11 years

Happy birthday Shadow! Shadow turned 11 today. Its hard to believe he's that old already but I guess he's only been "ours" for 5 years. He was 6 when we adopted him. I still can't understand how anyone could have gotten rid of him.

He's such a sweet dog that I had to do this quick post. He loves walks, laying in the sunshine, cuddling, and almost any type of people food. His favorites are bananas and cantaloupe. Happy birthday Shad!

11 months

Lucy is 11 months today! She is getting so big now that I am seeing a lot of the 'baby' in her fade. She had a full lunch at daycare yesterday. Hamburger mac, tator-tots, peaches... I couldn't believe that! She is one determined and strong-willed little thing too. She will just laugh at me when I catch her going up the stairs and then she throws a fit when I get her down. She hates laying down for diaper changes, she has more important things to do I guess. She loves Pasta and Shadow and loves to watch them play. She crawls up to Bella and grabs onto her back, kind of like a play-wrestle. One more month until the big 1!

Swing?

On Sunday we rented a U-haul since Beth & Jeff were kind enough to let us have their swing set (and help us put it together)! We got it loaded up and over to the house fairly quick, but unfortunately it didn't get put up together as quickly! There were some challenges with our sloped backyard and getting the pieces to fit exactly how they were before.

Good thing it was a beautiful day to be outside and Bella and Lucy had fun playing with their cousins! We did get the main section with the slide up and I got a swing put on it today. We still have to get another section up for the tire swing and sand/stain it all. Don't ask what work we've done on the basement lately!

Bella has been playing very well with Lucy lately. She is really anxious for Lucy to interact with her a bit more though. Bella is also developing empathy for others. Like the other day, we were talking about eye color and how Bella, Lucy and daddy all have brown eyes. I said, 'poor Mommy is the only one with blue eyes!' She said seriously, 'I like you Mommy'. How sweet!

The sickness that will not end and Stairs

I need some sympathy. We all haven't felt that great the past week. To recap:


Day 1: Lucy throws up.


Day 2: Everything seems OK, Lucy just sleeps a bit more.


Day 3: Lucy seems OK/better, we go to the zoo, but while there, the sickness seems to move to her back end.


Day 4: More messy diapers for Lucy, Bella throws up 3 times that night.


Day 5: Bella & I stay home, Lucy to daycare, I feel deathly ill by lunchtime, Lucy gets sent home from daycare for diarrhea, Carlo comes home from work to take care of all of us.


Day 6: Carlo gets sick and sleeps all day, Bella doesn't seem that bad, and I'm feeling a bit better. Lucy still has the back end problems.


Day 7: Carlo back to work, the rest of us stay home to recover a bit and things seem to get better although Lucy still has her diarrhea.


Day 8: I go back to work, Bella & Lucy to daycare. 3pm I get a call that Bella has diarrhea. Lucy thankfully was normal that day.


Day 9: Lucy better, Bella has bad diarrhea all day.


Day 10: Bella seems better, we go to Kidsfest, but I feel sick to my stomach late afternoon and all night.


Day 11. Today. Seems OK so far. I feel better although I still don't have much of an appetite.

At the zoo on day 3.

Lucy can crawl up the stairs now. She's driving me crazy since they now draw her like a magnet! I have to find the gate for the bottom of the stairs...soon!

THANKS!

We have major progress on the basement! The drywallers finished up and cleared out last weekend and my parents moved in for a week to help get started on the rest. My dad installed the bathtub, painted all the walls, wired for the overhead lights, installed the drop ceiling, and installed the lighting. What took him a week to do would have taken us months to never to finish! My mom also helped quite a bit too as installing that ceiling is definitely a 2-person job. I don't have any before pics but here's where we are now. The floor will go in next.

My dad lives for this type of work. He actually enjoys it. They live 3 hrs away and 2 days after they left our house after installing the bathtub they called and said, 'well, it looks like crappy weather this week so we might as well come back and work on your basement again!' Both my parents have helped us out so much. THANKS Mom & Dad!!!

In other news, Lucy is sick again. She got a bad cold and stomach bug (flu?) and is definitely not her happy self. The good news is that it has finally warmed up here though! Bella and I spent a good 3 hrs outside today. She is so good at playing pretend with her dolly that I could get a start on some yard work. And I could take advantage of the one benefit of Lucy being sick: her long naps!