Miss Cayley's 9 month pictures!

As we approach our third year of marriage…

I can’t help but think, WOW!

I can not believe that Man Child and I are coming up on our three year marriage anniversary. July 25th, 2006. Three years seems like such a long time, but also feels like it was just last week that we stood in that room in the courthouse and promised to love and support each other for the rest of our lives. We have had many ups and downs and there were times I honestly never thought we would make it this far. But here we are, still together and expecting our second child.

Here is the story of us, and how we came to be together.

In September of 2003 I was married to a Puerto Rican ass wipe named Vinny. We had moved to Florida in January of the same year to escape drug problems that he had and to "start over" in order to salvage our marriage. I married him too young, looking for someone to love me(looking back of I know that, but at the time I was "in love") and I was determined not to fail so I was willing to do almost anything to fix our marriage. That included moving 2000+ miles away from where I grew up, turning a blind eye to his extra marital affair, forgiving him after he cleaned out our bank account to support his drug addiction, his abusive behavior towards me. I did not realize at the time that I needed to fix me since I was concentrating so hard to fix Vinny. Don’t get me wrong, he had issues, but the views I had about myself allowed him to treat me and our marriage with disrespect. (Again, hindsight…)
So anyway… In September of 2003 I was working a full time job (overnight shift at a nursing home) and attending college (5pm-9pm). Vinny and I were renting a house with a big back yard, had a car, a pool (I have no idea now why I felt like that was such an accomplishment… It was a piece of crap above ground pool!), a dog, both of us were holding a job… I was starting to feel happier. One night while I was working, my co-worker Maria and I went down stairs to the patio to smoke a cigarette and wait for a friend of hers to come over to talk to her. Her friend shows up and she introduces us. Jorge(better known here as Man Child), this is Caroline, Caroline, my cousin Jorge. He was drunk. And obviously so. Plus he was in the company of another girl. I said hello to them both and excused myself to go do my rounds.
The next day Maria invited me to a soccer game that her husband would be playing in on the upcoming Saturday. She told me she did not want to go alone. Hey, Vinny was going to be working, I was home alone, why not? Saturday comes along and Maria comes to my house to pick me up. As I reach for the handle of the car door, I see roses in the front seat. I think to myself, -Aw! Nicholas (her husband) bought her flowers! That is so sweet! Vinny is such an ass… He never does that stuff for me…- Much to my surprise, as I get in the car, Maria tells me that the flowers are for me!! From her cousin Jorge! Who, mind you, will also be playing in the soccer game… Bitch set me up! (Oh well. Honestly, the attention made me feel wonderful.) She goes on to tell me that Jorge thinks I am pretty, yada, yada… He knows I am married, he knows that I am not really all that happy in my marriage (thanks to Maria for spreading my business), he would like to be my friend. From the look of the ROSES, I knew he really wanted to be more than friends, but he had to start somewhere I guess.
We get to the soccer game and Jorge and Nicholas come over to say hi and I thank him for the flowers (while blushing bright red!). The next thing I know, I have twenty dollars in my hand and he is asking for water. And telling me to get something to drink too. So Maria and I go to 7-11 and get the guys some water, ourselves coffee and hot chocolate and we head back to the game. About twenty minutes into it, I realize that I am the only white person there. And no one is really watching the game, they are all conversing with each other. Boring!! So, I get up and start yelling CINCO! (Jorge’s number) and I clap and cheer for the team. Yeah, all eyes are on me, including Jorge’s, but Maria and a couple of the kids came over after a minute and joined me. It turned out to be pretty fun after that. Of course "our" team won, and the guys wanted to celebrate so we all trip back to Maria’s house. At that point I learned that Jorge lived in the apartment right next door to her, and that they were not technically cousins. Apparently Jorge was new to the USA, and Maria and Nicholas kind of took him under their wing so to speak, showing him the ropes and they had become family. I also learned that he had two jobs and did not really know much English.
