Karen Chatters » Courtney

Nap-no-more

Karen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:43:01 +0000

I know I’ve been holding on for a long time. Hoping and hoping and hoping that the naps would continue. That the quiet would continue. That the me time would go on. But alas, I think we’re done. Three years and two months into it and I’m pretty sure we nap no more.

Of late it’s been a battle. Not the act of going into Courtney’s room for nap time, she’s happy to go in there. But staying in and being quiet. Which is really all I want, some quiet. I want Courtney to have some time to rest and recharge. Because really, she needs it. She needs that time when she’s not doing 600 things but maybe one or two, in the confines of her bed, of her four walls. But I’ve taken away the diaper or pullup at nap time so if she needs to go to the bathroom, she has to tell me and I need to come and get her. So she screams. I mean, SCREAMS. This ear-piercing, window shattering, dog-calling scream. And I go RUNNING from where ever I am to make the screams stop because I don’t want her to wake her brother. Or shatter my her eardrums. And inevitably, we get in some type of a thing with me wagging my finger and telling her to Stop. Yelling. This. Minute. Which, of course, only makes her scream more. And louder. It’s a nightmare.

The thing is, she’ll stay in her room (mostly because the door is locked) and play quietly for a while. And maybe that’s all I’ll get. But on the other hand, I also think that Courtney waits and waits and waits UNTIL nap time to go to the bathroom. It’s as though she knows it’s her free ticket. Little devil child, she is…

So as of Friday, we’re going to play it differently. She’s still going to her room but I’m not shutting the door all the way. I’ll leave the light on and the white noise off and if she has to go to the bathroom then have at it. The question then becomes, how long can I expect her to stay there. Probably not long. I wonder if I were to set an egg timer or something if she’d stay in there until it dings. I wonder if I can set it to go off 5 days later… Wish me luck. I’m sure the force is not with me but we’ll see what happens. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get enough time to get into the shower and shave BOTH legs as opposed to the 3/4 of one leg I completed yesterday. Now the question for me is when will I shower again AND have the time to shave the rest?

Christmas Wrap-up

Karen — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:28:53 +0000

Get it? Wrap-up? Or maybe it should be the un-wrap-up. Sorry, moving on…

We’ve had a great holiday here in our little home. Courtney’s been out of school since the 14th and in all honesty, we’ve done almost nothing. We had a huge Holiday Open House here on the 18th and after that, it was relax and hangout mode. Patrick woke up the day after our party with a cold that then went to his chest. There was snot everywhere and coughing and general nastiness so we stayed home so he could recover. Then there was Christmas and more hanging out at the house. And New Years, where we showered and took off our pj’s and ventured out into public. OK, not public as much as going to someone’s house, which is approximately 1 minute away in the car. And I’m SURE they wouldn’t have cared if we’d stayed in our pj’s… And now it’s FREEZING and we aren’t going anywhere today. And honestly, that’s all good with me.

Courtney had an excellent Christmas. She didn’t really get it, but close. She woke up Christmas morning and laid in bed for 1/2 an hour before I went in to get her and her first words were, “Did Santa come?” There was no banging down the door. No running down the steps. It was almost like a regular morning, until we got downstairs. Santa didn’t wrap anything which made the big reveal happen all at once and the cleanup super easy. But that also meant that Courtney wanted to open all of our gifts, which was fine but maybe not so exciting for her. Either way, she had a great day. Christmas day wrapped up (sorry, I didn’t mean to do that again) with Courtney singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs from her bed at 10:30, long after we’d turned out our own light.

Usually hanging out at home for 3 weeks with not a lot to do drives me a little crazy but this time, it’s been really nice. Hell, a week at home with nothing to do drives me batty. But I’m not complaining. Courtney’s had a great time. She’s been playing with her toys and Patrick or Paul or I. And because Patrick isn’t walking, going out requires lugging him everywhere and the kid is HEAVY but he wants to do everything his sister does. And sometimes staying home is easier and less exhausting. But, all good things must come to an end. Reality starts tomorrow with Courtney going back to school and doctors appointments and errands and one more day in our pajamas is all good with me.

I sure hope Santa likes sugar...

Getting the milk and cookies ready

And we can't go to sleep until we feed the reindeer!

Wow, Santa DID come!!

CARS!!

And the Princess has arrived

Checking out the new bike!

The merry ol’ age of 3

Karen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:05:49 +0000

The light of my life has turned into the blemish on my nose in horrifyingly rapid fashion. Courtney hit the 3′s with a vengeance and there’s no going back. Trust me, we’ve tried. There’s no shortage of information out there on how 3 year olds are a barrel of fun and what people wouldn’t give to ship their child off to Cambodia for a year. Although, in all reality, that may not be far enough away to hear the NO’s that resonate from those little lips and HUGE lungs on an hourly basis. (Hourly, who am I kidding? Make that every 5 minutes.) It turns out the terrible 2′s are grossly misnamed because they were really just fine. Courtney has always been a great kid. People tell me that all the time when we’re in public. And I’ve always been so proud, maybe even a little cocky. “Thank you” and “We try to instill good behavior.” And she’s GREAT with authority figures – teachers and leaders, anyone but her parents it seems. It looks like in order to keep those accolades at the forefront of my mind, we will now cease going out for the next year.

