right now.

right now...

I am blown away that this baby boy is 2.

he is so stinkin' hilarious. a born performer. ("Ollie play good piano song! You clap hands!")

he is mind blowingly smart and remembers everything (and uses those things to make comedy call-backs... LOVE)

he is crazy crazy cute ("No YOU so cute, Mama...")

and he is sweet and snuggly and squirrelly and all talking- all. the. time. (ALL THE TIME)

18-36 mos is my fave kiddo age range- and I am just soaking him all in right now.

 

right now...

we are all a little broken hearted and missing this sweet silly chicken.

her name was Breakfast.

she was Keaton's.

and she was the best chicken ever.

I know, I know... she was a chicken. Not like the family dog or anything... but she really did become a family pet- and frankly- when something starts out it's life looking like this-

it's hard not to fall in love.

 

But she got sick.

While we were already sick.

While I was frantically trying to care for two very sick little boys (one of whom managed to morph his super cold into croup) and then trying to care for two recovering boys while I was then sick...and the chickens were on "feed and water and clean" duty only. I didn't see her getting sick. And, also- birds are known to hide it well. Even if I'd been looking, I probably wouldn't have noticed until it was too late.

But once the sick left our house- I did notice.

And it was not good.

She weighed nearly nothing.

And fell asleep as soon as I picked her up. Or mid walk around the yard. Or just randomly in the corner.

We took her to the vet who suggested a $400 fix-it plan.

I was really getting ready to just rally and sink that much cash into this one silly chicken-to bring her home as "Breakfast the $400 wonder chicken"

but the vet said after doing everything- she would give her *maybe* a 20% chance.

and I couldn't do it. I couldn't throw $400 into a chicken that just wasn't going to make it...

so we took her home. brought her in. and snuggled the crap out of her.

we said goodbye.

and we cried lots.

It's been almost a week now and it still makes me sad.

She's buried in the backyard under our giant maple, near the lilac bush...

 

MOVING ON.

 

right now...

I am considering tackling the whole December Daily/Design Your December/Holiday memory album.

I started last year.
And made it about 2 days.

We'll see.

I may just do something super simple. Project life mini styles or something.

To get myself in the right frame of mind- I made these...

 

 

I played around with them a bit the other day...

 

 

Just 4x6 templates and 3x4 cards. I feel like I might be able to manage this year.

Pop in some photos. Jot a few notes. Call it good.

 

right now...

I can hear Keaton sniffling through the monitor (it's nap/rest time) Lord help me if he's tacking on a new cold onto the end of this one we're just getting over.

For the past four years- I feel like my whole house has been sick from the first snowfall to the last. (the only exception being two years ago when it was like 40 degrees all winter and we didn't get any snow. Sigh... that was a delightful and terrifying winter...)  But the sick for months on end? NOT COOL ANYMORE.

I gotta figure something out...

 

right now...

boys are napping.

and I hear the couch and my dvr'd episode of American Horror Story calling my name...