Curious Ben

Our sweet little boy is over 14 months now, and quite the curious little man! It makes for a lot of frustration on his part, and lots of frazzled nerves on our part.  He is interested in all kinds of things and seems to take in everything.   Lots of physical activity going on which is probably the root of some recent sleeping issues.  He's getting 2 more teeth on bottom and it's causing lots of pain.  He is almost walking, so he can't quite get to where he wants to fast enough. He wants to do lots of things himself but can't quite master things 100%.  He is still babbling lots with occasional words like Kitty, cook-cook (for cookie), uh-oh, and ba-ba (for bottle).

We went to the Pirate game on Labor day, which at the time when we purchased the tickets, it seemed like a fun idea. In reality, not so much.  Thankfully we had access to the indoor Pittsburgh Baseball Club so he could crawl around and not be confined.  And the game was during nap time, so while I thought Ben may nap, that didn't happen until we were on our way out.

I had to snap this picture while Ben and Dave were napping at my mom's place. Ben is extra cute when he is not fussing.

I'm hoping that these physical road bumps soon pass and we're back to our sweet, not as fussy and clingy little man.  The curiosity is cute, but when you're making dinner and he is into everything and wants picked up and is screaming.... not so much.  We're trying to keep it all in perspective, but that just depends on the moment.  We often say to him "It's a good thing you're so cute!"



Where I come from...

I have found a new obsession. And when I say "obsession" I am using that in the fullest meaning of the word, cause I am obsessed. This time suck is the perfect mix of history and genetics and feeds right into my type-A personality. What is this obsession? 

Genealogy

A free trial of ancestry.com sucked me in, within a matter of an hour I think.  I recall reading an article in a magazine a few months ago where the author talked about how she became obsessed with tracing her roots during her free trial. So obsessed that she would forget / put off showering until she realized her partner was going to be home from work. She'd stay up until the wee hours of the morning staring at the computer, clicking on the leave hints the program would give her.  I enjoyed the article, but inside, I laughed thinking "wow, I don't think I could ever be that obsessed about anything".  Que the laughter from God mixed with karma.... I am embarrassed to admit that I've been in the same position a few times. And if you know me, I'm in bed asleep by 10 PM 90% of the time. Well, I've discovered they don't make coffee strong enough to help me the next morning when I stay up until 1 AM on this web site!

Sharing in this obsession, I have a good friend who has offered some tips on how to circumvent some "road blocks".  Last week I found myself at the Carnegie Library looking at microfilm of obituaries from the 1940s and county registrations for marriage licences from the 1920s! (side note - Microfilm - what a weird and wonderful tool!)

My side of the family tree is considerably smaller / shorter than Dave's.  I'm pretty much stuck at the 1900's / late 1800's.  My family (from all sides) immigrated over in the early 1900s.  And while it is very cool to see the Ellis Island records and see their Naturalization papers from years afterwards, it makes researching their families back in eastern Europe nearly impossible.  To do so, you need to know their religious affiliation and church parish and things like that.  Heck, my dad doesn't even remember his grandmother's maiden name!! (And I can't seem to find it ANYWHERE in various microfilm records.) Not to mention that my paternal great-grandmother changed their last name to Frost because she couldn't spell their real Polish last name.  And no one seems to recall the exact spelling of how it used to be, and everyone is no longer living aside from 1 great uncle whom I've never spoken to.... Sigh.

But Dave's side is a different story.  I turned my focus to his side of the family in an attempt to take a break from the frustration of my side's temporarily dead end. Ha ha ha, cause little did I know that his side would be SOOOOO in depth! I've focused only on his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather, etc.... 1 of 8 grandparent's sides, and I've spent nearly a week building that part of the tree. I'm back to 100 AD and it's just CRAZY.  

