Gato, RIP

I woke up this morning to the news that our cat, Gato, died in her sleep last night. Although she was 15 years old, her death was rather unexpected. After i got over my own sadness, i quickly shifted to how the hell i'm going to tell my almost 4 yr old. I seriously considered getting a similar looking cat to replace her (c'mon...She's 4. Would she really notice?), or coming home with a kitten; Sort of a good news-bad news situation. But i was assured at work this would lead to life-long therapy for our daughter.

Gato lead an interesting life--i got her from a friend in high school as a kitten and because we lived in the country, she quickly became an outdoor cat and my father insisted i teach her how to 'hunt,' by giving me a coffee can full of rat babies and telling me, "You're her mother, teach her how to hunt." At age 16, i was pretty mortified, but managed to give her a lesson that stuck. She endured a few years in arizona with my parents when i went to college and i took her back after they called her 'coyote bait' one too many times. She would bring me dead rats and birds to the doorstep often. In her later years, she served as a great cuddler, and the girls really loved to crawl and tug and pull at her.

She will be missed.

Santa: A Warning

The Big One

Adele's korean tol was a success. She went for the rubics cube placed by her sister. Amelie didn't have a future prediction in mind, we're hoping it means she'll be a math genious. She then chose a toilet plunger brought by a friend that represents a future Joe...sefina the plumber (gawd, no). The third choice was the fake sword--which means a future in the army. I wonder what the koreans do when the chosen item fortells a direction the parents weren't intending on....

One Year Ago

A year goes by so fast. After dilating and contracting every 5 minutes for almost a week (i worked while dilated to 5 cm two days before her arrival), i finally had my friend/midwife give an eviction notice to the baby (pop the bag) and less than 2 hours later she came flying out into this world.

In one year, she has accomplished crawling, standing for short periods of time without help, cruising, showing us how big she is, peekaboo, itsy bitsy spider motions, signing "more" and "all done," and saying the following words: eye, mooo, mamamama, dada.

KADs are so pretty

Someone recently asked me why it is that the koreans who are adopted are so pretty and the 'real' koreans (his words) are so plain looking.

A Warning:

The baby turns 1 next week, and we will celebrate by having a traditional korean tol. I will also prepare her a processed sugar free carrot cake and instead of serving this super yummy cake to everyone, we will be getting a "regular" cake for all the non-babies. I was discussing the whole 2-cake birthday situation to amelie and she informed me that there will be only one cake for her birthday, and it will be too spicy for me because it will be a kimchi cake. She insists that we bake it with kimchi inside and on top of the cake with a big "4" candle.

Hmmm....I'm tempted. You've been warned.

Exactly

Thanks, scooter, for directing me to this.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Times are a'changing

At ecfe that's held in an elementary school, they had a 'code red' drill. This was during parent/child separation time and they didn't tell us what code red meant (tricky codes). Apparently, it's the drill you do when an unknown person is walking the halls with a gun. The parent teacher was explaining this to us and reminisced that when he was a kid, they did drills in the event of a nuclear attack. Aah, how times have changed.

That was weird...

I was looking for my wedding video to show the 3 5/6th year old and instead found my high school video compilation. The compilation included my junior year gymnastics routines (she freaked out seeing mommy do such fantastic tricks--"Mommy! You should do that at gymnastics practice!"), christmas of '94 complete with showing my xmas gifts including pj's that i still wear today and an art kit that my daughter recognized from the cabin, the video of me and some friends sneaking a swim in our principle's pool at midnight before graduation, and graduation itself. Before going down the isle in my white graduation gown ("No, dear, that's not a wedding dress."), there was a shot of my band teacher and high school counselor giving me a pat on the back and some words of advice that i have since forgotten. It was sad because both these guys have died prematurely since then.

After graduation, there was a clip of my closest friends and relatives duct taping me to a tree and stuffing ice down the back of my shirt. My daughter was especially concerned to see this snuff video. Questions and comments included, "It's not nice to tape people to a tree." "Why is uncle scott laughing?" "Doesn't that hurt?" "I'm not supposed to tape my sister to the tree."

Thanksgiving Masks

For thanksgiving, we usually spend it with a friend's parents; This year, we hosted. We made a lovely turkey, i tried out a few new recipes including white wine tomatoes and shallots, pumpkin peacan pie, sausage and apple stuffing, ginger cranberries and maple glazed carrots. Amelie made thankgsgiving masks for everyone who came--and she assured me this is a longstanding thanksgiving tradition. She is very much into masks these days, which may have stemmed from going to puppet shows at the heart of the beast lately.


The pictures attached are the masks she made for the family. The baby was not available for this photo (she was napping), and the hubs was at the urgent care because he has a cough and fever that hasn't responded to the first run antibiotics. You can tell who is 'daddy' because of the purple beard--he is participating in 'no shave november' for work-related charity. And you can see which one is baby because she is has her tongue hanging out--an observation amelie made about the baby.

Sick of sick

Almost a month ago, both girls came down with ear infections. The baby went on antibiotics (already her second course in her short little life), and i let amelie's ride it out--which it did. Thinking i'm smart, i stopped the baby's antibiotics on day 7 due to a yeast infection (versus doing the full course of 10 days) because her ears were clear. I peaked in her ears 3 days later and they are red and angry again. Damn it.

