Lay down

We got back from the lake tonight, E had his bath, a late night snack of grilled cheese and finally headed to bed around 10:15pm. Considering the excitement of the last few days of being at the lake, the amount of energy he had stored from his early mid-day nap (he had burned his finger in the fire earlier so he took an early nap to re-coup) and a 3 hour car ride, we were lucky to get him down before 11.

Well, we did our nightly ritual of laying down with him in bed and reading 3 books by flashlight. Tonight the reading selection was Brown Bear Brown Bear, When I am Big, and Baby Elmo So Big. After the final book was done, I closed it, turned off the flashlight and laid there with my head propped up on my arm.

E had snuggled in, opened his eyes, and grabbed my hand. He then whispered something. I asked him what, and the then patted the pillow where my head would be and said "lay down." Apparently me lying there with my head propped up was making him nervous, so I laid down, and he quickly drifted to sleep.

E's sentences

I was recently asked how much E was talking. Well, I E-mailed this reply back:

Oh, yes, he is a little chatter box. He picks up new words and phrases every day it seems. He has a favorite song that he can sing about one verse of (Five Little Ducks). He can also pick out words for Happy Birthday, Baa Baa Black Sheep, and Twinkle Twinkle.

He just started using pronouns the other day. He started referring to himself in the first person instead of third.

Buddy, our beloved family rabbit

October 10, 2001 – May 5, 2009

Buddy, our family rabbit, is no longer with us. She had been to the emergency vet the night prior, given pain medication, and then brought to her regular vet this morning for further evaluation. X-rays showed that she had an enlarged bladder, either from a stone or crystallized calcium. From what the vet could determine it was most likely a stone which would require surgery, but due to Buddy’s condition and age it was not advised. So at 10am this morning she was put to sleep. She will be cremated and returned to us. They will be making a paw print in plaster for us as well.

Buddy started out her life with Amy as a classroom rabbit in 2001. It was Amy’s first class. Buddy spent summers in Amy’s apartment, and one winter, after I moved in I created a 4 x 3 foot cage for her with carpet and a ledge. It was my intent to make sure the cage could be dismantled and brought between school and home, but it proved too large for a classroom, and we were happy having her home. In effect, she retired from being a classroom pet in December 2003.

She was litter box trained so she had a litter box in the corner and kept the carpet clean. She did have a few accidents in that apartment when she was roaming free so we always supervised her from then on whenever she roamed free.

In the apartment she was in the living room, when we moved to the townhouse her cage was in the loft. Her favorite roaming place was what was then the office, which is now E’s room. We joked that when E came along she didn’t like the screaming kid that stole her favorite room.

Eventually she warmed up to E as he would pet her almost daily, and say hi and bye to her in the morning when we left for daycare. E loved watching her romp around the house as well as feeding her the fresh greens of carrots, parsley, and escarole. All I had to say was “Feed Buddy?” and E would go to the refrigerator, open the door and start giggling, clapping his hands, and jumping. He always went upstairs with his own piece of parsley to give her.

At the beginning of April she had her last romp around the upstairs, as well as a toenail clipping. Yesterday morning Amy said E went over to Buddy’s cage and she came up to him in order to let him pet her. There was nothing that told us she was going to get so sick so fast. Today the vet said that since rabbits are animals of prey they are usually strong until the very end. They don’t have the luxury to be sick for long periods of time because in the wild they would be eaten quickly.

Last night around midnight I noticed she hadn’t moved, even though I had given her some more greens, kind of an offering for what I figured could be her last meal. I also cleaned her litter box to see if she would use it by morning and to make sure she was comfortable. I repositioned her on a towel in her cage and put her food right next to her. She remained there until morning.

It was a sleepless night for us, in many ways. First E went to bed late, then I stayed up looking after Buddy, going to bed around a quarter ‘til 1. At around 1:40am our sirens went off, waking up E. We checked on Buddy at that time and she was still not moving around. Breathing, but not moving around.

Side Story: Frustrated that our weather alert didn’t sound and there was nothing on WCCO TV or the National Weather Service web site about severe weather I called the Sherriff’s department. Actually, I called the wrong number first and woke up some poor guy, then I called the Sheriff’s department. When they answered she asked if I was calling about the sirens and informed me that it was a malfunction.

Rest of the night E slept with us and had nightmares at least 2 or 3 times.

I had taken today off to take care of Buddy. After she was put to sleep Amy called me wondering about what had happened at the vet this morning. We had already discussed the options earlier. We cried on the phone for a while and tried to figure out how to explain it to E. He is already concerned about her being sick as he went up to her cage today and said, “Buddy sick.”

