Hey Mom...look at me!

Earlier this week Maddy and I went upstairs to get Makena up from her mornning nap. Maddy always gets very excited when Makena wakes up, rushes upstairs, opens the door, and climbs into her crib. The girls play and laugh. I turned around after grabbing a few things to find this.

Ms. Makena was standing in her crib. Just standing there like its no big deal, like she's always been doing it. Only she hasn't and it was a big deal to mom!! So I whooped and cheered and there were laughs all around..and Makena knew she'd done something big then. Big smiles.

Makena is 9 months old tomorrow, February 28th. She is flying past those milestones and one happy baby. Crawling all over the place, pulling up and trying to climb on things, and just starting to cruise around the furniture. How did it all happen so fast?

Finally, we are done being sick. Pretty much two months of sickness for this family - way too long. But happy to report we are all well and getting back to a normal routine, crossing our fingers we can stay healthy for a few weeks.

Because these girls have been just a wee bit cooped up, as well as Mom! Hoping the weather stays nice over the next couple weeks, and we can get out and burn off some crazy energy.

Crazy Cat Stories

Simon is home!!!


Wow, we've had some kind of crazy luck with cats in the past year. For awhile there, I was sure we'd be blacklisted from any local area animal shelters. We had two cats in one year that went missing. Its rough sometimes with indoor/outdoor animals. First, Simon went missing in October of 2008. He was a cat who loved to explore and would be gone all day sometimes. I was heartbroken when he didn't turn up and felt like a horrible pet owner. I spent much time searching for him. I really thought he was out there, I just couldn't track him. We have a large ravine behind our house that leads up to neighborhoods uphill quite aways. I always knew he headed that way...its totally a cat magnet area.


So fast forward to April of 2009 and Wyatt goes missing. Ughh, seriously now I really thought I deserved some sort of ticket or punishment for losing two cats. By this time, life was so crazy with I, hugely pregnant, and wild toddler to handle, that I really didn't look long for Wyatt. Knowing Wyatt, I thought that if he disappeared he tangled with the wrong animal. Wyatt loved his food, he loved his home, and he came back several times a day to check on both. So when he didn't come home, I was sure he probably tangled with a coyote. And 4 months later he showed up literally across the way in the apartments. He was on the hunt for a mouse, and Michael went was out on a walk with the girls and happened to see him. Random and super lucky. He's home and now loving life as an indoor cat.



All this time, I still always kept an eye out for Simon. By now its been over a year since he's disappeared. And on Thursday afternoon I was taking Makena for a car ride to try and get her a nap. I usually head up to the neighborhood behind us, as its just a gorgeous area and I love to check out the homes. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small yellow sign that read "Found Male Black Cat" with details underneath sounding a lot like Simon! I felt totally crazy. Like, cat-lady crazy.....but I had to call. So I called and left a message literally saying..."this probably sounds nuts, but I lost a cat like your description over a year ago....."


And they called me back, didn't think I was nuts and invited me to come check him out. Believe it or not, all black cats look the exact same. Especially if they don't have any identifying marks..but after comparing a pic and talking about personality, I was 99% sure this was Simon. And the family was ecstatic.. Turns out he'd be hanging out in this neighborhood since last summer. They saw my signs but initially thought this cat was female, so didn't bother to call. A trip to the vet, corrected them on the gender of the cat. So that was when they posted a sign and I randomly drove by and saw it. Its definitely not a neighborhood on my normal route...so something was meant to be.





Simon is in the garage trying to get use to it all. We'll have a few days of getting use to the house, noises, kids screaming...and then we'll try and re-acquaint Wyatt and Simon. I doubt they'll remember each other - so I'm prepared for mostly a lot of hissing.

But my sweet black kitty is home. I missed him so. I feel like one crazy lucky cat lady. And I've definitely had a huge debit to my karma bank. :) I'll be sending those wonderful people some sort of nice thank you for taking care of my cat and posting that precious little sign!

Sickfest 2010 continues....

Yuck, today is day 47 of our Winter 09-10 sickfest(not that we are counting), at least one or all of us have been sick at the same time during past 47 days, Dad has managed to work only 6 days in the last 5 weeks. We have endured Pneumonia(actually Walking Pneumonia because I was upright and not in a hospital bed), bronchitis(more fun with coughing that you can ever imagine), Croup(your child does not sleep at night and has a cough that sounds like a dog choking on a small rodent), one cold for Makena and now Maddy is working on her second cold in the past month, toss in Maddy's second year molars and Makena cutting her first teeth and it's really enough to drive any sane parent mad. Lucky for us the flu has yet to make it's appearance.

It's to be expected with two little ones but it's getting rather old and costly. Other good news to report is Maddy can huck-a- lugie, she's watched her patents do it so many time that when she's outside she announces, "I spit....Agggghhhhh...Phuttttt". Meme and Pepe thought this was funny and as long as she does it outside I suppose it's ok and cute for now. (Her father went though a stage of spitting on the rug in the house after learning how to spit at scout camp in the 5th grade so it runs in the family.)

Despite all of this mess Makena is still on a tear. She pulls herself up on anything over a foot high and we have caught her taking a few steps while holding onto a table etc... It's exciting to watch. Her dismounts from a standing position have drastically improved and no longer involve the sound of her head bouncing off the rug and lots of tears. We've found her sitting up in her crib in the middle of the night with that perplexing look of "What the hell just happened?" on her face. She is all smiles lately and has a grin from ear to ear that lights up the grayest of our winter days.

Madelyn's favorite phrase to the delight of her father continues to be, "That come from my butt!" after she farts, or "That come from your butt.". that's my girl you know what possessive adjectives are :)

No stopping her now

Madelyn is on the left and Makena is on the right, about the same age on the nursing stool. Makena is simple delighted with new found mobility. I looked away from her for a moment this morning and she had hoisted herself into a standing position on a toy. Wow, this from a kid who's just learned how to crawl. She must be jealous of her sister and dying to do all the things she does. We have a few more spills due to her mobility but a few well placed pillows lessens the blows.

Madelyn loves playing with her cars, "On your mark, get set, Goooo!!" she yells.