Busy, Busy

I have a back log of posts that I want to write and while I haven't gotten to them yet I have finished the mystery project (see photos below) for one special little girl.

I have also prepared one six-year old for his first day of school tomorrow. *sniff* Don't get me wrong. I am SO excited about Fall and school starting but the first few days of him being gone are so hard. For one, I miss him. Two, he's so darn helpful, just like his daddy, that his absence is way too noticeable.

I have cuddled and snuggled with my youngest-no-more. Gideon has been extra cuddly and snuggly lately and I can't get enough of him. He's practically edible and if you know me you know I have NO will power when it comes to nummy goodness.

I have nursed and changed and bottle fed and kissed and cooed at this little mister who is now a whopping two months old. His eyes are always that big and bright and the comment we hear the most, besides that he looks so much like his siblings, is "Wow, he's alert!" Yep, we've got another bright one, he studies everything. He is, as I prayed for, a very peaceful baby. (Unless of course his tummy is empty. ha ha)



Here it is, the "mystery project". I thought I might do a contest to whoever guessed what it was going to be but, yeah, yeah, I was BUSY. It is a good idea for the future though. I'll try to do something like that soon.

Apparently she really likes it. I had doubts that she would wear it as she is finicky to say the least when it comes to clothes and especially clothes that I made but she has worn it many times since I finished it and I don't even have to bribe or threaten.


She helped pick out the button herself. Must try to get a close up of the button, it's really cute. Sure, a picture. As soon as I'm less busy *snort*.

Off to bed. I have to get up early to get Gabe off to school. Eeeee! :)

Ben

We had the vet take a look at Ben. We just couldn't deal with not knowing what happened to him. As it turns out Ben had a urinary blockage that caused him to become toxic and his bladder to rupture. I'm a wreck. I feel terrible that we were gone when he needed us. I feel guilty for not noticing any signs of sickness even though, in looking back, there were none, and for not being available when he needed me. I miss him something fierce. His happy face around the house, sitting in the window on the milk box especially and at night in our bed and I keep expecting to see him and go through the motions of his still being around like making sure my bedroom door is open during the day in case he's sleeping on the bed and needs to get out. It sucks.

Saturday I received an e-mail from the Catster website, a happy birthday message for Ben since we'd guessed he was born in August sometime. Ben was 7. This is his page if you want to read about him.

Here are a few photos I "stole" back from Catster and Dogster of Ben. He was such a big love.

Ben as a kitten. He used to steal Towzer's bed, always laying right in the middle. Sometimes Towzer was brave enough to join him. Often times Ben would pick a "fight" and bite Towzer's cheek until Towzer played with him.

Ben used to squeeze in between the window and screen in the upstairs of our Rhode Island house. Such a character.

Ben and Maisy. Always a lover my Ben.

Elias and the Turtle

Our little mane is having a chat with himself in the turtle mirror.

I Want!

Sad News

We've returned early from a wonderful weekend getaway and I will return and write about that soon. For now, I'll take care of the sad part. Within minutes of leaving the restaurant where we celebrated Rob's birthday with a super yummy dinner my cell phone rang, it was our house sitter. She came to our house this evening and found my favorite cat, Ben, passed away. He was lying in between the food bowl and water bowl and almost looked like he was sleeping. I'm shocked and confused and so very sad and I feel terrible that this happened on Rob's birthday and that we had to break the kids' hearts by cutting our vacation short.

Ben was found by a police office in the middle of the Jamestown Bridge in Rhode Island. He was a tiny ball of gray fur, covered with fleas and filthy. He'd been abandoned there, we guess, most likely from someone who was trying to get rid of an unwanted kitten by tossing him over the bridge. He was blessed that he somehow managed to stay on the bridge.

When the office tried to catch him Ben panicked and ran. He was moments from dashing in front of a moving vehicle when the officer stepped in his path and scooped him up. He was blessed he didn't get crushed.

The officer brought him to the animal hospital where I worked where the doctor had to remove one of his hind legs because it was so damaged. But Ben survived and had such a great attitude.
He picked me. In one look I knew what he knew, he was going home with me. He's been my special boy since then. Such a funny character. Such a great heart. I named him Benedetto which means "wellblessed".
When he stretched up he was at least as tall as the top of the kitchen counter. Not that he would do any thing so naughty as to try to steal from the counter. He had great manners. He loved tuna but that was the only thing he ever begged for.

