Unconditional Love

How do you explain death to a child? How do you explain why you are crying and not in the mood to play? Our family has lost one of it's own. Newton is now at peace. No more suffering, no more pain. He was the glue to our unique family. This new year brought failing health and discomfort. We had to make the tough decision to put him to rest. The last week was the hardest. He wasn't eating very much and slept all the time. He wanted to be affectionate, but we could tell it was difficult.  He would jump into my lap and I would pet him, but after a few minutes he would reclaim a spot on the floor. He would run up and down the stairs like a kitten, but contact seemed painful. He lost a lot of weight, which the vet suspects is due to his thyroid. He was a fighter and as stubborn as the rest of us. Looking into his eyes daily was getting hard. I couldn't tell if he wanted us to give him a last final fight or if he wanted us to help him find peace. In the end, we chose peace. He had the biggest heart and showed us unconditional love. We owed him peace, love and respect. We have cried and buried him next to Lizzy so he will forever be in good company. We gave him some last wishes and topped it with some lovely flowers. It was very difficult to go through; I only hope he knows we meant well, that we love him, and that he went pain-free. He was a member of our family and he will be truly missed for all the happiness he brought our way.

Let's celebrate his wonderful life!

Before he became a part of our family, he was a stray for 5 years. Who knows how many little Newtons are running around Indiana. I hope many. We first met at the Bloomington Animal Shelter in 2009. Joe and I knew we wanted to get a pet - we chose a cat. We would go there often and scope out and play with all the kitties to get to know them. We narrowed it down to a little orange kitten and Newton (Blue Boy at that time). I was constantly drawn to Newton because he was such a gorgeous cat and his scar intrigued me. Every time I would visit, he would jump down from his chosen spot and greet me. He was definitely the alpha in the room and showed me often. I continuously visited him and he would hang out with me. It was very comforting and I knew we were meant to be together, I was routing for him the whole time! He didn't like anyone else- I found out from the staff later. When we adopted him I actually had to get him down and put him in his box because he wouldn't let the staff. I thought it was funny. He confirmed our decision when we brought him home. He meowed and tried to escape the entire ride to his new home. We barely made it inside when he punched through the side of the box, extended his claws like Freddy Kroeger, and tore a hole back through the box to make his escape. He didn't sleep for two days - and neither did we really because of it. We knew we made the right choice - no regrets.

Many more memories to share. I hope Joe and I can add some together.

In the meantime, find peace my friend.

April Flowers Bring May Showers?

The weather is getting tricky, sometimes warm sometimes cold, but we have finally been able to enjoy longer periods of time outside.  Even Newton has been venturing outside. Lucian is almost recovered from his facial injury and cold. He is still coughing on flem and has bruising around his eyes.  I'm hoping by mid week we will be clear of both. Hopefully he won't contract another illness by the time this one ends.  I feel myself getting weaker on top of it. Ugh! This year has been rough for illness. All of us have been getting hit hard. It's not just us either, others have said the same thing. People who rarely get sick have all been having a rough season.  I'm ready for warmer weather, but not hot. At least we can look forward to some good playground time!

We went to the park today, it was nice.  Lucian followed around this girl on a tricycle. He would push her for a little or just run behind her while she pedaled.  It was sweet.  We eventually had to drag him away crying, but we didn't want either to get hurt.  Lucian went down some slides, hung on bars, and climbed on one of the obstacles.  He is getting very good at climbing.  Then we played football for awhile and looked at the different plants and trash around the school. Because Lucian will find every piece of trash in the vicinity.

Lucian's Current Likes:
-Cars
-Airplanes
-Watching Little Einsteins, PnF, Gravity Falls, and Spongebob
-Sidewalk chalk
-Following other kids

Dislikes:
-Having to leave
-Not being allowed to behead the neighbors flowers
-Stuff on his hands
-Car Seat (unless candy or a treat is involved)

No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk

Typical Tuesday. Joe's at work and Lucian and I will be spending the day cleaning and playing.  Ok, I'll be cleaning while he plays.  Or I should say he does the opposite of cleaning. We started out with vacuuming. I asked him if he would like to help vacuum; he used to enjoy pushing the vacuum while it was on. Instead, he decided to rip up toilet paper all over the floor. Ehh no big deal.  I'll get to it. Hopefully laundry will be just as easy.

In between cleaning, he decided he needed a snack. I gave him a pumpkin muffin that I made yesterday, knowing that he will probably get crumbs all over the floor I just swept. I pulled out the chocolate milk to go with it and shook it all over the kitchen. Ugh! The lid wasn't on all the way apparently. Sigh. After I changed my clothes, I proceeded to wipe down the spilled milk with vinegar. I was hoping this wasn't a sign about how the rest of the day was going to go.

My spirits were immediately lifted when I returned to the living room to find Lucian sitting on the love-seat,  eating his muffin, and using my saute tongs to remove crumbs that dropped onto his legs. I couldn't help but laugh. He's so funny. How could you be upset about that? I must say that he was successful picking up the recent crumb that fell. It was a bigger crumb. He then ate it off the tong. Now that is smart. No mess, no waste. That's my boy!

March into March

Well 28-28 has passed and timed has flown through March. 28-28? Yes! Lucian turned 28 months on February 28th. Thus, 28-28. That's not going to happen again until he is 28 years old. And now he is almost 29 months old. It seems like only yesterday I was helping him walk around.  Like I read someone state earlier: the days seem long but the years fly by. So true. Some days I can't wait for bedtime, and other days I think 'wow he grew'. Though he is still my baby, he is no longer really a baby.

