Life Changes

So much has changed since I last posted!  I am now living in another state.  My oldest daughter will be 6 in less than a month and is loving kindergarten.  I now have a 16 month old daughter as well.  And I finally figured out what I want to be when I "grow up!"  Keep up with me at Over the Rainbow Again and Awaken the Dream.

In Lieu of Presents

For my birthday this year, my wonderful friends decided that in lieu of presents, they would take up a collection for child care.  Thus, I have been poked and prodded into creating a donate button.  So, here it is:

   

 Feel free to donate if you wish!

In case anyone still visits this blog...

I have started a new blog called Over the Rainbow Again.  A lot of things have changed in my life, and I felt I needed a fresh start, in more ways than one.  I now have two daughters, the youngest of which turns one year old today.  I wrote her birth story at the new blog today.

Feel free to join me over there!

Time Flies By

I stopped posting to this blog because I could no longer access my blog from work and didn't have time to do it from home. I tried emailing a few posts in, but I could no longer do picture posts and couldn't edit the layout.

Well, I still can't access it from work, but for some reason I can access the dashboard, so I thought I'd make a post.

So much time has passed since my last post! 1 year and 7 months, give or take a few days. I now have a beautiful 3-year-old who is growing up faster than I can keep up. My little Tree Faerie isn't so little anymore, at least not when compared to pictures from 2 years ago. She's spunky, brilliant, kind, and well-mannered for the most part. She comes up with stories and ideas all on her own, talking for hours straight sometimes. She loves dancing, singing, and playing the guitar. Recently we bought her a skateboard and roller skates, with pads and a helmet, because she really enjoys playing on DTTF's skateboard.

I'm going to try to start recording my special memories here again. I've missed writing, and I don't want to forget these fleeting moments that make me smile and laugh. Everything still happens so quickly, and I'm afraid of forgetting.

20 Months - Every End Is a New Beginning

Dear Tree Faerie,

Tonight was the last night I plan to nurse you.  For the past 20 months, I have given you something that no one else ever has or will give you.  The bond we share is strong, and part of that strength I believe comes from our breastfeeding adventures.  Yes, I call them adventures, because the experience has been full of ups and downs.  When you were born, I knew I was supposed to try to get you to latch on within a few hours of birth.  I read everything I could get my hands on, took a breastfeeding class, and talked to a lactation consultant and several breastfeeding mothers.  However the first time I put you to my breast, I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  Together we were clumsy over the next few days while we figured it out.  Once we got the hang of it, though, it seemed easy.

And it was easy, at least until you started teething.  You changed the way you held your head and mouth at first, causing my nipples to become sore and irritated from rubbing against your swollen gums.  When the first tooth started breaking through finally, we went through about a week of you trying to bite me, me screaming and sitting you down in the floor, and you screaming.  After you figured out that biting me caused me to put you down, things went back to being easy again.

I have enjoyed our special time together, despite the pains, screams, and demands.  My heart is breaking just a little because my little girl is growing up.  I am excited to watch you grow and learn, but at the same time I'm reminded every day that my baby is now a toddler, my toddler will soon be a child, and my child will soon be a teenager.  Sometimes it seems like your high school graduation is looming much too close. 

No matter what, I want you to know that we are weaning for me and not because you did anything to cause it.  While I did plan to wean you by your second birthday, my body is clearly requesting I stop sooner.  My choices are to wean you now and allow my menstrual cycle to go back to coming every four weeks instead of every two, or we can continue nursing and I can continue the hormonal roller-coaster ride. 

The next few days, maybe even the next couple of weeks, are not going to be easy, but we are a very strong family and will survive this.  Thankfully you have a wonderful father who is willing to help in any way he can.  He will be putting you to bed and getting you up for the next few days so that you and I can break our habits.  I've even given him free reign on how he puts you to bed, as long as he puts you to bed, so there is no telling what interesting experiences you may have over the next few nights.  I know you love him very much, and it is obvious why.  He loves you with all his heart and makes it his goal to make you laugh every day.  I know you both will figure out how things work best for you.

Thank you for helping to make this experience so beautiful.  I love you more than you will ever know, but I promise to try to show you every day.  I am so proud of you!  You are growing up so fast that while it is exciting, sometimes I wish I could hit the pause button or at least the slow-motion button to savor these fleeting moments of time.  Alas, I cannot, so I try to record these memories in my head or in a letter to you, hoping to savor the memory forever.

XOXOXO,
Mama
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We're keeping him!

When we rescued the kitty, our original plan was to hold onto him until someone else could take him.  Well, on Monday when DTTF told me he had talked to a friend who agreed to take him, I cried.  In fact, I bawled a couple of times.  Finally DTTF told me that if I really wanted to keep him, we could.

 

So I thought about it, weighed my heart against my head, and talked it over with DTTF a bit more.  I love the idea of Tree Faerie growing up with a kitten, and he’s just so adorably fun and full of life.  I know he’s going to need a vet trip or few to get shots and fixed.  He’s going to tear things up and break things.  All in all, I just did not want to give him up.  So, I called our friend back and told her she couldn’t have him.

 

When we decided to keep him, we also decided we needed to come up with a name that we could agree upon.  Because of his big ears, his cuteness, and his feistiness, we settled on Gizmo, named after the Magui in Gremlins. 

 

Yay!

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I'm in LOVE!

