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!