At least I have this.

And this.And this:

And occasional bits of this:

When I am 3…

Karen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:10:30 +0000

Courtney has been saying for MONTHS that when she is 3, she’s going to use the potty. We’ve been asking here and there if she wants to go to the bathroom and she’ll say, “Am I 3?” And when we say no, she tells us she’s not old enough yet. Everyone in her class is 3 and they all use the potty so apparently there’s something in her little head that prevents her from going pee in the toilet until that magical age arrives.

So on the magical 3rd birthday, I gave her a hall pass. She did go on the potty during the party when one of her friends went but otherwise, she spent the day in a diaper, peeing away. And then Monday, we buckled in and gave the potty training a whirl. And I have to say, she did really well. I was going for the 3 day boot camp thing, which makes for 3 very long days, stuck at home, waiting to drop everything and run to the bathroom. And while we’re not there yet (7 days later), she’s done awesome and I think we’re not there mostly due to my own doing. Monday morning there were a couple of accidents and they were hugely distressing to Courtney. But after that, she’s done great. We’ve had an accident here and there but she’s made her mark most of the time and she’s quite proud of herself when she does. Hell, we even drove to South Carolina with no incidents, it was quite impressive.

Here’s where the shit hits the fan if you will. She almost always poops at nap time. I mean, ALWAYS. (If only I could be so regular.) Aaaand…. I lock her door at nap time, so she’s kind of unable to get to the potty. But I don’t want her wandering the halls, waking her brother as she screams for me from outside his door. I did try it the first day but after 30 minutes of in and out and in and out, I stuck her in a pullup and locked the door. I really want her to figure this thing out. I want her to have the freedom to come and go from her room when she needs to pee but stay in her room when she doesn’t. That’s NEVER going to happen. There’s no way she going to stay in there if she doesn’t have to. I don’t get it, I’d kill for someone to force me to take a nap every day. Why don’t these toddlers see the joy in it all???

Anyway, tomorrow is her first day back to school and I wouldn’t be hugely surprised if she had an accident or 2. I feel like I spend 90% of my time waiting for poop. Or worrying about it. Or cleaning it up. So maybe with the help of her 3 year old friends, and her teachers, we can figure this thing out. I’m NOT ready to lose our nap time and I have a TON of sewing to do while she’s supposed to be asleep. So it’s probably not overly fair of me to keep her in a pullup for my own selfish reasons. She’ll get it. I know she will. In the meantime, stay out of her way, leave the bathroom door open and the light on, and be prepared if she’s sitting in your lap…

Three

Karen — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:15:35 +0000

Courtney's party in class

Yesterday my beautiful girl turned 13 3. I can’t get over it. Three. That’s a big number. I can remember being in labor with her like it was yesterday but I can’t remember dinner last night to save my life. There’s something to those huge life changing moments.

Three. It’s amazing how things change. You go from worrying about their speech to having full on conversations. You wonder when they’re going to crawl then stand and then walk and now we’re signing up for ballet and gymnastics. The changes come at you in rapid fire succession and now you don’t worry when they’re going to happen but if they’re ever going to slow down. Courtney is a wonder to me every day. I’m amazed by the things she’s learning at school (cornucopia was a word she came home with the other day), learning from her friends, learning from us. I’m constantly in awe at the things that she notices that I never see or would completely miss without her being there. And the things that she makes me question with her constant questioning of “why.” Oh, the why’s, I can’t keep up.

I love Courtney’s happy demeanor and friendliness towards others. I love that she’s a hugger (when it suits her) and a love and wants to be friends with all the kids we see in the grocery store. I love how she interacts with her brother, helping him in her own way unless he has something she wants then it’s sibling rivalry at its best. I love that when we went to the store to get Courtney a present of her own choosing, she chose a book over a toy. Especially a loud toy. I love that Courtney is a reader and can spend hours in her room (when she’s supposed to be napping), “reading” everything in her room. I love how she’ll ask me to read something to her because “I don’t know the words yet.”

It seems that each day marks a new chapter, a new beginning. Every day I do the best I can to be her best mother, her best teacher, and a person she can believe in and look up to. I know that not all the days are sweet smelling roses or chocolate-y goodness, but I do the best I can. The days go by so fast. Today it’s 3, tomorrow it’s 13, and the next thing I know, she’ll be in college. There’s so much I want to do with her, so much I want to show her and tell her about but today we’ll enjoy being 3 and playing with our new toys and reading our new books and spending some time together.

Happy birthday beautiful girl, I love you more than you’ll ever know.