***This may post twice because I’m resending it since it didn’t post yesterday.***

Thursday night DTTF and Sash went shopping together for my birthday present.  When they were coming out of the mall, this adorable gray-striped kitten with huge ears was begging them for food.  They went to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of cans of cat food and went back to the mall.  They tried for over an hour to catch him to no avail, so they left the cans of food for him with the plan that we would all go together on Friday night to catch him. 

 

So, on Friday night, I packed up the cat carrier, some towels, and a couple of small containers of wet food, and we went to try to catch him.  He was definitely interested in us but was very skittish.  The kitten was very drawn to Tree Faerie, even chasing the stroller from a safe distance away.  We tried for almost two hours and came close a couple of times, but again we went home without the kitten. 

 

On Saturday evening, we were in the area again, so we decided to stop and try one more time.  We were walking around where he’d been seen the previous two nights.  We couldn’t hear him or anything, but I kept getting the strong urge to go down the stairs that led to another area of the parking lot.  As soon as I got to the bottom, I could hear him.  I was carrying Tree Faerie, and we followed the sound of the kitty’s voice while Tree Faerie kept saying, “Here, kitty-kitty,” or at least what could easily be translated into such.  I looked in the bushes and couldn’t see him, but I could hear him as his cries became more persistent.  DTTF was between the bushes and the outside wall of the mall, and Sash was up the hill a little ways looking in the bushes.  I started walking around the outside of the bushes towards Sash, where I thought the mews were coming from, but before I got to her I realized they were still coming from the area of the bushes. 

 

Since I was pretty certain he hadn’t been in the bushes, I looked up.  There he was, clinging to a tree branch!  DTTF headed toward the tree, which made the kitten only climb higher.  When DTTF started climbing the tree, the kitten stopped and clung on for dear life.  DTTF reached up with his long, beautiful arms (I love my husband’s arms) and plucked the kitty off the tree.  Since Sash was closer, taller, and had free hands, he handed the kitten down to her.  We walked back to the car and put the kitten in the carrier.  The poor thing was scared!

 

Once we got him home, we put Storm, my first rescue kitty whom I bottle fed from a week old, upstairs in the bedroom.  We opened the carrier and the itty bitty kitten tentatively ventured out, and when he was sure no one was going to snatch him up, he promptly darted for the futon.  He mewed and explored, and oddly hated being left alone.   When I was getting Tree Faerie ready for bed, he followed us to the office and explored a bit.  I went ahead and put water some of the canned cat food in the extra food and water dish we have and let him follow me to the kitchen.  He seemed more interested in exploring rather than eating, so I went ahead and took Tree Faerie upstairs and put her to bed.

 

When I came back downstairs, DTTF and Sash were outside hanging out.  The kitten, who we were calling Sprite at the time, followed me from the living room to the kitchen, where I’d gone to get a glass of water.  Still skittish, he darted into the office when I came out of the kitchen, so I went and sat in the office floor.  He came up to investigate me, and I reached out and petted him briefly before Storm hissed at him and he skittered off.  I grabbed my water and went outside, letting him be for a bit.

 

A little while later I came back inside and sat down in front of the kitchen, near the office door.  He came up to investigate me again, and this time I picked him up and petted him until he was purring loudly and begging for more.  I set him down in front of his food, and he started gulping it down.  Letting him eat in peace, I went back outside elated.

 

Now, I am not the “cat person” of the family.  That would be DTTF.  Cats that hate humans love DTTF for some reason, even though he does absolutely nothing to ask for their attention.  Even Storm, who I bottle fed from a week old and played “mommy” to only loves on me when she’s desperate, hungry, or sick.  She drools on DTTF and demands his attention regularly.  So, being the first one to receive affectionate contact from this kitten is a huge deal for me!  I think DTTF was actually a little disappointed that it was me instead of him, but logically, I was the only one who didn’t handle him when he was being “rescued,” or in his mind snatched from his tree and stuck in a dark carrier in a dark box that moved and made noise (the car).

 

The more I watched, petted, and loved on this kitten, the more I became convinced that Rascal was a more suiting name for him.  Sprite is a cute name, but Rascal seems to really fit.

 

Needless to say, by the time 24 hours had passed, Rascal had made himself quite at home.  He loved on me yesterday whenever he wasn’t napping, and began to accept love from everyone else, too.  He is still drawn to Tree Faerie and will chase her as she runs through the house.  He even lets her kick at him, which I am trying stop.  I crocheted him a toy with jingles and fringe stuffed with batting and catnip, and he plays with it alone or with someone. 

 

We may not get to keep Rascal, especially since I agreed that we would find him a good home if DTTF doesn’t want to keep him, but I’m really enjoying the time I have with him now.  He is absolutely adorable!  DTTF figures him to be about 4 or 5 weeks old, although I think he’s a little older, about 6 or 7 weeks old.  He’s tiny, but he has good coordination, especially since he’s been eating well.

 

I’m in love with this kitty!  He has a lot of spunk and a lot of love.  When he looks up at me with those big blue eyes, my heart just melts.  The stripes coming off his eyes are strikingly beautiful.  Now that he is getting lots of love and petting, even his fur is healthier, and we’ve only had him since Saturday.  It’s amazing to see how much he’s blossomed in such a short amount of time.  I will always feel good knowing that we gave him the opportunity to have a safe, loving, and healthy life, no matter where he goes from here.

 

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