Obligatory introductory sentence here.
11/16: Home made pizza
After earlier's pizza fail, I was glad to have finally succeeded in making a pizza! Unfortunately, the crust was too hard, and while it was eaten, it wasn't' all that enjoyable. Boo!
11/17: No photo.
11/28: Autobots, prepare to roll out!
Optimus Prime and crew surveyed their surroundings from atop the coffee table.
11/19: Playing cars
Not much to say about this one, except that the Small Human has been enjoying that little garage set. Santa may need to bring some more Hot Wheels tracks this year. Just sayin'.
11/20: Teenage Mutant Ninja Human
I swear, there should be complimentary wine in stores for when you need to bring your children shopping with you. And I only have one to contend with! Anyway, the Small Human needed new clothes. The hat and the Ninja Turtle pajamas are among the items we purchased today.
Later that evening, the Small Human has his very first basketball practice today. He managed to make a shot!
11/21: No photo.
11/22: Our house, as described by the Small Human
The black thing is the roof, the red things are supposed to be windows, and the blue thing is the door. Frankly, I think this means that we live in a rocket ship.
11/23: Grocery shopping
This is part of my haul. Between visiting Mom, making lasagna on Sunday, brisket and latkes on Wednesday, and pumpkin pie and tomato pudding on Thursday, it was going to be a kitchen-filled week!
11/24: Mama's Lasagna
Remember that recipe book my mom made for us when we were kids? Well, don't worry about it if you don't. This recipe was one of them. The only difference was that I added spinach and used only half the noodles, since the rest just didn't fit in the pan. The Small Human proclaimed it the best dinner ever. Even if it had yucky spinach in it.
11/25: Getting ready for the holidays
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah fall on the same day this year, so we decorated for both.
11/26: What are you thankful for?
My Small Human writes, "I am thankful for my family."
11/27: Happy Hanukkah!
We lit the candles, said the blessings, and dug into a feast of brisket, slow cooked veggies, latkes, and cookies. I didn't post the photos here, but the Small Human and I spent the better part of the afternoon making cookies. We made them in the shapes of dreidels, stars of David, menorahs, turkeys, and pumpkins. The latke recipe I got from a book called
Spice and Spirit, and for the first time, they came out good! Huzzah!
In our house, we give one present on the first night of Hanukkah, and the rest of them on Christmas. Remember the fart gun from Despicable Me? Well, they make one for kids now. And that's what we got the boy for Hanukkah.
Here he is, farting at Daddy. The Small Human got a huge kick out of the toy, which meant fart noises nonstop for several hours.
Best present ever. Or worst present ever. I'm undecided.
11/28: Happy Thanksgiving!
I can't think of a better photo that signifies what the day was all about. Family getting together, giving thanks, and food. Oodles, and oodles of food. I brought my tomato pudding, which is very bad for you but very tasty. I made a pumpkin pie, too.
Speaking of pies, all the other grownups also brought pies.
This is but a sampling of them. There were 9 pies at the table, or one for every adult.
As one can imagine, we had Thanksgiving II the next day, and still had leftovers despite that!
11/29: Letter to Santa
Most kids when they write a letter to the Jolly Old Elf, start with, "Dear Santa, I've been a very good boy this year..." Not my child. Nope. He wrote out a shopping list of everything he wants. From Star Wars legos to Skylander toys (he's never even played the game, mind you!), it was there. And to this day, he keeps thinking of more things to add to it. We had a discussion that Santa probably won't bring everything on that list, since he has to get toys for girls and boys all over the world and there's only so much that fits in the sleigh.
11/30: A visit with Mom
I'm not a big fan of putting photos of my family members up while they are still in the hospital, but it's been 4 months now, and the end is no where in sight. So for Thanksgiving/Hanukkah weekend, we all descended to Mom's town for a visit. She's wearing headphones because right now she is attached to her ipod and is afraid to let go of it. It keeps her from fretting about her markers, pens, or Hello Kitty activity book.
I'm hoping when she finally gets to rehab, even if it's not the right rehab, that they'll be able to do something with her cognitively.
At least the kids had fun running up and down the hallways, and they each got to spend some time with their Grandma.
12/1: Putting up the Christmas lights
Looks like the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the day in our neighborhood for putting up the outside lights, and we were no exception. Our live trees don't seem to last all that long, so we normally wait til mid-December before we get ours. So no indoor tree as of yet. But the outside is filled with cheesy big light bulbs, net lights on the bushes, and animated deer. I love it!
12/2: The Giving tree
At the Small Human's school, there was a chance to participate in the Giving Tree. Basically, they give you an underprivileged kid and what they want for Christmas, and you buy it for them. Boy from Family #2 wanted a Ninja Turtle Lego set. I explained to the Small Human that we were going to Toys R Us, and that he wasn't going to get a blessed thing while we were there; we were there for Boy #2, and that was it. Not only did my son pick out the lego set for this child, he didn't once complain about not getting a toy while we were there. On top of that, he also wanted to give him a card. So off to Hallmark we went to pick up one of them as well.
I was very proud of my boy today.
12/3: A sickly Red Beast
My Red Beast isn't feeling too well these days. He's lost more weight, breathes heavy at times, and just wasn't interested in his breakfast in the morning. And he was limping, too. Did I mention that that he also has cancer? And an overactive thyroid? And possibly a heart condition? And constipation issues? And chronic sinusitis. with possible asthma? And a history of 3 strokes?
So. Not the healthiest beast one has ever met. And seeing him go downhill shouldn't be a surprise.
I brought him to work and we ran bloodwork and took X-rays. His gimpy leg looks fine. His heart looks enlarged, but his lungs look ok. He's not backed up with poo, even though he's got a hefty amount in there. His bloodwork showed that his thyroid was off again, this time with changes in his liver. So I changed his dose again and put him on pain medication for his limp.
But all these medical problems put me in a conundrum. The cat takes 5 medications already, and isn't fond of getting pills. It averages out to about 2 pills a day. Do I start treating the heart disease, which means adding at least one more pill a day to his regimen, probably two? The prednisone that he's on isn't good for his heart, but if I take him off of it, it will make the cancer and the sinusitis/asthma worse. If I increase it to help relieve the symptoms of said diseases, I put him at risk for another stroke. I can get his cancer restaged and start him on injectable chemo, but it means driving a half hour with a cat prone to carsickness, to get a regimen that may not even work because of the long term prednisone.
So I don't know what to do. I need to accept that the cat is likely dying. The least I can do is bring him to the kitchen to feed him his favorite food, and to pet him til he purrs.
12/4: The last night of Hanukkah
Nine pretty candles, all in a row!
See you in two to four weeks or so!
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