I was not able to celebrate with everyone for very long that night because I had to go to work. I talked (more like sign language and writing on a pad of paper in my broken Spanish) to Jorge for a little while before it was time for me to leave and he kissed me on the cheek as I left. (I still have the paper where I wrote down my cell number for him that day.) Later that night, who showed up to my job with food from the party? Yup, he brought me food. I was impressed. And hungry. We "talked" for hours that night. And since he was still there when morning came, he invited me to his house for breakfast. He made me eggs and Chorrizo and coffee. -That is the day that I learned how he likes his coffee. I remember thinking how odd it was that he used regular milk, and it was more like he was drinking milk with a touch of coffee. I went home soon after and he went to work.-
Jorge and I visited with each other at my job almost every night for the next couple of months. Almost every night he brought me and my residents’ food from the Italian restaurant he worked at. And we had breakfast almost every morning. I was getting attached to this guy. I was looking forward seeing him every day. I was beginning to become more and more unhappy in my marriage to Vinny because I was finally seeing that there was something better than what he was giving me out there in the world. I realized that I was having an emotional affair and I started to feel guilty about that too. I considered telling Jorge that we needed to stop spending time together, but on December 6th,2003 a series of events sent my life spiraling into directions I never thought possible.
After work that morning I went to Jorge's house. When I got there, he was standing there with a towel, a t-shirt and boxers. He told me to follow him, and I did, into the bathroom to see that he had drawn me a bath. Complete with bubbles and candles. He told me to go relax and when I got out we would have breakfast. I remember laying there in his tub thinking how wrong, but how right he made me feel. He was always doing kind things for me. I got out of the bath tub and went to find him when I was done dressing. He was in his bedroom. He motioned me to come in, he was going to give me a massage. I was sooo nervous about letting him touch me, but I wanted him to touch me, I wanted that human connection, so I agreed to the massage. I was extremely tense and got goosebumps the second his hands were on my back. (I shiver now just thinking about it!) His hands were on my back, my legs, my arms… He told me to turn over and as I was turning, I felt his mouth on my neck. Then everywhere else. I shall not go into anymore detail except to tell you that I had never in my life felt as alive as I did in that moment and in the hours we spent together that morning.
When Jorge left that afternoon to go to work, I realized that I would have to go home to my husband and either confess to my marital indiscretion, or I’d have to keep it to myself and live with the guilt. Luckily for me, something else happened that day. As I was getting dresses, my cell phone rang. It was a girl that worked at the same place I did, but we worked different shifts so I did not really know her. She asked if I could stop by, that she needed to talk to me. I was literally right down the street, so I headed over. When I met her, she seemed really uneasy. It turned out that she knew my husband. While I was at work, he was trying to get into her pants. I may have felt like a hypocrite for being so angry and hurt if this wasn’t the fourth time that I found out he was going to stray if given the chance, never mind the time that he did cheat on me. Relief swept over me. He had finally given me the out I needed. He had not changed, yet I had. Our marriage was over. This had to be fate.
I went home after explaining to the girl that it was not the first time, and I sincerely appreciated her honesty. I called Maria and asked her to come over. When she got there, I asked if I could stay with her for a little while. I told her what happened (all of it) and she told me that she thought Jorge would want me to stay with him. Well, I was pretty much out of any other options, so I went with her suggestion. I left Vinny a short note telling him that I knew about the girl from my job and that I was leaving and would be filing for a divorce. When Maria and I got to the apartments, she used her copy of his key to let me in and helped me bring all my stuff in. We stored it in his second bedroom and waited for him to come home from work. When his car pulled up she went outside to talk to him and I sat in his kitchen and waited. I melted when he came into the house with a huge smile on his face and came right over to me and held me for what seemed like forever.
So December 6th, 2003 is the day that Man Child and I consider to be the day that we became a couple. This relationship has not been easy by any means, but I plan on posting some of our ups and downs later. We learn and grow from everything we experience and I hope that the ups become more frequent and the downs less serious.

