A hodge podge

I can hardly remember the days when a summer meant sleeping in, relaxing by a pool, eating potato chips and hot dogs, and reading copious amounts of books from the library. This summer has been a haze of heat and work and illness in the Boyd household. We seem to be recycling the germs, Ella will get sick, just as she gets well I will come down with it, and a few days later Hubband will be down for the count. What with all of the house projects (including the broken AC which at least is limping along these days) and my full time job and my sideline job (which will be ending soon), we've barely been able to take a deep breath before plunging into the next big thing.

Ella is just as busy as we are, learning learning learning! Her words and phrases expand practically by the hour, though her pronunciation is not really clear yet. My current favorite is "breakpoot" which is actually "breakfast". Yesterday she patted my arm as I changed her diaper and said "breakpoot, mama. Atta dooce!" She did indeed receive breakfast with apple juice.....after Mama stopped laughing!

This weekend, we're going to be driving across the state to spend the 4th with DangerElf and her family. An actual vacation! Complete with swimming pools and cousins!

I'm off now, leaving this hodge podge entry to fend for itself while I go prancy dance with my daughter to Barenaked Ladies "7-8-9". Bye!

Tired and Sickish Sabbath

She's not feeling very well, but will be better soon....

Ice Cream during the Blackout of '09

The lack of AC in 100 degree heat was making us all a little cranky, so Mama ran down to Sonic and got us an ice cream to share. Its yummy!

Today's New Words/Phrases

"WOW!"

and our favorite to date...upon tripping on the tile she said--

"Whoa. I TIPPED. Uh Ohhhhhh"

Similarly, yesterday morning when Miss Stacy brought her to Mama for after-nap snuggles, I noticed that one of her socks was missing. I said "Ella! Did you lose a sock?" and she looked down at her bare toes, wiggled them, and said very solemnly "Uh Oh". She then proceeded to look around the office to see if that wayward sock would magically appear. She and Miss Stacy had to go on an expedition to rescue it from the wild world of Crib After Nap.

Shockingly, with all the words she DOES know, more than half of what comes out of her mouth is still gibberish. Even to us.

Like her Mama

Reading in the bathroom starts at a very young age, apparently. She likes nothing better than to have a book or her Sabbath School paper to read while you change her diaper... Couldn't resist this pose. She carefully examined every page and then turned to the next.

Round and Round We Go!

Krissa was kind enough to have a birthday a few days back, and her request for "party" was to hit the zoo on Sabbath afternoon and then gather at Amerigos for cheese fritters... and dinner. El had a blast at the zoo, and had her first ever ride on a carousel! You can tell how much she enjoyed it...

Oberon Bagheera Plantier Boyd: 1/20/1999 - 6/3/2009

This morning we had the very difficult task of saying goodbye to a member of our family. For the last 10 years, Oberon (aka Obie, Obi-wan Kenobi cat, Bubba, Boo, Boopy, and Oobers) has been the Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde of our home. Loving and imperious, crotchety and misbehaving, snappish and purring, he was a very definite personality from the start. He had paws the size of salad plates (polydactyl, he had 7 toes on one paw and 6 on the other) and learned fairly quickly that he could open doorknobs, grab the edge of a coffee cup to sneak a sip, or push on your cheek to wake you up when he wanted scritches. He adored coffee, and was discriminating enough to know which mug was fresh and which was "stale". Tuna was his favorite food, but he was ever curious as to what the rest of the world was eating.

For the past 2 years or so, he has steadily been going downhill, becoming sicker and more frail as time passed. Just before Eleanor was born, he underwent surgery for bladder disease and severe urinary tract stones. He seemed to rebound a little after that, and was almost "himself" again for a couple of months. However, for the last year he has steadily declined and with his hip problems had reached the stage where he could hardly walk a single step without falling over. He's been turrning his nose up at food, not using his litter box, and in the last week or so had even stopped enjoying scritches. He would actually try to avoid your hands most of the time rather than lean into them.

From his glory days of preening on the television for his "Goddess" at 19-21 lbs, when we said goodbye this morning he was 10 lbs and 6 oz, literally a shadow of himself. The vet put in an iv catheter and brought him to us to hold. He laid on the table, nose to nose with me, and as I softly petted his ears and told him how much I loved him he looked at me and purred...and then was gone. We have loved him and been annoyed with him, cooed at him and scolded him, and we will never stop missing him.

Here is our Obie....




Oberon

He pads to me quietly

on big black feet with

furry thumbs.

Green eyes glow as he

coming into the light from

shadow tells

me of his displeasure.

His boredom.

No bugs here, mom.

No new toys here, mom.

No more books to pull from the shelves, mom.

None of my leather MICE, mom.

That reminds me-

I look my good-luck in the face and

purr with him.

I'll stop at the pet store-

tomorrow.

Feb. 12, 2001