Family Picture

So I decided now that we are four we should have a family picture taken. I planned outfits, bought some new clothes for those of us who didn't have matching attire and scheduled the appointment on the computer. First appointment: CANCELLED due to ill parent and child. Second appointment: Off we go to the mall with an excited Eva, sleeping Stella and two anxious parents. We get there and Eva becomes a crank pot. Stella gets a gas bubble and Matt and I realize it is like 90 degrees. So here is the pic of two sweaty parents, a cranky child who temporarily stopped cranking to smile and a screaming infant who for a second stopped screaming (mostly because she required being on her stomach!) This may be the only pic of the four of us we ever do!!!

It's the Final Countdown

So the countdown begins for me to return to work. I go back December 16th (Matt's 33rd birthday). I am sad to leave Stella but excited to get back to what I love to do (and get paid for it since I have been working from home for free!). Since Matt has not found a full-time teaching position yet it looks like he may be staying home with Stella for the rest of the school year. I feel better about leaving her home since it is with him than I would if I were leaving her with a babysitter. She is getting so big - she will be 10 weeks old this Thursday. But I still think she is so little to be leaving her with anyone just yet. We never had to leave Eva with anyone until she was almost a year old since Matt was working from home and able to keep her with him. In some ways I hope we have the same experience with Stella even though that means that I am wishing that Matt doesn't get a job, which I feel a bit guilty about!

I'm Ready for My Close-Up

Thanks to JCPenney's here is a sneak peek at some cute pics of Stella ("Bug")

My Favorite Recent Eva-isms

I now know why Bill Cosby was able to make a show out of what kids say because they really can be so funny without knowing it.

Here are some recent "Eva-isms" that I think you will enjoy:

• Nana, we going to the bagel place? No, Eva, we are going to the A&P. Why we going to the "Aim and Pee"?

• Papa tells Eva that he has to get a test, a CAT scan. "You mean Boo?" she asks. (That is my parents' cat!)

Strangers and Spirits

I am a spiritual person so this has significance to me....

Yesterday in the car I decided it was time to have the "stranger talk" with Eva. You know, the talk when you say - "Never go anywhere with someone you don't know, even if they tell you Mommy and Daddy said it's alright." "Never get into a car with someone other than Mommy or Daddy or Grandma or Nana & Papa or Sandi (the babysitter)...etc..." To which my child answered, "Or Great Papa."

"Well, you won't see Great Papa, because he is in heaven." To which she answered simply,"No I see him."

I was speechless.

Our Trip to the North Pole

Ok, maybe not all the way to the North Pole...but it certainly feels like the North Pole temperature-wise outside. We actually just went down the street to the mall & whoop, there was Santa. Eva treated him a little like a car wreck. You want to look, but you wonder if you are supposed to. You might even want to get involved, but then you get up close and you think, "Nah, maybe not." We did that for about 15 minutes until a very brave little onlooker decided to get up and sit with Santa and pose for a picture. Not ever to be outdone, Eva said, "I want to take a picture with Santa too." Ok, whatever...how much could one simple picture cost [$24.99 to be exact - YIKES!]. So we get up there and, uh oh, we decide he is actually not really as approachable as we thought. Now, we are playing hard to get. Santa is really trying to woo her, but to no avail. Then, Mommy gets clever...how about you hold Bug (a.k.a. Stella) and pose for the picture with Santa. Never turns down an opportunity to hold her sister, so she jumps up there and gets her lap ready. Still won't touch Santa with a ten foot pole, but whatever, here they are!!

Update on the Pig Flu

One doctor appointment later and the pig flu is negative. Horray!!! No temperature for Eva and no pig flu either. Stella is clapping inside.

Fever, Fever, Go Away....And Don't Come Back!

There is only one thing worse than being sick and that is when your kid is sick. Particularly when you have another one who is only 7 weeks old!

Yesterday I got a call from Eva's school...never good in the middle of the day. "Mrs. Cahill [still totally sounds weird to me], um, Eva has a fever of 101.2 degrees and isn't feeling well. She is the seventh [yes I said seventh] child to go home sick this week [k, maybe had you told me that sooner I would have had her on vacation from preschool this week!]. Can you come pick her up? [No, I am thinking, I would prefer you keep her because she is going to be cranky and hideous and get all of us sick. Can I pick her up next Monday?]"

