Spring break 2009, part 3: Adventures in Kittyland

All week long, this was the story. Julie chasing after Tag, better known as "ditty," "tiddy," or any variation thereof. Even as I type this, she's sitting on my lap looking at the picture and saying it.

I gotta say, Tag was so good with her. Sometimes he would come up to her, surprisingly. There was one time when he was sitting by the back door, really wanting to be let out (but not being let out), and Julie followed him over there. He just sat there while she petted him. Her version of petting, by the way, is more of a gentle grab than a smooth, continuous motion. I didn't actually see this encounter (I really wish I had), but Grumpa told me about it.

All week I was worried that Julie was going to get hold of Tag's tail and just grab. I think she's a little young to try that one yet, luckily.


Off in pursuit!

This was Gretel, Dave and Erin Crowley's cat. We stopped to visit with them in Cincinnati on both legs of our trip. Gretel's not what you'd call a "people act." She's very reclusive. And she definitely didn't like Julie. In fact, Julie earned a hiss at each visit. During breakfast on Monday morning, however, Julie found that Gretel was up on the counter eating, so she just camped out on the floor in front of her. Gretel was not very amused.

I took several videos of Julie interacting with the kitties all week long, mostly for Ben's benefit. I compiled them all into one montage called Adventures in Kittyland. Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Milestones, part II

I had started writing the previous post a couple of days ago, and just made a list of things to write about, to be expanded upon later. Apparently I forgot to expand on "animals." I just noticed that it's just sitting there...oops.

On our first trip to Indiana in October, and then again at Thanksgiving, Julie had her first exposure to a cat. My in-laws have "Tag," and Julie found herself looking for him whenever she heard a bell jingling (he's got one around his neck). Over our Christmas trip, she had some exposure to both cats and dogs. She was absolutely fascinated. She was very gentle when we "let" her (helped her and restrained her) pet the cats, and she was just tickled watching the dogs. It has caused us to contemplate getting a cat at some point. The only problem with that is that my mom and sister both have cat allergies, so that could put a damper on visits. But it's still on the back burner.

Mundane Monday

It's been an interesting week for me, to say the least. Where to start, where to start?

Okay, last weekend I was completely and utterly exhausted. I couldn't sleep enough. Plus I felt weak and achey. I was a little bit nauseous for a day, and even had a few moments here and there of dizziness. All this added up to frustration, which led to moodiness and "being hormonal." When I went grocery shopping this week, I bought bananas. Just because I felt like it when I saw them. I hate bananas. I've never liked bananas as long as I can remember. But I've been eating them this week. You know where all this leads. The last time I can remember being as tired as I was last Saturday was the weekend I found out I was pregnant with Julie. Figuring out the timing however, I waited until this weekend (Saturday) to take a test. It was negative. Whew! I'm terribly relieved. I am so not ready to be pregnant again. But I don't have to worry about it yet.

I got lost three times in a 24 hour period this week. Two of those times were on my way home. I wasn't in unfamiliar territory, either. I was not paying attention the first time (I was talking to Ben), and the second time I just completely missed my street altogether.

I also realized this week that I am 27 years old. The reason I mention this is because I thought I was 28. For months I've thought I was 28 years old. I've been telling people for months that I'm 28 years old (when they ask...not just randomly blurting it out). But no, I'm only 27 years old. But just like that, I gained an extra year of my life back.

I typed up a small collection of recipes from a church cooking group and emailed it to our group listserv, and someone responded to inform me of a typo in one of the recipes. I had meant to type "Mix together first four ingredient and add enough mayo to that it all binds together" but instead of the word "add" I accidentally typed "ass." My spellchecker didn't catch it because technically "ass" is a correctly spelled word. It just wasn't the one I was looking for. That turned out to just be par for the course for me this week. (Sorry Jen, and sorry to anyone who may have been offended by it...please just laugh it off if you haven't already).

Early in the week, some friends of ours called to see if we wanted to come over for dinner on Saturday night. I told her that Ben would be out of town (more on that later). She pressed and asked if I wanted to come anyway. Sure! So I went to her house on Saturday with Julie, and there was another family there that we have also recently become friends with. First we had a fabulous meal, then we variously fed our babies (Julie was born on April 22, and the other families have baby girls born on May 20 and May 22, so we have our hands full) and I laid Julie to bed in a pack-and-play. After things calmed down a little bit, we sat around and played an interesting card game. I'd never heard of it before, but it was fun. At the end of the evening (I left at 10:45), we decided we need to get together for a monthly game night. I haven't stayed out that late in months while I've had Julie with me. I think the best part of the evening to me was (1) that I felt completely comfortable, even though I was Ben-less with two other couples; and (2) that it really felt like we'd started to form a good friendship. In the year that Ben and I have been in Shaker Heights, we've kind-of felt like loners. Sure, there are a ton of people at church that are our age, but there are also a lot of cliques. This isn't necessarily a bad thing...it's just that the dental students flock together, the medical students, etc. We aren't students. We're the only ones of our move-in group that aren't. So we didn't have a niche that we automatically fit into. I think we may have found one, though. That makes me happy.