I’ve vacuumed out the cage now, wiped down the sides and it sits empty with a few toys. We will most likely dismantle it later tonight as a family. Every time I went to turn on the vacuum today I gave a little thought about if Buddy would be scared when I turned it on. Then I realized she wasn’t there. I also exited our bedroom earlier glancing at her cage to see what she was doing.

It is going to be weird not hearing her drink from her water bottle, or rattle her balls with bells. Even as I type this at my desk I keep glancing over at the cage expecting to see her. She kept me company when I sat at the computer late at night putting pictures up online or fiddling around wasting time.

Getting up at night to go to the bathroom will be less interesting because there will be no rabbit to startle which in turn startles us (I’m not quite sure why WE never had an accident on our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night). Our refrigerator will now have an empty space where her fresh greens took up half a shelf, and who knows what will become of the corner of our loft her cage currently sits in.

We still don’t know how to explain it to E. We don’t even know how to explain it to ourselves. It happened so quick, without warning.

Buddy's trip to Animal ER

Tonight after E and I went to the park, ate dinner, and had a Popsicle, we he wanted a bath so we headed upstairs. As the bath was filling and he was putting his toys inside the tub, I stepped into the loft and noticed Buddy (our Dutch rabbit) sitting in her cage with her front paws spread out. Thinking she might be asleep I tried rubbing her, but she couldn't get her front paws to support her.

It was sad, as I was looking up pet hospitals E went over to Buddy's cage and points to her. He then said "Buddy sleeping." He also wondered why I put her in the pet taxi and where she was going. He loves petting her nose, saying hi, and bye to her, and watching her run around.

When Amy got home from dinner with friends, I took Buddy to a 24 hour animal clinic where she was evaluated. She wasn't active, and her bottom was wet meaning she wasn't able to get to her litter box. She had been fine this morning, jumping up onto her ledge to let E pet her.

I spent about 2 1/2 hours at the clinic. She was evaluated and given a pain medication for the night. The vet said it could an infection, a traumatic experience, a fall, or the start of a neurological disorder. Well, she hasn't fallen, there is no way, and unless someone broke into our house and scared her she couldn't have had a traumatic experience. That leaves either a disorder or infection I would think. We will know more when she is evaluated by our vet this week. Tonight the vet gave Buddy a "bunny aspirin" shot. It seems to help for tonight as when I put her back in her cage she hopped around a little. Now she is just sitting there beside a towel we put in there.

Buddy is 7 1/2 years old, which is pretty old for a rabbit. If it is something we can clear up with some short term medication, we will definitely take that route. Otherwise...

Car Problems

The list is long, but my VW Jetta, which was faithful until my purchase of the lease and subsequent car accident a week later (not my fault), is in the shop with another hefty bill.

I'm not taking care of everything, just the door latch (because it runs down my battery) and the battery.

Everything (ecept the battery) is unrelated and they just all chose to fail at once. Shotty parts I would say. Bad wiring.

I’ve called my trusty non-dealer car guys and they say I am pretty much stuck with the dealer. There is no other place to go.

To get everything fixed it will cost $1930 before tax.

Everything is unrelated. Nothing caused anything else to happen (outside of the battery)

Everything that is currently wrong will eventually fail causing me to have car problems.

I am only having the driver’s side door latch replaced as well as the battery and key battery. That will be 420+192+40 plus tax. ($652)

The airbag warning light has a short in the wiring harness. They most likely won’t deploy on impact on the passenger side. ($190)

The check engine light has several faults: ($750)

• A mass airflow problem. Not sure what that means
• Power supply relay can cause the car to start hard, not perform well
• Wiring harness has bad connectors

Blinkers need to be replaced. Eventually they will fail and I won’t have blinkers. ($320) (I will worry about that when the time comes)

They don’t want to diagnose the rear door lock until they fix the battery and driver’s door latch. They think that may fix it, but I am not so sure as that wasn’t working before these other problems.

There is also a license plate light out, but I can replace that.

Ba Ba Black Sheep, Yes sir yes sir

This is his favorite song right now. He will be sitting down on the floor, playing by himself and start singing it, usually just these 6 words, but we get what he's saying.

E released from ER

We are back home now after E's first febrile seizure in about a year. We had made it through infections, colds, and even pneumonia, but the cause for his fever is unknown at this time.

It occurred during nap at his daycare. Amy was called at work, and she called me. I had to leave in the middle of an Office 2007 training session and run across campus to my car. Amy was at lunch and another teacher brought her her cell phone.

When Amy got to the daycare at around 1:52, E was still out of it so the ambulance was called. They transported him to Stillwater. I had gotten there a little after 2. He was evaluated and released.

To our knowledge he isn't sick, but we have a doctor's appt tomorrow.