Giant Flying Scary Bug

is what I googled to try and find out what kind of bug my dad had taken home from my lawn. My sister was on the phone with me, and we had a good time laughing at all the gross bugs we were coming across before I ended up trying this particular search. Lo and behold, the bug in question was on the first page of images! I could not believe it. More laughing at the outrageousness of the search criteria coming up with the right bug. Accurate description, no? Anyway here it is. I dare you to go to this website and not get heebie geebies from the eyes and hairy legs. The picture I'm putting here is nothing compared to the picture on the website. You have been warned.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/1426/

Oh and incidentally they're called Giant Water Bugs, or "Texas Size Toe Biter" and they eat FISH and tadpoles and snails. And apparently it really hurts when they bite you. No shit, Sherlock.

Later in my conversation with Carol, Tilly came along and was biting my feet and toes. Carol dubbed her Tilly Toe Biter. If I could get this bug out of my head then I think it would be cute.

Sunday

Hayden is feeling better. Jake took him to the clinic on Thursday evening because he'd shown no improvement, and the doctor said both ears were infected and prescribed antibiotics. Almost right away it turned him around and by now, on the fourth day, he's made it the entire day without any motrin for pain.

The kittens eyes are starting to crack open, being one week old today. They're so cute! I love them. More picture soon.

Tilly is getting very big! So hard to believe two weeks ago she was so tiny and now she's almost able to get up on the couch by herself. She can make it up the step at the door all by herself. You know your puppy is getting big when her poops are double the size they used to be. Gross, but true. More pictures soon. Not of poops.

Sage is talking up a storm these days. We are going to take him to a free service called Word Play which helps develop language skills. He's supposed to have 50-100 words and we've made a list: he knows 40. Almost every day he comes up with a new one, and I add it to the list. Today he said "rock". We were outside and he was holding a rock and held it up and said "uhn?" and I said "rock" so he said "bock!"

Today was free hamburger day at Harveys and my dad came over and we all went in the van to the Home Depot Harveys and stood in the big line (but not overwhelmingly big) and got some yummy lunch. It was nice to spend so much time with my dad. We went on our trip and then a few days after we got back, he went on a trip down to Atlanta Georgia to visit his sister Joan. So we haven't seen much of each other lately. Sage calls him "Boppa" and Hayden says "Grampa". Anya calls him "Poppa" which she started on her own. I wonder what the twins will call him?

So another work week looms its terrible head before me. Last week I only worked 3 days because Monday was the holiday and then Tuesday Hayden was too sick to go to daycare. This week will be a full 5 days. bleh. I think I was only meant to work part-time, like, genetically speaking. But I still want to get paid the same. Can I do that?

This was a great weekend. The temperature was perfect, around 20 C on Saturday (70 F) and sunny. Marlene came over and we sat outside enjoying the weather. The water table I bought for the kids entertained them endlessly. And us too. OH and today when we went outside to sit and visit with my dad I noticed what I thought was a toad in the grass and when I bent down to look, it was a HUGE HIDEOUS BEETLE. My dad was interested in taking pictures of it and took it home in an old glass peanut jar. I had the heebie jeebies for a looong time afterwards. I'm hoping he'll send me a photo or two of it and I found a bug website where if you submit a photo, they'll help you find out what kind it is.

Take care, brush your hair. I'm going to bed now.

xoXOxo

With Or Without You - Sungha Jung

Obsessed with my pets

Updated pictures of the babies in the house (the wee babies, not the going-on-two-and-four babies... uh... wow my kids are getting old!):


I am cuter than YOU. (spoken in an OUTRAGEOUS French accent)

Haircuts and Sliders

I'm afraid Hayden looks a little ghostly in these photos because he's getting over an eye infection and is in the middle of an ear infection. Try to imagine him without the bags or red blotches.

Also I got him to stand on the scale yesterday and was shocked to discover that he's lost almost 4 lbs. He used to be ounces away from 40 lbs and now he's down to 35.6. I don't know what to do to get him to eat! Suggestions?

Sage is just fine. He's a little trooper! Today he said Nanna for the first time, pointing at a picture of Jake's mom. Then he said Boppa which he's called my dad, but there were no pictures of him around.

The Hair Cuts:
Note the tres short styling around the ears:

Jake calls it Nerd Hair
I think it's cute.
They both loooove this slide.

It came with a bouncy basketball.

He's about to say "Cheese!"
I told him to smile big since the previous picture didn't quite turn out. This is a little over-the-top happy. Sad, gaunt little boy.


