RIP Zoey

We had to put Zoey down on Friday. I tried to find a picture of just her, but the only pictures I have of her are when she's in the pool--it was her favorite thing to do. Last February she messed up her leg. The vet said it would take laser surgery to fix it, she wasn't sure it would work and it costs $2000-$3000. We opted to let her live as long as it wasn't interfering with her life. It never healed. She could get around really well without putting any weight on it. She couldn't go on a walk though or go to the dog park. But she loved to swim. Then when September came and the pool was too cold to swim in, her arthritis started getting to her. She was slower and slower and then she stopped getting up to go to the bathroom all the time. That's when we knew it was hurting her really bad.

Thor is just learning to walk--pulling himself up on everything and falling everywhere. We were afraid that he would try to crawl on her or fall on her and she would snap at him because it hurt her. So we decided it was time. She had bought herself an extra year.

Gary and Sabre took her. Sabre said Zoey was shaking all over and was so worked up that the shot they gave her to go to sleep before giving her the shot that would stop her heart couldn't knock her out--it took longer than usual. Sabre got a paw print to remind her of Zoey.

Zoey was a good dog. She barked only at strangers and was too smart for her own good. She kept Max in line. Max kind of walks around the house lost now. He hasn't eaten since she left--which for Max is really saying something. We all miss her.

Eight Months

Just so I don't forget what Thor can do at 8 months:

*Thor is crawling all over the place. Last weekend he was scooting around backwards--he hadn't quite figured out how to crawl forward. Then sometimes this week he got the hang of it.  This weekend he was all over the place--hard wood floors facilitate fast crawling and boy, is he fast! This kid is never slow.

*He has his first 2 teeth, the bottom front. They popped through about January 25. And they get sharper every day. Yesterday he tried sharpening them on the beautiful end table that Grandma Vilda gave me!

*He still wakes up 2 times a night: once at 1-2am and another time at 4-5am. He used to sleep really well until he got sick and he's never managed to stay asleep very long after that--his nose is too stuffed up.

*Thor is babbling a lot. Sometimes he says "dadadadada" but I don't think he knows it's a word yet. He will say "mama" but only when he cries. I can't tell if that's just the sound he likes to make when he cries or if he realizes I'll come faster if he says my name. It is really cute when he gives me a baby-monkey-hug, thumps his head on my chest and cries "ma ma ma ma!" Other than that, he's said random words, but not consistently.

*Thor can now stand up in his crib and jump and yell for us. Gary found him standing yesterday morning. He is so proud of himself for learning how to pull up.

*And speaking of pulling up, Thor pulls up on everything now. He can pull up and scoot along furniture and then drop down and crawl after what he wants. He's tried to walk on his own (he thinks he can and only remembers that he can't when he biffs it). He has many little bumps and bruises on his arms and head from falling. He is still genuinely surprised when he falls down. He looks up like "I could do this yesterday, I swear! what happened?!"

*Thor holds his breath underwater. He has only blown bubbles once or twice (probably by accident). He never cried doing a back float until yesterday.  Jenn showed me how to hold his head so he can't flip his feet up in the air or he sinks and he doesn't like that. He can cling to the side of the pool and can shift his weight to one hand to push over a toy on the ledge. He can scoot his little hands along the side of the wall and he's trying to crawl out--that will take a while because it's a lot of coordination. Occassionally, he will fall in from the edge on the count of 3, but most times we still have to nudge him. He loves being in the water. He laughs and splashes and kicks. He pushes away from us holding him like he thinks he can swim on his own.

And those are the major milestones we've reached so far. We sure love Thor!

Thor Hates Food

While we were at the zoo, we let Thor play on the tiny tot playground. He pulled himself up on a little weeble wobble farmer. He liked banging on the hat.

Then he started playing with the sand on the brim.  Thor thought it would be a good idea to taste his hands after playing with the sand, not realizing the foreign object was on his fingers.

AHHHHHHH! Someone's trying to poison me!!!

Now, you may think he is only crying his heart out because its sand, and ewwww who likes to eat sand? But you would be wrong! No, no, he is crying because there is something other than milk in his mouth and no matter how much he spits, he can't get it out. Thor has decided not to eat any real food. Just milk.

He has never been a big fan of cereal or baby food, although we have still been trying to get him to eat it. But he used to like chewing on soy bean pods, celery, lemons, pickles, crackers, etc. Now, he won't put them anywhere near his mouth. I can give him a Gerber cookie that he used to like to gum up and he just bangs it on his high chair tray while I prepare and eat breakfast. And he turns up his nose at eggs, too.  He won't even chew on food in his mesh feeder.

And try to give him baby food--holy cow! His lips are sealed tighter than if he was underwater! He's even learned that when he cries we take advantage of the moment to stuff food inside. So now he just grunts his disapproval through clamped jaws.  If by some miracle, I manage to get food past his lips, he promptly spits it as far as he can.

 Now he's learned to throw up on command. I have to get this on video because no one is going to believe that an 8 month old can throw up literally at will. It is crazy!!! This morning I scraped the smallest bit of a banana with a spoon to put on his tongue (hoping he would think it was the best thing he ever tasted). It was about the size of a piece of rice.  I put it on his tongue (ok I held it to his lips until it was smeared on them and he made the mistake of licking his lips when I took the spoon away). He made 2 gagging sounds (I could see the banana on the tip of his tongue, so he wasn't choking on it) and he vomited his milk he ate 30 minutes before all over his tray. 

