January 29, 2012

There is serious controversy in our house!  Hazel is seriously pissed that Al is back home, which I find very odd.  They've been together since they were kittens, though they've never been super cuddly with each other, you'd think that they like each other at this point.  Apparently not.  It seems that Hazel quickly became acclimated to ruling the roost while Al was gone in kitty hospital those few days.  She's been hissing at Al every chance she gets.  We've been trying to give her extra attention, just in case she's feeling left out, but the more attention she gets the more evil she gets!  Last night I caught her blatantly peeing in Al's new kitty bed!!  She has a new kitty bed also.  She has had no interest in hers, but Al loves his.  Apparently this is unacceptable.  Sigh. 

The girls have just about been the same way with each other.  They're just snipping at everything the other one says and generally driving Ken and I crazy with their back and forth stuff with each other.  It's exhausting to listen to controversy continuously!  Finally, we'd had enough this morning and forced them to work a puzzle together before they could go to Sunday School or over to friends for Valentine making.  They've been very excited about Valentine making, and were working on it from the get go this morning.  With the threat of Valentine making on the line, the girls actually sort of started to work together.  They got the 100 piece puzzle together, but just barely in enough time.  When they had about 75% of the puzzle together they actually started to work together and hand each other pieces.  Did I mention that it is exhausting to listen to constant squabbling? 

We had a fun time over at our friends' house, Rachel and Brendon.  Of course, by the time we got there, the girls weren't much interested in crafting.  They each made a Valentine for Rachel and Brendon, and then they were done. 

I had been hoping to accomplish more today, but gave up the fight. 

Rachel made Teresa a choker.

They just wanted to play.  Addison and Brendon matched up and played nicely for the next couple of hours, as did Teresa and Rachel.  Ryan distracted the kids for a while by starting to make a loaf of homemade bread.

Of course, no one was ready to leave when it was time, but we did make it out of the house without too much excitement. 

We stopped at a grocery store on the way home.  Usually I do not get inundated with requests, as we usually have a list and stick to it.  Today however, it seems no list meant ask for everything in the store!  Thankfully it was mostly fruits and vegetables that they wanted, since that's mostly what this store has, but still.  They were denied chocolate covered carmel corn as we left and got a serious lecture in the car about being appreciative and grateful for what they get (since they each got several of their requested items).  This sunk in not at all.  As soon as we got home they were scrapping with each other again, so they got banished to the backyard.  The sun was setting and it was 55 degrees out or so, and they thought this quite chilly.  I made them stay outside for about 45 minutes (which they spent playing together on the play set) and then allowed them to come inside.  We had another big talk and Teresa's first comment at the end of it was, "Um, I really don't think that you need to be yelling....we're standing right here." 

This talk actually seemed to sink in...at least temporarily.  They were much better behaved and mannered for the rest of the evening.  Teresa offered to read Addison some bedtime books.  Maybe there's hope for them still?

January 28, 2012

Addison woke up in really good spirits today, and it seemed that she was officially over all her viral crud.  She still has a bit of a cough, but otherwise seemed fine this morning.  This was good news because we were to go over to a friend's house to make Valentines this afternoon. 

We started the day with gymnastics.  Addison is usually all over the place during gymnastics.  She loves it.  Today it was obvious that she was not feeling completely up to par.  She got teary at one point during class, which is very atypical.  Teresa did a great job today, mostly because her whole class spent their time on the balance beam (probably her best "event') and the trampoline.  The trampoline in our play room has really improved both girls' bouncing ability. 

Addison had one more meltdown, claiming that Teresa looked at her funny.  I made the executive decision to push off Valentine making this afternoon.  Neither child was overly pleased with my decision.  I made it up to them by ceding to their request for donuts.  Teresa made the most appealing plea.  "Pleasssssseeeeee Mommy? We haven't had donuts since Grandma Judy left.  I've almost forgotten what they taste like!"  Addison was quick.  "I haven't forgotten.  I like 'em."  They picked their donut shot and then picked their donuts.  Tess got strawberry and vanilla frosting.  Addison got strawberry and cherry.

They were both pleased with their picks. 

Tess did decide that vanilla was much yummier than strawberry. 