Today I bought Worcestershire sauce.

Why do I consider this news? Well, I guess because this is the first time in my life that I bought it. It was on sale for .88 at Albertsons and I thought I might as well have it in my cabinet should I need it. I hear that you can use it to make some really tasty hamburgers... Now I just have to get the correct pronunciation down. Worcestershire Sauce. Hmm... I better take it slow.

In other news...

Cayley is finally feeling better. Her bum however is hurting from the looks of it. I think the effects of the prune juice earlier this week have finally worn off, so now her bum needs to recover and she'll be good as new. Oh, yeah, I guess we'll have to wait for her new bruise to go away too. Today we decided to go to the Mexican store to get our veggies for the week, and when I was leaning over to lock my car up, Miss Cayley leaned forward as well and hit her face (right below her eye) on the corner edge of the door. Missed her eye by hair. I felt so bad. It turned into a black dot rather quickly, but now has reddened and bruised a bit. Thankfully, it did not seem to affect her too much. She fussed for a moment and then snacked on some Cheetos while I did the shopping.

I have all of next weeks dinners planned out. I am very excited to try some new things. If they turn out decent, I will post the recipes.

NBS will be here soon!! I can't believe I have only about 8 weeks left. I have been nesting like crazy, which I did not experience with Cayley, and this pregnancy is starting to do a number to my pelvis. It takes me a few tries to get in and out of bed, lol. Sometimes when I lay down I can not move my legs because moving hurts my pelvis so bad. I keep telling myself "x" amount of weeks to go... I should not complain too much because my little boy is healthy as far as we can tell and that is most important. I can't believe we are having another baby!!! AHHHH!

22 more working days until I become a Stay at Home Mother!!! I am super excited! I am so ready to stop going to the office now, but I will stay until the very end.

Man Childs birthday is coming up and I have no idea what to do to celebrate it. We have never celebrated our birthdays really, so I kind of want to throw him a party, but I suck at planning and everything else that hosting a party entails. I would hate to throw him a lame ass party. He really deserves something great. I'll keep thinking.

I am off to get some sleep. I am driving Man Child to work tomorrow since he is going to be passing 24 hours without sleep due to his work schedule. (he is crazy!) I don't want him driving at this point, so Cayley and I will take him to work and we will hang out at the mall that is down around there until he finishes. He is only expecting to be there for a few hours, so it won't be too bad.

Bye!

Prune juice will not be used in my house EVER. (took place 5/25)

Ever again that is... (this post gets a bit graphic... so be warned)

So Cayley has been running a fever since yesterday which I have been controlling with Motrin, Tylenol, and lukewarm baths. Well this afternoon when I picked her up from the babysitter, I noticed that her stomach was feeling hard. I remembered that this same thing happened the last time she had a high fever for a few days and that she recovered quickly after she poo'd quite a bit... Well me being a super mom genius decided that she must be constipated since I know she hasn't poo'd normally in a couple of days.

*light bulb flashes above my head*

-Hey, prune juice will help her poo! She'll be better in no time!-

So off to the store I go and I get the smallest bottle of prune juice (not very small by the way...) and spend 3.99 on it. When I get home I pour two ounces of juice, three ounces of water and offer it to Cayley. She samples it and doesn't seem to mind the taste too much. I breath a sigh of relief as her and I cuddle on the couch while Jorge and I discuss the possibility of tripping it outside to the store before we get hit by another rain storm. Cayley is more playful now so we figure we should go do what we need to do. I joke with Jorge that we better not forget to bring a diaper, and he retorts that we better bring a few.

All goes well at the store, Cayley falls asleep, my receipt shows that I saved 79.22 (spent 120.00), we are homeward bound. When we got home Cayley was still sleeping so I told Jorge to bring in her whole car seat. He puts the car seat on the table and I start putting our groceries away. He was gone for a while (stuck at OldLadyNeighbor's window when I checked...), so I finished in the kitchen, put some food in the microwave for him and made a bottle of formula for Cayley. As I am walking by the table, I noticed a brown liquid on the place mat under the car seat.
My initial thought was "what is that?", then, "fucking dog threw up again!" and then I was like, "wait a minute... How the fuck did the dog get up on the table??? No, Pepsi doesn't have chunks..."
Oh my lord, please tell me that stuff is NOT from Cayley.
Well... Shit sure enough Cayley is sitting in poo. And not just any poo. Prune juice poo.
I sigh to myself because I already know that I am going to get stuck cleaning this shit... I call to Jorge that he needs to come in the house. Not being very patient two minutes later I call to him that he NEEDS to come in the house. He somehow escapes the clutches of OldLadyNeighbor when he comes in and I inform him that the juice worked. He sees that I am not amused at all...He walks over, looks, and turns around looking horrified. (mind you he has not eaten dinner yet. LOL)I told him he better just take Cayley and her seat and put them in the bathtub.Cayley is awake at this point and is NOT AMUSED. (picture below has poo in it.)











Anyway, I unbuckle her (take a pic), and as I am stripping her down my poo aversion flares up. Fiercely and very quickly. Great, now not only do I get to clean poo, but my reverse dinner of eggs as well... Yay! I manage to hose Cayley down and I need a break from the smell so I decide to take her out of the bathtub. In the process of getting in a position that I can pick up Cayley without toppling over, I step in my upchuck. Then I notice the poo all over the side of the tun and realize that it is all over my arm and elbow as well. I finally made it out of the bathroom with Cayley, both of us clean, but by no means is my bathroom! It is clean now, I went back in and rinsed the car seat, took over the cover and threw it in the washer with her clothes... Jorge ate dinner and then chilled on the couch while I was doing my best to not lose any more of my dinner... I won't be using prune juice EVER again. I think I will bring the bottle, minus two ounces, over to OldLadyNeighbor.

Happy 9 months my sweet baby Cayley!

