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School isn’t yet out, the traditional “official” start to summer is still a week away, and yet it’s definitely already summer. This past weekend was hot. The kind of hot that calls for backyard pools to be blown up and filled with cold water from the garden hose. The kind of hot that calls for sitting under the shade of a tree and watching the big girl keeping cool by splashing for hours in the pool.
Late Saturday afternoon my Mum arrived in town for a visit. We spent the day leading up to her arrival playing in the backyard, keeping cool in the shade. Maya had so much fun playing in her pool. She spent hours and hours splashing away in it, she was a wrinkled prune by the time she was done.
Anna splashed her feet in the pool a few times but preferred playing in the shade of the big oak tree.
We are spending this week showing my Mum around St. Louis. We’ll be enjoying trips to the wineries, the zoo, the park and many of our other favorite little spots. With the exception of today and tomorrow it is going to be HOT so I’m guessing we’ll be finding ourselves splashing in the backyard pool again too.
We had a wonderful Easter, very low key, but lots of fun. Maya had a blast hunting for Easter eggs and Anna enjoyed her first little Easter basket.
We started a new tradition this year. Saturday afternoon Maya planted some “magic” jelly beans in our garden. I gave her a small handful of jelly beans and told her they were “magic beans” and that if she planted them in the garden something special would grow from them and be waiting in the garden for her Easter morning. She wholeheartedly believes in magic right now so her eyes light up and she went on and on trying to guess what they might turn into. Easter morning we headed out to the garden and she found that her “magic” jelly beans had turned into a flower lollipop and a carrot filled with jelly beans. It blew her little mind! It was such a fun little activity and will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.
Though Anna is way too young to understand what was going on Easter morning she sure did enjoy the fact that a bunch of fun new toys appeared in front of her. She had so much fun playing with the little plastic eggs and her little Easter basket.
We had a lovely Easter morning with our girls. It is so fun to watch how excited they get and how magical it all is to them. The rest of our Easter was spent outside working in the yard and enjoying a nice dinner on our new patio. It was the perfect day.
This past week has been tough. Saying goodbye to Laura was hard and has left us all with heavy hearts and there have been lots of tears. However, living with two adorable little girls who can make me smile even at my worst has meant there have been lots of smiles in the sadness.
Maya was on spring break all last week. Which meant lots of extra trips to the park, leisurely walks to the grocery store, trips to the library and a very special Mommy/Maya date night to see Disney On Ice Dare to Dream. I asked Maya this morning if she enjoyed her break from school, she responded that she can’t wait to go back to school but she had fun staying home too especially seeing the princesses skating 
This has been a big week for Anna as well. She started out last week toothless and now has two little teeth. Her first tooth poked through last Tuesday and the other one made it’s appearance yesterday. The teeth were a big surprise because she wasn’t obviously teething. On Tuesday when her first tooth poked through I had felt in her mouth that morning as we were playing and she was biting on my hand. Later in the day we were out running errands, as I was putting her in the car she was giggling and squealing at Maya, I happened to notice a little tooth poking through her gums! Yesterday’s tooth came through just as easily and I didn’t know it was there until she bit down on my finger and I felt two little tooth buds instead of one. Hopefully all her teeth make their appearance this easily. Anna achieved another big milestone this past week as well, she has begun to be mobile. She hasn’t figured out how to crawl yet but has started pushing herself backwards, army crawl style. The funniest part is that she’ll often push herself backwards when she is trying to get something in front of her Here is a picture from her first ever adventure off the blanket. She started out right in front of Laura, she then pushed herself backwards, turned around and then rolled over in order to get that large pink piece of paper. It won’t be long now and she’ll be all over the place!
We ended our week off by attending the wedding of our friends, Michael and Serena. It was a beautiful day, as was the ceremony. We had a wonderful time watching them exchange their vows outside in the beautiful spring weather and then helping them celebrate afterwards. Maya loves weddings so she was just thrilled to get to go. Anna was her perfect little self, even when we kept her up way passed her bedtime!
Even though last week was filled with a lot of sadness and tears we still find time to smile.
Laura
10/1999 – March 20, 2012
We said goodbye to our dear, sweet Laura yesterday. She blessed us with her cuddles, snuggles and sweet personality for 12 wonderful years. We love our sweet girl and will miss her more than words can describe.
I have known this day was coming as Laura has been sick, really sick, for a while. I’m actually surprised it didn’t come sooner. But knowing this day was coming did not make it any easier. It is hard to get over that selfish desire to keep my sweet, cuddly furbaby here with me and admit that all the signs were there that it was time to say goodbye. When she was first diagnosed with chronic renal failure she was really sick and the vet hadn’t expected her to last long, but then the fluid treatments and medications we were giving her helped her bounce back a bit. I let myself dream that her bounce back would last for a while, and it did, but not long enough. Is it ever long enough?
One fall day, 12 years ago, I found myself at the humane society with my boss. We had a cat in our office and her and I were there to pick out a little friend for him. As I stood there looking at a kitten with her I felt a gentle touch on my arm. I turned around to find this adorable kitty reaching out of her cage at me. That kitty eventually came home with me and became my Laura. I’ve always thought I was meant to be her momma, that I was meant to be there that day so I could find her and bring her home with me.
Laura’s early life, her year of life before she came home with me, was hard on her. A visit to our vet found a kitty suffering from a laundry list of issues including a shattered hip, likely from being hit by a car, that required surgery, ringworm, an upper respiratory infection and she was suffering from diabetes (likely as a result of the trauma from her hip injury). Many months and lots of procedures and medication later she was healthy and had completely solidified her spot in my heart.
Laura was the cuddliest cat I’ve ever met. She was happiest when curled up next to one of us with her face pressed against us purring/snoring away. Her fur was so, so soft, like bunny fur. Petting her was so relaxing. She wasn’t an overly playful kitty, sleep was her favorite past time, but it was so adorable when she all of sudden got a big burst of energy and attacked a toy. From the moment we brought Maya home from the hospital Laura was in love. With Maya as a baby, and now with Anna, Laura would curl up close by and snuggle with the warm babies as they played on the floor. She would even tolerate all the fur and ear pulling because she just loved them and cuddling close to them. When I picture Laura I will always see her curled up on the back of the couch behind me, her warm, wet nose pressed firming into my shoulder, the sound of her purrs and snores drowning out everything else. You know a cat is truly at home, truly loved and truly relaxed in her own life when she can sleep like this.
I have always felt the need to make up for Laura’s hard start to life. I hope that the last 12 years she has felt the immense love I have for her, that we all have for her. I’ve cared for the best I could. I’ve done what I needed to do to keep her healthy. It breaks my heart that in end there just wasn’t enough I could do, there wasn’t a magic cure.
Laura, we love you and we will miss you immensely. You hold a special little spot in my heart and that spot will always belong to you. There isn’t another quite like you in this world, you were very special. I hope kitty heaven is filled with warm, sunny spots to sleep. Rest in peace sweet baby girl.
As Maya has outgrown her toys over the years some of her more favorite toys have made their way into storage bins waiting for new little hands to come along and play with them again. I haven’t had to buy Anna many toys at all because I already had all Maya’s toys. Before Anna was born I pulled out all the young baby toys, the rattles, soft books, teeters, etc, washed them and put them in new toy bins for her. Slowly as she has gotten bigger and more interested in toys I’ve brought out a few new things to add to her little collection.
The other day as she was sitting on the floor playing I decided to bring up a couple of new toys for her. I knew they were going to be a hit not only for Anna but for big sister Maya as well. The toys I brought up were a couple of Maya’s favorites when she was a baby and young toddler. And, I was right. The girls had so much fun playing with the “new” toys. They played together for close to an hour. Anna touching and getting to know her new toys and Maya showing her baby sister how everything works. It was so fun to watch them.
I think Anna was just a little happy to spend some time playing with her much adored big sister.
I’m not sure who enjoyed playing with the “new” toys more I do know that no one enjoyed watching the girls interact more than I did.