April Showers Bring May Flowers

Here's the latest happenings from our neck of the city. We are fostering yet another litter of kittens who will be leaving us for their new homes soon. Yay! The momma cat will probably be around for a while, since she needs to be spayed and have most of her teeth pulled due to dental disease - yuck. Here's some of the first pictures we took of them.

Our newest kitty family members, Svetlana and Milenka the Siberians, are growing like weeds with an extra side of fertilizer. We are on the waiting list for a husband for them from a Siberian breeder in Russia. We are hoping for a red tabby/flame point male kitten to add to our breeding program. The goal is to make enough of a profit with the kittens to pay for the food and vet bills of all the other pets in the house. Wish us luck. :)

Our latest home project is to enclose our back deck with special cat-proof netting to keep the cats from diving off and frolicking away through the neighbors' yards. Dad Rohrer came up last week to frame up the deck in preparation for the netting, which is due to arrive on Tuesday. I can't wait to get it all set up! The cats have a little kitty door to go out whenever they choose. We plan to move all of the litter boxes out of the basement and into a special litter box enclosure on the deck with a cat tree to climb for a better view of the local wildlife (raccoons, birds and bugs).

I have spent the last few weekends cleaning out overgrown flower/weed beds and planting new perennials - roses, hydrangeas, day lillies, irises, carnations and dragon flowers. Nathan helped plant all of the 6 dozen annual pansies and petunias and spread new mulch in all of the beds. It looks really nice, now that the azalea bush and the cherry and plum trees are all in bloom. Today the rain was coming down hard all day, but we will be taking pictures of the flowers on the next sunny day.

Libby and Caleb have been specializing in bumps and bruises lately; skinned knees and bruised foreheads have been the daily fare. They love going for walks in the evening with Nathan and Mandie while I get dinner ready. They are both into playing with matchbox cars again and take particular delight in wrestling or "wessling" with each other. Caleb can push Libby down with lightning speed while they are both giggling full throttle.

Caleb is in his big boy room now. We took out the crib and set up his little bed with his new nautical themed bedding. He enjoys playing with his Little People car garage when he's supposed to be napping. Libby has learned to appreciate the ever educational value of Spongebob Square Pants, much to our chagrin. Thankfully, she also enjoys going outside to ride her tricycle, give her dolls rides in their stroller, and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Here are the links for the rest of our photos for the past month. April Antics, Tuesday morning and Showoffs. Enjoy!

Milestone!

Today Caleb slept in his big boy bed! I put him down for his morning nap in the toddler bed instead of his crib. He immediately popped up, wiggled down out of bed and ran after me with a huge grin on his face. I had to lay him down again, tickle him, kiss him, and run for the door - several times. This has been a little game that we play every few days whenever I decide he's too big for the crib. Usually, he wins. I end up putting him back in his crib and he instantly goes to sleep. Each time I have tried the big bed, little monster Caleb ends up hollering and running around and messing with toys instead of sleeping. A few weeks ago, he took advantage of the new big boy bed freedom and threw my comb down the heating vent in his room when he was supposed to be napping. I've had that comb since high school, and I am still holding it against him. Anyway, today he finally gave in and went to sleep in his big bed, but not until he dumped his stacks of new diapers all over the floor and threw the covers off his bed. Here's the pictures I was able to take as I sneaked in to his room.