Lost and Found

Last night we were doing some cleaning up in Cody's room to get ready for Ann (Slade's Mom) arrival today. In looking at his closet (which was dreadfully messy) I found Zane's old blankie. We lost it about a year ago. I was shocked. I was also shocked at how torn up it was - I just didn't remember it that way.

Seby & Zane were getting ready for bed - but heard me finding something and really wanted to know what it was. Graham brought the blankie to Zane and at first he was thrilled to see it - hugged and smelled it. Then upon further inspection, he too, felt surprised at it's state of disrepair. At one point he asked me to take it out of the room. He seemed really down about it and after much talking he cried a little bit. He was feeling sad because it looked so bad and really wants me to fix it again. While it was a hard place for him to sit - I think he also was in shock over thinking about what a young child he was when he lost it - 5 years old and sucking his thumb. To now - 6 years old - no more thumb sucking, no more walking around with the beloved blankie. He said he was too old for it - but seemed so sad about it.

Today he awoke with a fever and a bad cough. He stayed home and slept a good part of the day. He did ask for the blankie and at bedtime tonight asked for it again. It is working it's way back into his cluches.

He is just such an adorable little creature - and he feels so much and is amazingly aware of how he feels. He amazes me. We had some great talks and walks down memory lane about his blankie and how he would hold it when he went to sleep, etc.

Finding this again and then recently seeing a lovely quilt I helped make - I want to drag out all my quilting fabrics and start something new.

Olive

Olive got a new haircut today. Mostly because I gave her a head/face haircut yesterday and it didn't go so well - so she needed to get it fixed. She also had a couple shots today that made her sleepy and it seemed a good day to introduce her to getting groomed - seeing she will have much more of it in her future.

I had to buy her a sweater while she was getting cut - it was 19 degrees today! I think she looks adorable and Slade I think is laughing at me.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving week in California. Here is the family clan after our meal.



Seby, Zane & I went out Sunday night before T-day -- and we brought our new puppy Olive with us. She was a great traveler and I was even able to get her to poop in the airplane bathroom - no easy feat, but it did happen. Much better than in her carrier! We brought a small kennel that breaks down into two pieces - it just fit in our largest roller bags. Of course I was just over the weight for the bag - but we were not charged extra, I think due to the cute puppy. Olive was making friends all over the airport! She loved her little carrier and slept most of the flight over.



Slade, Cody & Graham arrived late Tuesday night and Seby & Zane had a sleepover with Catie & Becky while I picked them up at the airport. Olive was a good little puppy and slept in her kennel.



On Saturday we all headed up to Berkeley and checked out the campus. We thought it would be good for Cody & Graham to start looking at what a college looks like. It is such a beautiful campus.



We were able to get a snack at Slade's old place of work when he was a teenager - Blondie's Pizza.



After our campus hike we headed up to visit with some friends and took another hike to the famous Cement Slide! We both remember going here as kids and thought it would be fun for our kids to experience it. Kids were using the usual cardboard to go down the slide - but also wax paper! Yikes they really fly down with the wax paper!





Seby and Zane most of their time at the park going down this slide, while Cody and Graham played some catch with the Fairchild boys.



Here are Slade, Tom and all the boys.



I was also able to check out a quilt that Liz and I made for Tom & Judith for their wedding. It was fun to see it again.



It was great trip and so fun to hang out with the family. Thank you Christina, for letting us crash in your wonderful guest house!

We came back to fresh snow on the ground when we arrived at 6am in Minneapolis. Olive seems to love the snow - thankfully as that is what she will be getting a for a while now. We are supposed to get more snow tonight and I can see it has started. Lovely.

And thank you Aunt Kathy for making some of the best cookies we've had in a long time. They were quite the treat and we really appreciated you making them for us and bringing them before we took of! I promise to post weekly to show you how Olive is growing.