Lucian's personality has really been shining lately, even through the rough patches.  He seems to be changing in his speech patterns as well.  Though he may not be saying decipherable words, it is often clear what he wants. His blubbering has added a new dimension as if it is a little more defined. It's hard to explain. I just know that I have been noticing a difference.  I'm not forcing or pushing him to talk.  When he is ready, he will. We are going to give him the time he needs. All we can do is wait and encourage when necessary.

Today was the rain date for the local Easter egg hunt. We just returned from the park a little bit ago. He seemed to have an okay time collect a handful of eggs with the other toddlers. I took a few pictures.  Lucian even took a few random pictures of his feet.  He really likes the continuous shoot function on my camera apparently. He was even more excited to find chocolates inside the eggs. Mama was not so happy.  Last year we went to this hunt (right down the road) and the eggs had packets of goldfish and cookies in them.  Some contained free coupons for meals or ice cream at local fast food restaurants.  I don't want him to have cheap chocolate made with GMO sugar and questionable dairy products. That stuff can destroy your health easily. We just talked the other day about limiting our refined sugar intake outside of the house (we don't really have that stuff in the house).  It will be hard considering he is used to hitting up the bakery at our local grocer for a free (packaged ugh) cookie. You can imagine my disappointment when he opened his eggs to find a remaining pile of cheap chocolate candies full of things we don't want to support or consume. Before you think that he doesn't get any treats or chocolate, he gets plenty. We have a special collection of chocolate just for him that doesn't contain these unwanted ingredients.  So if you are planning on sending Lucian special 'treats' for the holiday please reconsider what you are sending. And to take the whole hunt one step further, I was returning the eggs to realize that everyone on the other side of the group had eggs filled with goldfish and cookie packets. *palm to the forehead*

Watching the Cat

Ever since Newton's escapade he has been very loving.  It makes me wonder if he thinks he was thrown out of the house? For those of you who don't know, our cat wandered outside in the night time and we didn't realize it.  He is black and it was dark.  Luckily he already had dinner at that point because it was pretty late.  We just thought he was in the basement for his after food slumber.  Come morning we couldn't find him anywhere and realized he must have gotten out.  Eventually he came back.  Must have been starving.  Luckily I heard him slamming and clawing at the front storm door.  It was raining so he was all wet.  He was a little roughed up too.  Must have had a rough time back out in the wild.  He was a stray for five years but has resigned to being an indoor cat.  Well now he's a little weary when we let him go out back with us.  He probably thinks we were punishing him for something.  Poor kitty.

Today Lucian was napping and the cat wanted to play.  I couldn't play with him because Lucian was sleeping in my lap.  So Newton decided to crawl up into my lap also (common occurrence). After some readjusting we were all comfortable.  At least for a little while.  The cat was a little restless and decided to start causing trouble.  I had to push him out of the space.  He decided to retaliate by laying on Lucian's chair and watching cartoons. So there I was stuck in a chair without the remote watching the cat watch cartoons.  Who knew?

It has been a busy week for a certain little guy. He has been on the constant move.  Daddy took him to a giant ball pit/ climbing area at a local place. They also have arcades.  We took him there previously, but it was so busy that it was hard to get around, so we only let him in the small area.  He really really wanted to go into the large area.  We figured it would be a better idea on a slower day during the week.  Joe took him while I was at work.  Apparently, they had the whole place to themselves and Lucian had a blast! They spent hours in that play area. I'm kind of jealous that I didn't get to go. Next time!

Yesterday, for Valentine's day, we took him bowling.  We had a few free game passes. He bowled one game and scored a 73! Have to start them early.  I don't think he really understood what was going on, but he liked that he got to push the bowling ball down the ramp they provided for us.  He kept trying to pick up the bowling balls, but they were too heavy. Poor Lucian, he really wanted a big solid ball.  Hopefully he enjoyed the experience.

Today, was his normal gymnastics class.  The good news is he didn't try to get me to leave the building in the first half of the class like he usually does.  The bad news.... well he found a lollipop downstairs and I walked into the living room to him slurping away on it.  What a sugar rush he had! He was running around the gym like crazy.  During the songs he was all over the place.  I couldn't help but smile because it was so cute.  Plus, I couldn't do anything else about it at that point.  At least he was releasing a lot of energy.  On the way home we stopped at the playground where we garden.  I wanted to be absolutely sure that he ran off all that sugar he consumed.  When we finally got home, he ate lunch while watching Phineas and Ferb and then took a nice nap.  It was certainly needed, by both of us. I love my little busy bee valentine.

Two Year Molars

Did I give my son a freeze pop at 9:30 in the morning?  Darn right I did! His teeth have been hurting him a lot lately.  Would I prefer a better alternative? I sure would, but this is the best thing we have at the moment.  I know Lucian isn't complaining about it.  Some ways we've come up to make it smoother:

-cut off the amount we want him to have or "select a size"
-cut the top down as you go along, since he doesn't get push it up very well
-wrap in a cloth or, even better,wear mittens!

When all is said and done we have a sugared up toddler with a color-stained mouth. The next best thing to do is take him outside and let him run off his sugar coma. *Sigh* We need a better alternative.  I was making him special popsicles, but now that he discovered freeze pops it will be hard to break him.  Next time we move, we will be leaving the freeze pops behind!