As soon as amelie's ears cleared up, she came home with a fever, and a miserable night and woke up last w/e with a rash. Because i know my childhood fever rashes so well (ah hem), i diagnosed her with coxackie virus and let it be. Then her day care told me that 3 kids came down with the chicken pox. Although amelie was vaccinated, it is possible to come down with a milder infection, and because the baby has not yet been vaccinated, i worried about her exposure. So, worry i did. Should i bring amelie in? Have them culture her lesions? Draw blood and see if it truly is coxackie? Fret, fret, fret (it's what i do).

After consulting 3 pediatricians that i work with, a nurse practitioner, who is my friend and amelie's own pediatrician, i have come to the conclusion that it was probably coxackie and either way, it has come and gone and she's fine.

Also, the girls' father has had a cough >2 weeks, and pertussis is running wild in this community.

And so, the baby goes back on antibiotics (and perhaps some lactobacillus this time), and i'll watch for signs of chicken pox. Amelie seems to have recovered, even though people are wary of her healing rash. And the hubs? He thinks i give all my empathy to my patients and have none left for my family. He might be right.

Quotes

While playing snow white:

Amelie: "Now i'm going to kill the evil queen."

Me: "Uh, maybe you should just tell her to have good behavior."

Amelie: "No. It's time for her to die."

Me: "How about you tell her to go away instead."

Amelie: "It's too late. She's dead."

Song over lunch:

Amelie: "Poop. Poopy in the bed. Poopy in your head. No, no no. Poopy in the potty."

Yet another version

Good Day for All (all but the gay community)

Tues was an emotional day, and difficult to explain to a 3.75 yr old. I felt it important to bring my girls with me to vote, just as my parents did when i was a kid. As a kid, i grew up watching my parents be politically involved. I remember going to the local VFW with my parents to vote and getting a red sticker and although the sticker was truly the highlight, i got the idea something more important was happening. I tried, and couldn't quite understand the idea of republican (reagan) and democrat (mondale). My parents threw fundraising parties for local candidates at our house, and wrote letters to politicians when they saw inequities in our community. My mother was a personal friend of wellstone and although she didn't always agree with him, she showed me the importance of keeping him aware of her point of view as a nurse for the underserved.

I brought my girls with me to vote and explained the process to amelie, with hopes that this memory will be imprinted in her long term. Amelie helped me make sure the circles were filled in completely. I looked at her and said, "Remember this, Amelie." It may be too much to ask a small child, but i hope she can tell her children one day that she watched her mother vote for the first black president.

I was glad to be surrounded by friends to watch the results roll in tues night, and amused it was jon stewart who informed us obama won. The tears and champagne flowed freely.

Although i'm thrilled obama won, i'm a bit troubled by the added challenges for the GLBT community. I am surprised CA voted to overturn gay marriage (AZ and FL doesn't surprise me as much). I have 3 problems with this:

1. If i would have known god was involved in my marriage, i have a feeling my athiest husband would not be on board to get married. God was not mentioned in our ceremony and it was not performed in a church. Many weddings are performed in this manner, and much to right-winged religious zelots' disappointment, religion has nothing to do with the urge to be in a commited monogamous relationship.
2. Who cares where the wedding took place--MA, CA, australia or the shitsplat, nowhere in the middle of the deserts of arabia. When my husband and i returned from australia married, nobody asked for our wedding certificate or any proof at all. We just started telling people (DMV, insurance co, employer, etc). Nobody batted an eyelash. When immigrants came to the hospital to have a baby, we don't ask them for proof when they fill out the birth certificate--i told them to just mark "married," and they're golden.
3. Who cares if gay people get married? Does it really affect your god and your life? Does it defame your commitment to your spouse? Does it really mean your commitment that you made with your loved one with god, pastor, justice, whatever, means anything less? The answer is no. If you really think that the fact gay people can get married will all-of-the-sudden make you want to cheat on your spouse or question your commitment, i think it's a reflection of you. Not gay people. (PS: Divorce rates in heteros isn't necessarily a shining example of the respect "we" (we=heteros) have for marriage.)

Joe the Plant

I am sick of joe the plumber. He is such a plant from the mccain campaign. Hasn't it been established that obama's tax plan wouldn't touch joe's taxes? But then, mccain runs his last few weeks of his campaign on joe's non-tax increase? Are we voting mccain/jo now? And then, what a shock, joe comes out a mccain supporter. It's like an argument with my 3 yr old daughter, something like: "I'm afraid you won't let me eat my treats after dinner." "You can eat a treat after dinner, here you go." "No, you won't let me." "But you just ate it." "MY MOM WON'T LET ME EAT CANDY.... AND SHE'S A SOCIALIST."

Please.

Halloween 08

At the age of 3.75, my little "butterfly princess" was totally into halloween this year. She made out like a bandit and is very excited to eat the allotted 1 piece of candy a day, which will bring us well into the christmas season. Great.

Although the baby is 'dressed' like a cheetah, her true costume at tonight's halloween party will be a baby. With her cord still attached. With the placenta (me!) attached to that. Pictures to come at a later date.

And now that the frights of halloween night have passed, we can look forward to the end of 8 years of horror and fear in our country.