Ben was out of town this weekend at a Boy Scout campout. The troop he works with meets during the school year, so this was the big kick-off event of the year. He biked and rafted and I'm sure had a great time of it. All last year, he'd be gone about once a month for a campout, just one night. This time he was gone two nights in a row. Earlier this summer, he was gone for one night at scout camp, so this wasn't my first time without him overnight since Julie was born, but it was my longest. And it was my first time at church alone without him. I really missed him this time. I almost didn't want him to go, just because I hadn't seen him a lot this week (different things going on), and I knew I was going to miss him a lot. And I did.

Sunday morning, I propped Julie up in the corner of the couch in the basement (she loves sitting up in the corner), while I went around the corner into the next room (the laundry) room to get a clean sweater to put on to wear to church after I got out of the shower. I was just starting to look through the laundry basket when I heard a thud, followed by a 1/2 second of silence, then a scream. When I heard the thud I knew what it was, so I was already running back into the room where I'd left Julie. Sure enough, she was on the floor. She'd toppled forward, instead of to the side, and gone head first over the edge of the couch. She's got a small goose egg, but there was no blood. It only took a couple of minutes to calm her down. No more couch sitting for her.

Oh yeah, and one of my fish died.

Week/end in review

It's been a somewhat eventful week/end. On Saturday, we bought a new TV. Not because we just felt like it. Not because we had an extra several hundred dollars laying around that we wanted to blow on a new toy. No, we bought a new TV because we needed one (if you consider it a "need"). A few months ago, our nice big TV decided to stop showing the full picture on the screen, then a few days later, it decided to just black out a large part of the screen. Then last week our small TV decided to start doing the wave while we watched. It was distorting the picture really badly. So we started to see if it would be worth it to have either or both of them repaired. We discovered that neither of them are "DTV ready" and in addition to repairing them, we'd have to buy the converter box by February anyway. So we decided just to upgrade. It sure hurt the pocketbook, but it looks nice. And all our entertainment stuff is now in the basement. And since that was Saturday's project, that means that today's project is rearranging the upstairs living room.

Sometime in the last two days, our crawdad molted. It's really weird, and kind-of gross to see his old exoskeleton sitting on the floor of the tank.

Right now, Ben is outside trying to get the ivy off the side of our house. We borrowed an extension ladder from a friend at church, but Ben can't climb it, since it's apparently quite wobbly and he's "terrified of heights." So he's leaning out the window of the spare bedroom upstairs instead in an attempt to get as much ivy down as possible. I wonder if we'll ever have Christmas lights on our house?

Julie had her four-month checkup on Friday. I tried to give her some Tylenol right before we left so that it would be working its way through her system by the time she got her shots. As soon as I squeezed the last of the goo out of the dropper into her mouth, she spit/drooled it all back out, then for added good measure, she projectile vomited all over herself, her dress (that she'd had on for literally five minutes), and her carseat. We had 15 minutes before we needed to leave. I was planning on grabbing something for me to eat during that time, as I hadn't eaten lunch yet. But no, I spent it cleaning everything up, including the floor, since it dripped through the bottom of the carseat. Unfortunately for Julie, although I cleaned her up and changed her clothes, she still had to sit in a wet and smelly carseat because I didn't have time (in that 15 minutes) to wash and dry the cover. I did it when we got home though. Then, on the way to church yesterday, she threw up all over herself and the carseat again. Julie is a little odd when it comes to her vaccines -- she doesn't get a fever and doesn't get extra fussy. In fact, her temperature drops a little and she seems to be happier than usual. After her two-month checkup, she was a little lethargic, but not unhappy. Yesterday at church, she kept spitting up. It was mostly drooly, not much substance, but finally she got up what she was apparently fighting with, because she stopped. Her last bout had mucus in it, which was a little concerning to me. The only time I've ever seen that was when she was sick way back at six weeks old. Today, she's a little stuffier than usual (though breathing fine), sweaty, and really fussy. Her temperature is low, though.

This afternoon we're going to barbecue for then end of Ben's softball season. Friends, food, fun! We're looking forward to it.

Bright spot

A final update on the day today, to end it on a positive note.

The crawdad is alive and well. I think his system was a little shocked going back into the water after having been out of it for so long. But he's moving around and eating fine.

Julie did a lot of smiling, cooing, and even some attempts at laughing today. She was a lot of fun, when she wasn't being a pill.

I have beautiful flowers in my front yard.