We played for a bit this morning, and then Addison went down for a nap at 1:30.  Teresa  begged for me to take her for a manicure (or for Ken to take her), since Ken took Addison yesterday.  I jumped at the opportunity since it's been forever since I've gotten my nails done.   Teresa will sit forever in one of the massaging chairs, so she's no problem to take to the nail salon, even if there's quite a wait.  Tess picked out silver glitter for her toenails, and alternating pink and purple for her fingers.  It's actually a very cute combination.

We ran a couple of errands and got home at 4:30 to find Addison still in a deep sleep.  The girl slept until 6:30....a full 5 hour nap!  Obviously her body is still needing rest!  She woke full of energy, but didn't protest at all when we told her that it was time for bed at 8:30.  I threatened to take away her beloved rabbit fur if she got out of bed, since I was fully expecting her to bop up and down for a while.  Not a peep from her and she was sound asleep at 8:45. 

Teresa is enjoying giving Al special attention and decided to feed him treats out of her hand tonight.  She's usually too scared to do this.

Tess was a little harder.  We let her take a book to bed since it's a weekend night.  She's completely addicted to the Magic Tree house series right now and does not like the cliff hanger end of chapters.  We read through chapter 5 tonight and then she took the book to bed. At 9:15 she called out, "Mommy.....I have a problem.  I'm really, really tired and I really want to sleep, but my brain really wants to keep reading my book."   Ah.....I had that problem a lot when I was  a kid too, though I don't think I did at that age. 

January 27, 2012

Addison seemed much better this morning, I think she's got her little virus beaten.  So far, so good with the rest of the household, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.  She did get up this morning saying, "I think I'm still a little bit sick."  I think that she's enjoying getting parent one on one time!  Today was Ken's Friday off, so the plan had always been to let her stay home with him today.  I checked in a couple times during the day, and by all accounts, she seemed that she was doing quite well.  She spent a good deal of time today jumping on the trampoline.  Yeah, I think that she's probably doing okay. 

Addison was getting quite stir crazy this afternoon, and Ken decided to treat her to a salon day. 

Addison is getting quite a reputation at the nail salon.  She's a total ham while she's there, talking the entire time.  She's been known to ask the Asian workers to stop speaking Spanish several times previously.

When Ken told me that he took Addison to get her nails done, I told him he better be prepared to take Teresa later.  He said, "Teresa may not even notice."  Yeah right.

January 26, 2012

We had pre-planned to have Addison go to work with me today.  Addison likes school, but she loves going to work with one of us.  There must be something about it feeling illicit or something that makes it so exciting.  Seriously, sitting in my office for the day does not seem overly fun to me.  Addison woke up at 5 am coughing, and stayed up, so I figured I'd get a nap out of her during the work day.   Nope.

She did fantastic though.  She took her little bear sleeping back and sat in the bag, in my desk chair.  She colored, dot painted, wrote me notes, and watched movies on my computer.  She did pop out of my office if she heard my voice in the hallway, but she didn't come out of the room uninvited.  I asked her what her job was today, and she knew the answer.  "Make it so no one knows that I'm there."  No one cares that she's there, but the point is to not have her running around the office putting on any type of show.  She succeeded. 

Addison seemed to start melting around 1 o'clock..  She definitely seemed like she had a fever (funny, I obviously had ample thermometers around me, but didn't find it necessary to actually take her temperature-I have a pretty good "mom"thometerer.  Her lungs sounded nice and clear today, so I feel confident that Addison has fallen victim to the virus that is going around full force right now.  We'll see if the rest of us can keep it at bay. 

I took Addison home around 1:30, and she finally went to sleep, and slept hard for nearly 3 hours!  She woke up seemingly a new person.  No longer flushed, full of energy, good to go.  That is faster than most people have been fighting it off, but maybe she has super immune system?  Tomorrow will tell.  Ken will be working from home tomorrow...with his little helper.  If she's as energetic tomorrow as she was tonight, I'm not sure Ken will get all that much done!

We got the good news today that Al was doing much better and was ready to come home.  After Addison work up, we went to pick up Tess, and then we went to pick up Al.  The girls were SO happy to see him, and Al was so happy to be going home.  He seems much better with this pick up, and hopefully he will stay well.  

