30 August 2012

roly poly


jerry had two weeks of back-to-back work trips in june. nana was so wonderful to come out and stay with us while he was gone. unfortunately it was unseasonably hot for june and we didn't (that problem has since been resolved and we're living in the cool lap of luxury now) have air conditioning. between the heat and henry's rigid napping needs it was a fairly low-key visit. but, at marianne's request, we did take nana to the zoo to ride the carousel. but nana spent the majority of her time hunting roly polies with marianne. on one such excursion to the backyard marianne decided that we all needed to wear sun hats. so we got decked out in hats and headed out to dig. marianne spent many days this summer digging up roly polies, hoarding them in buckets, and dragging them around. i'm afraid we did have some casualties.

THANKS FOR VISITING NANA! It was a huge help to me and the kids loved having you here too!









...and while we dug for roly polies, henry picked and ate grass by the handful.


29 August 2012

chugga chugga chugga

grandma and grandpa came for a visit in july and we were so excited to have them here. marianne loves having her grandma read to her...i think they read books about 5x a day. henry nearly started crawling during their visit but the lil stinker held out. they really spoiled us while they were here and we all had the most fun on the day we went to the mountains to ride the train. we sat in open boxcars pulled by a steam locomotive. the ride was complete with mountain views and echoing train whistles...chugga chugga chugga CHOO CHOOOOO!




























and he's off...

henry is growing up at warp speed. we had to lower his crib because he quickly learned not only to sit up in bed but to stand up. this is how he greeted me awake from nap the other day...smiling and thinking about jumping right out of there.




so then yesterday after lowering the mattress, i was greeted with a not-so-happy baby boy when he woke up with a new view.




well, he's crawling. although, i wouldn't call it hands-and-knees. it's more like hands, one foot, and a knee. but he can get to where he wants to be. so i've been making adjustments around the house to accommodate: cat food on the dryer, baby-gating the back porch so he can't get to the trash or litter box. i'm sure there will be more. he's persistent.




henry started clapping this week. what more can i say? i adore it!

 see what i mean?


our first sibling bath photos! marianne has been asking for another one every night since. so fun. so cute.





18 August 2012

george

october 24 2004 - august 18 2011

our sweet, crazy george. 

it had only been about one week after moving into our home *here* when jerry suggested we needed to get a puppy. it was still "up for discussion" when the opportunity came along to get a free pure-bred lab puppy. a breeder's, in kcmo, bitch had gotten out of her pin when she was in heat and although they thought she had bred with a registered stud they couldn't be sure so the puppies were up for grabs. my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, jeff and holly, who lived in the kcmo metro area snagged two pups and we literally hopped in the car and drove through the night to meet our little guy. 
we had a few minutes to kill on the drive and had decided that our puppy's name would either be earl or george. the instant we met him, there was no doubt about his name. but george turned out to be our very own version of marley.



george LOVED fetch. i'm not quite sure that even scratches the surface about how george felt about fetch. granted, he was a retriever so it was only natural but dear lord, that dog loved him some fetch. he could've played for hours on end. hours and hours and hours. a slobbery, grungy tennis ball was his fave but honestly, he'd play with anything. a stick. a log. a rope. a rag. if you could toss it, he would retrieve it. 



he pulled so hard on his leash that he took us for walks. i swear we went through every kind of collar. choke collar. pinch collar. bark busters training collar. and, finally, what actually worked was the gentle leader. true to its name, it capitulated obedience without inflicting even an ounce of pain. genius!


george (left) and his litter mate, doxin.

he barked endlessly when we put him outside and he knew we were inside without him. he couldn't stand to be without us. we had no idea that he was barking just as much when we left him out while we were away at work, or out for the evening. until, one day we found a doggie day care brochure on our gate with a note from our neighbor saying "just a suggestion...!" oops.

our colorado canine


panties in the dirty laundry pile were irresistible! i constantly caught him snatching them or chewing on them. there were a few pairs i had to just throw away. eventually i had to stop leaving sorted piles of laundry on the bedroom floor during laundry days. that came to an end the day, jerry came in from mowing the yard holding what looked to be a mangled pair of my panties and asked if i was missing a pair. i checked my drawers (no pun intended) and indeed a pair was missing. it turns out, george had EATEN THEM and then proceeded to poop or puke them out in the yard. so my panties had been laying out in our yard until jerry found them.

george put up with peyson's terrible hissing and scratching when we first brought him home. but he was patient and eventually won peyson over and they became bff's. 


this became george's chair.

when we introduced marianne to the family, george pretty much ignored her existence for the first few days but, between george and peyson, george was the first to warm to her. it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. george was a gentle giant around her. when she learned to crawl, he didn't flinch when she would climb up on his belly and pull at his folds of skin and ears. as soon as she was walking, he followed her everywhere. he would lay at her feet during mealtimes, waiting for the droppings. 






