Cathleen

Sweet Pea has such a creative spirit. She's constantly working hard on some project she thought of on a whim. Art, writing menus and such. She's been working on sketching horses and dragons from memory instead of from a tutorial. Often she gets her school done without much ado and quickly. She has taken after her older brother and occasionally decides to rebel against doing what she knows she needs to do but luckily, it's the exception! Cathleen is doing much better at handling frustrations, and I think I'm doing much better realizing that when and if she melts down, it's not usually about the last thing that happened...it's likely a building up of steam from events earlier. She LOVES gymnastics. The gym is about 8 minutes from our house so taking her twice a week (and Kieran) is not difficult. She practices all the time in the house, cartwheels at first and now things like standing bridges and front walkovers (using the couch). After her first Spring Gymnastics Show, she told me that she decided she wanted to focus more on gymnastics and wants to go more often than twice a week. In August, I'll sign her up for the 5x a week level though I doubt we'll make it there 5 times a week very often! I've been reading all the Anne of Green Gables books for almost two years to her! We are finishing book 5 now. She loves them. Cathleen always helps her baby brother and usually is a good helper to Mommy. She's a confident swimmer though she doesn't really do any stroke for very long. I want them to join the base swim team but it meets at 6:30am!

I don't remember why I took this picture but I like it :)

She chose sushi to eat for her 9th birthday. We were lucky to be able to celebrate with Grammy and Grammy! 

Grammy made this peacock dress for Pea. It is the best. She loves it and wears it most Sundays!

Reading fairy tales to the foster pups.

Church...tried to snap a quick pic of how she did her hair with little pieces of ribbon but Finn photobombed her!

Trying on her new leotard.

Parakeet love

After her first gymnastics show

We ate at the Mellow Mushroom after her gymnastics show.

Her first pair of skates!

Weeding the garden for $.25 a box

Her last art creation 

Retrieving eggs! Animals are her love.

Gymnastics

This was a well-attended Spring Show at the gymnastics place. At the time, Cathleen was the only one who performed as Kieran was in the pre-school group (had to be 6 to perform) and Sean wasn't taking gymnastics. She LOVED it and it was nicely uncompetitive. This is the best pic I could get b/c of all the parents in front of me!

Easter 2017 and Pea's birthday, part 2

all pics from the good camera, hence the separate post

I know I posted another pic from this same photoshoot but I like it so I'm posting it again! Easter 2017

Pea's 9th birthdday

The kids opened up a store from Pea's bedroom. The neighbor kids loved it! 

Cathleen recital

The beginning of Cathleen's performance of Musette!

Cathleen's First Holy Communion

On May 7, Cathleen received her First Holy Communion here on base. It was really lovely, the whole mass, and Cathleen was radiantly happy. :)

Fr. Smith and Cathleen at the big moment she's been working toward all year!

Presenting her teacher with a gift.

Sweet happy girl. (PS Grampy: you left your hat here. :) )

Cathleen turns 8!

Sweet Pea is EIGHT years old! Hard to believe but this sweetie pie is growing up. She's still not 100% after her eating and drinking strike/illness last week but she's on the mend. You can see how tired she is in the pictures below but she had a great time. She picked out an ice cream birthday cake and I enjoyed making something different. It was easy!

This was as we were singing to her and the cake was being brought to her.

Love this.

She put the candles in exactly how she wanted them.

Using her new LCD writing board. 

Underpants from Daddy!

She loves her new owl from Aunt Erin!

Fun with Finnian after her party.

Finnian destroying our pewter candlesticks.

Kieran playing with another of Pea's presents, a huge beach ball.

Hard at work. She loves doing her math on the computer.

Sean practicing while I practiced with my camera.

Cathleen

Cathleen was inspired by Sean's recent embroidering and started a scene of her own!

Working hard on the butterfly.

This is the third time she made eggs in puff pastry. The next recipe she chose is Clam Chowder..we will do the "quick" version with canned clams but it still requires frying up bacon and onions. Not terribly easy but she insists.

Cathleen has been having a tough time of it lately. She has been refusing to do things she normally loved to do. Spanish class, school subjects, violin, get dressed. There's no rhyme or reason to it as far as I can tell. Some days she does fine but increasingly, she's been hard to get through to. We've had a light stomach flu go through the family over 2 weeks ago but she's still exhibiting symptoms. Complaining of feeling like she needs to throw up or sit on the toilet but nothing happens.

ETA: 4/13/16 doc is concerned about her weight loss. She went from 19th to 4th percentile in 4 months. Weighed in at 43 lbs. I forgot to ask what her weight was in December. Says to get her eating no matter what the food. I took her to the commissary right afterward and she picked a few things out but refuses to eat them. I'm hoping she feels like eating tomorrow. He tested her glucose which was 53. He said that's too low but since she hasn't eaten for two days, not surprising. Urine analysis results to check for UTI will be in soon. As for now, my job is to get her to eat. Not an easy task since she doesn't want to be told what to do right now and she's not hungry!

ETA: 4/14/16 After I wrote that first ETA above, Cathleen started refusing water. Well, she refused everything I offered. I even offered soda. {gasp} It looked like it was a battle of wills instead of her being unable to drink. She was capable of drinking, said she wasn't thirsty and therefore wouldn't drink no matter. She even said she'd rather go to the hospital and get an IV (after I told her that would be the next step) than take a sip. Later, she did take one small sip so she could watch Toy Story. I was worried all night and she was up hanging over the toilet at 5, maybe earlier, for a long time. I decided I would most likely take her to the ER. I made all the necessary arrangements for the kids and waited for her to wake. Decided to call Tricare 24/7 nurse for advice. The nurse said to try spoonfuls of water. I was sure this wasn't going to work but I woke her up to try. She ended up drinking 6 oz of regular water and electrolyte water! Yay! Just got her to drink a few more spoonfuls. She's napping/watching tv.

Despite all this, she's been so sweet, working on serving us like a waitress at dinner and creating lots and lots of art.

Pea, Puzzles, and Phinn

Cathleen has been begging to do "cooking class" with me. So she chose her first recipe, Scrambled Eggs in Puff Pastry. Gulp. I've never worked with puff pastry before but it couldn't be easier! This recipe isn't the best for a first time cook but we did it anyway. This was her first time...we make it together. Since then she made it again, under my watchful eye but (hopefully) few comments to let her gain independence. Next is her making it alone, with me out of sight. Another gulp.

Pea and her jigsaw puzzle.

Sean and his puzzle.

Someone actually took a picture of me! And baby boy!

Grammy and a freshly bathed Finnian.

Grampy gives Cathleen her early birthday present! A lovely new bike!

Daddy and the Finster.

Pea taking her bike on its maiden voyage.

Overhead as Pea took her new bike for a ride!