Today we said goodbye to our sweet puppy. We adopted Carrie (smile) from the humane society 2 months after we got married. She was a scrawny and scared 4 month old pup who was opposed to playing... a trait she never outgrew. She would eat the drywall when left home alone and we quickly learned the advantages of crating. She made the big move with us to Alaska, helped us move into our first house, and welcome each of our children as they joined our family.

14 years later, our sweet Care Bear, has been in constant pain and has been slowly loosing her mind. We have know it was time to say goodbye for a few month but we (OK, mostly I) was holding out hope for one last great summer and then saying farewell before the fall cold set in. Unfortunately, dementia caused her to start getting aggressive with the kids, something she has NEVER done before. we knew then that sooner rather than later was the only option.

Today, Zman, the girls, and I took her to the vet and stroked her soft fur as she gently drifted off to sleep. On the tearful journey home we were treated to a beautiful rainbow right over our house... thanks for that Carrie.

Goodbye my old friend. We'll miss you more than you know!

posted at 4:51 PM 6 comments  
Labels: Family

Zboy had his yearly well child check this morning and it went well. He is in the 50% for height and the 75% for weight... down from 90% for both last year. I fully credit this to no longer being stuffed like a rabbit at he old childcare. I delayed the HEP A and MMR so we got off with no shots this go around... always a plus!

After the appointment I took him to work with me for a while and he charmed everyone, ate cake, and watched TV in Zman's office. Then I took him with me to do classroom hours in Cookie's class. This was a good intention but I should have known better since it cut into nap time. He did great eating lunch with his sister and walking up to the play ground though he didn't understand why he needed to leave all the cool toys in the classroom which were lots of fun to strew about.

The playground was a HUGE mud pit and even though he had his jacket, rain-pants and snow boots, it took only seconds for him to become covered in mud. I still think we would have made it out OK if I didn't have to stay for PE; outdoor PE was a fiasco. The K/1's were in a rowdy mood and weren't listening to the teacher. Cookie was clingy and whiny because mom was there but was paying more attention to her brother. Zboy was melting down, muddy, and fell pretty hard off the retaining wall so was a huge crying mess. FUN!

Thankfully, we got home a little after 2 and Zboy went down for a nap ASAP and woke up a happy and hungry. Cookie got her one-on-one mommy time and then happily went out to play with the neighbor. All is well that ends well, I guess, but I probably won't do that again anytime soon!

posted at 3:49 PM 0 comments  
Labels: Zboy

Zman and I celebrate a special anniversary on February 12 and since I gave some really lame gifts this year for Christmas and our wedding anniversary, I decided to go all out and really surprise him this time.

To celebrate, every year we have dinner at the nicest restaurant in town and this year I also arranged for a fancy hotel suit, champaign, chocolate truffles, rose petals, and, umm... fancy undergarments. Yesterday afternoon I smuggled a packed suitcase out of the house and ran some errands that included stopping by the hotel and sprucing up the place and leaving our overnight bag there. After dinner I gave him a card with the hotel key inside. Boy was he surprised! I was great to spend quality time away from the kids and reconnect with my hubby. I was also really fun to get the upper hand with my super gift giving guy and really knock his socks off!

posted at 3:14 PM 0 comments  
Labels: Family

• He has to get dressed as soon as he gets up for the day. Not getting dressed immediately is cause for a meltdown.
• He has to have socks on at all times.
• He loves oatmeal and eats a huge bowl every morning.
• He loves his duplo blocks and can sit at the table for hours making huge towers and "robots" and then knocking them down.
• He LOVES to be outside. If he is in a bad mood the easiest thing is to take him out for a while and he will be happy as a clam. He can spend hours outside in any weather (when mom is up for it)
• He's a momma's boy right now. He loves his daddy but only really likes snuggling with mom. He comes in every morning and climbs into bed with me for a cuddle. He also likes whisper sweet nothings into my ear. "Mommy, you're my special, special, boy."
• He has a blanket that he carries around whenever he's home. It's his sister's old blanket and it's pink and covered in flowers and he calls "him" Pinky. He also puts pinky right up to the side of his face and carries it around "Linus style"

• He loves the water and keeping him dry when we go out is a huge challenge. Any puddle, stream, river, lake, or ocean that comes our way is fair game as far as he is concerned. This is especially challenging for us because we live in a rain forest... there is always water! A bath is another great way to break him out of a funk and he will be in there for hours.
• He loves his sisters... he loves tormenting his sisters by going in their room without permission, climbing their bunk bed without their permission, talking to them without their permission, breathing... well, you get the idea. Cookie is really good about playing with him though and they can usually go whole minutes without fighting!
• He hates any vegetable other than raw carrots, won't eat any kind of meat that is not deep fried or  tubular, and won't eat eggs in any form. He will eat any kind of fruit, still drinks several large glasses of milk a day, and loves "Daddy Sandwiches" aka peanut butter and jelly.
• He loves Blues Clues on netflix and just last night ran up to Cookie and said "I'm Steve and you're Blue. Lets go" and they both ran off to find clues. He can also sing all the songs from that show perfectly and will break out into the mail time song every time we go to the mail box.
• He loves to sing and dance. He will brake out into song at any time and will always come in on time and pitch when I start to sing. The third way to break him out of a funk is to put on some music for him to sing and dance too. The kids are all really into Bill Harley right now and Zboy request to listen to his "Dog song" every time he get into the car. "There were mutts and puppies everywhere"
• He is a big kid and has a big presence. His preschool teacher says he's like a bull in a china shop because he fills up a space and likes big and firm body movements. The other kids don't alway like that though. He runs into school everyday and stands just inside the door and LOUDLY announces "I'm here guys!"
• He still loves to sleep and will demand a nap if he thinks we are running late on that. He also goes to bed a night with no fuss and sleeps pretty hard all night. He does come in every morning to sleep with me anywhere between 3 to 6:30 am but usually closer to 6 am. He is always up for the day by 7, even on the weekends.
• He is learning to use his words. This is a very recent development that is very much appreciate by everyone. Now instead of hitting his sister when he gets mad you can hear him say things like "I'm MAD!" and "I don't like it when you say that!" I've even gotten a "I don't like it when you yell at me" recently.
• He is not potty trained yet. In fact, his lame parents haven't even started. He is showing some interest so we'd better get the ball rolling here but I REALLY hate potty training.
• He is very good at not hearing what he doesn't want to hear; almost to the point of his teacher thinking there is something wrong with him. There isn't! He just tunes you out and focuses on what he like. He is also easily distracted... look something shinny.

posted at 10:17 AM 1 comments  
Labels: Zboy