Some Recent Happenings

Lately, I have been in my element, organizing, organizing and organizing.  I promise to post pictures of the house when things are close to presentable.  On a sadder note, our cat, Sarah, died on Saturday.  This year has been a tough one for her with her brother Abey dying and then moving across the country again and then moving to a new house.  She had been showing signs of being sick for a while.  First, she stopped trying to run outside.  Then, she holed up on our bed.  Then, she stopped eating.  I was up all night with her on Friday night because she seemed so miserable.  She moaned and was taking really rapid, shallow breaths.  She took her last breath late on Saturday night and David managed to dig through the hard clay for a proper burial spot in our sideyard.  I have to say it's kind of weird to wake up without a kitty curling up next to our feet.  The girls are coping much better than they did when Abraham died and keep asking about when we will be getting a dog.  NOT FOR A LONG TIME!

In the meantime, we got four tadpoles.  We are studying swimming creatures this year in science. Our science experiment for herps is to see whether a tad will grow more quickly when warmed by a lamp for two hours a day. We ordered the tads from http://www.growafrog.com/.   At first Mary wanted to name them Mary, Margaret, Matthew and Jonathan, but I tried to encourage her to pick gender-neutral names since we can't tell whether they are male or female yet. The new names are Sandy, Dolphiny, Swimmy, and Hopper.  Honestly, I have no idea who is who, but Mary and Maggie seem to.  And, for the record, this is really stretching me actually growing frogs inside my house. I don't think I have touched a frog in my life!  They are really low maintenance taddies.  We just feed them a scoop of food per day and change some of their water once a week.  I think we'll be able to handle this level of responsibility even after the baby is born.  I honestly didn't think about how long the frogs would live, but I have heard from a friend who also bought these for her kids that hers are three years old and still thriving!  


While David was away on a trip recently, the boys got into the diaper covers.  Of course, the girls got in on the action, too.  Mary managed to diaper each of them.  At one point, they even had some on as capes.  The good news is I think this proves that Mary is more than capable to change the baby's diapers!

In the process of moving, the boys also discovered their pillow pets from Grandma Judy.  Grandma Judy brought the boys each a pillow pet and a matching blanket, but I wouldn't let them sleep with them yet.  I still don't.  When I unpacked the box that they were in, the girls really wanted to get them out.  Aunt Alicia, you started the pillow pet craze in our house with Maggie's Dora pillow pet!  Each of the boys have latched on to their pillow pets and think they are the greatest thing ever!  I still won't let them sleep with their pillow pets yet, who are so creatively named Tiger and Doggy, but they are well played with during the daytime.

And, finally, a recent picture of the girls.  Mary now has aspirations to become the first woman president.  Maggie, on the other hand, wants to wear a dress and dance and be a princess!