Cayley has hit the 9 month mark! I can't believe that she is almost a year. I was looking through her pictures and I am stunned at the growth of my little monster.

Simply amazing.

I love you Miss Cayley.

Week 16- Happy Mothers Day 2009!

"Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers here in the ER".
It’s 1am Sunday morning and we were sitting in the ER at ___ General Hospital when someone was thoughtful enough to send that message over the loud speaker. I smile and Man Child leans over to kiss me on the cheek. I look at Cayley and see so much of myself in her. Here she is with a 103 degree fever but still babbling and pulling herself into standing position in the ER crib. Man Child comments on how strong she is even while she is sick and we look at each other and have a mutual understanding that she sure does not get this "strength" from him… The one who lies in bed moaning when he has a hangnail… No, she most certainly inherited this from her Momma. Not only did she get her strength from me, but also her attitude. The ER doctor came over to examine her and Cayley was very cooperative until the Dr. went to check her left ear. She struggled and I had to help hold her still. And getting the tongue depressor into her mouth to check her throat… I can only imagine that Cayely experienced a temporary case of Lock Jaw. It took a few moments and a lollipop to get Cayleys mouth open. Then, when the Dr. was listening to her lungs, I noticed Cayley was holding her breath!! Every time the stethoscope was out of her view she would stop breathing. I secretly applauded her resistance, but then quickly remembered that THIS is what I am going to be dealing with during her Terrible Two’s and her Adolescent years… We get the diagnosis of "Ear Infection" and were told she would be getting an antibiotic shot before she is discharged. As the Dr. walked away she said good bye to Cayley. Well, this baby was not amused by the poking and prodding. She sat there, face scrunched, eyes following the Dr. as she walked away and then let out a celebratory shriek when she was out of site. I am truly amazed by the personality that she exhibits. We waited around for a while for the shot and then to make sure that she did not have an adverse reaction to it.
Finally at 3 am we left to go home. My feet had swollen to the point that I felt they were going to pop if I moved them the wrong way. I was thirsty, tired and for some reason craving a Whopper. Cayley cried all the way home because she did not want to be in her car seat. I should have had Man Child swap cars with me… We get home, get Cayley a bottle and Man Child is giving me the "lets get frisky" signal. You have to be friggen kidding me. I am no way in the mood, not close, not even interested in trying... Leave me the #^%^ alone and let me get some sleep so that I can deal with the baby in the morning. Which by the way, is less than 4 hours away. Well, as I anticipated, Cayley was up at 7 am. She and I had some breakfast and then went back to bed. We slept on and off until 2 pm. I am oh so thankful that she pretty much cooperated. I remember thinking though, that maybe I should buy a baby harness just to make sure she couldn’t fall off the bed when I opened my eyes and saw her playing ON my nightstand. I could hardly function at 2 when I finally got up. I HAD to though… I had to bring her prescriptions to the pharmacy. I had to get the chicken marinated, feed Cayley lunch… The rest of the day was uneventful… Made dinner, when Cayley fell asleep I got laundry done, cleaned up the living room and the dresser… Saw Man Child off to work… Finally fell asleep around 2 am while looking at my Mothers Day Cards strategically placed on my nightstand so that Man Child knows that his efforts were appreciated.
This morning I had my first Medicine Battle with Cayley. She takes Motrin, Tylenol, her cough medicine, really all of it very easily… But for some reason she was NOT eating this stuff! I am hoping that I got at least half the dose into her, but judging the medicine on her shirt, high chair tray and my arms, I am kind of doubting it… We’ll be trying it again at 7pm tonight…
Less than three hours until I get to see my little NBS! Man Child is supposed to accompany me to this appointment. IF he actually makes it, it will be the first ultrasound he has ever been present for. We sure have made some progress from when I was pregnant with Cayley!!! Speaking of Man Child and progress… He looked at me the other night and told me that he feels like he doesn’t do enough to help me with Cayley. And that he feels bad about it. While I tend to agree with him, I also think of how hard it must be for him to work 18 hour days Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. I see how exhausted he is on Mondays… I know how hard he works… Even though it would be great for him to be the one to give her a bath once in a while, or feed her breakfast in the morning, I enjoy just seeing him play with her at night, seeing her sleep in his arms. I am so happy that she has a daddy that loves her so much. He has so many dreams for her, NBS, and us as a family. I am thankful to have him as a husband and the father of my children. With a bit more training, I think he could be pretty perfect. (lmao!)
Anyway… I am still craving that Whopper…

Week 15 --> counting down the days until our next vacation. : )

So we are back from vacation. We had a fantastic time!
Here are some pictures of Potato Head Cayley, and some from our trip.