He was faster than our four-legged cats and could jump to the top of our six-foot fence without a problem.
Frequently when he wanted in he'd go to the front door and sit on the milk box and stare in the window until some one opened the door. With the exception of the aforementioned tuna, he never yowled to get what he wanted.

He was such a sweet boy. I just don't understand. This may seem so silly to write about but my heart is really breaking and I don't know what else to do. It was a year ago that we lost Spot unexpectedly as well. She has been on my mind a lot lately as well. Now this.
My last photo of Ben and not a very good one. I'd been thinking lately that I needed to get a photo of him sitting on the milk box looking in the window but I didn't. Now I feel worse than ever.

A Link

hyperbole and a half Hilarious blog.

The only reason why I wrote an entire post about this is because I just found this blog today so the page was up on my computer.

I have to shut my computer down before I go to bed.

Therefore I have to close the page.

I didn't want to forget to go back and read more.

Where, oh where, can I put the link so I don't forget to A) go back and read more and B) what the blog address is?

This seemed like it would be a logical place to keep it.

Thanks for your help.

Today

Today was lovely. It started bright and clear and warm. None of that early morning fog we so often have that doesn't clear until after lunch. Yes, even in the summer. Especially in the summer. Rob got to leave work early for the day to go golf at a work sponsored event. So often when Daddy comes late that just makes the day crawl, you know? But not today. The day sped by almost too fast even. The kids didn't even get dressed until near dinner time as we spent the day enjoying activities indoors. (Zion and Gabe built a fort and were even able to convince Gideon not to destroy it.) Zion dressed first but only because she'd dug into the dress up box and wanted to wear one of her princess dresses. Later we ran out to Target and I let her wear it. Twice in the last week I've let her wear her dress up clothes out to run an errand. And why not? She enjoys it and I love watching her step out not thinking for a moment that she might be considered a bit odd for her choice in clothes and we get lots of smiles from the people we meet. Well, we usually do anyway, when I go out with all four kids. Very frequently we get the "Boy, you sure have your hands full." to which I respond "Better full than empty." And sometimes we get people telling us how many they had. Last night I had a lovely conversation with an older couple who had nine children and now have 22 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. What a huge blessing! I also heard two words out of Zion's mouth that I've never heard before. "I'm tired." I believe I said "What?!" and she said it again. My ears did not deceive. I told her that was good because it was bedtime and she agreed that it was good and made a dash for the stairs. Bedtime has long passed and she went along willingly. I'm near certain she had an ulterior motive for wanting to go to bed but I've yet to discover it. Well, that's my ramblings and I'd best be off to bed. Elias has already been put down and who knows when he'll wake up.

A Letter

Dear Children,

our vehicle does not have a bathroom. NONE of our vehicles have EVER had a bathroom and aside from the time that I made Gabe pee in an empty Snapple bottle because he waited to tell us he had to go until we were out in the middle of no where our vehicles will likely never have anything close to a toilet. So, pray tell, why do you INSIST on waiting until we are in the car before you tell us you have to go? PLEASE when we are in a building with a perfectly good bathroom, whether it be our house, a restaurant, church, whatever, tell us you need to go then, BEFORE we leave and are getting buckled in to our seats. Things will go much better for you, I guarantee, if you can remember this one small detail.

Love, Your Mother

"One-Month" Check

So it was a little late, Elias will be 6-weeks old tomorrow, but we got his one-month check up done today. Since his regular pediatrician was out last week when the whole to-do happened with the rash and allergy diagnosis we had a lot to catch up on. I was able to show his doctor pictures of the rash (gotta love those iPhones) and he said he was really impressed with us since Elias' skin is totally clear now.

(Am I the only one that gets a little thrill when a doctor tells me "good job!"?)

Elias is up to 11lb 1oz! It was only a week ago that he was 10lb 3oz so I'm really excited about that. He is nursing better but still getting a lot of formula as well. I also wonder if he's gaining better now that he and I are off dairy. Dairy allergies are notorious for causing growth restriction. It's just a thought.

He is also a whopping 23 inches long! Holy cow! This kid is almost two feet long already! This is mostly notable when we try to put footie pajamas on him. He is growing out of his clothes. I know it's to be expected but it still makes me a little sad. Aw, such cute little PJs and clothes that he'll never wear again. :( *sigh* I guess the fact that he's growing out of the super cute monkey PJs he wore last night is soothed a little that he's moving into the super cute robot "I'm nuts about Mommy" PJs I found at Target tonight. he he he

It was also the last time he is going to fit into the spunky monkey outfit he's wearing in the picture. I just had to take a picture before they went away for good. I'm all sentimental like that.

Bad Hair Day

Everybody has 'em. Unless, of course, you don't have any hair. And even then, depending on your outlook, that could mean that EVERY day is a bad hair day. Bad because you don't have any hair ya know?

But nothin' makes a bad hair day worse than having it immortalized FOREVER in photographs. hee hee hee

Zion hates to have her hair combed. She hates even more to have it put in bands. She doesn't care that it will stay out of her face that way or that it will look cute. She just hates it. But she loves playing in the sink. She loves "washing" dishes. And the other day apparently she used her wet hands to brush her hair out of her face. A lot. And this cute do was the result.

So, OK, the top and back looks a little wonky but it actually made the sides look fuller. She almost looks like she has thicker hair for once. Might have to try to recreate this sometime.

And keep encouraging her to wash those dishes!

The Goings On

Lots of things going on here. I'm sure that's the last thing you would have guessed, us being a family of 6 and all, I'm sure you expected things to be church quiet around here. Rob has taken Elias upstairs to try to get him to sleep so I'm taking the opportunity to download some pictures that I will now share with you. Don't you feel lucky? :)

First we've got a smiley baby. He's such a sweetie. Nursing a lot better, still has an odd moment or two where it takes him a moment to figure it all out but in general, SO much better. He is still getting a lot of formula supplementation though (and with a hypoallergenic formula that is naturally stinkin' expensive) and I'm trying to work toward lowering that amount.

We also have some smiley fries. Fries! Or as Gideon says "Pies!" *snicker* He cracks me up. He gets so passionate about certain things and this is demonstrated by sheer volume. Oh how he gets excited about his pies, er... I mean fries.

We have a new project on the needles. Actually a few but this is the one that I'm most excited about. I've cast on 59 stitches here can you guess what it will become? *grin*

Yesterday we had an activity with Moms Club at a local park. Besides my playgroup this was one of the first activities that we've had a chance to participate in like this. It was a dinosaur themed play day. Gabe and Zion won cupcakes in the cake walk, they all colored and made dinosaur crafts and joined in when it came time to play with the parachute and what kid doesn't love the parachute?

There was also bubbles. This was Gideon's absolute favorite part and I kept losing him briefly only to find him back at the bubbles. He may have been part of the reason why so much of the bubble solution ended up on the ground, my apologies to the play day hosts. If you didn't have like 6 gallon sized jugs of bubbles I might feel like I need to buy you more. Still, for all the time Gideon spent with the bubbles I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture of him

And because it was a dinosaur day Elias had to don his dino shirt. I would have had the others do the same but Elias is the only one who actually had a dinosaur shirt. We don't really do dinos around here much. Thomas the Train, Lightning McQueen and Mario, yes, dinosaurs - not so much.

Yes, it's July here and my kids are wearing winter coats at the park. What can I say? It's Washington and we're having a crummy summer. Truth be told I thought it was kind of a relief. I didn't have to worry about keeping sunscreen on the kids or keeping Elias in the shade and at least it wasn't raining. :) We really only have a few weeks left before school starts and this one is a big first grader. I am feeling the whoosh of time flying by and I don't like it one bit. He still fits on my lap though mostly even if he can read me the story instead of the other way around.

Zion has a new favorite dress and I can't tell you how thrilled and relieved I am. It's one thing to buy her an outfit and have her hate it but a whole 'nother thing when you spend hours working on something only to have her reject it entirely (like the poncho she swore she wanted and won't wear). But this outfit was NOT voted off the island, she wore it two days in a row and put it on again today but I told her I probably outta wash it before she wears it again. All in all, I like the pattern. Now that I've made it I would made an adjustment or two (the straps are too flimsy and too long) but I have no complaints about the yarn. It's cashmerino, a cashmere and wool blend that is SO super duper soft! Like OH. MY. WORD. Soft. Yummy.

And she and I got to go out and pick out some buttons for it and she is in love with the butterflies. Therefore, the dress is now "The Butterfly Dress".

How cute is that face? Like OH. MY. WORD. Cute. I love this girl of mine, ain't no doubt.