So I dutifully drove [with wet hair in the freezing cold] to go and pick up the seventh victim of the hideous "preschool disease" from school. And when I got there I actually felt sorry for her. She came trotting over and I said, "You don't feel good?" Her lower lip quivered and she shook her head no. Aw, now I feel a little bad for wanting to pick her up next week. [Only a little.]

Off to the doctor we go because I am taking no chances. Except apparently you don't just have to be sort of sick, you have to be damn sick for anyone at her pediatrician to pay you any mind. So away from the doctor we went with directions to take two of these and call us on Friday if the fever persists.

So today was looking up as we had no fever when we woke up this morning. Nice! So I call Nana and Papa and tell them they can bring their friend Clare to visit us because, magically we are better! Later in the day the fever is 99.2. Not bad, I think, since we have been out shopping and are a bit tired. Two hour nap later (and a wet couch - damnit Mommy, remember the pullup even if she has just peed before laying down!) and a bit of initial crankiness and we are delightful and ready to go to dinner at the diner. Yummy dinner and even yummier dessert that Papa and Nana brought for us and then it is time for....MELTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and bedtime) I take her temperature just for poo poo and giggles and it is...drum roll please...104 frigin degrees. Oh [bleep]! Great, my kid has the frigin pig flu. I am sure of it now.

Stella at 6 weeks!

Here is an updated photo of Stella at 6 weeks. Sometimes I think she looks just like Eva, other times I think she looks like herself!

Halloween Kitties

Thought it might be fun to compare the two girls at approximately the same age in their kitty costumes. Definitely see a resemblance but not identical.

Griping about Gripe

I think I understand why they call it "Gripe Water." Because when your child is in pain and won't stop screaming for hours during the day, all you do is complain....thus "gripe." I feel terrible that Stella is getting awful gas pains and her belly is distended a lot of the time. Today I went out and got gripe water and a "Colic pad" - even though when I read the description of colic I am not sure that is her issue since she is better at night, not worse. Who knows....I still wish that with the afterbirth came a pamphlet with Do's and Don'ts specific to this particular kid!

A colic pad is a weird looking flat thing that is supposed to stimulate a massage movement and makes white noise to calm the baby. Figure I will try it once if the gripe water doesn't work and then if I think the colic pad is all hype, I will just return it. Definitely don't need to be keeping a $35 pad that doesn't work. Who knows, though - maybe I will think it is God's gift to screaming Stella.

Stay tuned!

And Then There Were Four!

(well 6 if you count the cats)!

Stella Weston Cahill made her debut on September 24th at 6:09 a.m. weighing in at 5 lbs 13 oz and 18 1/2 inches in length. Stella is named after my grandfather's aunt Stella and her middle name is in honor of my grandfather, Robert Weston, who passed away without knowing that Stella would join our lives. Eva is so lucky to have known her Great Papa and Stella will count on her and the rest of us to help her know him.

Here is my favorite picture when Eva lays eyes on her sister for the first time!

The More Things Change....the More they Really, Really Change!

I am clearly not getting the blogging award for my performance this year. At least it hasn't been a full year since I blogged last!

Things have changed a lot these last few months. Matt lost his job in May and found his passion. He is back in school to become a math teacher in a program called "Traders to Teachers" at Montclair State University. He is in school 4 days per week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Once a week he is student teaching at the high school that I work in. I have never seen him work so hard at something before. It is really quite amazing to watch - and inspiring! I always thought that teaching would be a wonderful fit for Matt but I wondered if he would ever pursue it. I think we become comfortable in our career or our path and it is hard to stray from it unless we are really pushed. The push we were looking for came when Unitrin decided to move its accounting department to Tennessee. After spending a few months like Milton from Office Space (that is what I told him when he was unaware of the status of his job for several months even though the rest of the department was laid off - turns out they did in fact forget to tell him that he was out of a job since he worked remotely from home!!), Matt was finally told that he would not be kept on after the move was completed. What a blessing in disguise! Right around the time he found out he was out of a job, my parents read an article about Traders to Teachers in the newspaper. And the rest is history, as they say!