Al went strolling around the house, checking it out and making sure nothing had changed on him.  We found out that Hazel must have been enjoying being an only cat, because she did NOT welcome Al with open paws.  There was some hissing involved, and then she seemed to be stalking him every time he went into the litter box.  Odd.  And she's really enjoyed getting his new wet food every day.  Al however just meekly slinked away.  At the end of the evening he came over and gave each of us a prolonged body hug with a full motor turned on. 

I'm pretty sure he's happy to be home. 

January 25, 2012

Addison is officially sick.  She was up with fever and coughing for a lot of the night, and then the tremendous thunderstorm last night landed her in our bed around 2:30 or so.  If there was any chance of Ken and I not getting ill, I'm sure we just cancelled it out.

Ken was able to stay home with Addison, which got Teresa quite jealous as Addison gloated in the fact that she was getting to stay in pajamas 2 days in a row.  Addison's cough does sound pretty awful, she's definitely better off at home today. 

Ken took Addison over to see Al this afternoon and they report that he is definitely not happy in the kitty hospital. 

Addison went through an impressive (3?) boxes of Kleenex today, so she's got a bit of a Rudolph like nose now.  She has decided that sucking on her fingers is what gave her her sick germs and announced that she was not going to suck on her fingers any more.  I do not believe her, but it certainly would be nice if this prompted her to stop.

Teresa brought home her Science fair ribbon today and posed happily for me.  Now I just have to figure out what to do with this giant poster board. 

We tried hard to keep the girls apart from each other tonight.  Addison was actually quite happy to seclude herself in the guest room, and was quite pleased that she got to eat in there.  (Food is not allowed out of our kitchen).  Teresa noticed all the fetching and special treatment and paused.  "Well, it really seems that being sick is kind of a good thing."  We all hope that she doesn't get to find out how "good" it is by getting to sick. 

Teresa came up with an interesting thought tonight.  We had some torrential rains today.  I think we got about 4 inches of rain in about 16 hours.  Both girls really want some snow.  As Teresa was laying in bed, her wheels still turning, she shouted out, "Mommy, if it was cold enough to snow then all this rain would be snow, but would we still have all the thunder and lightening?  Interesting.  I've never seen a snow storm with thunder and lightening, but interesting thought. 

January 24, 2012

Addison woke up with a bit of a cough today and proclaimed that she needed a pajama day.  Addison loves her pajamas.  Well, actually, both girls do.  However, Addison a particular affinity for her pajamas and would live in them if she was allowed to.  I figured she'd snap out of it by the time we needed to go to dance class, so pajamas it was when we took Al to the vet.  Al's been home since Saturday and has been interacting, but not eating, so I took him back in again.  In a bit of a deja vu experience, we hit replay.  Al's blood sugar was nearly 700 again and his white blood cell count was quite high.  Likely he has a bladder infection from the catherization.  He's back in the kitty hospital on IVs to get his sugars back down.  He's down another pound with the infection and his not eating.  And so, we'll wait and see.  Addison went around to every person in the waiting room, asked to pet their animal, did so, and then told the person about "our sick kitty Al.  We have another cat at home named Hazel."  She hsd a group of fans routing for Al by the end of our visit.  I'm sure it was due, in part, to the fact that she looked like this.  Here she is with her breakfast pistachios.

We ran to the post office, and Addison asked, "Can we just go home and rest Mommy?  I just want to go home today."  This is very atypical.  And so, we went home.  We spent the morning putting together a Noah's Ark puzzle.  This was by far the largest puzzle Addison's ever done, and she was very proud. 

Addison tried to nap in one of the kitty beds, but it didn't last for too terribly long.

She got moved into her bed, and then moved herself into the guest bedroom.  She insisted on taking the flowers that she bought this morning, claiming that she "had to have them for her flower dance."  Thanks Uncle Jeff for that birthday money:) 

After a very long rest this afternoon, Addison did seem to be feeling better.  We went to go and get Teresa from school and both girls asked to go to the park.  It was actually quite a lovely afternoon, and I would have agreed any other day, but thought it really best that we continue our quiet day.  Besides that, Addison was still in her pajamas. 