set him free of his leash, and he was a bolt of lightening. at the dog park he would sprint from end to end bulldozing any dog, big or small, in is way. one time jerry made the mistake of taking him out off-leash while he carried trash to the dumpster. george heard the mighty-might football kids in the park a block over...and it was all over but the crying. i happened to be pulling into the alley as jerry was running to the park. i had no idea what was going on and jerry told me to "get to the park, george ran off." at that very moment we began hearing the shrieks of children all over the park. when i pulled up at the park, i didn't even want to get out of the car to claim my dog. george was darting from huddle to huddle, dispersing hoards of football players and cheerleaders in every fell swoop. kids were screaming and running for their lives. the more excited the kids got, the faster george zigged and zagged. he was smiling ear-to-ear with his tongue hanging to his knees, tail wagging with utter glee. george was euphoric and i was mortified. 





believe it or not, over the years our big lug developed a childish fear. he grew from anxious, to nervous, to fearful, to petrified of thunder and fireworks. we're not sure what event sparked the apprehension but for his last 3-4 years he couldn't handle the slightest crack of thunder. he would literally tuck his tail, climb into my lap, and whine like a baby. our vet prescribed xanax, so yep, as soon as rain clouds were in sight we doped him up.
















unlike every lab i've ever known, george was not a voracious eater. i was accustomed to almost losing my hand as soon as i would set a food bowl down but not with george. he was a grazer. eating bits and bites here and there throughout the day. and occasionally he'd go through short stints of decreased appetite. so in the spring of 2011, when george was skipping meals here and there i didn't think much of it. but then as summer set in he was losing noticeable amounts of weight and a leisurely walk was exhausting him for the day. we took him to the vet and i was devastated when he stepped on the scale 20 lbs lighter than his average 90-95lbs. we hadn't even spoken to the vet yet and i knew something was terribly wrong. a full blood workup indicated deterioration of the liver. the liver is the only organ capable of natural regeneration. so we started him on meds to initiate and support that process and we went home with a mission to get him to eat. i made him scrambled eggs, steamed rice, browned ground beef, fried eggs, steamed carrots, browned ground turkey. initially we had success. he'd eat something once and then wouldn't touch it again. he was eating less and less, he had no energy, and hadn't smiled in weeks. he had been hiding his misery for so long and it had finally overtaken it. it was ripping me to shreds. we went back to the vet for another weigh-in and blood panel. blood work showed the meds were having no effect and he had GAINED weight and since he hadn't been eating, i feared the worst. our vet sent us to an internal medicine veterinary specialist. an ultrasound and full-exam by the internalist and we were met with the news that george was in liver-failure. the options were few and the prognosis was guarded...meaning that even if we took measures to nurse him back to health and put him through procedures to determine the source of the degradation, he could've gotten weeks, months, at most a year more to live. a life nothing like what any of us were used to, especially george. he was already done and we couldn't bear to put him through more. i've never had to make that kind of a decision before and it felt far beyond my jurisdiction but, nevertheless, it felt like the "most right" choice. we went home to give him all the love we could in one evening and said our goodbyes the next morning. there is just no better illustration of the feelings surrounding that day than this very last photo i took of marianne with george. 

that morning when i told marianne she needed to tell george goodbye, she said "he's really, really sick?"
"yes."
"can the vet make him better?
"no they cannot." 
"george is my friend."
to this day, she will still ask about george. 











final moments.
goodbye, george. it has been one year already. hard to believe. just the other day i was in the kitchen and i could swear i heard you bark out in the living room. so, if that was you, saying, hi...HELLO! we hope you're enjoying a good, long game of fetch.

09 August 2012

an olympic effort

henry had quite a day—i'll be marking off some milestones in the ol' baby book!

for months, i repeat, MONTHS, i swear this child has been teething. since 2 months old he has had bouts of drooling, fussing, and gnawing on his hands. the pediatrician told me it was pre-teething. every spell he went through i was just so sure a tooth would bust through...BUT NO! today was the day—his lower right central incisor erupted. i've seen his two front teeth hovering just below the surface of the skin for about a week and the first one popped out today. the poor little guy sure does have a hard time cutting these teeth but thank heavens i've discovered hyland's baby teething tablets (a homeopathic pain reliever that works like a charm).

i think watching the london 2012 olympics has inspired henry to reach a few of his goals that he outlined at our 6-month evaluation with him. he's ambitious like that. after putting him down for his afternoon nap, i kept hearing him in his room jabbering away and then fussing. when i peeked in on him i found him like this—sitting up in his crib with his legs dangling out the side rail. his very first time to sit up by himself and no one was there to see it so i couldn't resist snapping a photo of him peering over the top of the crib.



...and as soon as it was playtime, i took a video:



henry has been army crawling for several weeks now but the last couple of weeks he's been working on hands-n-knees crawling. he easily gets up on hands and knees and he's starting to get the idea of moving his knees forward. it's a close call but it looks to me like he crawled a couple of inches here:



as if today hadn't already been full of enough milestones, tonight he pulled up to standing at the coffee table...all by himself! it wasn't his first time pulling up to standing...he's done it a few times at the tub but he's been working on the coffee table and hasn't quite been able to coordinate standing up and reaching up so high to grab the tabletop. he managed it tonight.