Outside

The weather is so nice out after school these days, so we've been playing at the playground, blowing bubbles, riding bikes, and playing with chalk.  I drew this Yoda for the kids and I was pretty pleased with it and of course, Sean had a great story to go along with it...

"Yoda is flying above our heads and he is coming to our house to bring us presents! Yoda has a walking stick and a 'light-saver' and he will use it against all our enemies!"

After we finished up with chalk on this particular afternoon, we rode bikes down to the creek to see what's going on at the "waterfall."  Sean and Clare made a game of throwing as many sweet gum balls as they could gather into the creek.

The kids really like to come here - they like to look around, throw things into the water, and play hide-and-go-seek.  This is a neat spot in our neighborhood - I even used to take Pepper for a break on long walks on hot days. I'd sit on some rocks and Pepper would work up the courage to try to wade into the water.  

Hide-and-go-seek... Clare is hiding:

Throwing more sweet gum balls:

When we'd had enough of the creek and the woods, Sean hopped back on his bike and Clare trotted along with him while I carried her bike all the way home.

Pepper

It's been a little over month since we said goodbye to Pepper.  I picked up his ashes from the vet right before Thanksgiving and it was when I was carrying that hefty little box to the car that it really hit me that poor PepperDog was gone for good.  But, the Sooy family is getting used to life without a dog again - food can be left on the kitchen counter without a second thought, there's a little extra work cleaning up the floor after mealtimes, and there's no constant jangle of Pepper's tags as he skulks around the house - constantly underfoot and nosing his way into any box, bag, or basket. 

Although the main thing we were feeling was sadness when it was time to say goodbye, we were also anxious about how Sean would react to Pepper's absence.

What would he ask?  How would we answer?  Was there a way to explain Pepper's absence without scaring him - or worse, scarring him? We figured that being honest would be our best bet.  We didn't want to use euphemisms, which might confuse him - or as we worried - scare him.

We explained that Pepper was sick - his legs didn't work well and for dogs that is not a good thing. So, Pepper went away and he won't be back because he died. It's okay to be sad and it's okay to miss him.  He was a good dog and we love him.

I guess Thom John and I expected Sean to be very concerned and upset about Pepper's absence - that silly dog was a big part of our homelife and taking care of Pepper was a big part of our daily routine.  I can tell even on the blog, posts that don't feature Pepper still have him lurking somewhere in the background - or even the foreground - he liked to be in the mix.

Sean asked about Pepper a lot the first few days, but he's only asked about Pepper a couple of times since. When we see another dog in the neighborhood, Sean tells the other dog's owner about his dog "Pepper is my dog.  He has a long tail.  It a straight tail.  He's a BLACK dog!" 
I did get a little flustered the other night when Sean asked, "Hey Mommy, where's my pal, Pepper? He's my pet." I recited the "Pepper's gone" speech and when I finished, Sean seemed throughtful for a minute, and then brighten up and asked me if he could watch "a little TV, please? A little Shrek please, Mommy?" Just like that - he'd accepted what I'd said and was thinking of something else. 

That's alright, he's a busy boy. Besides, there are other things to focus on. Like playing with shapes -"Look Mommy, this a quarter moon!"

Goodbye Pepper

This is a post I was not prepared to write anytime soon.  I haven't been writing about Pepper's recovery from knee surgery last month because it hasn't been going so well.  It's silly, but I felt that if I'd write about his problems, they'd become more serious. Unfortunately, Pepper did not regain the ability to walk normally - he got a little better but then he got worse. A few days ago, he began dragging his rear legs behind him while walking normally with his front legs. Our vet referred us to a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania and I took him yesterday to get checked out.   

The neurologist who saw Pepper, as well as a senior neurologist, both determined that at some point, Pepper had suffered irreparable spinal damage, paralyzing his hindquarters. He wasn't in pain, but he had no feeling in most of the lower part of his body and the doctor said that his condition would continue to degrade until he gets severely sick, has bladder and infection issues, and ultimately experiences much higher levels of pain. Since aggressive surgery was given a 5% chance of success, and because his condition will continue to get worse, we decided to save him that anguish.

I brought him back home yesterday and we took him to our regular vet this morning and said goodbye. Pepper could be a real pain in the neck sometimes, but he was also very loving, silly, clever, and a true member of this family.  As Thom John said, Pepper relished his role as the family’s protector, and welcomed each new baby home warmly.  We're grateful to Pepper for all he's taught us - especially all he's taught Sean about caring for and loving animals. We're sad that Sean and Clare won’t be able to get to know him better, but we're thankful for the time we did have with him.

