End of an Era

Warning: Sad story ahead, so be prepared if you keep reading.

Yesterday, our beloved evil cat in residence passed away. He did not seem to be in ill health in days leading up to his passing. Martin was still eating, drinking in the bathroom sink, and sleeping in his favorite spots. I had let him out the afternoon before and he did not come in that night. Usually, he would be at the door to be let in the next morning, but he was not there. After some searching, I found him peacefully at rest under the back stairs to the house. Eric came home and brought him to the vet to be cremated. They confirmed that he had simply died of old age. He was 16. Although I am very happy he did not suffer, I wish I could have hugged him one last time and said good-bye.

My friend Keith was a flight attendant for NW and Martin's original person. I was asked to watch Martin for a few months until Keith found an apartment in Detroit. However, on one of his flights to London, he happened to meet and fall in love with and English girl, and Martin and I stayed together for the next 15 years. Martin was a rascal. He would trap small children on stairs, too terrified to pass him. He peeped in at people showering, and I had more than one guest scream when they looked up to eyes glowing down on them. No one was supposed to use the bathroom in private, and many people found out that the door was not completely closed against the weight of a 16 pound cat. There were a few embarrassed people over the years. Despite these faults, maybe because of them, I just loved him. He made things interesting. And for all his naughtiness, will always have a special place in my heart because of the heartaches we went through together. When first my Dad, and then my Mom, passed away, he laid in bed next to me each night for weeks when I would cry. You could have wrung him out with the amount of salt water in him. Over the years, he would know when I was sad about something and come over and give me a head butt. For many years, he would greet me at the door when I came home.

I was very lucky that Eric also loved Martin, and they became the best of buddies. Martin had really slowed down this last year, and Eric would groom him, through all of Martin's protests. I don't think Libby will have much of a memory of him, but she will hear the stories.

I will miss you, you naughty old boy you.

My little girl...

Our dear little girl is indeed growing up. She is now asking for privacy when she is in the bathroom! When I told Eric this, he wanted to know if it went both ways. Uhm, no, she still feels it is her right and duty to impede any chance of privacy for us! :) Today, she also took her first shower. I asked her if she wanted to get in instead of standing there getting sprayed. She surprised me greatly by agreeing to and actually liking it. I was also able to wash her hair so much easier than when she is in the tub. And if that is not enough, she went to the potty, washed her hands and brushed her teeth with no help. Gulp, where did my little girl go?

Whew, no worries, we just hooked up with Tenzing and the crazy, irrepresible little girl I know is back. We had music today and Libby and Tenzing acted as if they had not seen each other in years. They were actually disruptive, and I had to take Libby outside to have a talk with her. She was much better behaved when we went back in, but when the "So Long" song started, she burst into tears. She now fully understand that means the end of class, and she does not like that at all. Libby is such an emotional little monkey that I cannot help but wonder what she will be like as a teenager!

Hard not to plan this wedding!

Libby and I have ECFE on Wednesday nights with Tenzing and Tenzing's Mama. We also have Music Together and usually a play date during the week, so the kids see a lot of each other. Tenzing and Libby use Heather and I interchangeably for laps, hugs, dancing, etc...At our last ECFE, Tenzing wanted to sit on my lap. Libby decided she wanted to join him and scooched in and put her arm around his neck. Casually, he put his arm around her waist, and they then held hands. It was so smoothly done, and so cute. Half the class was just smiling looking at them. And Eric wonders why Heather and I have to control ourselves from planning a wedding! We went to the zoo the other day with Heather and Tenzing. Libby and Tenzing held hands the entire time we were there. I seriously think they did not even notice the animals. They ran up and down ramps together, examined very fascinating drains, gave each other hugs, and generally were so well behaved. Just not aware they were at a zoo. We are often asked if they are siblings when we are out, and although they do not look alike, I can understand the question. They are two of the most intrusive, in your face, little monkey you could meet. Oh, also need to mention that on their very own, they came up with the idea of kissing each other. It is very cute, but we limit it... Today, Libby requested her toenails be painted. I remember the horror of painting them the first time a year ago. Let's just say a lot of fingernail polish remover had to be used. This time, she sat very patiently while I was painting and even sat there until I told her they were dry. It is becoming much easier to do things with her. We went to the library, and aside from being upset a kid was on "her" computer, was very easy to have along. This has not always been the case, and I have left there more than once with no books. We picked out books for Libby and then were able to get a few for me. I am so proud of her, and a bit relieved, and then I get all sappy sad that she really is turning into the big girl that she tells me she is. We are off to the Children's Museum to meet up with Michelle and Malia. The Clifford exhibit is still there and I think the girls will have a good time playing there together. Eric is going out for a Friday night happy hour, which he seldom gets to do. He was pretty excited at the thought of a night out, and he certainly deserves it.

