James loses tooth #2! :)

The Tooth Fairy made an appearance last night for the second time!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."

Nevermind the awkward crop... he moved. It's not like I am a pro or anything. ;) Ha.

We love you Kona!

When you adopt a pet, you go into it with the understanding that they won't live forever. Eventually they will die, it's just a matter of when and how.
We are experiencing that with our sweet Kona. We adopted him in Paso Robles, CA in 2002 when we were living in Santa Barbara. We were instantly in love with the fur-ball and he has remained a family member ever since, traveling with us to Iowa and then to Florida.
His favorite things in his life are his walks at night with Nathan and playing fetch with tennis balls. When were in Cali, going to the dog park and running on the beach and galloping in the ocean were his most treasured moments. He whined in the car the whole time we were driving there. :)
On with this story.... After we boarded him over Thanksgiving break when we went to Iowa, he started coughing. We thought he had "kennel cough" which is vaccinated against, but like the human influenza, the vaccine doesn't cover all strains. So we brought him to the vet and started treatment for it.
A week and a half or more went by and he was still coughing, but it seemed to be getting worse. One evening he didn't eat dinner and then the next morning, again, he left his food in his dish. If you know Kona, or any other Lab for that matter, they DON'T leave their food. ;)
That was it for me. I called and got him an appointment as soon as I could (side note: if you don't go to the Winter Park Vet Hospital, you should- they are awesome).
Doctor Morford was working that day, so she was helping us with Kona. She examined him and then suggested that we move forward with some blood work. If that came up clean, they x-rays would be in order. I was okay with all of that, so Kaitlyn and I left Kona there and went to the post office and then home.
A few hours later I hadn't heard from them, so I called. They had done the blood work, and it came up clean, so they did the x-rays. She said that it looked like he has nodules on his lungs and that it was either pneumonia... or... I had to suggest it... the "c" word.
We decided to send the x-rays to a place that can read the x-rays with more detail to see what they thought. Meanwhile, I took Kona home. The x-rays would take a while, maybe 48 hours at most, to be read.
When we got home, Kona was significantly fatigued (it seemed to me). He looked like he was falling asleep with his head up. I still think my frame of mind made me a bit sensitive to his actions, but I literally thought he was going to die right then. I called the vet back, and since we still thought it was pneumonia, asked them if we could start treatment for that right away. I was sure he wouldn't make it until we got the x-rays back if we didn't treat him.
As soon as I mentioned to Kona that we were going in the car, he jumped up and ran out to the car. Ah, now, I saw, it was just me and my imagination. However, since they were expecting us at the vet already, we went anyway.
Dr. Morford showed me the x-rays when we got there. Sure enough, his lungs had strings of white in them (when they should be black), and there were little spots everywhere. I really still thought pneumonia would be the culprit.
Kaitlyn and I left Kona there again to start treatment for pneumonia (IV fluids and stronger medicine) while we waited for the readings.
I got a call from Dr. Morford around 2 p.m. with the results. She told me that the doctor reading the x-rays was pretty confident that it was cancer. She told us a bit later that they don't say that unless they are sure, to cover themselves. That's understandable.
Nathan was out golfing, so when he got home, he and I went to the vet. I had called Nathan in tears and had to tell him on the phone that Kona had cancer. I was sure we were going to have to put him down that night, and even went so far as to tell the kids that Kona may not come home. I bawled all day long. You should have seen my eyes. I looked like a crack addict by the end of the day.
Nathan and I sat with Kona when we got there (he was still hooked up to the IV giving him some fluids since he hadn't been eating). We cuddled and waited for Dr. Morford to be able to chat with us for a while. She showed the x-rays to Nathan and explained everything to him as she did to me, but this time talking about how it was cancer instead of pneumonia.
Nathan and I talked with her about what we could do, and we decided to take him home. He's not in any pain, and he's okay for now. We are giving him steroids to help him be more comfortable with is breathing, but they won't work forever. Eventually they won't help anymore.
We talked with Dr. Morford about Kona's quality of life and all decided that we'd know when enough is enough. At that time, we will say goodbye to our beloved dog.
For now, we are loving him and petting him a ton, taking pictures and enjoying his presence. My clothes are covered in dog hair and that is fine with me. We have had a great 8 years with him. As far as the kids go, they don't really understand. They know that he will be going to live with God soon, but that's it. James said that God will play with tennis balls with him.

Here are some shots from the last few days....

"Can I eat, please?" He's being spoiled with canned food with his dry food... and he LOVES it. :)

At the hospital...

Snoozer... he's acting like an 8 year old dog now rather than the "puppy-hood" that lasted 8 years.

Kaitlyn loves Kona.

"Kona, do you want a treat?"

Such a handsome boy.

That Tooth Fairy can be just plain tricky!

This morning I woke up to hearing James cry out, "The Tooth Fairy didn't leave me anything! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He was CRYING!
I told Nathan that James was crying so he hopped out of bed to go investigate.
This is the conversation I heard over the monitor (given my sleepiness and difficulty waking up this morning, this is not verbatim. ;) )
Nathan, "What's wrong, buddy?"
"The Tooth Fairy didn't leave me ANYYYYTHIIIIIING!" James cried out.
"Well, let's look around," said Nathan.
They ended up finding the tin box that the tooth had been in under James' bed. My guess is that after the Tooth Fairy had put the money in the tin, someone's lashing around in bed may have caused it to fall off of the bed and roll under it. JUST a GUESS now, right?
So Nathan found it and let James open it. I heard a child-sized high pitch gasp. There it is!
"Two dollars!" James said and then, "Why isn't there five dollars in there? It's my first time!"