Now normally, I wouldn't care. He's drinking formula so no biggie of he doesn't like anything else--he's getting nutrition.  But he's constipated. So he needs juice or fruit to unclog his poor little intestines.  And he refuses to drink juice--prune juice, apple juice, blueberry juice, grape juice, cranberry juice--he hates it all.  We've tried it in a bottle, a cup, off a spoon and a medicine dropper.  We tried mixing it with cereal or his formula. Nothing works. He can sniff out juice like a hound dog!

But one of the secretaries at work that raised 3 boys told me to give him a teaspoon of molasses in his formula until he poops. I didn't think he would drink the formula with it in there, but he did. And it worked! Gary and I felt so bad for the little guy!! He cried and cried when he pushed out a huge (for a baby) log of poop!! Ouch!! He still won't eat anything but formula, but I'm going to remember the molasses trick.

Thor's First Zoo Experience

It has been the most mild winter that I can remember in Phoenix. It's usually pretty mild anyway, but this is ridiculous! The high has been around 75 degrees for over a month! So Gary, Thor and I took advantage of it and went to the Phoenix Zoo (along with half the metro area) yesterday. Here are Gary and Thor at the entrance:

I made sure that Thor wore is sunblock and a hat if he wasn't in the covered stroller so he wouldn't be sunburned. Yep, it was February 4 and he would have gotten sunburned.

We fed the ducks to get them to come up to Thor. He was fascinated.

Thor couldn't figure out what we were pointing at in most of the cages.  Unless the animal was moving and was pretty large, he wasn't very interested if it was behind bars or glass.  So we took some cute posed photos.

 This reminds me of Max, king of the wild things

 He is my pearl!!!

We went to the children's petting zoo. Thor was ok most of the time with the goats, but then one tried to chew on his coat and he freaked out.

It was such a gorgeous day to walk around the beautiful Phoenix Zoo. Thor loved just hanging out in his stroller.  It was nice to get some exercise.  We let Thor play in the playground--more on that in the next post.  We bought a membership so we will definitely go back. Sabre used to love going to the zoo when she was little. They have so many things to do there other than looking at the animals now.  I hope to see more of this cute smile there:

My First Trial

I rarely, if ever, post anything about my job. Mostly because a lot of things I deal with are confidential. But a trial is public record. I've been 2nd chair on a few different trials--there was always a senior attorney that was 1st chair. 1st chair calls all the shots--they are in charge of how the trial goes and delegates jobs to second chair. Young attorneys are 2nd chair so that they can learn how to be 1st chair. 1st chair is a lot of responsibility. I've always liked being 2nd chair. You get a lot of glory with half of the stress. But last Monday I was 1st chair in my very first trial. And I did a great job. That doesn't mean that I will win--it means that if the judge picks the other guy, there wasn't anything else I could have done to persuade the judge to go my way. The second day of trial is February 8. I'll let you know how it goes.

I learned a lot of what to do next time. Next time will be a 4 day trial in June. And it will be a full-blown, hard-fought trial.

This Month

Well, I'm really glad I set a goal for all of us to post at least once per month or else I might not have done it this month! I must say that I am so proud of (most of) you for taking up the challenge!  Thor has been sick all month. It started a few days after Christmas and we've been struggling ever since. It started with the sniffles, then full blown, can't breathe through his nose,gobs of snot flying mucus. He was pulling at his ears, couldn't sleep, and then he started projectile vomiting and decided to stop eating too. We went to the pediatrician a few times and then the ER at the Phoenix Children's hospital because he couldn't keep anything down (not even medication to make him better). After X-rays, blood work, urine tests, etc, they basically said, we don't know what's wrong with him. Good job keeping him hydrated and bring him back if he gets worse. UGGGHHH! It was the vomiting that was the worst and what I was the most worried about. He couldn't keep down anything! Poor little guy. But they did give me anti-nausea meds for Thor and that helped. And we switched to soy formula because it's easier on babies' stomachs. He started doing better, but then got a horrible cough. Then he was coughing so hard he would throw up.  I have been covered in enough vomit this month to last a lifetime! He was diagnosed with asthma, so now he's been on breathing treatments which helped get everything under control.

And this kid has learned to throw up on command now since he knows his little gags send all the adults in the room to fly around him. It's crazy! Thor had just started trying real food--which he hadn't been a big fan of to begin with--but now anytime you put something in his mouth other than a liquid, he gags and throws it up. Anyone want a couple cases of baby food? He's not going to eat it. He's decided to be on a liquid diet for the rest of his life!

So this has been my life for the past month. I haven't stopped doing laundry long enough to get on the computer. I also haven't taken a lot of pictures this month. So here's to February!

What Should Be Everyone Else's New Year's Resolution

I am the oldest. Do you know a really good perk of being the oldest (as long as you're not one of my brothers, sisters, or married to one of those)? I get to choose your New Year's Resolution for you! YAY! How fun!

So I choose that all of my extended family members are going to write SOMETHING in your blogs at least once per month. Not per year (ahem, Stacy). Per month. Now I have set a very manageable goal for you. I am, after all, a very generous big sister. And being the fabulous big sister that I am, I will not only set the goal for you, but I will do it with you. Doesn't that sound fun?

I check your (mostly sadly unadded to) blogs everyday in the hopes that one of you will care enough to share your life with me. *blink, blink back tears* Some of you (ahem, Abby, Katie) are on my very happy list because I get to read stories and browse even more interesting pictures of your lives. Others of you . . . well, let's say you need this resolution more with every week that goes by.

Now get to sharing!! Now!