Why do we even have that cat?!?

[A Love Letter to my husband]

Dear Dwayne,

It is increasingly clear to me why you are the breadwinner in this family.  It’s not just because you make 3 times what I used to make as a teacher or you are really enjoy your job.  No.  We both know it’s so you can leave the house for a long stretch everyday and not deal with the dead rodent the cat brought in and tore to pieces underneath the slide today.   You go to work so that you don’t have to hear Kyla come up the stairs and tell you matter-of-factly that there’s “something dead” downstairs again while you are settling a crying infant.  You bring home enormous bonuses and benefits so that you don’t have to clean up the intestines of---was that a chipmunk??—that are stuck to the beige carpet.  Do you know what happens when the intestines stick to the carpet?  Well, let’s just say it gets very messy and the pet soiling cleaner must be brought out.  And so must the vacuum to clean up all the hair tufts strewn around the basement. 

Of course you miss me muttering about our bad cat and Kyla saying, “That’s right.  Bad cat.  We should call him Bad Cat.  That’s his new name.  Bad Cat.”  She’s a sympathetic listener, that one.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I understand and that I love you.  At least as much as you love me.

Your wife,

Denise

To the Zoo!

Grandma and Grandpa K took the girls for a few days and made a day trip to Pt. Defiance Zoo. The girls had a great time and had been asking for such an adventure for weeks now. The weather was good, the graham crackers were excellent, the animals were out….and Piper zonked. Kyla played in the kid area while Piper took an extra long nap in the stroller.

Celebrate!

Coco was born exactly two months after Piper, so she turned two last week. That and her dedication called for a celebration! It was so fun—many from the old Poiema crowd gathered, most with their own kids now. The backyard was just the right size for pint-size play. Thanks, Coco, for the fun!

April Showers

Wesley

 

Wesley will be 3 months old tomorrow.  He’s smiling a lot, and more importantly, sleeping great.  This little genius started rolling over before he was 10 weeks old!  Right now, he is sleeping on my lap with his little bottom up in the air.  Mama is so in love.

 

Stain Removal: A User’s Guide

I’ve never had OxyClean fail me before, but when a particular child possessed by an evil spirit (could there be another explanation?) used a dry erase marker on my dining room chairs that I had re-upholstered myself, my best tricks failed to remove the stains. Finally, I “Binged” the problem (thank you Microsoft, and my apologies to Google), and found other frustrated mothers had decent luck with Murphy’s oil soap and an old toothbrush. Eventually, most stains came out or faded enough so that only I notice. And I only had to spend about an hour and half working on it.

This incident begs the questions:

1. How did I find 90 minutes to work on this?
2. How can one find a good exorcist?

Hail and Happiness

Yesterday, we woke up to hail and it didn’t melt until afternoon. We didn’t have snow at all this winter, and we get hail in April. At least it didn’t harm any of the flowers that started to bloom early because of the unseasonably warm weather we had before this!

But today erased the memory of the previous cold. First we woke up and the girls wanted to be in the crib with Wesley.

Later, since it was spring break, I took the kids down to the school yard to play. Kyla rode her scooter all the way there except the steepest hill. Piper is still mama-powered, instead of foot-powered, on the scooter.

Kyla likes to play pretend basketball—she scores every time!