Oh for goodness' sake. How much are these parents paying their kids for teeth now? He has to lose 19 more! Sigh. I just wanted to put one dollar in there, Nathan convinced me to do two! :)

Nathan and I were a bit worried about what his friends were gonna be saying how much they got... and apparently we weren't thinking high enough. I might need to set up a separate Tooth Fairy bank account. Sigh.

Just pull it out!

James lost his first tooth today! His bottom two front teeth have been loose since before Thanksgiving, and apparently today one of them lost it's root. It was really wiggly when Nathan and James came into the bathroom where Kaitlyn was watching me put on my makeup. Nathan told me that I HAD to see how wiggly it was... so he showed me.
"That thing has GOT to come out." Nathan said.
"James! Just reach in there and pull it out! Grab a hold of it and pull!" I told James.
We were shocked when he actually did, he grabbed a hold of it and pulled! When he pulled his hand away from his mouth and was holding his tooth, I screamed! Ha! I can't believe he actually did it!
He was so cute. We were all laughing and he was a bit shocked at himself as well, he even got a little teary-eyed. I think he got a little weak in the knees when he was spitting the blood out into the sink.
We immediately called both Grandmas. :)
My boy... I remember like yesterday that he cut those two bottom teeth right before Thanksgiving, and now, 5 years later, they are falling out. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Awww, how cute!

We found the kids huddled up together on the chair reading together with the Poingo pen. Kaitlyn is dressed up as a princess, she does this EVERY day. :)

SMM Advent Concert

Kaitlyn had fun playing with my phone while we waited for the concert to start...





... and then the anticipated moment. HOW ADORABLE! Don't miss James winking at us... :)

Game Day with a corny ending

Nathan had me snap a few photos of him and the kids before he went to go watch the game. He had already taken them to the Farmer's Market in the morning in their team shirts. James went up to a lady at the park that they play at after the market and said, "It's game day because Iowa State plays football!"

Then we had corn for dinner from the market. Kaitlyn LOVES corn. She nearly ate two whole ears all by herself. I'm glad she doesn't wear diapers anymore. ;)

James and Daddy shared a quesadilla because James was having a hard time eating the corn off of the cob. His bottom teeth are getting wiggly!!!

This is so funny. I'm glad Nathan found a fellow corn lover with whom to share the pure joy of eating fresh corn. (Click View Original Post on Facebook to see video)

Don't trust this one

Nathan's Story:

So Kaitlyn is a little con artist. Unfortunately, she can get away with it.

I was doing laundry, folding sheets, and she had gotten into the Halloween candy. She brings over a full size bag of M&Ms and tells me, "Daddy, you haven't had any candy for a while. You should eat these."

I knew full well where she was going with this, but I decided to let it play out. I finished folding the sheets and went to sit on the couch. I proceeded to open the bag and eat a few M&Ms, all while Kaitlyn watched.

"Aren't those good? Those are M&Ms. They are really chocolatey." (really, she said chocolatey)

"Yes, Kaitlyn, they are good." I said. "I like M&Ms."

"I like M&Ms too!" she says.

I let a little time pass, eat a few more pieces.

"Yep, I really like M&Ms," she says. And this is what I was expecting for a while now. "Wanna share?"

And would you say no?

Letters

Kaitlyn has been singing the alphabet with Mimi a lot lately, it's adorable. Since I work upstairs I hear her singing because she's usually belting it out. We have a puzzle that has the letters on it, so they go one by one putting their fingers on the letter as they are singing. The great thing, and the weird thing, is that it's working.
Tonight, after reading a Star Wars book (her choice, yes), she started to point out letters of the words on the back page. Why I said it was weird is because the puzzle letters are all upper case, and these were mixed, starting with upper case and then lower case letters like usual. She knew almost ALL of the letters! I was SHOCKED! I am so proud of my little girl, she's so smart! :) She even trumped James at one point when he didn't know the "d" right away. WOW!

Honey Bee

Honey got to come home for the weekend with Kaitlyn. She is the class "pet" from Mrs. Santilli's class at the Methodist School.
The kids were with my mom for most of the weekend since I'm still battling mono and can't seem to concentrate on one thing for longer than a minute. So I'm not sure how the rest of the time went. I do know that as soon as James got home from school on Thursday, they were fighting over who got to play with her. I had to tell James a few times that Honey got to sleep in Kaitlyn's bed and not his. He was slightly heartbroken. Ha.
Here are some cute pics of the kids with Honey while they WEREN'T fighting over her.

Kaitlyn Sends a Message to Bennett

Harriet Potter (aka Kaitlyn) wanted to send a message to Bennett, her cousin. She needed some prompting, but I think she got all of it in there. ;)

Halloween 2010

Kaitlyn really enjoyed trick-or-treating tonight because she understands it for the first time. Nathan said for about the first 15 houses, every time she'd run back to him yelling, "Daddy, I got more candy!" :)
Nathan's philosophy is to "save" the kids from having to eat all of the candy by eating it for them. ;)

Halloween Party at MSEE

Kaitlyn and her friends got to celebrate Halloween with the traditional parade and party! She is a fairy this year! :)

James' Field Trip to the Corn Maze

Since I have been flattened by another case of mono, Nathan took my place at James' first field trip. All of the kindergarten classes went up to the corn maze for the day, and it looks like they had a great time.

James standing with Ashton in front of the tractor made of hay:

One of James' favorite friends, Giancarlo:

James' KC friends: