Wild and Crazy New Years Eve 2009

Oliver got put into time out when he became belligerent and refused to stop crying. Crazy put him in time out while cutting up cheese, apple and salami for dinner. He subsequently fell asleep in "time out".

Big boy transitions

We've talked about it for a while now...but just bit the bullet last night and took the bed frame off again so that Oliver could get used to sleeping in the big boy bed. Despite being a punk, he finally fell asleep. I had the nerve to actually snap a photo with a flash. Woo hoo! He was teeny tiny in the full sized bed. He woke up this morning at 7:30 and the weirdest thing was that I heard him rounding the corner of my bed. Somehow I knew he was awake and sprung out of bed. He was so happy and not cranky in the least. He then pulled me into his room and climbed on the bed and leaned over to pat Kylee on the head. He said "Good girl Kylee" and pat her on the head. It was weird that Kylee slept in his room knowing full well that he was mobile. These days she just lays there while he comes up to her and pats her head. I think this is a start to of a wonderful relationship. She has always been really protective of him.


Here's the infamous bucket of books that he collects.


He's reciting lines to Snow!

What's better than a slice of bacon?

Two slices of bacon. That's right. This morning as I was comatose in the chair, Oliver saw Crazy putting breakfast on the table and excitedly cried out "EAT!" and ran over to the dining room table and sat himself down. This morning Crazy made cheesy eggs, apple wood smoked bacon, and whole wheat biscuits. Oliver ate most of his eggs, and then moved onto his biscuits which he demanded more honey on. He ate 1 1/2 biscuits before we showed him the bacon. I handed him a slice since we only had 4 slices. But when I gave him only one slice he gave me a crossed look like "Why are you trying to cheat me out of my bacon?!"




Then this gem came out...luckily Crazy was able to capture this on his cell.



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Odd the song is about child abuse...but alas,

My name is Lucas, I live on the second floor.
Yes I think you've seen me before....

Have you heard this song?

My name is Lucas, I live on the second floor
Yes, I think you've seen me before...

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On Wednesday I had to go pick up Oliver from school because he had vomited all over himself and couldn't stop crying. When we went to pick him up, he was indeed crying but I think it was because they didn't have an emergency pair of pants for him and gave him whatever they had on hand, which in this case was a pair of pink corduroys. We went home and snuggled into the guest bed, which is decked with white sheets, a million pillows and a fluffy white goose down blanket. I gave Oliver his holiday present. He was supposed to have gotten the gift on the airplane on our way to Kansas, but since we cancelled our trip...he got it on Wednesday instead. It was a portable DVD player that we ordered with our credit card points. So it was "FREE!!!!" for us. Did I mention I'm QUEEN of FREE?! I LOOOOOOVE FREE. We purchased a dvd of Little Einsteins for Oliver's enjoyment and boy did he love it. He fell asleep in the bed after we watched an episode of Little Einsteins.

These days I think he's starting to realize books. He has books he loves and knows the words of. Its a total riot to listen to him recite the books to me while I'm reading them to him. Tonight he actually picked up all his books in a bucket and then put the books away.

A few things

So we've decided to cancel our trip to KS that was scheduled this year. :-( It seems that the entire US is frozen over and if we stay in the ghetto, we won't need to spend the night at some airport waiting for our twin engine prop plane to have enough clearance to take off. So we just decided to cancel our trip. Our credit card company is trying to work with us on this. Who knows what they will decide.

A few nights ago while we were skyping with Mia and Uncle K, Oliver was having his dinner. As he carefully ate his chicken breast tenders and sweet potato fries, Oliver looked at the screen and noticed that Mia was jumping up and down on Uncle P's bed. Oliver without skipping a beat loudly said "Mia, no jumping!" and when she didn't stop, he repeated himself louder, all the while still managing to pick up the pieces of chicken, dipping them in ketchup and shoving them in his maw. Isn't that funny?

Oliver's been a bit clingy lately. Every time I sit down or lie down he wants to be either on my lap or right next to me. If there isn't enough space, he shoves me over to make space for himself. Considering this kid has never been the clingy type, its just a bit weird to us. Last night he pulled up my shirt and touched my belly and said, "Baby right here!" then lifted his shirt and said the same while pointing to his belly. Weird? Do you think he knows that his time as only child is coming to an end?

One more video

This was too cute to pass up and not share. You can see that he's in the corner and Lauren, Ms Naomi's daughter is trying to keep him from crashing the performance.



Here's a photo of Oliver trying on my warm house socks.


I bought these shoes for him today. Can I just say that these cost more than some of my shoes? Why do they make these shoes so expensive?

Christmas party at Oliver's daycare

He refused to be on stage while they were performing for the adults. He preferred to do his dancing and choreographing from below.


He's a show stealer. It was HILARIOUS.




We left while they brought "Santa" out to hand out gifts. Crazy and I were both uncomfortable with the idea of introducing "Santa" to Oliver. Since neither of us celebrate the holiday and Oliver gets gifts throughout the year, we are both comfortable not even bothering with the entire concept of Santa. I'd rather celebrate his birthday or even Chinese New Years and the American New Years over Christmas.

My Chia dog

My Chia dog. So loyal, so loving, so fierce. To say that I love this dog is an understatement.

Through the years, we have evolved so much as dog owners. Crazy and I started our marriage bringing Chia home with us. Chia is like trial by fire, he completely changed our lives. Through the years he ate with gusto, and ran like the wind. He was fiercely loyal and always *my* dog. He knew it and I knew it. Crazy was a second thought to him, but for me, the sun rose and set with me.

This dog went through the majority of my life with me. Through my last year of high school where he laid underneath my desk while I studied and rolled my feet on his body to keep warm and to keep in contact with him. He saw me off to college and yelled at me when I left him behind. We took a break from each other while I pursued my college endeavors, but shortly after Crazy and I got married, Chia and I were reunited. To say that we had a bond was an understatement. Whenever he got mad at me for whatever reason, he'd tear up my things. What was strange was that it was always *my* things, never Crazy's or anyone else's things.

People say that dogs don't know the difference, but those people did not know Chia. Everything he did was intentional, and boy was this dog intense. He had the alpha stare down to a science and preferred his personal space. He loved comfort and staying clean. He was meticulous and constantly cleaned himself...me, Crazy and Kylee. He would bury himself in the blanket on cold nights and steal all the blankets from us...until we kicked both dogs out of the bed when I learned I love white sheets.

We decided to feed raw 8-9 years ago because of Chia. As a result, we were able to reverse a lot of the damage that kibble did to him for 8 years. He ate with gusto, and we learned so much about dog nutrition. Every year we did blood panels and they always showed how healthy he was. I love this dog.

A couple of years ago, when we moved to our new apartment, we noticed that Chia was becoming incontinent, and we slowly started to change his environment. Slowly and slowly we noticed that his legs weren't as strong, his hips were getting bad, he wasn't hearing as well, he was getting slower, wasn't able to eat raw, and started to loose a lot of weight. For two years we noticed the changes and although worried about him, we just knew it was a part of life. We watched as he stopped race tracking around the house and then noticed that Kylee was taking over the alpha dog position in the house. Then we noticed that Chia was no longer able to eat raw, and then he was no longer able to chew properly. He began to loose weight, and didn't really stop loosing weight. The vets we took him to couldn't pinpoint anything in particular that was wrong with him. But I knew somehow that something wasn't right.

Soon enough Chia couldn't climb up steps, or walk down them. He began to leak pee, and cry every time that Kylee was rough on him or when we messed with him and accidently hurt him. His health was slowly deteriorating. I secretly hoped that he would die in his sleep so that we would never have to make that decision for him. But I looked in his eyes and knew he was ready. He wasn't himself for at least a year. Bad hips, bad legs, deaf, bad teeth, digestive issues, eating problems, not keeping weight, and he was just getting old. Crazy and I discussed our options and what to do, and we made the ultimate decision to put him down. Although I had wanted him to be here for another 3 or more years, I knew it was selfish for me to keep him around since his health was failing and his quality of life was no longer the same.

This morning we took him to the vets office. I gave him some string cheese while she gave him the injection and as far gone as he was, he was unable to eat the last of the cheese. He died slowly in Crazy's arms. I couldn't watch, so I had to cover my eyes. This is one of the hardest decisions of my life. I never ever would have thought that we would be in the hospital putting down my dog. EVER. I HATE myself. I knew that Chia deserved to for me to make the adult decision and stop his suffering, I just wish that I had enough strength to hold him as he died. But I couldn't and it hurt too bad for me to be in the room. All I remember was his lifeless body laying on the exam table and Crazy covering his face and body with a towel. Tonight as I lay in my comfy bed, Chia is in a dark kennel at the vet's waiting for someone to pick him up to be cremated. I feel like I failed him.

RIP my Chia dawg

I've loved you for the entire 16 years of your life. RIP my crazy dawg.

Well, the school bus was a hit

He couldn't even be bothered to put his shoes and jacket away. Just as he was getting really engrossed in the school bus...there was a knock on the door....shirt delivery. Oliver and no name feel really special...seriously.



This video clip would have led to a word that Oliver has recently discovered, however Crazy cut the recording just shy of using his expletive. Thanks to the bad manners of both his parents, Oliver started to say this word. At Costco, nothing good ever comes from costco. Once upon a time when Oliver was a wee bit lad, he vomited an entire bottle of formula while we were standing in line at costco. Ugh. Last week, while we were roaming the aisles with Oliver looking for all of those low carb high fiber items, we noticed Oliver screaming at the top of his lungs "FAH"! Now lets discuss what 4 letter word may start with the letter F. Shortly after the second aisle, Crazy looked at me and said, "did you hear a ck?" and for the life of me, I wish I hadn't. A few nights later after we all got out of the car to go to the market, Oliver started to scream "FAH!" to which Crazy quickly corrected him with "Oliver, be quiet, do not say that!"

New toy...if you were here, we'd like to offer you a beating

School photos

Tell me what you want.

5X7 or 8X10?

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Update....

I don't think I will be purchasing the school photo. It cost $25 to get the image on a cd...and more to print. I think the pictures we take at home are better. But if someone really wants that photo from school...they can always offer to cough up the dough cause I am not all that interested in spending that kind of money for a photo that I'm not all that thrilled about. I wanted instead to send everyone copies of my favorite photos of 2009. Let me know what you decide. Yes, like his Uncle P, he can't seem to close his mouth. Tonight I said, "Oliver can you please close your mouth?", he looked at me and matter of fact told me "NO!"

Week in Review

Oliver: Mammie that hurt me!
Said as I was tickling him as he was eating dinner. At one point he said it to me while I wasn't even touching him. Crazy started to laugh when he saw this.

Mammie hmmmm, Ham and Cheese! I like it!

Mammie I like eat Chicken!
I wonder if he connects the chicken he eats with the chicken we look at in his books.

GD sucks. :-( This is the end of the second week of my new diet and lets just say that I want some damn cake. I want some chocolate that doesn't taste like poo. I want to eat fruit without restrictions or worry about my blood sugar. I want a HUGE cookie. I want to go to Masses and have a cappuccino and a blueberry tart. I want to go get some Indian food and lots of basmati rice and some naan. I want I want I want.

On a lighter note, Crazy has been working his magic with my GD. My blood sugar levels have been fine, sometimes on a higher note, however mostly managed. We have a ton of low carb, high fiber items in the house. I have ice cream in the freezer that I purchased before we realized I had GD that I can't eat. I just open the freezer and stare at it. My fingers have a ton of little red marks from all the little pricks I do to check my blood sugar levels. I want some pizza. Waah Waah.

It'll be raining next week, so I think that Oliver will stay home with me. Just because he's more apt to stay warm in our apartment than at school....thus less likely to get sick.