Quick Whine

Why won't my child watch television? I know most parents complain about the opposite problem, but sometimes I just need 15 minutes to myself. I used to count on that dang Monkey George, but now Libby is not mesmerized by him. Seriously, I just want to shower and dry my hair in peace. Realize this whine will probably backfire on me and soon I will complain that all she wants to do is watch TV, but right now, this is my whine and all about me! :)

Oh, and Libby has woken up at 1 AM the last two nights and cries so hard we have to bring her to bed with us, where she falls asleep right away and then kicks us the rest of the night. Sigh

Happy Earth Day!

Will have to add some pictures soon, but wanted to write some things down while they are fresh in my head.

I was trying to be stern with Libby the other day about some behavioral issue, and told her to look at Mama's nose to be sure she was listening. She put her hands on each side of my face and sang "Hello Mama's nose, good to see you". I still have no idea what I was going to talk to her about... :) That's my cheeky little monkey.

Joined Leeanne and Ellie in Linden Hills for a morning of coffee, bumming and lunch. I do love that area, but as a St. Paulite, find it a bit confusing to find-hah! It was our first time at the Wild Rumpus bookstore, and what a lovely place that is. It was very, very, busy, however, so Libby did not enjoy it as much as she would have otherwise. We will definitely have to go back soon. The Creative Kidstuff located there is also wonderful. You can tell that they expanded into a few other storefronts, and the space is really fun. Libby surprised me with how well she did on one of the scooters. At $78, she will be playing with it there and not at our house. Libby had to apologize to Ellie at one point for hitting. I am baffled by how much she resists saying "sorry" and I have to wonder where that resistance comes from. She choked it out however and we were able to resume our play. Had lunch at a lovely cafe called Zumbro. All in all, a beautiful day with a wonderful friend and our daughters. It was much enjoyed and needed.

Eric tried to surprise me with a 2 hour break that evening. Libby's favorite tween, Dan Dan and her Mom where going to take her to their house for a few hours. Libby was happy as could be and off we went on one of the most beautiful nights of the spring. Which might explain why we could not find one patio with less than a 45 minute wait. We went to 3 places and realized we were wasting our precious time, so went to a place where the drinks were free and the view of plastic toys abounded. It was a nice effort.

We brought out Libby's new bike on Saturday morning and she surprised us both with how well she did on it. She has never really taken to her trike, but off she went on her little bike with training wheels. She was grinning from ear to ear. It has a basket and a bell and it is pretty cool.

Regrouped and got a babysitter for Saturday night. Teaghan is also one of Libby's favorites, so it was easy to leave the house. This time, we set off a little earlier and on not as nice an evening. Ended up at the patio of Sweeney's, one of our favorite places. They had the fire roaring in the fireplace. Although it was not as warm as the night before, the place was still quite busy. Had just a casual dinner there and we got to relax with some wine and beer. It was nice to have a date and we have vowed that we are going to make it a monthly event.

I am actually in the middle of trying to sort and pack Libby's clothes and to put new stuff in her dresser. Am very excited for spring/summer clothes, but not excited about this task. I realize once I am done with hers, I will have to start working on mine. Working on mine reminds me that I would like to lose a few winter pounds...Why am excited about spring?

To sleep, perchance to dream...

I know most of you who read this have children who sleep blissfully through the night. I hate you! OK, I don't, I am green with envy, however. Libby has never been a good sleeper and proves to still be a tough one. We will have weeks of no issues, and BAM, there it is again. Last week, it was just one night, and we were thankful. This week it was two nights in a row, and no naps. It makes even this normally happy little girl a bit of a crank. Eric and I are tired-just plum worn out. It is amazing what lack of sleep can do to a person.

In good news, potty training continues to go well. Libby is very good about #1 in the potty and about 50/50 with #2. We were using pull-ups, which are easy for her to use, but she was breaking out on each side where the elastic is. Libby is now being "naked baby" at home again, and we only use those when we are out and about.

The big house across from us has finally sold and we were told our new neighbors have a toddler boy just slightly older than Libby. It will be nice to have someone her age in the neighborhood. There are a lot of kids, but more in the 6-12 age group. Now, if only those two other houses would sell, it would feel as if all were well on the block again.

Wish us luck with getting some good sleep!

p.s. Happy Tax Day! I can say this because ours is all done :)

Easter

What a wonderful weekend we had! We had our friends Pat and Becki over on Saturday night for homemade pizza and to dye Easter eggs. Pat and Becki are two of our quieter friends-haha. They are both very outgoing and a lot of fun. When we first met them, we could not figure out which one to listen to as they talk over each other, sometimes about the same subject, sometimes about two different things. Five years later, we have learned to roll with the conversation. Libby adores Pat and points at any distinguished looking man with salt and pepper hair, and calls them "Pat". Their daughter Teaghan joined us for the egg dying. We got a little competive, but she won, hands down. Libby then made poor Teghan run back and forth across the house just for fun.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and Libby looked adorable in her Easter outfit. The dress was given to her by her Aunt Kelly at Christmas 07, before we even got Libby's referral. We went to the brunch at St. Mary's (tons of great food). Sarah helped Libby with the Easter egg hunt and even had made her a very lovely necklace with matching bracelet. Libby wore them very proudly. After church, we stayed far too long conversing with people, as we do most Sundays. We got a basket for Libby from our dear neighbors, Tom and Gail, and also had another one for her from our neighbors on the other side, Mike and Cathy. How nice is that? Keith, Diane and Kyle came for dinner. Libby got just a fabulous basket from them, including her favorites, num-n-nums (M & M's). I made a prime rib for the first time ever, and if I say so myself, it turned out beautifully. While I was cooking, they did the egg hunt in the back yard with Libby. She was an old pro at it by now. Kyle so loved the prime rib, he barely spoke at all during dinner. We feasted and had just a wonderful evening together. Libby thinks Uncle Keith is very silly and laughs at him the whole time he is here. Libby was reading the letters on Uncle Keith's shirt and said "o" and he said "big o" and just to contradict him, she quickly replied "little O".

How lucky we are to have had a weekend filled with family and friends.

Love, love, love

Libby has a great fondness for all of her friends Mamas. I have always thought it was so sweet as to how much she likes them. Tenzing's Mama, Heather, gives Libby lots of hugs and tells her often that she loves her. Last night, we were shown that even when they do not appear to be listening, they are. Eric was asking Libby who loved her. "Does Dada love you? Mama love you?" etc...Libby then said "Tenzing's Mama loves me". Eric turned and said "Oh" and Libby replied, very confidently, "A LOT". How wonderful for this little girl to be shown so much love and to know that she is cherished. How fortunate for us to have so many wonderful people in her life who love her.

"Hello Everybody"

Libby continues to entertain us with her version of "Hello Everybody". We have moved on from Mama, Dada, all the pets and the neighbors, to "hello mama's boots" and the light and the camera and the....well, you get it. I am sure it will grow old, but it still makes us laugh at what she comes up with, and so cheerfully.

