Monkey see, Monkey do

Tonight, Dad went out to a movie. I saw a Superbad last week and highly recommended it to Michael so he finally went. About a half hour after he was gone, Parker comes out into the living room, looks around and says:

"What happened to Daddy?!"

I told him and he accepted the response.

I believe this question, asked in full sentence mode, was a result of reading him Rosie's Walk which is essentially a picture book with limited text. A hen takes a walk and a fox follows her around getting into all sorts of trouble without the hen having any idea. When we "read it", I ask Parker, "What happened to the fox?" each time he has issues. Parker says, "He got stuck!", "He fell down", "The bees got him!"

Too cute.

Standing

Dresses

Elsa was here today and Parker and I, as promised, went back to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. We had a great time and stayed for several hours returning to find the girls sleeping. It was time for Parker's nap so I took my car to get new tires (one was ruined in the accident and I needed new ones anyway as the tread was pretty much gone on mine.)

When I returned, Elsa had changed the girls into these cute dresses. I'm no girlie girlie or dressy chick, but man, they looked cute in these dresses.

They both took time looking adorable and playing with my hat. Miranda practiced standing on her (picture of her backside is her actually squatting on the way up.)

Take special notice of the large gash on Michael's forehead. He got this when putting on my spare last night. He was bleeding pretty bad yesterday and it was quite a bump today. Poor guy.

Damn Hot!

It was damn hot today. So in between taking Noe to the vet and getting in a car accident (yes, everyone is ok), I took the kids to the park in castro valley with the water play area. Elizabeth immediately went exploring, got completely dirty, and then totally soaked. She loved every moment of it and so did the little girls who followed her around. A few moms there were impressed with the task I had at hand and one, when Elizabeth decided to sit on the water spray jet, even called me "brave". Or was it "stupid"?





Back at home, after naps (and the call to insurance company), everyone woke up in good spirits and had an excellent session of crib jumping.

Noe-Update

Well...Noe is no longer with us. She had a hard night barely moving, not eating, heavy breathing. So after another talk with the vet, I took her in today to be euthanized. It went smoothly and I thank Amity again for being there with me.

Noe was a hard cat to love, but she was mine and we were happy with eachother. I still remember the day I got her. I had just moved to a new appartment in Noe Valley and went to the San Francisco animal shelter. There she was in a cage all by herself. She was quiet as a mouse and tiny. I wanted a quiet cat so this was perfect. They said she was 6 weeks old, but she was more like 4 or 5 weeks. I did the paperwork, held her a bit more, did more paperwork and then took her home. Steps outside of the shelter, she started meeping and wouldn't be quiet for days. She conned me big time! We called her "the meeper" for many years.

A few days later, I lost her behind the refridgerator and being the new mom that I was, paid over $500 to have her spayed (duh!) rather than bring her back to the shelter. Funny how lame you are in your youth.

Anyway, she'll finally get some peace away from Zeke. I'll miss her dearly.

Hi, it's me.

Everyone was chatting on the phone today. Parker kept saying, "Hi, it's me," while walking around the room. I must say that when I call Michael.

Starting Early

We thought we'd better get the girls started early on reading so they can keep up with Parker. Here we are learning the animals and reading good night moon. I didn't have the heart to tell Elizabeth she was reading it upside down.

Noe

My poor old cat Noe hasn't been looking so good lately. She's lost weight, just lies around and isn't generally herself (which is a feisty, grumpy bitch). I decided I should take her in and yesterday made an appointment for Friday. But when I went to check on her last night, her breathing was very heavy. I changed the appointment to this afternoon and then to this morning when it really wasn't looking good. Luckily, Lety was here with her neice cleaning my house. I asked her to keep one eye on the babes during their nap while I ran down the vet. Parker came with me.

The vet said it was probably heart disease or heart failure, but wanted to take xrays to confirm. So I left poor Noe there and went back home to find two crying and very awake babies. No, they hadn't napped at all and were now super cranky. Within minutes, all three kids were crying. I packed up the bags and headed out to meet some twim moms in Orinda. A ride usually calms everyone down. Which it did. So much so, that Elizabeth fell asleep.

Everyone did great at the park. Elizabeth was feeling so spunky, she left our group and headed off to visit with some other kids for a while. When everyone was nice and hot, we headed home.

I called the vet to check in and yes, she was quite sick. They took 250cc's of liquid out of her heart area today which is a lot. They still aren't sure what is wrong with her and only lots of money and time will tell us for sure. As I am more concerned about her behavior and quality of life, I authorized another xray to rule out a tumor. We have to pick her up later today. There is some potential that she won't make it that long. Luckily, Amity, my previous employee and now good friend, is there with her in case anything happens. Even if she comes home tonight, there is a good chance the liquid will come back and we'll be back there tomorrow.

I keep thinking she'll live forever, but I suppose 15 years is a good long life for a cat. It's just hard to imagine my life without her.

Send good thoughts this way...

BADM

We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum today. It's a great kid's museum in Sausalito. We are members there as it gets us into the Habitot too. It always seems so far, but it's only about 30 minutes away across the Richmond Bridge. It was built on an army barracks so all the exhibit halls are in different buildings. There are lots of old army houses there and the view is pretty damn nice.





We arrived our 11:30 so I fed the girls while Parker played with the rocks, the bridge and then the boat. He got a little cranky, so I fed him too.







Then went went off to the tot area. Only kids under 42 inches are allowed. The girls crawled around on the water bed play area while parker ran about. Everyone had a grand time.



Then we went outside where everyone played in the tot water play area.



All three kids were soaked.








I remembered this area in advance and brought a change of clothes for all them. Trying to keep Elizabeth off the stairs while I changed Miranda was a bit tough. With both girls contained in the stroller, I changed Parker and we headed home. I thought everyone would crash out, but no one did (yay!). I told Parker we would go back on Friday when Elsa is here and we'll stay longer. There is tons of stuff to do there that can't be done with babies in tow.

At home, I changed diapers, read books to Parker, changed diapers again and put the girls to bed. At 2:30, I finally got my lunch.

Blink of an eye

In the blink of an eye this morning, Elizabeth crawled up on the toy car (aka beep beep) and sat there. She sat there, pleased as punch, for about 15 minutes. It was only when Miranda tried to get on top, did she dismount. The beep beep is now stored higher up.

Miranda practiced her standing after it was taken away.

Big Eyes

Future as rapper?

Horses

Lion

When I went to put Parker down for his nap today Lion was nowhere to be found. Parker was cranky. The girls were cranky. My window of opportunity to get it all done smoothly was moving away. So I told Parker than Lion went away and he'd be back later and he would have nap with just Ted today. He looked at me funny and then said, "Lion went to Waterworld."

I said, "Yup, Lion, went to Waterworld. He'll be back later."

In other cute Parker moments, he said the alaphabet backwards to me the other day. Then he made me sing it backwards. In tune. Can you do that????

Tunnel Time