Poor, poor Tyrone

Ernie went in to clean Tyrone's cage yesterday, and shortly after called me in to take a look at our guinea pig.
"He doesn't look right," Ernie said. "Look at his eyes."
I'd noticed that Tyrone was eating less these days -- the leafy greens I'd left two days before were practically untouched -- and looking at him just confirmed what I was already thinking.
Poor Tyrone was sick. And old, for a guinea pig.
After debating what to do for a while, I finally called our vet, who does not treat guinea pigs.
"Can you just ask the doctor if he'll euthanize him for me? I just want a humane end for the guinea pig."
The vet agreed, and I took Tyrone over in an Amazon box to the vet's office. I dropped him off. The vet took care of everything.
And now we are a guinea pig-less house.
Gaby was surprisingly much less upset about Tyrone's end than when Peanut died several years ago. The difference of two years, I guess.

One

My Katie --
A year ago you came into our lives in such a hurry that people almost didn't believe your Daddy when he let them know you had arrived safely.

And from those first few seconds, when you laid on my belly all wet and yelling, you have stolen my heart.

I'm not the only one. Your big sister, she is enamored with you. My heart swells every day when she walks out of the school and shouts "it's my baby sister!" She usually hugs and kisses you before even looking at me.

It's a mutual feeling. The sun sort of rises and sets on Gaby. When she's at school, you crawl around the house looking for her, sometimes yelling "Gaba" over and over, at the top of your lungs.

Katie, I've always believed kids shouldn't be compared to others when it comes to milestones and personality, but I've got to say...you are so much like your Uncle David that it takes my breath away at times. You are rambunctious and you love to climb and horseplay. You are mischevious and tempermental and already throw a better temper tantrum than Gaby ever did. You are stubborn and silly and happy and oh so wonderful. And you remind me every day of your Uncle David, who I know would have just adored you. Thank you, my sweetheart, for adding that dynamic back into our family. We needed someone just like you.

I keep waiting for you to hit all those milestones you are so close to hitting. You can walk, and cruise around the furniture with ease. But when it comes to getting across the room? Forget it, you're either going on all fours, or you're going to "walk" across the room on your knees, with a huge grin on your face. And as for sleeping through the night? I've given up on that. You like snuggling in the middle of the night, I've decided. And I'm tired, but I'm okay with that.

You talk up a storm these days, even if we can't understand much of what you are saying. Mama, Dada, Gaba, yeah, oh wow all come out pretty clearly, but there are so many times when you talk to me in earnest for 5 minutes or so, and I have no clue what you are saying. I can't wait until you have more words under your belt.
You love to eat. Love it. And I love to feed you, because it's so fun to see you trying new flavors and textures and loving them all. People are always amazed when I tell them all the things you eat.

Punky, you love your toys that make noise and light up. You love to read your touch and feel books, and to play with the puppy. You love to crawl over to me and lay your head on my leg, or my chest, and just snuggle for a few minutes.

And us? Well, we're totally in love with you.
Happy Birthday, my girl.
love, Mama

Home remedies

On Sunday my Gran came over so I could cut her dog's hair. I'm apparently the family dog groomer now, in this area. My mother is the family dog groomer where she lives.
Anyway, she told me she's recently read if you put Vicks Vapor Rub on your feet, and covered them with socks, that it'd make the coughing stop. So we tried it. I slathered Katie's feet, and Gaby and Ernie covered theirs.
The coughing stopped.
Now, I'm not saying it was solely due to the Vicks. They are at the end of the flu/cold, and it could have just been that they didn't have to cough as much. But I thought it was sort of interesting, in a "why on earth does that even work" way.
What other random home remedies do you know/use?
Gaby would like to know. Because she thinks the Vicks thing is really cool.

Also, this was one year ago tonight. Amazing.

Party prep

This week is all about getting ready for the girls' birthday party on Saturday. Well, and doing my freelance work, but mostly about getting ready for the party.
We started cleaning this weekend, but sadly didn't get nearly enough done for me to be able to sit back on my laurels and coast all week. The result of being a sick house for a week, I guess. But now Gaby is back to school and Ernie is back to work and Katie is mostly back to her normal happy self, and it's time to get busy.
And since no one needs to hear the minutia of me cleaning the rooms by one and then trailing after both daughters to keep the rooms clean, I'll instead give you this video of a giggling Katie, practicing her kung fu moves.

Returning to the land of the living

We're getting better here.
I know, because last night I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, made meatloaf for dinner, made pecan pralines for party goodie bags and rolled the peanut butter balls for buckeyes, also for party goodie bags.
On tap for today? Dipping said buckeyes, more cleaning and trying out this pretty pretty princess pink cake, in cupcake form.
Yep. Definitely getting better.

When it rains, it pours

Yesterday Katie was running a low grade fever. Since she's teething, I didn't think too much of it.
Last night after she'd been in bed two hours, she started howling. She spent most of the night either on Ernie's chest or mine, trying to sleep. She woke up with a fever, and was seriously uncomfortable.
So, off to the doctor we went.
Diagnosis? Double ear infections. Antibiotics for Katie.
Because really? We weren't already dealing with enough here?

Worn down

Gaby is going back to school today. Aside from a nasty cough that we can't seem to get rid of, she's fine. And ready to get out of the house.
Ernie is feeling better. He's still tired and feeling weak, but he's not running a fever any more -- and he may be weak from spending most of yesterday asleep.
Katie is running a low-grade fever this morning. Her nose is stuffy and she's coughing, and I HATE the sound of her coughing. It breaks my heart. (Her two top eye teeth, on the other hand, are just about the funniest thing I've ever seen.)
Me? I'm tired. So very tired. I spent yesterday taking care of all three of my sick family members, and doing random things like cleaning out the toy baskets, and cleaning out and organizing my tea/spice cabinet. I'm not sure why that was so important to get done, but it apparently needed to be done right away. My throat hurts. My ears hurt. And I can feel the drainage coming from my sinuses. I'm not coughing today, which is good, and I'm not running any sort of fever that I can tell. But I'm just worn out. And feel really beaten down by this flu that invaded our lives.
I'm ready for it to be gone.