Life with Boose and Finch

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October 2022

Ro pretty much just finished learning how to ride a bike. He has a red 20” Specialized bike with handlebar brakes that he got for his birthday a few weeks ago. We never had him on training wheels. I just took the pedals off, he got used to gliding, and then finally seemed like he was ready for the pedaling movements. When B put the pedals back, he just took off and started going. He’ll use the brakes and put his feet down when he gets scared but we just remind him it’s a perfectly natural safety precaution and try again. I think it got 10k steps just running after him to make sure he was ok. He did a good job with positive self-talk as he went. He could have been completely derailed when he ran into the chain-link fence surrounding the park almost right away, scraped his knuckles a little bit, and got upset from being scared. After we were sure he was okay, he hopped back up, tried again, and got it. B often thinks I don’t tell Ro “no” enough. I don’t know that there’s a right answer

Most of 2022

So, it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be between posts. Ro has his ballet recital exit last June after school ended. I asked if he wanted to keep going but he said he was done. He had played a dancing apple and kept in time the best out of all the little apples. Between ballet and the summer camps, Ro had his first sleep over with his friend’s from his old daycare. Their mom was having surgery and so B and I offered to take her two kids while she and their dad prepared for her recovery. It was very loud, but it was nice to not have to entertain Ro all weekend. They want to have another sleepover soon, but my ears haven’t stopped ringing yet. Fresno Unified did a deal this summer where you could sign up for week long summer day camps for free. Ro went to Camp ALTA the first week — a STEAM-focused deal at the Fresno Boys and Girls Club where he sprouted seeds, played games, built bottle rockets and patted farm animals. Since it was for most of the day, Grandma Wand

New Year, New Job...New Dog

So, to answer a few questions: Boose was born sometime between 8-9pm on Dec 19, 2007. I was working a shift at Starbucks at the time. He was last with us around 6pm Dec 23. B and I went. Ro hung out with Grandma Wanda because he was a little scared. We were ok with Ro not seeing us crushed. B took it hard that day, too. Boose went peacefully with the muscle relaxant and the drug that stopped his heart. He couldn't face me because the tech had to hold the oxygen to his nose throughout the whole time. I got to hug him, but I couldn't hold him as he left for the same reason. It was easy to leave, but hard to be with him. With the oxygen, we couldn't just be left in a room with him. It wasn't as if we wanted him to spend a moment longer in a tank to get oxygen. Earlier the same day, B's aunt sent me a message asking if anyone wanted a Christmas puppy. There was a little black dog dodging coyotes near her office in Kingsburg. He had been there for three w

I thought nothing could hurt me anymore.

Caboose has been in respiratory distress for the last couple of nights. B took him to the emergency vet this morning around 1am since it kept Boose from eating, sleeping, and drinking. He wouldn’t even sit down. He would stand there with his snout upwards just trying to get enough air. I tried calming him down a few times and it would work for a little bit, but then he would start wheezing again. When I put him in the kennel for the last time, his eyes were vacant and he didn’t want to be hugged. B says the vet put him on oxygen right away and offered to keep him for observation even though she was convinced Boose was experiencing congestive heart failure. So B convinced me to let him stay under observation. I called the vet around 7am to see if there was any improvement. There wasn’t. Any treatments they were doing for CHF was making his kidney situation worse and they were already shutting down. Around 2pm, the next vet did another round of tests and confirmed that even though Boo

Quick December Update

Ro’s nutcracker ballet turned out really well. He wanted to continue ballet lessons afterwards. He hasn’t been having a lot of fun during the actual classes because they’ve been hard. He doesn’t have a lot of the coordination and flexibility that the other girls have since he started later in the class. The teachers noticed so he’ll be starting a pre-ballet class next year that should go a lot better. I told him that he needed to keep with it for a year, and, if he started anything in the future, he needed to keep with it for a year. I told him that boys needed to keep practicing and get stronger to hold up the girls. He responded with, “Will that be after I turn seven?” I thought it was because he wanted to be stronger for it, but he said it was because he didn’t want to do it. 🤦‍♀️ We’ll see after pre-ballet how it goes. Especially since he said he wants to do the Nutcracker ballet again. 🤷‍♀️ So far the new job has been good. Except for two days, I’ve been working completely fro

Quick August Update

I know it’s been awhile. Ro started school and going back to daycare this week. He came come yesterday with the sniffles, had a rough night sleeping, and then woke up this morning with a fever. B and Ro took tests this morning to make sure it isn’t something to quarantine, and I have a test scheduled for tomorrow. Both B and I stayed home and have been pretty much in quarantine just in case. We probably won’t be going back to work until Tuesday. Ro is okay so far. He had one fever that went to 102 but went down quickly with Tylenol. At least it happened on a Friday and hopefully we’ll be back in business on Monday. I love you and miss you.