Unique bad day update

About 10 minutes after posting that story, I heard some scratching sounds coming from my fireplace. I moved the laundry basket that was in front of it, and lo and behold, there was my crawdad! Alive, no less! Scratching and trying to climb his way up over a wrapping paper tube. When he couldn't quite make it, he fell over backwards, with his legs and claws in the air. As freaked out as I was (definitely a go-get-the-big-strong-man-of-the-house moment), I felt sympathy toward the little guy too. I went and got my fishnet and a bowl. I scooped him up with the net, and carried him over the bowl to the kitchen sink, where I filled the bowl halfway with water and rinsed him off before putting him back in the tank (covered with dirt and soot and ash). So now he's back in the tank, but not really moving. I think I killed him when I rinsed him off. There's chlorine in the water, see. I wouldn't think that five seconds would do that much, but apparently I'm wrong.

So my day was bad when I thought there was a dead (or possibly though unlikely still alive) crawdad somewhere in a good hiding spot in my house, and now it's even worse because I found him -- alive -- but now I think he's dead. And I killed him. I just am really having a crappy day.

Unique bad day

So today was already not a great day for me. Julie is acting a little weird -- fussy, but with no solution. Not hungry, clean diaper, not tired, not wanting the swing, and not happy when I'm holding her. She's alternating between that and smiling, laughing, and talking to me. And the switch has no warning. So I'm a little frustrated. Apparently I've got some internal hormonal issues going on right now too, because my reaction to all this is a lot more emotional that it sounds like it should be on paper. I think it's the first day (of what I'm guessing will be many) when I said to myself, "What on earth made me think I could be a mom??"

I decided to take Julie out for a walk a few minutes ago. Just before I left, I happened to look in the fish tank, just because I was walking by it at that moment. I easily spotted the two goldfish, but had to look a little more for the crawdad. It's not unusual that I should have to look for him. Crayfish like to hide. If you're going to keep them, you need to have rocks or something like that in your tank, into which they can retreat. I have two such rocks, and often have to look in and behind them to find him.

Well, I looked. And I looked. And I took off the lid to the tank and looked with an aerial view. And I looked from each end of the tank. And I can't find him.

Yesterday, I cleaned the tank, repositioned the fake foliage, cleaned out and replaced the filter, and added more water to the tank. When I went to bed at the ungodly hour of 1:00am, I noticed the crawdad clambering against the front wall of the tank, like he was trying to climb it. I don't think he can climb a flat surface -- I had yet to see him do it. When I added water to the tank, I filled it a little higher than I usually do, and when I replace the filter, I put the long end of the tube in the tank side rather than in the filter side (I never pay attention to it before I take it apart). I think that sometime during the night, my crawdad climbed onto a rock, got hold of the filter tube, climbed up it, and climbed out of the tank through the opening in which the filter sits. It's not entirely implausible -- crayfish are climbers. I just figured it would never be a problem as long as the rocks were low enough, because crayfish are also bottom-dwellers.

The good news is that now we can buy an algae-eater and maybe a pretty fish. The bad news is that somewhere in my house is a dead (by now) crawdad in a very good hiding spot.

My day just got bad on a whole new level.

Farewell dear Couscous. Some pictures to remember you by...happily at rest, poised to move, and on the attack:

One fish, two fish, dead fish, new fish?

Some friends of ours here in Cleveland just finished school and moved to Arizona this week. Two days before pulling out of town, they realized that they still hadn't found a new home for their goldfish and tank. They offered up the whole package to anyone willing to take it. So I did.

The package was two goldfish, a tetra, and a crawdad. Included was a 10-gallon tank, a wooden stand, and all the food and treatment accessories that I needed. I asked about how the crawdad is with the goldfish...do they play nice, etc. My friend told me that the crawdad will eat smaller fish (guppies, for example) if I get one from the pet store that's too small, or swims too closely to the crawdad. I went to pick it all up from their house, and by the time I got home, the crawdad had gotten hold of the tetra, so we're down one now. Oops!

Well, the first task was to clean the tank. It had lots of algae on the inside, and lots of hard water crusted on the filter casing and the lid. Since it was mostly empty for transport anyway, I figured it was a good opportunity to do a thorough cleaning of the whole thing. So we put the creatures in glass bowls and went to work.

I was talking to my mom (about something completely separate from this), and she suggested I just put the tank in the dishwasher to take care of the algae. Aren't moms smart? I turned off the high temperature settings on the dishwasher (to protect the sealant holding panes of glass together), took out the top rack of the dishwasher, and loaded it up. I had to turn it and re-configure it a couple of times before I could close the door, but it worked.

When it came out, we used a sponge dipped in vinegar and water to clean the rest up. I think it looks pretty snazzy now.Today I went to the pet store to see if the crawdad could be in the same tank as an algae-eater. The guy at the pet store said that the crawdad would probably eat him. Darn...that would help my cleaning of the tank. Actually, I'm a little bummed out about this, because I'd've named it Barley, to go along with Couscous the crawdad. Oh well.