Match Made in Heaven

My Pregnant Nun, originally uploaded by meandscreech.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man and his creative genius? We hosted a halloween party this past weekend. Adults only (!!!!), costumes, food, and did I mention, no kids?! Anyways... several days before the party we were trying to figure out costume ideas, and Forrest happened upon the idea of a Priest and pregnant nun. Needless to say, I wasn't too thrilled about dressing up as a pregnant lady. Something about going through two pregnancies makes pretending to be pregnant not so much fun. So my idea was to reverse the roles. I'd be the priest, and he the pregnant nun. Perfect!

The party was a blast. It was so much fun hanging out with our friends without distractions (i.e. toddlers!). Don't get me wrong, I love my kids dearly, but every now and then, it's a whole lot of fun to do something without them. Halfway through the evening, the guys challenged the girls to a game of Guesstures. They promised a smackdown, and boy oh boy, was it delivered... only, I don't thing the guys meant we'd beat the pants off of them. :)

The best costume there was our friends J & T (you may remember them from my labor story... they had a son the same day Colette was born). He came as an Energizer Battery, and she a container of salt. Together, they were "a salt and battery". Speaking of costumes, I need to get some pictures of Shepherd and Colette dressed up. Be on the lookout for those pictures...

At least we know how he feels about me...

At least we know how he feels about me, originally uploaded by meandscreech.

Let's hope this isn't a true indication of Shepherd's feelings for his mother....

Sad Goodbyes

15 years ago, give or take a few months, I sat giddy as could be in the front seat of my parents Ford Taurus. We were on our way home, and cradled in the palms of my hands was this tiny orange ball of fluff. My brother and I promptly named him Garfield, after one of our favorite comic strips. Our golden retriever was so taken with him, that she'd attempt to nurse the cat, patiently waiting as the tiny powder puff attempted to tap the long dry wells. He was an outdoor/indoor cat who brought us wonderful little gifts such as yard moles and mice. He'd deposit them on our steps, proud of his days hunt. Other times, we'd find larger animals, squirrels and rabbits, much to my horror. I remember being so angry one time as he trotted across our front yard, baby rabbit in his jowls still kicking. When he wasn't outside, he was inside, curled up in the corner of the white chairs in the living room or on one of our laps. You could wake up on a cold winter's morning only to find Garfield had managed to take over your pillow, leaving you nothing but the cold hard mattress. He tolerated Maggie as a new addition to the family (our other golden retriever), and surprised us all by allowing Shepherd to occasionally pet him, even if it meant his tail was grabbed and pulled. He only smacked Shepherd once, and even then it was more warning than anything.

This morning, around 11, I drove Garfield to the vet. As I drove, I cried. I cried for the 12 year old girl in me, whose excitement had turned to sorrow, now... 15 years later. I cried for my brother, who couldn't be there to say goodbye. I cried for Shepherd, who would wake up from his nap at my parents and race around looking for the "TAT!!" But most of all, I cried for Garfield. He'd developed a sudden onset of Glaucoma, and was in significant pain. The only option was to remove his eye, a surgery that cost way too much for a cat as old as him. Not only so, but there was a suspected thyroid condition, and his veins were next to impossible to find. I sat there, holding him as the vet administered the medication, and as his breathing slowed, the tension he'd held from the pain let go. He quietly drifted asleep, no longer in pain. I don't know if another life exists for pets, and sometimes it seems quite silly to wish for such things. I'd like to believe that he's somewhere better... free from the pain. But if not, I pray he rests in peace, beneath the wisteria in our family's flower garden...




Goodbye Garfield... you were loved beyond measure and will be missed immensely.

Me: So tonight, we were walking and he kept shouting "BOOOOOO-BIE" from the front of the stroller.

Him: Great... we're raising a pervert.

Me: No, we're raising a boy.

Beauty

A Half Smile, originally uploaded by meandscreech.

Things are still busy around here (when are they not?!) but we're settling into some sort of routine. Colette is more alert these days, and we have fun sitting in Shepherd's playroom and talking to her. Shepherd walks up and says "Hi baby!" and kisses her on the head. He jabbers on with her, and just this morning, asked "Baby play?" I know he can't wait until Colette is a tad older and able to run around and play with him. Until then, we have to keep him out of Colette's crib (he's figured out how to climb into the crib) and try to teach him not to pick her up (I turned my back the other day, to turn around and see him holding her, still strapped in to her swing, and pulling at her to "Hold it!" My poor daughter...