I bribed them with a trip to the library to pick up more Magic Tree house books (a series they are both seriously addicted to), and a movie and popcorn tonight.  That did the trick and we headed out. 

We waited for a big thunderstorm to roll in as we played at home, and waited for movie time. 

It seems that there is nothing more coveted than movies, and "especially the popcorn that comes with it."  I'm told I make very good popcorn.  Now, if only they could manage to get all the kernels in their mouths!

January 22, 2012

We are making a bit of a concentrated effort to "do less stuff" prior to our Disney vacation.  This serves two purposes.  One is to give us more time to get things done around the house (like finish rebuilding a book case, and lifting another wall in our house I find out today!), so that we don't have an unfinished project.  The other reason is to allow the girls to realize that the world does not revolve around them.  As much as I love to do fun stuff, I'm going to have to tone it done, as the girls are very much starting to think that every day has to have an event associated with it.  So, we are having more lazy days.

Today, we had nothing on the agenda except Sunday School.  The girls asked if they could pick their dresses out and then get themselves ready.  Works for me.  I have to say, they did quite a good job!

The girls enjoyed Sunday school, reviewed their lessons with us, and then enjoyed trips to Sam's club and Target (talk about fun!).  We came home for lunch and much needed rest time (I'm not sure what the girls did that was so exhausting, but they clearly needed some alone resting time).  After that they were in much happier moods and got kicked out to the backyard to enjoy the gorgeous 70 degree day and to entertain themselves.  They resisted initially, but then surprised themselves by playing happily with each other for 2 hours.  I worked on Disney planning (which is almost done!!), while Ken worked on the bookcase.  Very good. 

We ended the afternoon with some walking and some outside scooter time.  Tess was disappointed to find that neither of her little neighborhood friends were home.  She'd clearly had enough of us!

After dinner we found that Al may have picked one of the beds.  We picked out 4 different kitty beds for the cats today, and put them down hoping the cats might pick a snuggly place to rest.  The girls followed Al around all day offering him one the big beds.  He had no interest in it at all.  They put the bed in his favorite place to lay in the sun.  He avoided the bed and lay very uncomfortably wedged between the wall and the bed.  It seemed hopeless.

Addison was very pleased with the beds, and really wanted to claim one, or two of her own!

It's so funny how their brains must work.  Out of these options, this is the bed he seems to have chosen. 

Silly cat!  But he does seem to be feeling somewhat better, though definitely not back to his "normal" self.  The girls are really enjoying the ritual of giving Al his insulin shot and then giving the cats some high protein wet food. 

January 21, 2012

After gymnastic class today, we got to go and pick up Al from the vet.  IV insulin had gotten his blood sugars down, and his bladder seemed to be working well on his own now.  We got the good news that his kidney failure was all secondary to the bladder obstruction, and had completely reversed.  Great news considering.  So, now all we have to deal with is a diabetic cat.  We collected insulin and needles and a cat. 

Al seemed very lethargic, and I'm not sure happy to see us.  He also seemed very little!  He'd lost 4-5 pounds, almost 25% of his body weight!

We took him home, got him settled in, and told the girls to leave him alone for now after they'd given him hello hugs.  It was very hard for them to leave him, but they complied. 

We spent time cleaning out closets today and working on the play room.  The girls were rewarded for all this work with ice cream sundaes.  They decided to add marshmallows to their ice cream.  Yuck!

Tonight we gave Al his first insulin shot, which was completely non-eventful.  The cats will now get some high protein canned food twice a day to decrease their high carb dry food.  The cats are not at all displeased with this change in routine....and neither are the girls!

The girls do both agree that they are happy that they don't have to eat cat food.  The vet also suggested that we feed the cats some chicken.  My previous vet had always been very strict about "no people food."  I was surprised and wanted to clarify.  "You mean, like people food chicken?"  The vet looked at me.  "No.  Like animal food chicken.  Cats eat animals."  OK then. 

January 20, 2012

Today was  a day full of good news.  Al made it through the night, and the vet said that he "looked good," when I talked to him this morning.  Ken had a different opinion when he and Teresa went to go and visit him this afternoon.  I guess it's all perspective.  Teresa reported to me when I got home, "Al's still sick, but I think he's doing okay."  We'll know more tomorrow when they redraw his blood and see if his kidney failure has reversed. 

The rest of the day went well also.  Addison's fun Friday was one of her favorites, pajama day!  Addison likes to do things full force.  She opted for pajamas that were not questionable.

She also needed her "softie" scarf and ear warmer that Grandma Judy knitted her.  She prefers to wear the ear warmer as a head band, but she loves to cuddle with them, as they are incredibly soft. 

When we were driving home from school Addison said that she was tired and asked to put her fingers in her mouth to suck on them.  We are really working on trying to break her sucking habit, and she tries to work with us, even when she doesn't like it.  I told her that she needs to keep her fingers out of her mouth while she's awake.  She sat for a few moments, and then huffed.  "But Mommy, I need my fingers!  My head keeps talking and I need to put my fingers in my mouth to get my head to stop talking."  Since she was being silent, I questioned a bit further.  "No!  My head.  My brain!  It keeps talking and my fingers make it stop!"  I asked her what her head was talking about and she gave me a very detailed account of a Leapfrog episode that they'd watched at school.  

I had intentionally waited until we got home tonight to see how Tess's science fair project had fared.  Today was judging day and we'd anticipated that Teresa would be called down to explain her project.  We had coached Teresa that if an adult asked her questions she really needed to answer them.  Usually when she gets shy she mumbles and chews on her hair.  I still need to find out specifically how she did, but it must have been okay.  She was very happy to report that she'd won first prize in the science fair!!  She said that she answered all of her questions and explained everything that she needed to.  I guess she must have done okay.  It's too bad that the kindergartners can't move on to the campus science fair.  For some reason, only 1st grade and up can move beyond their own school when they win. 

We finished up the evening with game night.  The girls love game night.  Tonight they chose one of my least favorite games, "Pretty, pretty princess."  This is a silly game that you move pieces around and try to collect jewelry to become the queen. 

They had great fun with it though, and it was a good night.  Every time Addison collected a piece of jewelry she would have to do a celebratory dance. 

January 19, 2011

Our crazy busy week culminated today in a visit to the vet.  Al has been acting less than perky this week, and seemed to have aged phenomenally in the last few days.  I had scheduled an appointment for him for this Saturday, but when he spent last night curled around the toilet instead of my head where he usually sleeps it seemed pretty clear that something was wrong.  Addison and I came home from work today, bundled Al into his carrier, and took him into the vet.  The news was not good.  Al's developed severe diabetes, which is currently causing kidney failure which is causing extremely high potassium levels.  The potassium is causing heart arrhythmias.  So, we put him in the kitty hospital to see if we can flush his system with IV fluids.  Upon doing that they realized that he also had a bladder obstruction.  The vet cauterized the bladder, opening the obstruction and then started the IV.  We had to leave him there overnight and hope for the best for him.  Ken had come up while we were waiting for the test results.  So, we gave Al hugs, and Addison instructed the technician to make sure that she gives Al lots of chin scratches, "'cause he really likes those."  Ken went to go get Teresa from school and then took her to the vet to say hello to Al....just in case we don't see him again.  Tess came back from the vet very confident.  "Well, it seems like he's going to be just fine."  I really thought that she would be the one that struggled with this, but it seems it is not an issue in her brain yet. 

We'll see how things are in the morning.

January 18, 2012

Addison definitely has "little sister" syndrome sometimes.  She's always acted older than her age (except for sucking on her fingers), and she usually wants to be older than she is.  Now, she is strongly desiring to be in kindergarten.  It seems that they have lots of fun homework and "stuff" to do.  This morning she decided to start her own science project.  She's been "growing" a dragon in a bowl of water for the last two days (one of those little magic grow figurines).  The dragon has grown several times his original size.  This morning Addison moved into phase II of her experiment.  She wants to see what will happen to dragon if he lives in a dark closet.  Her hypothesis?  "I think that he will grow even bigger!" 