Part of the reason that it is so well documented is that Christina Holland, the mother of the very first Sprague to come over to America (mid 1600's) was of a royal line.  And by royal, I mean kings and queens and princesses of Scotland from the 1100's to the 1300's.  It is unbelievably cool to read stories about these historical figures and see pictures and such. His 57th great grandmother was Queen Margaret of Scotland, who was later canonized as a saint!! I keep saying that he married down, cause the closest he got to royalty is that I'm a Polish princess! LOL

Ancestry keeps feeding into my obsession cause they offer these hints - links from research other's have done, documents from family libraries in Provo UT, etc.  I'm at over 1400 un-investigated hints so far. I fear I'll never finish while I'm alive, cause I've not even started on his paternal grandmother's info let alone anyone from his mother's family!!

I plan to get a huge wall poster print out of our ancestry (they offer this).  Not that I want to hang it on our wall, but it would be cool to just have and show our kids.  And that is really why I wanted to do this - for our kids. I've learned now that 3 of my 4 grandparents are passed, I missed out on the opportunity to ask them lots of questions about their lives.  I do know some stories but I wish I could ask them for more.  So let me conclude by saying that if you are at all interested in doing your own genealogy one day, start asking questions now! (And write things down). Where and when were they born? Ask your family how and where and when they passed away.  Discover something new about your family... just remember to shower and use strong coffee when needed!

Pirate Game

This past Monday night Dave and I had an extremely rare mid-week date night! A good friend gave us her tickets to the Pirate game and we were fortunate to have Dave's mom watch the kids. (It's so hard to ask them for extra time since all the grandparents already take a full day out of the week to watch the kids to keep daycare costs down.)

The tickets were 3 rows behind the dugout, which meant when left handed batters would come up to the plate, we were on TV.  My friend sent us a screen shot of this on our way home from the game (they had to watch on delay).  We were cracking up as Dave is stuffing his face full of nachos!! (So was I but the batter blocked me - ha ha)

My brother and his wife were also at the game and we got to meet before and after the game for some adult beverages.  Such a great night! (And I love this picture of them!!)  Coming home it was back to reality as Cori was still awake at 10:30 PM and Ben didn't go down until 9:00 (instead of 8) but it was worth it.

Let's go Bucs!

Big Sister Helper

Too cute of a video to not share... last night Cori really wanted to feed Ben. So instead of him self-feeding, we let her feed him with a spoon. He loved it, and she felt so proud!

Welcome August

How is it August already? We've been really busy and though I've been well meaning in trying to keep up with the blog, it just doesn't happen. I'm only able to post tonight as our weekend plans for an out of town fell through; Ben had a high fever due to an infection from a spider bite (I think) on his knee. He is better now but I'm glad we didn't drive far away; you just never know.

I was in Chicago earlier this week, and prior to flying out, got to experience an emergency root canal.  As someone who's had her fair share of dental work, I had some intense pain for a few days. Not even Vicodin helped; turned out the tissue was abscessed (gross) which is why nothing helped.  I am feeling better now though I need a crown (ugh) and at night seem to be clenching my teeth as my jaw is tight.

This week brought us the arrival of my "niece" Hattie Elizabeth Petruska.  This little cutie belongs to one very proud set of parents who waited a very long time for their miracle. I forget how small little babies can be, and boy she tugged at my heart strings immediately!

Today is also the 40th birthday of one of my best friends - Happy Birthday Angie! From your MOH who is still in her 30's... LOL I don't even want to think about you moving away to DC next week. My only salvation is that you'll be just as miserable living in Raven's territory as I will be living without you in Pittsburgh!

Other miscellaneous things...

Ben said his first word with intent which is "kitty" , just like his sister.  And like his sister, it sounds like "gitty".   He does a lot of babbling, and he understands much of what we say, but the expressive language just hasn't been very fast. We're not worried, just saying...

Speaking of kitties, the cats are settled in quite well.  Almost too well cause they have some funny habits. Weirdest of all seems to be that they are obsessed with the bathroom.  Orbit is often just laying on the rugs in there, and Reagen sleeps in the tub and sink. 

