When Pele bit Luke we were ready to put her down. We were so angry. Thankfully the Humane Society has a 10 day waiting period for cats who bite kids. They would take her and euthanize her, but they have to be sure she doesn’t have rabies before they bring her in to their facility. See, it’s not that Pele is a bad cat. She is extremely affectionate and loves her people. She just doesn’t like kids.The little munchkins scare her.

Pele was born in the country. Her mother was a barn cat. For the first few months of her life, she was a barn cat too. I think that may have been her problem all these years. She’s always been anxious to escape from the house, and has in a number of cases. In one case she was gone for several hours. She came back fine. Not a scratch on her. She was tired but boy was she happy.

Pele has been a member of our family for going on ten years. We were without children for the first seven of those years and grew quite attached to her. We were heartbroken to have to get rid of her, but we knew we had to in order to protect our kids (and our kids friends). We put a message out into Facebook World to see if anyone would take her, but didn’t think it was likely because of the kid factor and the fact that she was an indoor cat with claws. Several days went by until my husband put out another plea, this time with a picture.

His plea was rather touching so I tried to “share” it on my “wall” (if you aren’t familiar with Facebook this will all sound crazy, just a warning) but it didn’t seem to work. I had my privacy settings all wrong. People could read my status update referring to the shared post but couldn’t find the post. A Facebook frenzy quickly ensued. People were commenting and emailing, I was reposting and reposting again. Until finally a friend of mine from high school (one of the persistent commenters) just posted her phone number on my wall with the plea: “Call me!” So I called her, and it turns out she wanted to adopt Pele!

We had not considered offering Pele as an outdoor cat, and in fact the vet said it would be inhumane, but I truly believe Pele has been an outdoor cat all along and you could say it was inhumane for us to keep her cooped up. Pele is already settling in at her new home. She has 40 acres to roam around and five other cats to terrorize. She can climb trees and catch chipmunks, and when she wants some attention she can just go back into the house whenever she pleases. It will take some time to adjust, but I think she’s going to be much happier than she ever was here.

I’m a proud momma, so I have to share. Natalie achieved a couple of small milestones this week. She’s four months old. She is rolling over now, from her back to her belly. It only happens in her crib so we haven’t witnessed it in action, but it’s still exciting to go in and find her wiggling around on her belly, lifting her legs up high! She is such a wiggle worm.

Also, today she held her bottle for at least 38 seconds unassisted, maybe more. That’s not really a milestone you find in the baby books, but it makes me happy anyway. I love watching her grow and evolve.

She had her four month check up last week. In two months she gained 3.5 pounds and grew almost four inches. She grew so much they had to measure her twice just to be sure. She is now in the 95th percentile for height and the 75th for weight. Her head however, has remained comfortably in the 50th percentile.

The best part about this age is her emerging personality. She’s a wiggler and a giggler. I can already tell with her high energy level she’s going to keep us on our toes, but with her jovial attitude she’ll also keep us smiling. In many ways she is already embodying her middle name, JOY.

I’m not usually itching to get out of the office but right now I just want to get home and hug my boy. I got a call just moments ago from my husband to tell me Pele (aka, “Mean Kitty Ow”) bit Luke. Unprovoked. She’s done it before to him and another boy, and sent both to the hospital each time. But that’s been awhile. I’ve been noticing her growing more and more anxious since the day we brought Natalie home from the hospital, and it has worried me. Cat bites can be dangerous. I am praying that the bite is clean and does not grow infection. For now that’s all I can do until 5 pm. Then I will rush home and give my boy a hug. And then I’m gonna go kill that cat.

Luke learned a new word today. It’s actually a word he’s heard before, if he’s ever ridden in the backseat while daddy drives through rush hour traffic in Oakland, Ingham, or Kent Counties. I’ll just give you a recap. Mike said it best on Facebook:

“almost got in a fight this morning. It went a little like this; guy walks in, says the F word in front of my kids, I tell him to watch his mouth, he tells me to screw myself, I stand up, he runs out the door, I chase him out the door, he runs to his car, Mcdonalds employees give me free food.”

And then Luke spent all day reenacting the incident:

Can you make out the word? The word that is now confidently cemented into Luke’s vocabulary? Yes, the word is moron. I know it’s an insulting word for a 2 year old to be using but don’t worry, Luke remembered him when we prayed before bedtime. Right after he thanked Jesus for Mommy, Daddy, and his boxing gloves, he thanked Jesus for the moron.

I’ve got scars all over my belly from two laparoscopies, two c-sections, and now this recent appendectomy. I’ve got revolving red spots on my arms, butt, and legs from the three day a week injections. All of these trials have made me a much stronger person, but my dreams of becoming a bikini model are totally down the toilet.

Our son loves mimicking animal sounds. He knows quite a few. Apparently he learned a new one from daddy a couple of days ago. I remember the conversation but I couldn’t even tell you where we were or how it came up. Which is why I was so surprised when Luke saw a deer on tv yesterday and said this to anyone who would listen:

“What does the deer say?”
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“Don’t shoot!”

I’ve been having a rough time of it recently. Unexplained health issues which I’ll blog more about later. It’s been affecting my mood and making it hard to smile. Until I see my son. He finds reasons to smile all around him. Yes, he can be a demanding handful at times, but then other times he can be a beacon of light.

Yesterday we went to the grocery store to buy pork. As we stood in front of the meat cooler, Luke looked right down at the ginormous pork loins and let out an all-out belly laugh. He just thought pork loin was the funniest thing he had seen in all his years (all two of them).

Then when we were exiting the store he noticed the flowers for sale and asked, “smell flowers?”. So we stood there and smelled the flowers. He is so delicate with flowers. For some reason he is very hesitant to touch them, and if he does it’s only with one finger. But he will breathe in their beautiful scents all day.

So when I am feeling down I will try to remember to stop and smell the flowers, and perhaps laugh at a pork loin or two. Keep that suggestion in your back pocket, it might work for you too!

We’re still attempting to get Mike some life insurance. He’s been denied twice due to his diabetes and completely harmless brain tumor. Seriously, it’s just a growth. Been there since birth. NOT a problem. So we had this local insurance salesman who had been sending us postcards for months, and the guy finally got sick of us ignoring him and called us up.

On a Saturday (violation #1).

The guy sounded half-way decent and even though he was suggesting we look at whole life insurance which I am totally against, I still agreed to let him come and meet with us. I told him about Mike’s health issues and he seemed to think it would be worth applying again. So we set up a meeting for Wednesday at 5:30 pm.

He showed up at 5:00 (violation #2).

He proceeded to give us an extremely dull presentation about his company and in the midst of it his cell phone rang.

He answered the phone. During our meeting (violation #3).

At the end of his shpiel he drummed up some figures and proudly announced the monthly rate Mike would qualify for, barring any major health issues. Um, did you not take notes of our conversation FOUR days ago? I told you about his health issues, and made it perfectly clear that was our main concern! Violation #4! Gah!

Oh, and as a topper he insulted my hero, Dave Ramsey.

So. We are on a search for a REAL insurance agent. One that has a brain and perhaps some people skills.

*Disclaimer: If you are annoyed by those mothers who go on and on about how their kid is the smartest or the cutest or the funniest kid on the planet, this post is not for you. Go read a magazine or something.

I am amazed daily at how much and how fast Luke is learning and growing. He is the most entertaining thing ever. He is nearly 20 months old and he is doing so many things he didn’t do before. For example:

1. He knows a bit of sign language. With his hands he can say please, thank you, more, and all done. Teaching him how to say please was done out of necessity, as we were quickly growing tired of the high pitched screaming every time he wanted something. The sign for please is to move your hand in a circular motion over the center of your chest, but Luke just pats his chest. If he wants something REALLY BADLY it resembles a motion you might expect to see from Tarzan.
2. If you put a plate of chicken, pasta, bread, and broccoli in front of him, he will eat the broccoli first. He also loves to eat tomatoes, just plain tomatoes. He also loves peas, bananas, apples, pears. He’s a great eater. Really the only two things he absolutely dislikes so far are mustard and pickles. I don’t blame him.
3. If he throws you a football and you catch it (sometimes even if you don’t) he will throw his arms up in the air and yell “tuh-down!”. The kid loves him some football. And basketball. And baseball. And any other sport involving a ball.
4. He’s already picking up some of Mom and Dad’s good habits: He loves to put things back where they came from, he notices when things are out of place, he likes putting trash in the trash bin, and he hates to have dirty hands.
5. He loves to snuggle. He will cuddle up on my lap with a blanket and watch tv for tens of minutes – especially if there are snacks. We especially love ice cream.
6. He is a fantastic sleeper (although this has been the case from almost the beginning). He goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 every night without a fight and sleeps 12 to 13 hours. Even nap time goes smoothly. Sometimes he fusses a bit but if you just shut the door to his room he will quickly realize there is no point in fighting and he goes right to sleep.
7. He is a total goofball and that makes him a perfect fit for our home. Mike and I are total goofballs too.

Lest you think it’s all sunshine and roses, I will confess that I have one big problem with Luke. I’m not sure what to do about it, and I’m not sure there is anything I CAN do about it. The fact is, I cannot stop giving the boy kisses. He is just too damn loveable. What’s a momma to do?

I’m not drunk, I’m just wearing high heels. If any of my neighbors had just seen me walk to my car, they for sure would think that I had a little extra vodka in my orange juice this morning.
Good morning!

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