We will miss our Rico

Well, we have some sad news. Our dog Rico who has been a part of our family since we were married 9 years ago, has passed away. He was very sick Sat, the vet couldn’t determine what was wrong. But he couldn’t stand or use his mouth right, was panting and whining nonstop. Eric brought him back home to see if pain meds and steroids would help him improved, and then he passed away later that night. We are very sad about it and will miss him. Jackson misses him, and Kaylee has been a bit confused about what’s happened. We explained as best we can, and are trying to encourage her to be a good friend to Jackson now who is lonely for companionship. We have been paying extra attention to Jackson who has been regularly “cleaning” up our floor of all Levi’s cheerios, and getting fed cheerios through the gate by Kaylee. Eric had the hardest job in all this, so please extend special sympathies to him if you are able.

News with the kids: quickly…
Levi is teething on the top two teeth now. He’s babbling more, for longer periods, more conversational sounding and at friends. He’s starting to take limited interest in books, allowing me to at least read one all the way through before losing interest or grabbing it to teethe it. His favorite song is still B-I-N-G-O. He likes high pitched silly sounds, and silly faces. He reaches for Kaylee and touches her face, pulling at her hair affectionately. He gets excited to see her and have her attention. He loves balls.

Kaylee is at the stage where she likes to open up all her drawers and throw all her clothes around the room. This is not fun for me, and leaves me confused on whats clean and what’s not. So there’s more laundry too. We’ve been trying to get her to stop and at least put it back herself. The other day as we were leaving our house she was talking about something and said, “My house…you house…our house.” I was impressed she knew the concept of ‘our house’. She is sorting out the difference between blue, black and white. I was telling her about periwinkle today. She said, “Is it like purple and indigo together?” She corrects herself now when she accidentally calls me Daddy. We finally ventured to move Levi’s crib into her room two nights ago. She’s been fearful of her room, and wanted to come into ours. We thought sharing would help, and it has squelched fears for now. Levi is in transition and wakes up frequently looking for me. I couldn’t hack it last night and took him to bed with me, due to exhaustion. We did a similar schedule for transition with Kaylee and it worked well enough. Kaylee has still wanted us to lay with her after stories, but thankfully I am proud to say with Levi in her room she says to me as I’m rocking him and nursing him, “Mama I can stay by myself, and you can sleep in the chair.” Ahhh, a bit more independence for my little lady…and my little man!