 

But if you get up in the middle of the night to use the potty, both cats rush in to sit with you. It is quite weird.   Regan also loves water and drinks from the faucet which makes brushing one's teeth difficult.

We went to Atlanta towards the end of July for my cousin Tracey's baby shower. 

We had a great time, and Cori did great on the plane again.  Tracey looks beautiful and the shower was enjoyed by all. One of the nicest things that happened was that each guest filled out a "card" for the baby and Tracey will bind all the responses.  The "card" allowed the guests to fill in answers to things like:

I hope you love...

I hope you learn to....

I hope that you laugh....

Always remember... 

The responses were mostly very heart felt, but there were also some very funny responses! You wouldn't believe how many people said  "Always remember.... to brush your teeth"!   I wish I'd done this at other baby showers I've been involved with. Tracey picked some to read out loud at random times and the writer won a gift card (since we didn't play games).

Tracey has two very large German Shepards and Cori did pretty well with them under constant supervision.  We're looking forward to going down at Thanksgiving, and I'll be there at the end of September when Katherine hopefully makes her appearance!

Happy 1st Birthday Ben!

This post is late as our little Buddy turned 1 on Sunday July 8th. But things have been hectic as usual with just the usual stuff + additional fun things.  Ben had a great first birthday surrounded by most of his family and friends. He only napped briefly in the morning (and by briefly, I mean 20 whole minutes) which made for a very tired little boy later on.

It is so hard to believe a year has passed since Ben came into our lives. He is such a happy boy all the time!!  He isn't walking yet, but he is FAST with his crawl and climbing up things. He loves to stand and cruise along things. His one year well visit declared him "perfect" ; he weights 22.5 lbs and is 30 inches tall.  (Cori was also 30 inches tall and was 22 lbs 11 ozs so both kids are pretty much the same.)  Ben has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on bottom. That is 6 more than Cori had at her 1 year birthday! LOL

Allow me to toot my own horn for a moment.  I recently decided that I am going to start jogging. Now that I've been working out for 6 months, I feel like I have the stamina to make it work.  I'm happy to say that I'm down 6% body fat and have lost 13 pounds of fat. I've also gained 10 pounds of muscle! So while the scale hasn't changed a whole lot, I feel like my entire body is different, especially up top. I can no longer wear XL tops and a lot of the L tops fall down too low.  I am down 2 dress sizes which is nice too.  My core is a lot stronger, and I'm able to do 25 push ups!!

Otherwise things are well.  Today Cori and my mom and I are flying to Atlanta for the weekend to attend cousin Tracey's baby shower. We're looking forward to a fun girls weekend away!

Corolla vacation part 2

Some of the other things we did on vacation:

Visited a lighthouse

still climbing

...climbed to the top



...got out of breath



...enjoyed the stunning view



...had a panic attack and had to hurry back down

...stopped to smell the gardenias (mmmmm)

...rode a wild spanish mustang

...attended a wine festival

...raised our glasses some more!

...drove on the 4x4 section to try and see the wild mustangs - crazy cool-
and didn't get our SUV stuck!

roaming wild spanish mustangs 
pic compliments of Angie since the horses hid from us both times!

...walked on the beach to gather shells

...flew a kite

...figured out how to heat the pool to 90 degrees without having to pay for it!
Thus, really enjoyed the pool!!



Corolla vacation part 1

A few weeks ago we had a wonderful getaway at the beach. We went back to the Corolla area (in the Outer Banks) with the family and my mom as well as my best friend Angie and her family. The drive down was fairly awful thanks most in part due to weather and traffic (there was the more than occasional "are we there yet" too). But all of that was forgotten when we got to the beach dug our toes in the sand!

 Cori did MUCH better with the ocean this time around; she wasn't as fearful of the sounds and the water. I think having her friend Josh there was a big help. They pretty much played all week together which was really nice. We have unofficially said they are betrothed. Yet in typical boy / girl relationship fashion, Josh seemed to tired a little of Cori by the end of the week, and Cori would still wake up asking "Where's Josh?!". Agh, love... 



Ben didn't quite know what to make of the beach and had more fun with the sound that the sand made on the plastic tent.

Otherwise, he was fairly unimpressed with the ocean.

But we had lots of laughs and smiles and made lots of memories, which is the BEST part of any vacation.



Meow

I don't think I ever got to write about Butterscotch's followup - what happened after we took her in and the weeks afterwards.  It turned out that she did indeed have full blow feline leukemia; similar to a person who is HIV positive, you never know how long they will have - weeks, months, years. It is so variable. 

We also found out that Butterscotch was a boy, not a girl, but since Cori was so upset to find that out, and he was neutered, we figured it didn't matter if we kept calling him a "her". We continued to keep her in the basement because we needed time for Zoe's recent leukemia vaccine to kick in.  We figured that after vacation we'd introduce Zoe and Butterscotch together and let them both live together upstairs. 

At night we'd bring Butterscotch upstairs (while Zoe was locked away) and she was a great lap cat - we loved snuggling with her.  We went away on vacation and my good friend looked in on the cats daily.  And then we got a call that Butterscotch was having some big problems... she was falling over when she walked, and she was drooling at her mouth and hiding her head, not eating much.  After a trip to the vet, they said it was something neurological and really nothing could be done. Sadly Butterscotch was euthanized. 

I felt awful and helpless and so guilty.  And so very indebted to my friend - what a thing to ask someone to do! She said that while she didn't stay with Butterscotch at "that moment" per the vet's suggestion in case it wasn't peaceful, she and her kids blew kisses to the kitty and sang songs to her on the way to the vets.  Thinking about that even now makes me tear up instantly. 

Then we had the task of how to tell Cori that her new kitty was gone.  This would be her first "experience" with death, and as much as I hated that we weren't there when Butterscotch died, it did allow us to have some time to look into how to tell Cori in the right way.  Dave also mentioned that he saw a trip to Animal Friends in the near future.  We began by telling Cori that Butterscotch was very sick and at the doctor's. She did keep asking when she would come home and we'd say that we weren't sure if she ever could.  We were prolonging telling Cori that Butterscotch was dead because she had started a new daycare which was surely anxiety filled for her. 

The day we planned to tell Cori, I had also gone to Animal Friends to see if there were any cats that fit our family.  Turns out there were three. I figured we'd go back at some point and look at them.  I did make the "mistake" of telling Cori about me seeing some new kitties that afternoon, and oddly enough, she switched gears 180 degrees Butterscotch who???  Cori asked if we could go see the new kitties and we all went down that evening.  We ended up bringing home Reagan and Orbit. It all happened so fast!

Both cats are super friendly and lap cats.  Orbit is a 2 year old female who is the more shy of the two cats.  She will be really quiet and nap under beds, but then out of the blue she will be running around from place to place.  She is also quite the hider as she went "missing" for a few hours 2 days after we got her; thankfully she was still inside but she can apparently open heavy drawers and crawl into them.

Orbit came with her "brother" Reagan who is a 3 year old male.  Reagan is the most laid back cat I've ever met.  Both cats came from an owner who had a 1 yr old, so they were exposed to children.  (The former owner ended up moving.) But Reagan doesn't mind Ben's tugs on his tail, and he often will just plop down in front of Ben and stretch out.  He is extremely tolerant of the kids.  I think he was a lion in a past kitty life - not only from his coloring and his longer hair, but just the way he carries himself... he is one cool kitty!  Don't let his laid back stance in this picture fool you, cause Reagan is often the instigator in the middle of the night when he likes to chase the other kitties.

And Zoe, well, she isn't exactly happy with the new situation, but she is adjusting.  While she was full of hisses and growls, the other 2 cats pretty much ignored her, so I think she's given up a bit. 

Cori is loving having the cats around - actually we all are! Aside from them playing in the middle of the night, we are enjoying them immensely. And the best part is that they are rescue cats which is a cause in which I really believe.