Easter Bunny Training Run

I heard from Sara, mama to Preston, that neighborhood Easter Egg hunt competitors are ruthless and unruly. I decided Theo and Beckett needed some practice on their egg-hunting skills before being thrown to the wolves in today's hunt in the park. So yesterday I told them before their naps that the Easter Bunny was going to come during their nap to hide eggs in the backyard so they could practice finding them. They took a nice long nap and then eagerly grabbed their Easter baskets and ran to the backyard.

So this is how the Easter egg hunting went here yesterday: Beck happily raced from egg to egg, placing them carefully in his basket.

Theo found a couple eggs, then realized they had candy in them, and then stood in one place and opened and emptied every egg in his basket.

 Beckett, on the hunt.

Beckett, finding the last of the eggs:

Theo, five minutes later, still opening eggs.

At the end of the hunt, Beckett had about 15 eggs and Theo had three opened, empty eggs. To his credit, Beckett put several of his eggs into Theo's basket over the rest of the afternoon. This afternoon's hunt in the park, sponsored by the neighborhood association, will probably not reinforce my message of "the more eggs, the better" because the eggs will be empty. Every kid will get a bag of candy at the end regardless of how many eggs they found. I'll post more pictures of that later, if I get any amidst the chaos.

Rochester Trip

Saturday Ithaca High School Class of 1998 (four members, anyway: Kate, Aaron, Sarah and Bryn) converged on Rochester to enjoy a beautiful day with our prodigious brood--seven children in all (including two sets of twin boys)!

Toby (L) and Theo (R, obscured by firehat)

New toys

As an early birthday present Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu got the boys their first motorized vehicles. Mater is their favorite character and they love all things Mater, so we've been scouring garage sales, consignment shops, the Disney store, Ebay and every internet retailer for Mater-related items (other characters from Cars are ignored). These arrived Thursday and are much, much loved already.

"Mommy lets us do this"

Killer day for Team Lovebo

This is what you missed from Wednesday, April 9, 2014:

7am: Bryn wakes up with the flu

3:30pm: Bryn takes Haylie to vet to be euthanized, tells the boys that Haylie is sick, is going to the doctor, will not be coming home, she will be staying at the doctor, tells the boys to say bye-bye to Haylie.

5:30pm: Jeff brings kitty corpse to basement so that Milo (other cat) can sniff around the body and begin to grieve (upon recommendation of vet); boys play in backyard, Jeff makes dinner, Bryn digs a hole in backyard to bury Haylie.

7pm While Jeff is burying Haylie and Bryn is cleaning up from an epic spaghetti disaster in the dining room, Theo pushes Beckett into the train table, causing a split chin. Jeff (the parent in charge of blood-related child catastrophes) assesses situation, determines that he needs stitches. Bryn tells boys that Beckett has a boo-boo, needs to go to the doctor. THANKFULLY the boys do NOT make parallel to Haylie 3.5 hours earlier. NO ONE asks whether Beckett will be staying at the doctor. Bryn takes Beckett to the pediatric ER at Community General, where Toy Story plays on a giant TV in the waiting room, and there is an aquarium, and Cars playing in the exam room. Beck gets some nice purple glue on his chin and an orange popsicle, back home by 10:00pm, in bed by 10:30.

Dead Cat Walking

We had an appointment this morning to euthanize Haylie but I had a last-minute epiphany last night that we should try using a baking sheet as a litter box to see if she would be able to handle that. Her arthritis is so bad that she has a hard time getting into regular litter boxes. I suspect it will not help, but I figured it was worth a try. Also: now when you come to our house and taste something a little "offbeat" in the roasted carrots, you'll know what it is!

She has lost an alarming amount of weight in the last three to four months, and her arthritis is limiting her ability to move around. It looks painful much of the time. She also hasn't used the litter box much in the last six months, which has created a pee swamp in our basement. When we called to cancel the appointment today the vet suggested putting her on steroids, but we don't think that's a good permanent solution. I am thinking that if this last-ditch effort with the low-edged litter box doesn't work, we'll make an appointment for later this week to put her down. It's been a long, wonderful road, Haylie. We will miss you.

Cupcakes and cuddles

After the Museum of Play last Tuesday we went to a fundraiser for Hiscock Legal Aid, where Mama works, at a cupcake shop in Syracuse. Beckett enjoyed his cupcake but Theo had a tummyache so he saved his for the next day.

Waking up and cuddling with Daddy.