This is usually what happens when we go to the park with the neighbor kids - snail collecting. Gross! But the kids have so much fun collecting them and seeing the different sizes and watching them slither back to their home.
A new tradition - we go 1-2x/month to McDonald’s for ice cream and playing. I skip the ice cream part but play on my iphone. It’s a nice break for us and Peter gets a workout on that play structure. I’d rather go here than Chuck E Cheese any day.
I get jealous of Mike working sometimes when he gets to do fun team building stuff like this - indoor skydiving:
And finally, I always forget to upload pictures of the cats. They are still the same - hate each other. The things that brings them together are 1) fresh air, and 2) squirrels. Today, they got both:
It’s been pouring buckets here since Saturday so we didn’t do much over the holiday weekend. Mike had Monday off so at least he didn’t have to commute in the storm. Although it’s supposed to rain all week. The rain wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t so windy as well. No umbrella or poncho can keep you dry. I remember when I used to walk to work in the city, I would have to change into dry clothes once I got to work. And on the days I forgot to bring an extra set of clothes, I would stay wet all day. You get that soaked. Anyway… when it rains this hard around here it’s inevitable that our house starts leaking. At least it’s not our roof.
I know this looks weird but it’s the least messy way of soaking up the water from the slider track. When it’s pouring, the track fills up about every hour. If we don’t drain it, it pours out onto the hardwood floor:
Our kitchen window also started dripping - and this window has an awning over it so I’m not sure how it’s leaking:
In other news, Peter is still constantly trying to spell. I need to find him some cheap paper because he is using up all our printer paper.
This should say Xray for Gheer-bear (aka Bagheera):
I noticed this one day on my frig - he copied my store list and posted it under mine:
Peter must be reading my blog because over the last few weeks he’s found a new interest in spelling, much to my relief. I guess I can relax a bit about Kindergarten now. And from talking to other moms with kids the same age, it seems to be a natural milestone at this age. I’m glad he’s learning it on his own though and not being pushed by a teacher. His spelling is far from perfect but I’m just happy that he is learning on his own. I recently tried correcting him when he spelled sewer “soor.” He almost convinced me he had it spelled right with his pronunciation “soo” “r.”
Here he is misspelling some other words - like “Huii” instead of Hi and “Rchit” for Rocket:
Here with “Ndgo” for Indigo and “Raachl” instead of Rachel:
And here are the cats being teased by a neighbor cat. A few moments earlier this cat attacked the glass door scaring the cats. I love how the cat seems to look both Kiki and Bagheera in the eyes before frolicking on the ground:
For me this Christmas season came too quickly. I finally just ordered my Christmas cards and had to pay for accelerated shipping so I receive them next week. I designed actual cards this year instead of the usual postcard. I think they turned out cute. I had a lot of fun designing the outside and inside of the card. I used Shutterfly for the first time so I hope they come out good.
The only Christmas decorations we put up this year is our tree:
I just didn’t feel like hanging outside lights this year. It seems almost pointless anyway because we live in a court. So nobody sees them except our neighbors. And our neighbors across from us put up a ton of lights so I think they more than compensate for our non-existent ones.
I did find time to do an ornament project with Peter. I bought some hollow glass balls from Michaels, then had Peter stuff them with Christmas-looking cotton balls:
I had visions of sewing a bunch of new ornaments but my sewing machine is still broken. I keep hoping it will magically fix itself. I guess I just need to drag it to the shop for fixing.
Other pictures… when our tree loses all it’s leaves it reminds me of the Whomping Willow tree from Harry Potter:
This is what he does when it’s not his turn to swim with the instructor. He was scared putting his whole face underwater just a week ago:
We also had digital phone service installed this weekend. Initially we got it because our regular phone service had developed a constant static noise. The phone company said they would fix it for free if there was a problem with the line from the phone pole to the outside of the house. But once it comes into the house, if there was any problem, like animals chewed through the wire under the house, then they would charge us $60. So why risk having to pay $60? We just switched to digital instead. It actually saves us $20/month anyway. And we get free movie channels and upgraded Internet speed for 6 months. The phone seems to be working great, at least no more static. Also, I love that we can easily forward our calls. So when we go on vacation, we’ll just forward our home phone to our cell phone.