Action Sequence 1:

Action Sequence 2:
Action Sequence 3:
Action Sequence 4:Bird Face!

Hey Yellowknifers

It's the same temperature here as it is in Yellowknife. 1 degree celcius. That's about 33 degrees farenheight for all the american readers. That's cold. I wonder if it's going to warm up, because I have a garden to dig today...

Look Ma, No Hands!

Thursday afternoon (pre-haircuts) Hayden and Sage were eating goldfish crackers without the use of their hands. Sage ran away while I was getting the camera, but Hayden kept on going until they were all gone.

Kittens!

Here they are! Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton Tail! Three little kittens who've lost their mittens. They kept me awake till 4:30am last night, and made me worry all day because their mom wasn't birthing them yet her water broke and she was having contractions at 12:30am last night... But they were worth it! Gorgeous and two of them completely unlike any kittens I've been around before.

In some of the pictures it's hard to tell what's momma and what's baby because they're all the same colours: white, grey, and tan (dilute calico girl who will be hard-pressed to leave my home, me having a soft spot for dilute calicos), white with grey dalmationy spots (which might turn out to be black as he ages), and an all tan boy. Kitty's back leg is in there, with a tan spot on it the same colour as Tan Boy, so try not to get confused. Oh well. Here they are!!

Weekend Update

Hayden
Has had an earache since 3am Saturday morning;
Screamed his head off at the clinic this evening only to be told it is viral and to tough it out;
Got a haircut on Thursday by yours truly which is quite short due to a trimmer accident;
Has 6 new pairs of tighty whities and tomorrow the plan is to have no pull ups!

Sage
Also has a short hair cut, but there were no accidents on his head;
Is developing his language and now can say Milk quite clearly, as well as Hat, Cheese, Eyes, Ouch, Ow, Hey, Whee, Mine, Me Hat (sentence?!) and more;
Is down to one binky (see Tilly's update)

Jake
Was not grumpy yesterday morning or this morning, even tho both days were early ones;
Has to tuck his sweater into his track pants to help keep them up;
Bought the kids a little tikes Play Centre with slide and helped set it up yesterday.

Jennifer
Was VERY grumpy this morning (see Kitty's update);
Helped set up the Play Centre and likes using the cordless drill;
Is mad at the doctor at the clinic who said Hayden's ear is viral;
Will be digging her garden beds tomorrow!

Tilly
Still pees and poos on the carpet, but not in her crate;
Has destroyed only 2 things so far: both of them Sage's Binkies;
Has been with us exactly one week today;
Is a bundle of fun!

Kitty
Went into labour last night at 12:30am but stopped at 4:30am;
Wouldn't stay in the nice nest I made for her;
Took 18.5 hours to deliver the first kitten (today at 7pm);
Has had 3 kittens so far, and I think that might be it (over 2 hours later, no new kittens for an hour and a half);
Will be getting spayed in exactly 8 weeks because I'm not going through this again.

Kittens
Are so cute;
Two boys, one girl, all differently coloured;
Girl is gorgeous dilute calico just like her mommy only more spotty;
Boy One is mostly solid light orange or tan;
Boy Two is white with dalmation black spots and quite distinctive!

Tilly

We decided on Matilda, but Tilly for short and always. Jake wanted something from Pink Floyd lyrics (Matilda fits that) and I like Jennifer Tilly the actress who plays poker and dates Phil Laak, "The Unibomber" (professional poker player and very cute). In this way both of us agreed on the name. Well, actually Jake vetoed Matilda and Tilly, but I liked it so much I SUPER vetoed his veto, which I had stipulated prior to the name searching that I could do. But I don't think his veto was a very enthusiastic one, because instead of saying VETO all loud and definite, when I suggested the name he said "we'll see" which in Jake language means Yes.

Puppy!

My mother's day present! We have been trying all day to think of a name for her. Suggestions?

Jake looking possessive and a little scary.
Hayden loves the puppy.
Sage started to get up at the exact second I snapped this picture.

Sage's eyes, close-up.
She was yawning but doesn't it look like she's laughing?
So tiny. They said she was 6 weeks old a few days ago, but the ad said the litter was born April 2nd, which would put 6 weeks on this Wednesday.
The cage we got her is a little large, but I guess it's better to be too big than too small. She fell asleep in there right away.
And Hayden was happy.

After a little nap, she ate some food.
We were facinated.
Cute little thing. She keeps falling asleep. She peed on our carpet once, just after we got home. I had the forethought to remove our new rug for a little while, until she's housebroken. I took her outside a little while later and she peed outside! I gave her lots of praise.