Odds n' Ends

-Something I forgot to mention in Baby Clare's 5 month post is how grabby and handsy she is.  She reaches for anything that comes into her line of sight and if she gets a hold of an object - a toy, mommy's hair, a nose, whatever - she holds on tight!

-Sean has started saying "please" and "thank-you" unprompted!  Hooray!  He's received many stickers from his teacher for helping to clean up and for good listening.

-Baby Clare should be cutting her first tooth any day, I think.  She's so mouthy and drooly - she goes through at least 8 bibs a day.

-Sean is becoming a whiz at counting in Spanish - he can count from uno to diez - no problemo! Although many times he skips "uno" and just starts with "dos." :-)

-The kids had a great beach day on Sunday!  Aunt-Aunt Alice took the kiddies to the beach while Mommy and Daddy ran the LBI 18-miler in order to gear up for the NYC marathon. What was a nice warm day for the kids was a brutally hot and sunny race for Mommy and Daddy - but we did it!

-Pepper seems to be on the mend.  He's taking his medicines faithfully and without complaint - thank goodness for peanut butter!  Sean is being so nice to Pepper during his recovery - he uses nice hands without even being reminded and even sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" each night before we head upstairs to eat dinner (we have to leave Pepper downstairs since he can't use the stairs - Pepper comes back out after the kiddies have their bath and bedtime).

Franken-Dog

Time for a PepperDog update (with a pretty gross picture)! When we last left off, we were working on conservative management of Pepper's bum knee. Well, that wasn't working out so well. Pepper got worse so we opted for surgery before his other leg or hips get hurt. The vet operated on him yesterday and I took him home this morning.  I was able to work from home today so I could monitor Pepper's first day of recovery which mostly consisted of me hollering at Pepper when he attempted to walk around and to carry him to the backyard to do his business. 

At least we have his Halloween costume figured out - Franken-Dog!

He's not heavy - he's our Pupsy :-)

Poor Pupsy

Towards the end of the summer, we noticed that Pepper seemed to have lost the spring in his step.  At first, we thought he was settling into the middle-age of his doghood, but soon we noticed that the spring was replaced with a limp.  A trip to the vet determined that Pepper has a bum knee - the cruciate ligament in his right hind leg is bugging him. 

Pepper giving me the stink-eye last week

No longer a 9-lb ball of puppy-energy, Pepper is a prime candidate for this kind of knee problem now that he's a middle-aged, neutered, male dog of medium build.

Pepper at 4 months

The vet could not tell if the ligament was strained or ruptured, but he put Pepper on a course of anti-inflammatory medicine to see if that would help.  If not, we'll talk to the vet to see what the next step could be. Also, we're to limit the lengths of his walks and try to keep him from being too exuberant.  Riiiight.

Pepper on the night we got him - January 2006

Piano!

For a long time, we've been talking about getting a piano for the Sooy Babies. It just so happened that an opportunity to buy one came up this past weekend at Peter and Andrea's engagement party, when Andrea's family mentioned that an Aunt was selling her piano.

It was delivered on Tuesday!

Sean loves it.

When he first saw it, he said, "What's that? What that 'peh-nano' doing?"

Pepper's not a fan. No sir, not at all. He barks and whines when the piano is played. He'll get used to it. He always does.

"Why you crying, Pepper? Hey, pal. Come here pal. It okay Pepper - it the peh-nano! You like the peh-nano, Pepper?"

Sean's been busy showing me the "number 4 key"(??) and "patting" the keys while singing "Home on the Range" and "Buffalo Girls."

Mommy's fixing to teach herself how to play some of Sean's favorite songs - "Frosty the Snowman" and "Happy Birthday" are at the top of the list - to help her earn "Coolest Mommy Ever" status in Sean's eyes.

41 Weeks

Can you believe we're at 41 weeks again? These Sooy babies sure are stubborn. Right now Sister continues to gain weight and practice breathing in preparation for the outside world. We saw on the ultrasound on Tuesday that she was drinking amniotic fluid like it was going out of style!

Tomorrow morning I'll get a call from the hospital to tell me exactly what time to come in and then we'll get this show on the road. Thom John's excited to resume his role of Daddy-blogging while I hope to nap all day while waiting for the induction meds to kick in :-)

Here's the 41-week belly shot:And here's Pepper right behind me - watching my every move:

Head scratchers

Head scratcher #1:
Thom John & I got some spicy Pad Thai for dinner tonight to satisfy a craving of mine and my fortune cookie said: "You will receive a surprising gift very soon." Nice! Thom John's fortune, on the other hand, was a little more mysterious - "Do not let great ambitions overshadow small success." Hmmm.