Sunday, July 26th, 2009, 11:55 pm by The Mom under pets|No Comments »
Things are back to normal around here for the cats. Bagheera has assumed her usual spot on the couch and Kiki can freely roll around on the carpet like a crazy cat. They may have forgotten about Benny, but Kiki did not forget about her wet food I gave her only because of Benny. So I’ve continued giving it to her. It took about 2 days for Bagheera to finally catch on. So now when I come into the kitchen in the morning, both cats are waiting impatiently. I’d rather Bagheera not eat it since it used to make her sick. So Kiki eats what she wants and leaves the leftovers for Bagheera. Which isn’t much but at least it’s not making Bagheera throw up. So I guess I’ll continue giving them the treat. I guess they deserve it for putting up with Benny for 3 months.
P.S. I called the shelter to check on Benny and found out he was adopted within a week. I hope he is happy in his new home.
Exhibit A: Dirt of sidewalk, Exhibit B: Hole under fence
Well we had been trying to make it work with Benny for almost 3 months. Me and him got along great. We just couldn’t make it work with our cats. Poor Bagheera has been hiding out in the closet for the last few weeks. Even Peter asked if Bagheera was living with someone else. Also Peter just couldn’t leave Benny alone. He was basically like a bully to him, teasing him and whatnot. It drove Mike and I nuts.
The main issue for me was his co-dependence. We could never leave him for more than a few hours and always had to put him in his crate. I was trying to get him used to a bigger space. I started with the bathroom. Then I left him one day in the living room when I picked up Peter from school and he seemed fine. My goal was to be able to leave him near the doggie door so he could go outside if he needed to go bathroom. So I left him in the living room again while we were napping just down the hall. Well about an hour later during our nap, the doorbell rang. Benny didn’t start barking so I knew he wasn’t in the house. I answered the door and it was a lady holding Benny. He had dug out of the backyard (the other side this time) and made it about 3 blocks. Luckily, most of the neighbors know Benny. But I took this as a sign that we needed to give him to a different family. Maybe a retirement couple without cats or young kids. He just needs to be watched 24/7 and our life is just too busy for that right now.
So I dropped him off at the humane society today. They were pretty confident they could find him a home quickly. I feel a little guilty but I know in the long run he’ll be happier somewhere else. I will miss my daily walks with him. Peter seems okay with him gone. I made him understand that he’ll be happier in a family without cats. Plus I told Peter I’d buy him a new Transformer so that sealed the deal. I’m sure he’ll forget Benny even existed by the weekend. I would like to get a puppy (that can get along with the cats) one day… but I think that will be years from now.
Bye bye Benny!
Oh I forgot to mention that on our way back from dropping off Benny, we stopped at McDonalds for dinner since it was so late. A kid there was named Benny (short for Benjamin). The father kept yelling “Benny” while he was on the playset. I’ve never heard anyone call a kid Benny. Gosh I hope that wasn’t a sign that we are doing the wrong thing.
This was the first year we decided to go somewhere to see the fireworks. We can view them slightly from our house but I wanted Peter to experience them closer. So we went to a popular park everyone goes to. Of course it was super crowded but I guess that’s part of the experience. We met Peter’s playgroup friend, Indigo, there with her family. The kids played at the playground for about an hour before the fireworks began at 9:30pm.
While we were gone, Benny had a rough couple of hours. Benny does not like fireworks. So we left some loud music on hoping it would drown out the fireworks. I guess it didn’t work cause he freaked out in his crate. He’s never done this before. He managed to move it about 5 feet, shredded our carpet, ripped open a zip lock bag, and bent the bars of his crate. His mouth and paws were bloody.
He’s been acting fine ever since so I haven’t taken him to the vet. His face is swollen so if it doesn’t go down in a few days, I’ll take him in. I guess next year we’ll have to sedate him.
Contrary to what the picture suggests, this is the only time Benny doesn’t attack Kiki. Normally every time Benny spots one of the cats, it’s like he’s seeing them for the first time and chases them. He can’t seem to just let them be. One day after brushing Bagheera, I was holding a kitten-size lump of fur and Benny grabbed it from my hand and began ripping it apart. Yikes! He might seriously have a problem that we can’t fix. I’m not sure what we are going to do. We’ve been trying the squirt bottle technique but I’m just not sure this is going to work out. I spend enough of my day yelling at Peter and now the rest is spent yelling at Benny. It’s driving me nuts. Maybe this is just what it’s like having 2 kids.
Well anyway at least Peter is having fun with Benny:
