Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Site Seeing

I know, I know. It takes me almost a month to get a new posting on here and then WHAM I post 2 days in a row. I'm crazy like that. But I just came across two mildly interesting sites that can waste a few minutes of time for you. These were sites listed in the Star Tribune today.

http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html

This site allows you to type in your name and see where it ranks in the US (based on 1990 census data).

For another (and cooler) take on the name game check out this site that my dad sent me. Very cool. Just type in a name and click boy/girl/both. It shows the frequency of that name at different times in history.

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html



http://www.wheredidthetimego.com/

This site is actually for a broadband company in Britain but it asks you to plug in a few stats on yourself and then it tells you how much of your life you've spent doing certain things. Mildly interesting.

Enjoy.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Happy Birthday Cate!!!


I’ve been at this parenting gig for 3 years now. It seems like just yesterday and years ago all at once. Cate was born on groundhog’s day in 2004. I was in labor during Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the superbowl. I can remember in vivid detail every moment of that night and morning, all the emotions and thoughts, all the physical sensations. She came into this world by cesarean after 2 hours of pushing couldn’t get her out. Her noggin was too big. The poor girl, to this day, never fits into the cute hats that come with all the outfits. Big head aside, we loved her beyond reason and still do. She is everything I could ever ask for in a little girl. But then so is her sister and they are both completely different. I’m just smitten with my kids. I saw a mom and dad talking today about cell phones and their son, maybe 7 or 8, was playing nearby. The boy came up to mom saying (as all kids do), “Mom. Mom. Mom. Hey mom. Mom. Mom, watch this. Mom.” After about a minute of this from him, his mom finally snaps, “WHAT!? You are being so rude. Mom is talking.” Yeah, that life and death cell phone conversation ranks right up there with the peace talks. I felt so bad for that kid. He just wanted his mom to watch him make a jump, to pay 2 seconds of attention to him, and she had the gall to tell him HE was being rude. Pay attention lady. He’ll be all “growed up” in the blink of an eye. How can you not pay attention to these little people – especially your own little people (because frankly there are some other people’s little people that I wouldn’t mind forgetting). For example, Cate told me her first ever knock-knock joke the other day:

Cate: Mommy, knock, knock.
Me: Who’s there.
Cate: ChuggaChugga
Me: ChuggaChugga Who?
Cate: Loppyslop.

The kid is brilliant, I tell ya! Yes, it made no sense, but it was still brilliant. I loved it. She’s cracking up Scott and me on a daily basis. She’s getting more and more expressive in the things she says and does. She’s becoming more loving too. Out of the blue I-Love-You’s that melt your heart. She’s top of her class in swimming (but that probably has more to do with the fact that she’s in a class with a lot of 20-month-olds.) She’s always stating the obvious. “Mommy, you’re big and I’m little. And Clarebear is little, too. But daddy is big.” And when she’s not stating the obvious, she’s asking about it. At the gym today “Mommy what is she doing?” “Well, honey, she’s getting dressed and I’ll bet she would like some privacy so why don’t you stop looking at her.” “ Yes, she wants privacy because she’s getting dressed. I’m all dressed. You have your swimsuit on mommy. Are you going to get dressed? Do you need some privacy mommy?”….all while still staring at the poor woman getting dressed. At least she didn’t start comparing our breast sizes which is a favorite at home for some reason. Even Attley’s boobies get assessed.

Anyway, we threw her a nice family party. All the grandmas and grandpas and relatives were over. I figured that this was the last year in which she wouldn’t care if other kids were there or not. Next year she’ll have friends that she’ll want to invite to her party. I think she had a great time this year though. It was the first year that she really understood that the party was for her and she would get presents all because she was born one day. And she did get lots of presents – many Dora-themed one’s. I made her a “Barbie” cake. I made it a little to shallow though so I had to pull off Barbie’s legs so she would look right in her skirt. I didn’t want to have to explain why her skirt only came up to her thighs. Anyway, we had a good time catching up with everyone. And in the aftermath I can’t stop thinking about how big Cate is getting and how fast its all going. I want more than anything for her to grow up healthy and happy, but just not quite so fast!! I need to enjoy all my time with her and Clare. Stay in the moment and don’t get caught up in the stupid stuff - like cell phones.

In other news, Attley had his last chemo appointment two weeks ago. He’s been laying kind of low since then but I think he’s starting to come back to his normal self. Apparently some dogs can lose some hair during chemo. We noticed that he had lost a lot of the long hair on his tail that always made it so swishy. Now it looks like a lab’s tail. He as a couple other bald spots too. I’m so happy to put the chemo behind us. His lungs still looked all clear too. We take him in for more lung x-rays in March and then every 6 months after that. Hopefully we get to spend a lot more on x-rays for him over his whole life span.

Clarebear is discovering the joys of speech. She’s starting to say a lot of words if you prompt her. She only has a few words that she uses all the time unprompted: No. Mine. Owie. Uhoh. Mama. Dad-deee. And of course, a plethora of unintelligible one’s that sound just like the cadence of regular speech. She’s just so darn cute. And so different from her older sister. Cate had a ton of patience and could keep trying something until she got it or gave up and gave it to me to do. Clare has a toy piggy bank with extra big coins. If she can’t get those suckers in within two tries, those coins are chucked across the room. No patience.

Well that’s about it from the Schwake household. Its about time for me to head off to bed – gotta work tomorrow. Until next time….