Ken and Teresa wrestled her science fair project to school this morning.  Ken didn't see any other kindergartners in Teresa's class with a project.  It seems that there is a chance that she will get called down to explain her experiment.  She knows her experiment inside out.  She can completely tell you her hypothesis, her controls, her variables, how the experiment was set up, and her findings.  I'd be utterly shocked if she'll open her mouth to a judge asking her questions about it.  So, it'll be interesting to see what happens.  She didn't answer Angie very well when Angie asked her about it.  However, she was pretty tired tonight, so we'll see if she bounces back tomorrow.  I think that the judging is all on Friday. 

January 17, 2012

Our Tuesday "off." Addison and I both really like Tuesdays.  We're in a lazy routine in the mornings now.  I'll take Teresa to school while Addison usually sleeps in.  She'll usually wake up around 8 or so, and then play in her pajamas until it's time to get ready for her dance class.  This morning was a bit different.  Addison was excited to get dressed early so that she could go across the street to play with Ms. Angie while I went to a PTA meeting. 

Addison is officially picking up some dance moves in her classes, and finally is keeping up with the rest of the class.  It's fun to watch the little girls.  They are slowly starting to practice for their spring recital.  The spring recital isn't as fancy at the winter one, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what they come up with. 

After lunch we went to visit Ken at his work.  Addison was very pleased to put out a plan on one of Ken's work boards. 

This kept her busy for quite a while. 

The real fun came when I left and Ken took Addison into his lab.  You have to be fully sterilized to go into the lab.  Ken works with a lot of Asian people.  Some of them are height deficient.  Ken said that when he took Addison into the lab there was some legitimate concern from the other employees that he was perhaps leading around a new manager.

Tonight after dinner, Ken and Teresa got to working on making her poster display board for her science fair project.  Teresa's been pretty diligent in keeping up with her complicated science project, and has a pretty impressive work report book.  Creating a poster board seems a lot like an art project, so she was quite excited to get to work with it. 

Ken made some cool picture comparison for her, which was the main focus of her poster board. 

Teresa filled out the rest of the sheets of paper that needed to be put on the board.  We had to hold her back a little bit on the embellishments, though she did color in all her add on pictures. 

I also treated her to her first "study break."  Hot chocolate and marshmallows have got to make anyone project better.

Their end result was really nice. 

They reviewed the whole project, and Teresa can answer any question about her experiment.  The question is, will she actually talk about her project to someone she doesn't know?  I'm unsure on that one.  Sometimes she'll surprise me;)

January 14, 2012

The girls had a good morning with gymnastic class this morning, and Addison came home ecstatic.  "Mommy, I did a handstand today!"  Turns out, she did a perfect hand stand this morning....though she was supposed to be doing a donkey kick.  We're anxious to see if she can repeat it sometime in the near future.

The girls spent the rest of the morning playing with moon dough and bouncing on the trampoline.  For Teresa, the time could not go fast enough.  This afternoon she had been invited to a princess tea party at her friend Rachel's house.  She'd been waiting for it for the last two weeks.  She's also been a bit challenged to make sure that she had enough marbles for Disney (40/week) plus the tea party (25).  She made it....but not with much to spare. 

After lunch Teresa got all princessed up.  Addison has been rather disappointed that she was not invited to the princess party.  I'm sure that she would have fit right in, but sometimes sisters have to be allowed to do things separately.  She decided that she wanted to turn some of her marbles for a movie.  As she saw Teresa get all dressed up though, she decided that she needed to do the same.

That is how a princess got to watch TV. 

Teresa was delighted to head on up to Rachel's.  Two of her other friends from preschool also got to come to the princess party.  It's funny, they hardly ever see each other any more, but they still all seem to have fun together.

Colleen outdid herself with the decorations for the party this year.  Most impressive decor and snacks.

The girls were cute.  It's hard to believe how old they're getting!

We all snacked, and then the kids played...mostly without disturbance. 

The party got extended out a bit because the kids decided that they needed to put a show on for us.  They took turns singing and dancing, though Teresa was not all that interested in actually performing.  No singing or dancing for this one, she just popped up every once in a while.

We finally headed home, and then decided to head to gymnastics night out instead.  The girls love to hang out at gymnastics night, and this gave Ken and I a bit of time off too.  Ken spent the day working on the bookcase and getting our bedroom floor ready to reseal.  I think he was ready for some time off!