Meanwhile, right after Matt found out he was out of a job, we found out I was pregnant with our second child. Whoopsy! Like all of my timing in life, this was just the perfect way to ensure that we could just change everything all at once instead of doing one new thing at a time. I was due on my birthday, though I was sure I would never make it to my due date (so good to be psychic). My pregnancy was nothing like the first one...I didn't just have morning sickness, I had all day illness. It was like having an incurable hangover all day, everyday! The next lesson is - never ask, "What next?" This is what is next....I ended up with gestational diabetes. So now I finally feel better and can keep food down and guess what? I can't eat anything because everything is a frigin carbohydrate or sugar!! So I dutifully cut nearly everything out of my diet in order to keep my sugars under control without any medication. I was referred to an endocrinologist who said, "Well, we know one thing, this baby will be larger than your older daughter." Was he right? Thankfully, neener neener, he was WRONG! More on this later!

Eva's life changed as well as she began Pre-K at a local catholic school. She is loving school and listening to her sing her songs and tell us what she is learning has been wonderful. She is like a sponge! And she is a wonderful big sister...again, more on this later!

Things have changed a great deal in the Cahill household but we are rolling with the punches and looking forward to reaping the rewards of Matt's career change, namely, our summers together at the lake, getting to watch our daughters grow up the same way I did - with the beautiful and safe surroundings of one of the most wonderful places on earth to spend the summer!

Eva Turns 3!

Eva turned 3 with a birthday party at Kid Junction in Branchburg. It was her first "kid" party rather than family party. She had a blast and Mommy and Daddy were thrilled to be off the hook for party planning, cleanup and entertainment. Kid Junction was wonderful!

Funny Eva Pic

I realize that I have been terrible about posting pictures so I thought I would include this one because it makes me laugh!

Whew!

I have never been so happy to be told to go back to work! Yesterday late afternoon I had an angiogram that was able to isolate the carotid artery where they suspected an abnormality. While I do have an abnormally strutured carotid artery, it is nothing that the doctors feel needs any treatment or further monitoring or anything that should cause me problems in the future. In terms of an explanation for the headache I had on Wednesday, they feel that it was a reaction to medication that constricted the blood vessels in my brain, but did not cause permanent damage. Thank you for your supportive wishes and thoughts!!!

Scary Stuff

I had hoped that by now I would be blogging about how there was no findings in my test results and I went to work today. Unfortunately, that was not to be. After the MRA of my brain yesterday, the radiologist found something in my blood vessels of my brain that concerned him and that he felt required further study. As a result, my doctor sent me to the ER yesterday to be evaluated by a neurologist and neurosurgeon. While they released me rather than admitting me (after I spent 7 hours in the ER), they both agreed that I needed an angiogram to clarify whether the findings from the MRA are something that requires further treatment. An angiogram is a test that requires sending a catheter from a vein in the groin area to explore other areas of the body, namely in my case, the brain. I am scheduled for this test at 3 p.m. today at Somerset Medical Center. Since I have to leave shortly, I figured I would blog first so those of you who read my blog from Wednesday wouldn't panic. I am hopeful that the abnormalities the MRA uncovered are nothing more than some congenital defect that requires no intervention, but I have to say that I am concerned. Hopefully this angiogram will bring answers and will confirm the least problematic possibility. I will blog more when I know more.

HeadACHE!

Snow days are definitely not as exciting when you are sick. Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and went to the doctor after being exhausted for at least a week and suffering from intermittent headaches that made me think I might have a sinus infection. Several blood tests, a urine sample and an x-ray later, the verdict was that I have clogged sinuses (one side is nearly completely clogged). So home I went with an antibiotic, a decongestant and a shot of cortisone in an area I generally reserve for exit only. This morning I woke up still feeling like I had been hit by a bus but hopeful that I was on the mend. And the icing was that I had a snow day and therefore didn't have to take a sick day. And then....the headache from H E double L! Literally the second worst headache I have ever had in my life (first being when my blood pressure was 200 over 104 the day before I had Eva). I was writhing around and crying in pain today and called the doctor to find out if what I was experiencing could be attributed to the clogged sinuses or not. I finally determined that I should take my mom up on her offer to drive me back there to be looked at again. My cousin (whose practice I go to) was thankfully there today and decided it could have been one of a few things. It might have been the shot of cortisone that I developed a reaction to or the combination of that and the Allegra D that I took today or, and hopefully not, it could be something more sinister. So tomorrow I have an appointment for an MRA (a sort of combination between a CAT scan and an MRI) that looks specifically at the blood vessels in my head to ensure that there are no anneurisms or any other scary thing. I am sure it will be fine, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I will update tomorrow when I know more.

