Squirrel

Izzie Rue has always loved animals, and she delights in taking care of them. She found this puppy at the park while visiting my parents recently and was as much in love with it as the dog was with her (but don't worry, she didn't come home with the dog!).

She doesn't even seem to notice if the animal is alive or not, she is equally affectionate to them all!

As a result of this affection, we have been considering getting her a pet of her own in the future (the live version). That was, until our walk yesterday...

We had the good fortune of passing by a squirrel who had obviously lost a recent race across the street to a large automobile. Delicately, I answered Peter's curiosity about blood and missing limbs before pushing past the scene of the accident, thinking this a good introduction to one of the more difficult aspects of life.

It wasn't until half a block later, that I realized Isabelle's complete lack of progress in our walk was not due to her distracted nature, but because of big fat tears blurring her vision. After a little comforting, the best response I could get from her was, "but the squirrel, I'mmmm s..s..ssssad because of da squirrel..." followed by increased tears. Eventually we made it home, through dinner and down to bed, but not without being interrupted every fifteen or twenty minutes by, "oh, the squirrel!!!"

We have decided to seriously investigate the genetic history of any pet she receives, because it better live a really long time!

Silent Protest

Daniel has recently decided diaper changes are the worst form of punishment a young child could suffer. From restricted mobility, to being taunted by creams, wipes and cloth diapering gadgets, all of which he cannot touch, he is tormented by it all and currently exploring various means of rebelling. All the usual methods have been employed, and despite the screams, yells, throwing anything in reach and even alligator tears he has found little relief.




Yesterday, he brought a book with him for battle, and proceeded to read through the entire changing.

The book was C.S Lewis' A Grief Observed.

Our Little Lot

Daddy, pushing the wagon whose wheels are determined not to be pulled. The kids love this, except when Peter tries to help Isabelle and Daniel in and out of the wagon.



Peter and Isabelle were put in time-out... Daniel just thought it looked like something fun to do. He really destroyed the whole punishment aspect of that time-out session.

Now, when Daniel is really upset about something, he sits on the floor in the hallway and cries.

They also like to sit in a line to eat snack (I really don't enforce that!).

Concerns... wait, didn't we already do this?

Jeremiah failed to mention the rest of the events that made his birthday last week special...

Daniel had been battling an intestinal bug for ten days, and seeming to have wisdom and self control beyond his years, had decided that if nothing went in, nothing could come out and no amount of generally forbidden delicacies could tempt him otherwise. Therefore Jeremiah's birthday dinner was slightly overshadowed by the total break down of order in our kitchen, allowing three children full command of selection, presentation and delivery of their food, all in the hopes of a small portion entering our one year old's mouth.

The next morning our anxieties were confirmed as our pediatrician sent a mildly dehydrated Daniel, weighing three pounds less than when this began, to the hospital for fluids. Unfortunately, the ER Pediatrician, clearly having never encountered such a stubborn one year old, decided anti-nausea medicine and firm instructions for mommy to simply offer more fluids was all the intervention needed...

24 hours later we returned to the ER, this time to be admitted for four days while Daniel's body received the fluids necessary for it to heal and begin to process food again.

He continued to struggle with retaining his food for two days after leaving the hospital, causing fear that he might re-adopt his anti-food/fluids approach to life. Thankfully, Our fears were alleviated at 5:30 this morning, when we woke to "mammma! MLK! MLK! daaaada! Alllllll Done!" Two bowls of apple sauce, three hand fulls of gold fish, a bowl of cheerios, and some kix later daddy crashed on the couch (mommy still being asleep) and Daniel proceeded to explore all the normally forbidden aspects of the house.