I am tired of winter and ready for warm weather. More importantly, I do not want to wear another pair of jeans until next fall. We have a ton of lovely clothes for Libby, none of which she will wear because she will only wear jeans and a shirt like Mama. Aaargh. I have never really been a jeans person and loved working outside the home because it let me have some flair with my clothes. Staying home, in short, does not. However, I will wear some cute simple skirts this summer, as well as capris. I am ready for a change. I am going with the assumption that whatever I wear, Libby will follow along with. We have been fortunate to get some lovely clothes from Leeanne and others and I can hardly wait to pull them out and put them on Libby. Lucky to have friends with such good taste!

We are now back to our regular schedule, so today we have Music Together and tomorrow I tutor again as well as having ECFE in the evening. Funny how a week off can throw everything off balance.

We are celebrating our first Easter with Libby this year. Last year, we were leaving for China on Easter Sunday. Wow! I remember that Keith, Diane and Kyle were here for brunch and to take us to the airport, and we could barely eat because of our nerves. This year, we have an Easter egg hunt on Saturday with the St. Paul Mom's Group. Sunday, our church does a huge brunch and Easter egg hunt right before the 10:00 service. One of the young girls from our church, also from Maoming like Libby, has volunteered to help Libby in the egg hunt. How sweet is that? Eric has informed me that more than one person said to him that they could barely wait to see what Libby would be wearing for Easter. Eek, I did not know I had set the bar that high. It is the one day of the week she will wear her pretty clothes. I do have a dress that I think is sweet, so hopefully it will "wow" the crowd. We are really looking forward to dinner that evening with my brother Keith, his wife Diane and our nephew Kyle. Libby adores all of them and we will have yet another Easter egg hunt. There is no such thing as too much chocolate, is there? I usually make a pork tenderloin with a peach chutney (delicious), but we are going to shake it up and make a prime rib.

Libby is just getting to the point where she is playing with her doll house on her own-whew! I do love playing house with her, but it is nice to see that development. Also nice to have a few minutes of freedom.

We did not make it to our music class this morning. Libby was in the middle of something...and it did not happen until it was too late to get there. Now she is quite upset not to be seeing Tenzing today. I was also looking forward to it, but hopefully we will see them another time this week. Instead, I am letting her be naked and play in the sink. Hey, if it keeps her happy :)

One Year Family Day Celebration

We were fortunate to have a one year anniversary dinner with another family from our travel group last evening. We met Michelle and her Mom Linda, in PAC when we were all first starting the process. At the time, China was referring entire months (adoptive parent lingo, if you have questions, just ask), so it did not seem it would be impossible to travel with her and her parents when the time came. Forward two years, and they are referring maybe a few days to a week each month. In a strange twist, we did end up traveling together. Just before leaving, we thought we were down to just our two families in our group. Since we liked each other, we were quite okay with it. In the end, there turned out to be four other families in our group, but we were not aware of them until right before traveling, or until we got to China. Although we liked the other families, we had not had the chance to build relationships with them that would last after we came home. We were always thankful that we had met Michelle and her parents, Rick and Linda, before we had traveled and had the opportunity to get to know one another. We had hoped that others from our group would join us for this dinner to continue some relationship and perhaps even grow it. Although that did not happen, we were fortunate to have the ones who meant the most to us here to celebrate.

Attached are pictures of Malia and Libby playing together. Yes, there is even one with Libby doing the "Libby lean in". They are both nuts and it only took them a few minutes after reacquainting to start playing. On their own, they figured out how they could both sit on the Sit N spin together (opposite sides, legs overlapping) and spun in perfect harmony. It was a sight to see. They laughed and played the whole time, when they were not arguing about who got to push which stroller. Libby even had a few tears when Malia dared to go potty on her potty chair.

The past year has zipped by so quickly and it was so hard to believe these are the same two little girls we met a year ago. They have not only grown physically, but verbally, socially and are just two of the sweetest funniest little monkeys there are. There were a few times during the evening that I was laughing through some tears.

Today at church, we stood up for a blessing for our one year family day. I really marvel and am humbled at just how blessed we are.