Good-bye Charlotte, Sick kid and a tentative date...

We are now a one pet family. Joshua's hand-me-down hamster died over the weekend. We discovered her passing by scent yesterday. Joshua was pretty sad about it. He and Brian will bury her in the backyard this afternoon after school. Charlotte was a hand-me-down from Joshua's cousin, Michelle, who had used her for a project for school a few years back. We had her for just over 2 years...and had told Joshua that hamsters only live for a couple of years, so he wasn't totally taken unawares by this...not like when we had to have to dog put to sleep last year. Before Nathaniel was born, Joshua & Brian would take her out and play with her some, but once Nathaniel came that became harder, especially once he started moving! And we were so busy with two kids and work and everything else, that she actually was kind of a nuisance. At least for me. And now, with #3 on the way (tentative due date Sept. 16th) I really didn't want to have to deal with her and her cage. My dr. told me not to clean it when I was pregnant with Nathaniel, so I couldn't clean it now either and Brian has limited time.

Joshua & Charlotte - late January 2006But Joshua loved her...named her after Charlotte from Charlotte's web...and will miss her. I'm just glad we don't have to worry about the cat trying to knock the cage down to get at her anymore. Joshua drew a really nice picture of Charlotte and himself last night that I'll scan later and add on here.

Merlot and Charlotte - April 2006Shadow & Charlotte - April 2006


In other news...Nathaniel has been sick lately. Last Thursday his left eye had some yellowy stuff coming out, but not bad. So I kept an eye on it. Friday there was a bit more, but still not bad...and then Friday night he had tons of goop in it! Figures, Friday night! Well, we're rather paranoid with eye stuff...when Joshua was the same age (18 months) he had a pretty nasty eye infection (his eye was swollen shut to the size of a golf ball and had to be on TWO antibiotics before it got better) so Saturday morning Brian called our bishop (and his regular doctor) and talked with him and then took him over to the bishop's house. Turns out that not only did he have pink eye in that eye, but he had it in both eyes PLUS ear infections in both ears. The bishop/doctor said that that's pretty common in kids because of the way things drain and all. So he's on antibiotics (fun to get down him) and eye drops (even more fun) for the next week or so. He seems to be feeling better and last night slept all night for the first time in almost a week. Poor Brian...he's been the one that's been up with him most nights because I feel so sick when I get up in the middle of the night...and Nathaniel hasn't really wanted me anyway...I think he's still mad that I won't nurse him anymore. Thankfully, (knock on wood) it doesn't look like any of the rest of us are getting pink eye.

Joshua at the Kings/Jazz Game

Brian was given tickets again for the Kings game on Feb. 8th. I've been rather sick lately (no worries, it'll go away in another month or so) so didn't get the pictures up sooner. Joshua loves the Kings...his favorite player is #10 Mike Bibby (note the jersey he's wearing)...and was incredibly sad last weekend when the Kings traded Bibby to Atlanta (I think that's who it was...if it wasn't I'll edit this when I check with my in-house experts). He's been a fan of Bibby for as long as he could talk...he always liked to watch Bibby play with Grandma Olive when he'd go to Brian's parents' house in Davis. Grandma Olive gave him a little Kings matchbox car/SUV thing and for a long time it was "The Bibby Car" Joshua was very happy that he got to see Bibby play one more time (especially since Bibby was still on the injured list when they went and watched a game in December).

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Well, to the surprise of everyone (well, Joshua and Brian...Nathaniel didn't realize what a momentous occasion it was for me to make a "nice" breakfast on a weekday morning!)...I made Valentine pancakes for breakfast. Joshua was very excited...even though they were pink. He told me it was okay since it was Valentine's Day...other wise there would have been issues about pink since that is so not a boy color. Nathaniel stumbled out just as Joshua was finishing up. He climbed up to the table - no waiting for booster seat or high chair! And was thrilled to grab a pancake.

Joshua was finishing up Valentines to mail to his grandmas and grandpas and didn't really want to smile for the camera...but he got his Valentines finished. So Grandmas and Grandpas be on the lookout! He was upset because I'd written Nathaniel's name on the Valentines (I did the writing in them to speed up the process)...so he didn't write his name. I had all but one sealed in their resepective envelopes when I realized I hadn't been checking them and asked...he told me he wasn't writing his name and they'd all seen how he wrote his name before. So I had to open them all back up and write his name in them.

Joshua had a blast at school for Valentine's Day...they decorated heart sugar cookies (courtesy of Brian and I...I'd told his teacher at Christmas time that I could make cookies for Vday...and ended up making them not just for his class but also for the other Spanish Immersion kinder class...so we made over 40 cookies just for school!) and exchanged Valentines...he had more fun showing them to us after school than he had receiving them, I think. He hasn't asked to eat any of the candy out of the cards, yet, which was surprising to me! We gave each boy an action figure that we had in our "stash" (marked down toys Brian picks up after holidays at Safeway...they have some great deals!) Nathaniel now has his own Spider-man action figure so maybe there will be less yells of "Mommy, Nathaniel has my Spider-man!" And Joshua got Sandman...a guy from the 3rd Spider-man movie. So they've been "battling" with those...Nathaniel doesn't quite get the battling part...and gets tired of Joshua's guy trying to take down his Spidey!

This and That

Well, everyone has been sick the past few weeks. Joshua started it, then Brian got it, then Nathaniel and then me. And whatever this is, it hits us all differently. Joshua finally seems to be feeling better, Nathaniel's runny nose is starting to get better. My stomach seems like it might be getting back to normal. Brian's sore throat and nasty cough aren't going away...but then I heard that the doctors are calling something the 100 Day Cough, so maybe that's what he's got. How fun.

Luckily the last few days we've had some decent weather. A couple of weeks ago we had tons of rain again. Luckily it didn't cause any problems for us here at the house...and we never lost power, thank goodness. Lots of roads were closed on that Saturday, but the rain had stopped for awhile and it was nice out, so we took a walk. Joshua rode his scooter. We walked down to the road we take when we go to Davis that was closed and walked a bit down it to near where the water was across the road...it had receeded quite a bit from the night before.

Snow Boys

Yesterday, Brian took the boys up 80 to the Sierras to play in the snow. I stayed home (I hate snow) and scrubbed the tub and stuff like that. He said he ended up holding Nathaniel most of the time because he just liked to run off :) They took a few pictures and several videos with the digital camera...I'll put a few here.

back tracking part 1

I never got around to posting pictures from Christmas...so here are a few from Christmas Eve when my Uncle Brian and his wife Linda came over for dinner. Here's Nathaniel eating his pumpkin pie. And Carrie feeding him something.

Here are both boys with their new stuffed animals that you can record messages on...Joshua's is a puppy - perfect since he's going through a puppy stage. (Since I've told him we're NOT getting another dog, he's collecting stuffed ones).

Nathaniel also got some new blocks from Great-Uncle Brian and Aunt Linda...thought that the signs (and all the rest) were pretty cool. He also discovered that Great-Uncle Bri has a mustache...just like Great-Grandpa Ken does and that

just fascinated him!

A few pictures

Here are the pictures of our "campout" a couple of weeks ago when we were without power and rain had seeped in onto the boys' floor...the rest of us were up by this point (and the power had come back on) but Nathaniel was still sleeping. We slept like this on the living room floor for two nights.

Here's a picture of Brian and the boys playing a little Star Wars video type game that hooks up to the TV. It's pretty cool - it's even shaped like the Millenium Falcon :)