Colette is trying to smile more and more these days. She's a very serious little girl, taking everything in. From time to time, I'll look down during a diaper change, and she's grinning ear to ear at me. She has such a beautiful smile. She's also babbling and squealing more in effort to try to communicate. She sits in her bouncy seat while I try to fix dinner, and suddenly the room is filled with grunts and squeals. I look down at her and she's half smiling, and looking around. So observant!! She's also one tall glass of water. Even though she doesn't weigh 10 lbs yet (well, she might, but last time we were at the doctors she was 9 lbs. 3 oz and that was Monday a week ago), she's outgrown all of her newborn clothes. They were supposed to last until 12 lbs!!! She's just tall and nothing could button at the crotch. I imagined she'd be a tall girl by the size of her feet, but man alive! she's growing super fast!! So fast that every moment I have to hold her, to snuggle with her, to smell her hair... I take advantage of. I want to savor this, because it passes so quickly...

How to Charm Me

Tilt your head to the side, smile softly, and gently say "Hi Mommy!"

Man, this motherhood gig is awesome!!

Going Green (or at least trying)

I haven't blogged much lately, mostly because it's too crazy around here what with two kids to keep track of, huge piles of laundry to wash, floors to vacuum, tables to dust, and bathrooms to clean. With all of that, who has time to sit down and blog? As I type, Shepherd is conked out, and Colette is content in her swing, allowing me a few moments to myself.

A few weeks back, after changing my 12th diaper for the day (I'm only counting one child here, and yes, this was before 5 pm) and tried to jam it into the overflowing Diaper Champ, I stopped a moment to think. This was the second bag of diapers that we'd filled that week (tall kitchen bags, mind you) for only one kid. I thought of those diapers headed off to our landfill only to sit there for 500+ years and never decompose. I'd thought about it before, but had been able to justify such waste (or at least ignore it) based upon convenience and lack of resources to justify an upfront purchase of cloth diapers. I'd not really thought of the total cost for one child, much less two. That evening, I sat down and did some research and figured we could save a TON of money by switching to cloth full time. Especially switching for both kids. Granted, it required a large initial investment, but within 5 months, the cloth diapers would pay for themselves.

Not only would we save money, but we'd be able to reduce our carbon footprint and help do our little, meager part in saving the environment. We'd already switched our lightbulbs out for new, energy efficient ones, as well as to quit using warm or hot water for our laundry to cut back our power bill, so this was the logical next step. I went ahead and purchased several pocket diapers and some prefolds with covers. I figure we'll use the prefolds at home during the day, and pockets for outings and for overnight.

Yesterday, I received my first batch of diapers in the mail. Eager to try them out, I washed and dried them, and slapped them on my kids bottoms. Shepherd looked at me, puzzled as to this glorious softness on his bum. He kept grabbing his diaper, and smiling at me. Colette could care less for what i could tell (I mean, come on, she's a baby!). So far, so good... Shepherd made it overnight in one of the pocket diapers without a leak (and he's a heavy wetter at night). Colette had a poopy diaper that was completely contained by her diaper. What remains to be seen is how Shepherd's diaper holds up to his blowouts. I'm still waiting on the prefolds and covers to come in, so I'm doing laundry like mad to keep them in the cloth diapers, and hang drying them to save on energy in the meantime. Any of you have experience in cloth diapering? Tips? Favorite brands? Washing routine?

Anywho, I've probably spent way too much energy and time researching diapers and obsessing over them (just ask Forrest), but now that they are here, I can breathe out a sigh of relief, and just sit back and smile as I watch my lil' punkin' butt run around like this (I'll get a picture of Colette up as soon as she'll let me take one of her without her screaming in the picture):

For your Viewing Pleasure

Syntax

The other day, as I changed Shepherd's diaper, he smiled, waved downwards, and said, "Bye-bye ni-ni!" Yes, we have our first two word sentence, but somehow, I'd hoped for something other than waving bye to his "ni-ni".

(By the way, that's not what we're calling it... we've decided to use the proper words)

(And another note, we aren't planning on showing him that video either... that dude just plain creeps me out)