well, I was really caught off guard when she would scream for hours and hold her ears and throat. We switched to the Hydrocodone and were very quickly on a schedule of taking it. I felt helpless most of the time. It was like returning to having a newborn. There was lots of crying, screaming, and fussing, and round the clock need for comfort. I don't think I slept much at all those four days. But neither did she. Luckily though, we are past those few days and she is eating and drinking well once again. She is now looking forward to going shopping for her first preschool and getting her "own scissors". I am thinking I should be a little scared.