Pee Pee in the Pottay!

Cue celebratory conga line - (while chanting) "Pee Pee in the Pottay, Pee Pee in the Pottay!" Whoo hoo! Eva has been wearing underwear since Saturday with very few accidents!! Exciting, but a bit nerve wracking. When she says, "I have to go pee pee," it is generally followed by one or more hustling parents getting the potty seat on and her pants pulled down! She generally can give adequate warning, but we don't like to take chances. And after having cleaned the living room carpet about a dozen times this week between food spills, drink spills - I can drink out of a big girl cup, whoops, maybe not, cat barf and kid pee, I tend to hustle when I hear the words "Pee pee." She is becoming quite the big girl, as she reminds us if we call her baby (or anyone else calls her baby). "I not a baby, I a big girl."

Terrible is Most Definitely Not Descriptive Enough

Why do they call this age the terrible two's? I am thinking horrific, repulsive, repugnant, supremely aggravating or perhaps more specifically, "tantrumrific" (my own invention) are more appropriate adjectives to describe this age or should I say "stage" since it seems like she is on one whenever we go anywhere. Oh yeah, we get stared at a lot lately.

But yet, whenever I tell people that I have a two year-old child they say (while smiling), "Oh, that is the best age." I am starting to think that they have either blocked this age out or that they are being paid by a cult of two year-olds to say that.

Perhaps I am jaded by the fact that we have not gotten through a day in the past week without at least one tantrum. And Eva tantrums the way that Olympic athletes train - for a long friggin time! This morning she had a 40 minute one. Remind me to offer the babysitter a raise!

Better Late than Never!

While I realize that I have not blogged in a ridiculously long time, I figured it is better late than never. So I have many updates to share.

Eva celebrated her 2nd Birthday on September 6th. I was so excited that her birthday actually fell on a Saturday this year so I decided to have a birthday party for her on her true birthday. I decided on a beach ball theme because she was all about the beach this past summer. And then, a bit of a hiccup. (Cue Monsoon weather). Tropical storm whoever bursts in to New Jersey on the same weekend as Eva's beach ball birthday (good alliteration, huh). And do I have a tent rented...um...NO! So I scramble to rent a tent (don't ask me how much more it cost me than the original canopy I had rented. I confirmed the table and chair orders as well and ensured that the tent would not blow away in case the 40 mile per hour winds that were predicted actually occurred! After about fifty conversations with my mother in a 24 hour period, I decided to go ahead with the party on the scheduled date. Bottom line: Two year old children (and their friends) don't mind getting wet - in fact they generally love running around soaking wet! Birthday parties in monsoons are conversation pieces. It should be the new trend! Mental note, though, don't count on weather warnings to dissuade people from coming to your birthday party so you might want to go with the largest tent possible since otherwise you, your guests and the food will be mighty cozy!

So after the Merry Monsoon party in early September, I began a season of frenetic meetings with senior students applying to colleges and a maniacal quest to write 40 letters of recommendation in a several week period. Oh, did I mention that these students were all new to me and I had never met them before? Yeah, that too!

In October I turned thirty (yikes) and celebrated with friends/family at Sun Tavern. It was a fun night (thank you Susan for organizing) but it is hard to believe that I have entered a new decade!

Just before Christmas, Matt turned thirty-two and was rewarded with word from his employer that he is being laid off as of May 1st. Horray for us! NOT.

Christmas was tons of fun this year with Eva loving every moment of it! She helped Nana and Papa decorate the tree. She put out cookies and milk for Santa and his reindeer (after tasting a few of the cookies)! And on Christmas Day she opened tons of presents - wanting to stop to play with each of them along the way. I found myself asking, "Who in the world designed these packages and why is it necessary for a package with a baby doll and various baby accoutrements to have better security than the Pentagon?" Seriously, I really don't get it!

New Years was celebrated with a bang (the sound of my head hitting the bed at 10:30 p.m.) - I have truly entered a whole new level of pathetic.

Presently we are focusing on job searching (for Matt), preschool open houses (for Eva) and a countdown to the next school break (for me). So now you are all caught up on the exciting adventures of the Cahill family. Stay tuned and I will try to post some pictures to go along with the stories above!