Kennith and me

Our friends recently told us about a book they bought called “Marly and Me.” You may have heard of it, I think it’s a best seller. Anyway, it’s by some columnist (I just write, I don’t do research) and it’s about his terrible dog Marly. Apparently Marly is a Troublemaker. They mentioned one story where they were at a restaurant eating with their children and had Marly tied to the small table. Well, Marly got interested in something else and took off. Table and all. It caused quite a scene.

I told Steve that Marly doesn’t have anything on our cat Kennith though. Let’s just say Kennith has ruined his fair share of carpet, furniture and even walls. I’m not sure how many damage deposits we’ve lost at apartments we’ve lived in. And now that we’re in a house, we don’t have to lose a damage deposit, but we did have to refloor a room in the house because the cat pee had just gotten too bad.

We’ve tried everything. Multiple litter boxes, foil all over the spots he goes, every kind of cleaning product (spot shot is the best, Em). We’ve taken him to the vet. It basically boils down to the fact the previous owners of the house had cats and I believe that Kennith is being territorial.

I’ve even tried finding a nice home for him. Do you know of anyone that wants an old overweight cat that pees on the floor? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Actually he is quite friendly. And I believe he wouldn’t pee on the floor if he lived somewhere that hadn’t already been tainted. Which reminds me of a funny thing my coworker told me about an awful cat she had once. He was so mean, always clawing at people. But she put an ad in the paper describing him as “personality plus” and some lucky person got a frisky new cat to take home!

So anyway, he has become a part-time resident of the garage (where he recently unplugged the hose of the water heater, which then sprayed water everywhere) and the outdoors (where he ruined our sandbox) and occasionally inside when I’m feeling like taking a risk. Which was the case last night. Although I really was just too lazy to take him out after noticing him when I was already laying in bed. “Oh well, I thought. Let him pee. We’re going to recarpet anyway.”

But he didn’t pee. What he did was wake me up ALL night. Every hour he was brushing my face with his paw wanting to be petted. I should have just put him out the first time. But I so did not want to get out of bed and walk him downstairs and out to the garage. So this went on all night. Until 5 a.m. when I finally put him down the stairs, closing the baby gate and my bedroom door behind me. Which then woke up the baby. Uuughhh.

So yeah, I missed out on that last precious 40 minutes of sleep and I’m not too happy about it. And I’ve been running short already all week. Looks like I picked a bad day to give up Starbucks doubleshots.

I’ll say hi to Lindsay for you

I have to take a break right now from my work or they’re going to end up hauling me out in a straight jacket. I can really remain calm in very stressful times at work, but my computer has crashed 20 times too many today and it’s really getting to me.

Maybe it’s because vacation is so close, or maybe it’s the Starbucks doubleshot I drank this afternoon, a new addiction that may lead to a brief stint at a rehab facility. I just had my first one yesterday and when I got home from work, along with playing with Ella, I made dinner, did dishes, did 5 loads of laundry, which I folded AND put away immediately (which never happens), took Ella’s car seat out, cleaned it, cleaned out my car, picked up the house. I was still going at 10:30. It was really amazing. Until my alarm was buzzing at 5:15 a.m. today. I finally pulled my self together minutes before 6 and rushed off to work. But I was so tired all morning and I kept thinking … there is another doubleshot in the fridge.

And here I am. Hours later. Going strong. Give me some work. I’ll do it! If only my computer could keep up with me.

Yes, two days in a row

Ella had her 15-month appointment today. She turned 15 months old just last week.

I sorta look forward to these milestone appointments because A. I get to find out how she compares to the average kid as far as weight, height, head size go and B. I get good advice from my doctor and learn a little about what’s to come.

I have also had some trying times at the doctor’s office though. Seeing your baby scream and look at you like a traitor while holding her down letting a stranger inject her with a needle is no day at the park. Also no day at the park: Waiting for 45 minutes with your toddler in a tiny doctor’s office with counters that have sharp edges and a dangerous rolling stool. And that’s after the 45-minute wait in the main waiting room.

After only waiting 5 minutes in the main waiting room today our name was called. Hallelujah. I almost commented on the quick response time but then realized I would totally jinx myself and could be spending the rest of the day in the tiny office.

