Rhymes With Orange

This post brought to you by chocolate milk. I swear the baby is floating in it by now.

Happy Easter everyone!

I am totally worn out right now, so we'll just jump into the picture content ;)

The Easter Bunny's eggs ain't got nothin' on this belly.

Little MO is now a little over four pounds and is in the correct head-down pose with his tray table up, and his seat back in the full upright position. I'm excited! Except for the whole being kicked in the ribs thing. Not so pleased with that.

Chloe and Eli have called it a truce and have become friends. She smacks him on the head and cleans his ears; he bites her tail and sleeps on her belly. That is totally the meaning of friendship right?

Tune in next time for: Fedex brought the wooden dowels, so where is mah bay-bee?

It's 5am. Why am I awake?

This had something to do with it:

This is Eli. He's 11 weeks old, and the newest tenant of Chez Watrous. The little 9oz ball of fun decided at 4am that he'd had enough of this sleeping thing and could we please take him out of the bathroom mew, mew, mew. Thinking perhaps he was lonely and missing his brother, we brought him into bed with us to see if he would go back to sleep. Nope. He was just looking for a party and spent the next 45 minutes on my head, down my shirt and sitting on Mike's face. So here I am. There will be napping later.

Ms. Chloe is not happy in the least bit. Despite the fact that she has 10lbs on him, she still thinks that he could hurt her if he touched her. Or at least mess up her aura and ruin her chi. She has taken to bed and refuses to leave. The world just isn't safe for one so delicate as she.

We adopted Eli yesterday from a local animal rescue. He and his brother were born to apartment dwellers, and they were the last of the litter to not find homes. The landlord told the original owners to get rid of them pronto, so the rescue stepped in and helped. He's an incredibly sweet little thing and has a slightly unhealthy love of my boobs. In case you're wondering, he did not escape the long winded naming trend of all Watrous cats, I assure you. His full name is Eli Gideon Rainier Watrous.

So here we are. Two exhausted parents, one hissy sister and a little man ready to party. God's way of prepping us for the arrival of Little MO. Or at least our own sitcom.

(Taking clear pictures of him is like trying to dig a hole on the beach without it filling with water.)

Updates for all

I haven't posted in a long time. Like a really, really, really long time. I could lie and say that I've been extraordinarily busy, but that would just be rude. Truth is, I've been moping around my parent's house eating all of their bananas.

Mike is in Louisiana where he is moving into our new apartment today. I'm really excited and also a little scared. We've never rented an apartment before (no base housing at Barksdale), so this will be quite the adventure. The place we chose is beautiful, close to base and a very safe environment, but I'm still a little anxious. It's just so easy to get to used to the security of living on base (the convenience and lack of housing costs were nice too.) I'm flying down with Ms. Chloe in two weeks to be with him. I can't wait. I love being with my family, but I miss him so badly already.

In Baby Orange news: My tummy is huge. Very soon I will no longer have a belly button, and I'm rapidly losing the ability to reach my feet. We are 22 weeks now and baby is bumping around and kicking so much. I love the little kicks! Also, when he (or she) first wakes up in the morning, I can feel small fingers gently brushing the wall of my tummy. It tickles =) Baby O. lets me know when I'm hungry too by swiftly kicking me in the ribcage. He dances when music is played at my belly, bounces when I'm tickled and falls asleep when I sway from side to side. I am so excited to meet this amazing little person God has made =)

Ms. Chloe has settled into my parent's house nicely. She's adopted my brother as her own and spends her days napping, making demands of people and poking the old kitties in a very curious game of chicken. Right now, she's resting at the vet's office. She was declawed two days ago, but her paws weren't clotting properly, so she's staying there for a few days until they've healed enough that she won't reopen the wounds. We really didn't want to declaw her, but she left us with no choice. Nothing worked for discipline, and we tried EVERYTHING, so we moved to our last resort as much as it breaks my heart. She'll recover, but she will probably be bitter forever ;)

Now I'm off to do very important things. Like eat another banana =)

The hunt for beige November

Guess what we painted this weekend!

Not pictured: Chloe's very beige left back leg and tummy because she just wouldn't cooperate while I took embarrassing photos of her.

It was really hard because she kept wiggling around and making it difficult, but I think beige is really her color. Plus, now that the paint has dried into a hard shell and rendered her unable to move, she's so much easier to keep track of.

Oh, we also painted this:

It wasn't nearly as much fun. Farewell green paint. You will be missed. Military beige is stupid.

Like a bandaid for the heart

Mike and I have amazing news!

After much heartache, worry and anxiety, I finally took Chloe to be tested for FeLV. It was negative! I hugged the doctor and burst into tears. It was such a huge relief after all of the sadness and loss we've gone through in the last year.

Ms. Squee for her part wasn't happy at all about being dragged to the vet and stabbed with a needle. She let the whole world know it too. You know that one animal that everyone can hear making a huge fuss, and they all silently thank God that it isn't their's? That was Chloe. You could hear her yelling and whining from the back room all the way in the lobby.

I'm so happy she's gonna be okay. I wasn't sure how much more breaking my heart could take.

To lazy to blog

Ah, poor neglected little blog.

Things are starting to brighten here at Chez Watrous. Mike and I will be getting our plane tickets to move home soon (we start packing up next month I think! yay!) Ms. Chloe has been showing us a very different side of her. A very snuggly and loving side! (By snuggly and loving I mean she stands on my chest and squees at me loudly till I give her skritches and then she runs away ;) And at nine weeks my belly is starting to poke out.

Yep, I have what appears to be one very fine beer gut. I've actually had to buy stretchy waisted jeans. It's a little stunning. I was planning on wearing my regular jeans for as long as possible, but by week seven I started having to use two hair ties to hold the button and decided to cave and buy the stretchy jeans. I think all jeans should be this comfortable. They're actually really cute too. As long as my shirt covers the waist band, you'd never know they were maternity.

My first OB appointment is in a week and a half. I'm so excited! I have this huge list of questions.

soon, I promise

kate will post again soon, i promise.

Until then, enjoy some pictures she updated in the albums... and enjoy me messing around with this post... WEEEE!!!! partay time!

What to talk about.. well.. I need to mention everything in the tags I added so...

Anger: I'm not angry right now

Annie: Hi Annie, i'm sure you'll read this

Bethy: Howdi Beth

Blondness: i'm not blonde...

Books: read any good ones lately? Share them in a reply. I'm fond of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, chronicals of narnia and dave berry books

caspian: he's doing much better now, we had a major scare with him, but he's recovering nicely.

Chloe: I never noticed both of their names started with C... and here we thought C was for cookie... NO COOKIE FOR JOO

Daily: Hello.. at the tone the time will be 11:40pm on Sunday August 26th.. BEEP

Depression: sucks, nuff said

Family: hi everyone! I dont steal her blog often enough... love ya'll.

Goodbyes: Not yet, still have many tags to go...

Google search: search for my name... youll find some CEO's of coporations and stuff.. interesting.... What are some of the cool stuff that people the share your names have done?

happiness: opposite of depression. Much better and happier for all!

House: it's still standing. We need to repaint it soon...

Japan: it's a country.. we live here. hi Japan! and Hi Yoko Ono!

MSN Search: Did she ever post about google and msn searches? one has to wonder.. reply below.

Mike: Thats me!

Music: Itunes is great...

PMS: Never had it. explian below if you're a male and have had PMS.

Pictures: Weee... kate likes pictures

Piper: God bless her...

Quotes: I wonder what quotes will come from this post...

Random Stuff: i think this post covers this topic itself.

Romeo: poor guy, he was very cute and loveable.. if only he wouldn't have been so scared =/

Sadness: I'm kinda sad after talking about the pippa and romeo... meh..

Television: We'll be glad to watch actual TV... not AFN.. AFn is ok, but i'll be nice to pick whatever we want to watch, not what they want!

travel: Louisiana is next on the travel list

Worries: I worry about many things. Post what you worry about. We can talk about it...

yarn Stuff: I dont have any yarn stuff except the sweater she made me. She should make more stuff for me! I want toe warmers!

permalink: I dont think this is actually a topic, but I dont feel done with this post quite yet...

comments: I expect alot of comments! Now post! Comment away!!!!!

Oh, and thanks for all the birthday comments and replies! If anyone sent me anything personally, i'll get back to you soon! I promise. been busy, very very busy....

I hope ya'll enjoy the post!

-Mike

Little Miss

The more I get to know Ms. Chloe, the more I love her.

She is so busy. She rarely stops moving, and she never stops talking. Even in her sleep you can hear, "Mrrrr *snore* Mrrrr..." Just as with all of our other cats, she's got a million and one nicknames: Squee, Squeery, Squeeze Toy, Lowhee, Chloness, Chloe shut up!, Mama loves you but for the love of all that is Holy and silent in this world be quiet and let me sleep....

She is incredibly bright, a little bit picky, super affectionate and completely in love with the hard plastic jingle balls my mom sent for Piper a long time ago. None of our other cats have wanted anything to do with them, but Chloe ADORES them. She walks through the house carrying them in her mouth. She sleeps with them, eats with them, has staring contests with them, long meandering conversations and will beg for hours to have them thrown. My best guess is she was raised by Labradors.

She also reminds me of Piper so much sometimes it's scary. The other day, I heard her walking through the house meowing, and it sounded so much like Piper I caught myself saying, "Hi Pippa!" It was bitter sweet, and then she climbed on the counter and attempted to eat some twine.

When we first adopted her, I was afraid that we'd made the wrong choice. She wasn't fitting in with Cas very well, she continually pooped in my bathtub and wanted little or nothing to do with us. But now that she's got her barrings, her curious nature is shining through more and more, and I couldn't be more delighted with her =)

Vet bills: $400. Expensive food to tempt sick kitty: $15. Having a healthy Caspie: Priceless.

Again with the taking forever to blog. I know. I is sowwy.

The cats have been really, really sick this past week. Chloe caught a cold while she was at the vet being fixed, and she gave it Cas. I didn't write about it until now because we thought we were going to lose Caspian.

He was so sick he was refusing to eat, drink or come out from under the bed, and I was having nightmare flashbacks to Piper and Romeo's last days. So I shut myself off. Completely unable to deal with what I thought was coming, I watched mindless TV, slept very little and cried some very bitter tears. I also drove to the vet's office everyday for nearly a week. Four hundred dollars later, he got the all clear from the vet. Yesterday, he started rolling over to have his belly rubbed and accidentally scratched my hand in a desperate attempt to get his furry mouse away from me.

Everything is right with my world and that is worth a million dollars.

Something fuzzy this way cometh.

Internets, meet The Squee.

Also known as Chloe. Chloe Madison Reed Watrous. Another big name. Another little cat =)

We adopted Chloe on Saturday and despite some uneasiness and rough beginnings she seems to be settling into family life quite nicely.

She is a very loud cat. The noisiest we've had yet. She walks around the house yelling for no real reason. She's not unhappy, hungry or even bored. She just enjoys hearing herself meow. The noise she makes is kind of a "squeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr" sound hence the nickname Squee. She loves to snuggle and will throw herself (All three pounds of her) at you if you refuse to pay her attention because how dare you ignore her.

Caspie is taking his own sweet time warming up to her, but I think her charm is starting to win him over. At first, all he wanted to do was smack her on the head, but he's started letting her explore the house without quite so much physical abuse. He's not really too hip on the idea that he's not the baby anymore, but we're trying to make sure he doesn't feel left out by giving him extra love and treats. All of which he refuses because he's angry, but at least we're trying.

Is not amused! Not even a little bit!

We're guessing that she's about six or seven months old because she's quite tiny in comparison to Caspie. We don't know anything about her past. Just that she was brought in to the shelter some time in May by animal control.

It was a really hard and emotional decision, but I'm glad we got her. She is cute. She is little. And Piper would have adored her.

Welcome Home Chloe.