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Blog! by ravenswood13

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:06:43 PDT

I just realized my last blog is coming up on a year old! So is my cutie pie Teresa, but I'll save that for another time. Today I will just steal Rochelle's one-word quiz and see if I can't get myself blogging again!

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket

2. Your significant other? tall

3. Your hair? dark

4. Your mother? independent

5. Your father? eccentric

6. Your favorite thing? trees

7. Your dream last night? forgotten

8. Your favorite drink? water

9. Your dream/goal? sleep

10. The room you're in? kitchen

11. Your ex? mathematician

12. Your fear? fear

13. Where do you want to be in 6yrs? here

14. Where were you last night? home

15. What you're not? ambitious

16. Muffins? nah

17. One of your wish list items? sleep

18. Where you grew up? Carribean

19. The last thing you did? nurse

20. What are you wearing? jeans

21. Your TV? off

22. Your pets? feline

23. Your computer? black

24. Your life? full

25. Your mood? resigned

26. Missing someone? sometimes

27. Your car? red

28. Something you're not wearing? hat

29. Favorite store? bird shop

30. Your summer? dry

31. Like someone? Papi

32. Your favorite color? eggplant

33. When is the last time you laughed? earlier

34. Last time you cried? March

35. Who will/would re-post this? Miranda?

That's all, folks! Hope to be blogging again sooner than later...

She's here! by ravenswood13

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:37:21 PDT

Two weeks early, baby Teresa Victoria arrived in late May and is as healthy as can be!

Big brother Julian is actually thrilled (thank goodness ).

Teresa is a relatively easy baby so far, and will occasionally sleep in four hour blocks at night. She nurses well, doesn't cry too much, and does not suffer excessively from her still maturing digestive system. She is a sweet little baby that loves to snuggle...

And has lots of beautiful dark hair...

Here she is at the hospital salon.

The last three weeks before she arrived were sheer agony with all the trips to the hospital for monitoring, and I am ecstatic that this pregnancy is finally over and that everything turned out so much better than I could have imagined. Life is definitely different (not too mention full of lots more diapers and laundry and lots less sleep and computer time!), but we are thoroughly enjoying the richness baby Teresa's presence brings to our days!

In memoriam... by ravenswood13

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 23:03:53 PDT

Here's to sweet Drea, who loved life so, and whose parting breath has summoned the coming spring for all of us to revel in...

And Baby Makes Four... by ravenswood13

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:02:00 PST

I'm very happy to announce that my little family will be growing come the first week of June! They tell us it's a girl, but I'm going to pick a boy's name too, just in case. My son has started speaking to my belly and saying things like "I'll see you when you come out," and "We'll talk more later." I've been exhausted, forgetful, sleeping badly, and eating lots of salty things. Sometimes I'm anxious about the changes to come and how it will affect my relationship with my firstborn (my best buddy, my little sunshine, the apple of my eye) and I'm concerned that I will never love another child the way that I love him. Typical worries when expecting a second baby, I'm told. Doesn't really make it any easier! I know once she's out and not just a kicking lump in my abdomen that gives me heartburn and gets heavier with each passing minute I will fall in love with her just like I did with my son, but until then I just have to focus on the positive things, like...well...uhm...my hair is nice and shiny again... Seriously, though, it was completely planned and I know I will become fiercely attached to her the minute I see her. Until then, I'm doing my very best to prepare myself mentally for how different our lives will be, and dreaming about my two little ones playing together and growing together and making our lives perfectly complete!

Kitten update by ravenswood13

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:09:53 PST

Well, it's been a few months since we found little Scout on the freeway, and I'm happy to report that she is fully recovered from her injuries and the sweetest little cat ever. Here is a picture of her with our other cat, Boo. He's almost seven years old, and crazy about Scout, though she torments him endlessly with her boundless energy. I think he would really like her to nap like this more often!

They are very sweet to each other and have not been too rambunctious in their games of chase (i.e., the house is still standing). The only down side is that Scout has no qualms about climbing into the bed and sleeping right up against my neck and shoulder, a spot Boo kitty used to call his own. He doesn't join us too often these days, opting to sleep on a cozy cat bed we set up next to a heating vent in another bedroom. He has come up to our room and snuggled next to me and Scout a few times, but never in the coveted by-mama's-head position. Even when he gets to the bed first, Scout just cluelessly makes her way right over him and plops down on my neck. He is such a gentleman he moves down to give her more room. Oh well. Maybe when she's bigger it won't be so easy for her to wiggle into that spot, and the two of them can trade off like polite little kitties!

A chance meeting... by ravenswood13

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:08:50 PDT

Recently, my husband, toddler, and I went back east to help out my mom (she's elderly and had taken a fall�all is well now) and spent an entire Saturday traveling back home to Portland, Oregon. We arrived at 6:30pm, gathered our luggage, and went out to wait for my father-in-law. He soon arrived with our car and, in spite of the exhaustion I felt, I decided to drive.

We hadn�t been on the freeway three minutes when I saw the most horrific thing�a kitten was hunkered down in the small no-man�s-land between the right-hand lane and an on-ramp! I don�t know how I spotted her, just that something made me take a second look at the black speck contrasted against the gray concrete. I cried out �That�s a kitten!� and quickly pulled over. My husband, with understandable concern, yelled �Don�t get out, don�t get out!� but I was already running across the on-ramp. I scooped her up, held her close, and ran back to the car. My husband took the wheel and quickly drove to the 24-hour emergency veterinary hospital. The kitten mewed and mewed for what seemed like forever, then finally settled down. She was the size of my toddler�s shoe.

At the veterinary hospital they stabilized her and took x-rays. Her left hind leg was severely broken, consistent with falling from a moving vehicle. With horror we realized our first guess was probably correct: she had been thrown from a car. Within days she had an $1800 surgery. Three pins were placed in her leg. Two of them will, in all likelihood, have to be removed after three weeks, to the tune of $500, so that the normal growth of her leg will not be impeded.

We brought her home and placed her in a dog crate to restrict her movements, but within a few hours I could tell that there was something very wrong with her other leg. I took her back to the veterinary hospital and sure enough, the right hind leg was also broken! The original radiographs had just missed it. A much cleaner break, this one required only a splint, which, while less invasive than surgery, was much more awkward for the little kitten. We brought her home again, but after a few days it became clear that she would require more round-the-clock observation than I was going to be able to give her. As much as my toddler was crazy about her, I wasn�t going to be able to stay in the same room with her 24-7. So now she is being boarded at my regular vet�s. They are giving her antibiotics, pain meds, and regularly changing her splint. Slowly but surely she is recuperating from her trials.

This tiny 7-week-old kitten has been through the ringer, but she is definitely a fighter! We�ve named her Scout, and just went to see her today. I was delighted that she was able to scamper around, maneuvering that huge splint on her leg as if it wasn�t even there. She�s feeling great, and acts just like any other little kitten�she plays hard, then suddenly falls asleep, wakes up after a few minutes and paws at your hand, purring and rolling around and being adorable. We are looking forward to bringing her home for a final time and giving her a life full of love and comfort, as all pets deserve. As to the prohibitive cost of all the hospitalizations and surgeries, we�ll find the money somehow. How expensive this was all going to be never swayed us for an instant. The universe brought this kitten and my family together on that freeway�who are we to question that?

Remembering how to sleep by ravenswood13

Wed, 10 May 2006 15:34:47 PDT

Well, April 15 was Tax Day, but it will always be memorable to me because that night, one day short of his 19th month birthday, my baby boy SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!! 9pm to 8am with nary a peep! This from a baby who woke up every three to four hours with absolute consistency from the moment he was born. That night my husband woke me at 6am, asking "Why are you still here?" (I generally spend the second half of the night on a twin bed next to the baby's crib). I was as surprised as my husband was, and we both spent the next two hours waiting and worrying and waiting and worrying. Baby was fine, of course, and woke up quite happy. And his sleeping through the night has continued, with just a few exceptions. At first I found the adjustment very difficult�I kept our old schedule, and had a hard time getting back to sleep between phantom "awakenings." But little by little, my brain began to remember, and now I, too, sleep through the night!

Here's the twist�my husband has started to wonder out loud about the next one. Aaak! Just when I got my shut-eye back he wants me to go through months and months and months of interrupted sleep all over again! I haven't slept well for almost TWO YEARS! (It wasn't just the 19 months after the baby arrived; it was also the last three months of the pregnancy, when three or four bathroom visits each night was the norm, and sleep was just plain uncomfortable for weeks and weeks and weeks.)

And here's the craziest part of this whole thing�I think I might want to go through it all again, too! I better sleep on it...

Goodbye, old friend by ravenswood13

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 14:33:41 PST

On this, the first day of spring, I finally have the composure to write about my not-so-cheery St. Patrick's Day...

My beloved canine companion of twelve years, Ariel, had recently become disinterested in eating or drinking very much, and was clearly experiencing some discomfort. I took her to the vet earlier in the week and found out she was suffering from an aggressive cancer that had metastasized to her liver and abdomen. She was at high risk for one of the five tumors in her body rupturing, resulting in sudden collapse and a painful death. We decided to spare her that possibility.

Ariel peacefully left this world on Friday, March 17, lying in my arms and holding my husband�s hand. We will miss her so very much, but we are deeply comforted by the fact that she is finally free of her frail body and that her strong and boundless spirit will be with us always.