Another 5 minutes later though and the nurse practitioner was there to see us. Yes! Since I had to reschedule my appointment I didn’t get to see our regular doctor, but the nurse practitioner was very friendly. And Ella was cute as can be running around the room and playing with a basket of dinosaurs they had in this particular room. Also lovely – this room was set up differently than any other office I had waited in. No sharp corners. Rolly stool out of view. And more playroom. It was awesome.

So they did the usual testing: Ella’s at 50 percent for weight and 75 percent for height. This means she’s average for weight, but actually taller than average. In the top 25 percent. Crazy. Her dad and I are not really above average in the height department. We’re not really short, but nobody ever has referred to us as being tall.

Anyway. Ella didn’t like it when she stuck the cold stethoscope on her or felt around her abdomen. And she especially didn’t like her vaccination shot. But she got over it quickly. And she has NO ear infections, her chest cold is completely gone and the doctor seemed really pleased with her diet. Yay!!

Afterward we went home and waited to hear from Steve’s cousins. They were on their way home from a trip and were going to stop for a visit. They called and the idea was presented that we could instead meet them at Cracker Barrel off the highway, saving them some time.

We had a really nice time seeing them. They had their three young children with them and a young cousin. Misty and I talked a lot about camping. They also have a pop-up camper and had just spent 3 days camping with a lot of their relatives. I asked her a lot of questions as I have only been camping once in ours. It made me really excited to use it too. And it sounds like her kids love it. We’re making plans to meet and camp with them later in the summer.

Now Ella is taking a nice long nap, since the doctor visit interrupted her morning one. She’s been taking really long naps lately too. Maybe it’s from all that growing …

Slacker blogger returns – it won’t happen again

Okay, sorry about the delay. It’s been a busy week. Also, I worked an early morning shift at work on Friday – I had to be there at 4. Yes, 4 a.m. As in, I had to get out of bed at 3 in the morning. Before my husband was actually asleep. And of course I spent the day before stressing about:

 1. How was I ever going to get up that early? and

2. How was I going to function, and not only function, but work quickly at a job I had never done before?

It turned out to not be so bad. I did pretty well actually. It was fast-paced and very busy so time flew by too, which was great. And now I’ve had a few days off to recuperate.

On Saturday I went to the mall with my mom, sister and her kids. They have a new toddler play area there that Ella had already been to earlier in the week, but we had fun, so we went again. This time though it was much busier. And there were hardly any toddlers there. They seemed to mostly be 4-7 year olds that climbed on top of everything and practically pushed Ella aside to go up the stairs and down the slide. Note to self: Don’t go there on a Saturday, only on weeknights when it is dead.

Next we went to Olive Garden, with the three young kids. It was pretty much a blur of sippy cups, pasta on the floor and clanging silverware. I’m not sure they want us to come back.

Sunday was a nice day – a lot of playing. Ella and I walked to the park. And at night we had arranged for my mom to come babysit while we went to a movie. We saw the new M. Night Shamalama movie (I don’t know how you spell his name and I’m not going to bother looking it up.) It’s called The Happening. And it is craaaazy. I mostly liked it because he is so good at suspense and I was on the edge of my seat. But there are some things I didn’t care for about it – but I don’t think I should say much about them or I’ll ruin it for you. I will say that it is very gory, and disturbing. You may have nightmares. You may even need therapy.

Afterward we went to some friends’ house for wine and snacks. It was really nice. We looked at their new awesome deck and fountain they built and they made a yummy greek salad and had all kinds of good cheese and wine. And nobody threw anything on the floor or yelled at me to get them a drink.

And now here I am, wondering how I should fill our Monday … not really ready to return to zoo, we’ve sure been to the parks a lot, just went to the mall … hmm. We were expecting company tonight – Steve’s brother, his wife and their two kids. But unfortunately Matt (the brother) just found out he needs both his spleen and gall bladder removed immediately. They’re enlarged from the spherocytosis – the condition that Steve and Ella both have. I feel so bad for their family. It’s not too uncommon of a procedure – but they were just about to leave on a nice 3-week family vacation, and now they’re going to be spending time at the hospital or home recovering. That’s not fun. And we were really looking forward to seeing them. It also makes my stomach do flips thinking that some day Ella may be going through that. I guess it could be worse.

Today I’ll just concentrate on doing something fun … as soon as I think of what that is.