Black Bear, meet Brown Bear

This post requires a bit of a back story.

A week-and-a-half before Boy was born, Mally-cat started to act really funny.  Like, 'bad' funny.  S thought that she might be getting sick (she was, after all, approaching her octogenarian years--in cat years, of course.)  After thinking long and hard about it, I decided to tell S that I thought it was time to put her down.  It broke my heart, but I couldn't risk having a sick kitty in the same house as a newborn baby.

That night I went home and both cats were outside for the night (a common thing--we started letting Billy out in the evening and he wouldn't come back in until morning.)  The next morning I went to let them both back in and only Billy came.  I kept going outside to look for Mally but she was nowhere to be found.  S looked for her for the next couple of days and nothing.  I felt so bad.  But I remembered a story that my mom had told me about her siamese cat named Max.  She could tell he was getting towards the end of his life and he ran away, she thinks, to die.  I figured this is what had happened to Mally.

Fast-forward almost 3 weeks later.  Boy was a week old and I was up early in the morning.  I went to let Billy back in and I heard horrendous meowing.  Mally started running up onto our porch.  It freaked me out!  She looked Terrible.  I stood there in a panic not knowing what to do.  I had several hours before S would be waking up and I could hear her crying and crying outside for me to let her in.  I just couldn't do it.  Now I really DID have a new baby in the house and who knows what she had been exposed to.  It was probably one of the worse situations I've ever had to face.  I knew in my heart she still needed to be put down--I couldn't risk her harming Boy.  So we put her down.  It was such a sad, sad end to my little furry companion's life.  Sure, unfortunately the cats have taken a back seat to our kiddos over the last few years, but Mally saw me through some hard times when I first got sick.  It was not what I wanted to happen.  S buried her up on the hill by our house.

Now that that sad story is out of the way...

I felt worse for Billy because I think he was mourning in a way that only animals could mourn.  I could tell that he knew there was a great absence in his life.  Luckily, Bean thinks he is absolutely the greatest thing and has taken on a role of a sort-of companion to him.  She has also imaginatively started calling him "Black Bear."  This has become a game for her: "Oh, no!  Black Bear is coming, RUN!!!"

I've recently started getting and keeping Boy up for a few hours before Bean gets up.  I let Billy upstairs from the basement as I go to feed Boy breakfast.  Billy has taken a Great Interest in Boy this past month.  He'll come start purring at his chair as Boy is eating his cereal and, though Boy is definately distracted by Billy, it almost works better to feed him this way because his interest in Billy almost overrides his disinterest in rice cereal and he ends up eating more!

While I'm eating my breakfast, I let Boy play on the floor with his toys and Billy will generally come over and keep him company.

I cracked up when I saw this picture of Boy, wearing his brown teddy bear cap, making formal introductions with Black Bear Billy:

Looks like Billy has two new companions now...

Why I would be terrible in the Secret Service...

A few weeks ago at work I went out to move my car into covered parking for the evening (it so beats scraping windows at midnight.)  While I was coming back in I noticed that our medical helicopter was about to take off.  Now I've mentioned before that I have this strange fascination with fighter jets.  Well, this strange fascination encompasses helicopters, too.  I think they defy physics.  I don't understand how they fly.  And I'm always slightly afraid when I'm near one that it will crash.  But I find them oddly interesting.  So I stayed to watch it take off.

Then I decided to take a few pictures.

It started taking off.

Then it started turning towards me.

Crap.  I shoved my phone back in my pocket.  It could be an odd coincidence, but I totally think I was busted because the helicopter made a full 180 towards me, paused a moment, then turned back around and took off.  I felt like an idiot.  But hey, at least I got some good pictures, right?

iOS latelies

Can I tell you how nice it is to always have a camera with me now?  Here are a few random snapshots of our lives as of late...

It has been BITTER cold.  I went to make Bean's bed this morning and the blanket that was touching the outer wall of our home was very, very cold.  Too cold to believe that it had been inside all night.  And when I went in to get Bean this morning, she'd actually climbed out of bed to put socks on.  Here's hoping for a warm Spring...

Because it has been so cold, there has been a lot of snuggling under blankets.  At home.  At grandma's.  This also makes for a good excuse to pop some popcorn, pour up a Mountain Dew, and watch a movie that I've been wanting to see for the last 6 months.

Bean has become quite the architect.  (Okay, I may have helped a little bit with this house.  I am a little proud of it, too.  I just wish it had a bigger roof...)

Boy started--then stopped--then started eating solid food.  His favorite so far appears to be peaches.

Bean still insists on wearing Grandma J.'s santa hat and singing Christmas songs.  She doesn't appear at all bummed by the fact that Christmas is over, but she is already making plans for next year.  I hope those plans include running downstairs to see what Santa leaves Christmas morning.

Bean was allowed to choose her new shoes.  All by herself, in case you wondered.

After Bean received a tent from santa this Christmas, I instituted "Tent Tuesday" in the H household.  We put the tent up Tuesday mornings and take it down Wednesday nights.  This way it isn't a permanent fixture in our living room.  Bean's favorite thing to do is watch America's Funniest Videos and eat her bedtime snack from the comfort of her new digs.

Bean came up to me a few weeks ago and said, "Mom?  I need a haircut."  I love her honesty.  So we went and got haircuts this last week.  I took a picture before her new 'do became "bedhead."

Little Dude Learns to Eat

I can't believe my baby boy turns 6 months old today.

He really is a happy little guy, but I would be lying if I said that the last six months have been a piece of cake. 

Along about his 3 month mark, we noticed that he still wasn't gaining weight, throwing up a lot, and not sleeping well.  I took him in to his pediatrician to get a weight check so we could adjust his Zantac (for reflux.)  He had dropped to the 15%.  This was so unusual to us--Bean has always been in the 90% and I didn't really feel like I was doing anything differently this time around.

Then a month later we took him in for his 4 month appointment.  He had dropped to the 5%.  He was only eating half of what he should be at this age.  We had switched him over to soy a week prior because we'd finally decided, when the Zantac + Prevacid didn't make a difference, that he had a milk allergy.  He did fine for about a week on it and then everything fell apart, fast.  He was miserable.  He threw up everything he ate.  He wouldn't even come close to trying his rice cereal.  I didn't know what to do.

I believe that it was by Divine Guidance that I remembered hearing about a similar situation from someone I knew on facebook several months ago.  I looked into protein allergies in infants and everything matched perfectly to what Boy had.  (I was a little surprised that his pediatrician hadn't thought of it first, but then when we'd seen her a week before, he was tolerating Soy.)  Protein allergies can be found against both milk- and soy-based formulas.  Luckily there is a formula manufactured in which the proteins are already broken down, eliminating the intolerance.  The only problem is that the formula, called hydrolysate, is very, very expensive.

But there are some things you can't put a price on.

After showing my findings to S, he immediately went to the store and bought some.  It claimed to relieve Colic symptoms due to protein allergies within 24 hours.  And it WORKED!

Since then Boy has put on over a pound.  He started eating cereal a week later.  He's sleeping better at night.  And he's back to his happy little self.  (Most of the time.)

Resolute: 2013 Edition

Three posts in three days!  Don't worry, pretty soon I'll be back to sporadically posting on Sundays...

I was talking to my mom just past midnight this morning and we were talking about resolutions.  She said something like, I'm always so sure that it's going to be a brand new start and then about March...

"...It's like 2012 take 2?" I finished for her.

That's what this years resolutions are to me.  If I were receiving a grade for 2012 resolutions, it would be a "C-," at best.  Although I would hope that having a new baby might be considered extra credit.

So in addition to still completing last years resolutions, I have come up with the following:

Run a 10K.  Last time I made a goal to run a race, I had one in mind.  This time I haven't even had a chance to research which one to do; I just know I want to do one.  I'll update the date and location when I pick them. (Okay, this one's not my fault.  I was cursed this year.  The fact that I still run at all is good enough for me!)

Learn a new craft.  Right now it's a toss-up between knitting, crocheting and jewelry making.  I have friends who are quite skilled in each area that would (hopefully) be willing to help.  Plus my mom is a knitting/crocheting genius.  So I just need to buckle down and do it. (Fail on knitting, crocheting and jewelry making, but I did learn how to make tissue poufs--which I've always wanted to learn how to make--so I think that counts.)

Along those crafty lines, Paint a Watercolor.  When I was in sixth grade I painted a watercolor which I decided to enter in the county fair.  It took Best of Show!  I knew I would never, ever top that so I stopped painting altogether.  Well, something started gnawing at me late last year and I decided I really wanted to get into it again.  I asked for (and received, very generously,) a set of tube watercolors, a palette and paintbrushes for my birthday from my mom (also an amazing artist, if you will remember.)  (Fail on this as well.  Bummer.  My watercolors are still unwrapped...)

Start Bean's Piano Lessons.  One of Bean's favorite things to do is put on a "show" in which she will "play music" on the piano while I dance.  Then we switch and I play the piano while she dances.  I was 4 when I learned how to play the piano so I figured this is the year to give it a try with Bean; I think she's ready.  (Fail, but for good reason--the girl had a pretty busy year, so we'll wait until later.)

Also, Have Quarterly Date Nights with Bean.  I took Bean to see the witches at Gardner Village last October: just she and I.  We took the train up and she loved it.  I did too!  She was so well behaved!  Afterwards we went to dinner at Panda Express.  I would love to make this a tradition with her.  (They weren't exactly formal date nights, but I've gotten lots of time in with Bean, especially lately...I've been taking Bean grocery shopping with me in the evenings and it's been great having it be just me and her.)

Go rappelling.  Over a waterfall.  S and I are taking a trip to Costa Rica this fall!  You're definitely going to hear more about this, I'm sure, but one of the adventures you can choose there includes rappelling over a waterfall.  Both ideas absolutely terrify me, but I figure if S (who does not like horses) can take a horseback ride up the side of a volcano for me, I can rappel over the side of a waterfall for him.  And if I'm being honest, the idea kind of excites me!  In a terrifying way.  (PASS!  Finally!  Need proof?  Check here.)

Make Eggplant Parmesan.  I made Eggplant Parmesan a few years ago and it is THE WORST MEAL I HAVE EVER COOKED.  I figured it just wasn't a good recipe but then S (who will confirm that it is THE WORST MEAL I HAVE EVER COOKED) had some at the fire station that he said was really good.  I found a recipe in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine that has step-by-step instructions, illustrations included.  So I'm going to give it another shot.  (Fail, though I still have the recipe ready to go.  I just can't bring myself to make it yet...)

Journal at least once a week.  This is so much harder than it sounds.  I have started and failed at keeping up a journal probably since I was 8 and was given my first book to journal in.  I guess you could consider blogging journaling in a way, but there are more subjects of a personal and spiritual nature that I know I need to be recording: I just can't find the time.  So I figure a "once-a-week" date with myself sounds less demanding than an "every-night" approach.  (I didn't keep up on it as often as I would like, but I did try to journal more frequently.)

I feel like this is plenty, considering I still have 2012's to work through as well.  I will link up this post at the side of my blog (and try to do better at updating it.)