Head scratcher #2:
Since I've been working from home, I've been in close quarters with Pepper. Instead of his usual activities of sleeping and looking out the window, Pepper's been spending a lot of time these past few days staring at me, following me around closely and trying to sit on my feet. Either he's trying to annoy me into going back to the office or perhaps he can sense impending labor?

Happy Due Date, Little Sister!

Well, this feels oddly familiar. It's Little Sister's Due Date and she's nowhere to be found. We do have a few more hours left in the day, but still...

All the pregnancy websites and books are congratulating me for making it to the finish line. Little Sister could be anywhere between 7-10 lbs and 18-21 inches long. At birth, she'll have 300 bones, but some will fuse together over time, so she'll end up with 206. I've been reading that no one really knows what starts labor for sure, but one idea is that the baby sends out hormones to the placenta to get things going - which means she'll come out when she's good and ready!

So, we're ready and waiting - Thom John is done with the Spring semester (hooray!!), I'm good to stop working whenever I like, and I think Pepper and Sean are ready for us to stop talking about Sister and to just bring her home, already! :-)

Pepper kept watch for the new baby for a little while today:But he eventually gave up and napped for a few hours:Sean could care less about his sister's whereabouts. He was engrossed in his dinner and then demanded to watch one of the nature videos he currently loves to watch on You Tube ("watch the Yaks, Mommy!"). He went to bed after a nice bath and several readings of Eric Carle's "The Grouchy Ladybug" and "The Very Busy Spider."

"Aminals" in our backyard

The other night we had quite a gathering in our own backyard of all our regular animal friends - the unusual thing was that they were all out at once!

Sean and Pepper watching:

There was our regular gang of wild turkeys ("too-keys"):

The (blurry) deer:

and our neighbor's cat (a/k/a Pepper's twin):

Pepper was so excited about all the activity, we had to put him inside for fear that he'd jump off our second-story deck in an attempt to get(?) all the animals.

And it was heck getting Sean to come inside that night - so much to see! So many "aminals" to talk to! "Gobble gobble too-keys!" and "Meeoooooow, cat!" and "Hi, deers!"

Working from home

I am ginormous. It takes a huge effort these days for me to get ready for work, get myself to work, and then do work. Not to mention the fact that I have to try to work while hearing comments from well-meaning(?) co-workers about how pregnant I am. So, I've been taking advantage of the wonders of technology and working from home once or twice a week.

Working from home definitely has its advantages. For instance, the dress code can't be beat. I feel much more productive in yoga pants than I do in my maternity office wear. Another plus side is that the seating arrangement is much more preferable - stretching out on the couch or cozying up in an overstuffed armchair is way better than sitting stiffly in my office chair.

However, there are some drawbacks to working at home. Snacks are more readily available - it's harder to resist the call of a big bowl of chocolate Chex and ice-cold milk when my kitchen is in the next room as opposed to being in the next state. Also, I admit it's sometimes hard to stay motivated. At work, the constant din of clicking keyboards and people on telephone calls keeps me focused. At home, the background noise is whatever I'm playing on iTunes and the sound of this guy snoring: Pepper spends about 90% of the day like this - only getting up to follow the sun, drink water, bug me for a cookie, or bark at something out the window. I know I'm very lucky to be able to do this, so I do my best to adhere to the work-at-home policies (i.e. - WORK while working at home) :-) All in all, this is a great option for me in these last few weeks (or days? or month? - what do you think, Sister?).

Good idea

It was a good idea to have Sean wear a bib for our Sunday afternoon snack - apple slices ("appuhl smacks"). Sean's teeth act like a little juice press.

It was an especially good idea since Sean decided he'd practice drinking water from Mommy's cup:

But we must keep in mind that picnicking on the kitchen floor often brings about uninvited snackers - snackers who tend to push to let us know they're hungry, too:
"Not nice, Pah-pur!"

March

I'm afraid this post will taunt Old Man Winter into sending us a big snowstorm, but it sort of feels like Spring is trying to spring here - we were able to play outside both days last weekend in warm-ish sunshine!

On a walk with Pepper in the stroller:

At the playground with Sean's bike:

Climbing up the to the slide:

Another sure sign that Spring is on its way - the turkeys are appearing on a regular schedule in the backyard again:

Pepper doesn't even bat an eye at the turkeys anymore: