The Princess Diaries: 2013

Well, we have some sad news to share. We are heartbroken to tell you that Caesar passed away on Friday night. In the end, his heart was just too big for his little body. He started having breathing problems early Friday evening. This was not super unusual since he was living with congestive heart failure and has for maybe a year. I gave him another dose of medicine and that seemed to help, though he was still very needy. The panting got worse over the next few hours and he was drooling sometimes too, which was very unusual for him. Then the most disturbing thing is that he was having trouble walking. I had to pick him up and carry him outside for him to pee and then carry him back inside. He just had no energy to do it himself. That’s when I knew he wasn’t coming back from it this time. When Dan got home, Ashlan and I said our goodbyes to him, and Dan took him to the emergency clinic. The vet confirmed he was having difficulty breathing, and although it wasn’t the worse they’ve ever seen, she said that he would not be able to recover from this. So around 11:00 on Friday night, we said goodbye to our little buddy. We will miss him tremendously! He gave us 11 years of his life and was our first baby since we had him for 8 years before Ashlan was even born. Although he had health issues for the previous six years, they were mainly manageable until the heart murmur and congestive heart failure came along. Even with the heart murmur, he lived for a good three years without his breathing becoming an issue. August was when the breathing issues really started and after medication was administered, it seemed to help greatly and though we knew his time was limited, he was still acting like his normal self. I don’t know what happened Friday evening because it all seemed to go downhill very fast, but I think his heart had just finally had enough. I was pretty upset on Friday because I knew the inevitable was going to happen, and soon. Ashlan came up to me and asked me what was wrong. I said, “Oh honey, I am just worried about Caesar”. She looked me square in the face, put her hand on my arm, and said, “Mommy, I’m worried about YOU.” She’ll be three in a few weeks. I can’t believe she has enough empathy at her age to be worried about me! The next day she asked about Caesar. We didn’t lie- we said he had problems in his old age and he wouldn’t be coming home, but that he was in doggie heaven. She seemed to understand as her face fell and she just said, “Oh.” That was pretty hard. We will miss him but he had a pretty good run while he was here, and even though he had so many health problems, we’d adopt him and love him all over again.

We do have some exciting news to share though! We found out on Tuesday that the new baby is a girl! We are so excited that Ashlan will have a sister! I am glad that I saved all her baby stuff and clothes, especially because I want to see those cute little girl things again. : ) I have to say I was kinda surprised because Ashlan had me convinced that we were having a boy. Every time we asked her if the baby was a girl or a boy, she always said boy. Both pregnancies have pretty much been the same except this baby has had a lower heartbeat, but she had me convinced, lol. In the next few weeks, we will be painting her old bedroom for the new baby. We still need some big ticket items but all the little things are already taken care of thanks to having them from Ashlan. And I can’t wait to get some new cloth diapers…the girl ones are always cuter than the boy ones. : ) I re-sold my old stash of Ashlan’s, so we definitely need new ones. We are in the process of getting Ashlan a new bed set since we are giving the crib and her old dresser to the baby. We have already put the full size bed in Ashlan’s room so she could get used to it, and she loves it! I ordered her a Rapunzel comforter and some sheets, and she just loves her big girl bed. I’m glad she didn’t throw a fit about giving the crib to the new baby, and she has been really great about us changing things around with the new bed and being binky-free.

Here's one of the last pictures of our sweet boy.

This was a few days before his breathing problems worsened. Funny because he never laid on Ashlan! It was very sweet. <3

Our October trip to Disney.

Loving seeing Mickey.

Mickey sighting #2, lol.

She was *begging* to see Goofy this time, and what baby wants, baby gets, lol.

With Minnie.

With Duffy at Epcot.

Wanted to ride the carousel.

Had fun on the teacups.

We met friends down there and their little boy. They both had a blast together.

This was waiting for Dumbo.

Meeting Ariel. Ashlan was beside herself, she was so excited.

Doing a flip on the bar all by herself at gymnastics. Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Her new bed, minus the headboard that we're looking for, lol.

Long hair!!

Dancing by herself.

So much energy!!

Definitely Daddy's girl- eating cookie dough, gross!

Painting some cookies.

Fun times. :)

Wrestling with Daddy.

First hair braid, a little messy...she doesn't sit still, lol.

Last pic of our little Caesar. RIP little buddy.

Ashlan doing a pretty hard puzzle all by herself!

I didn't help her at all. In fact, I was in the other room and wondering why she was so quiet. I went to investigate, and this is what she was doing. :)

Loves her Highlights magazines!!

She is so good at picking out where the items are hidden.

Lol. New bed. Looks like she is enjoying the space. :)

Her 'Ariel' gown that is wayyyy too long for her but fits her in perfectly the middle, and is even snug when we bunch it up so she doesn't trip on it...at a size 5/6.

I had to do something (I was sitting next to Caesar petting him when I had to get up for something, don't remember what), but I told Ashlan to comfort Caesar and I come back to find this. <3

Holding hands with both Minnie and Mickey. This is how we found her when she woke up from her nap. :)

Things have been so busy lately, a good busy though! In the last four weeks we've had both my parents and Dan's parents visit. We went to the zoo both times. Dan, Ashlan, and I also went to a "pumpkin patch", where we spent a few hours there and Ashlan had a complete blast. In fact, she had so much fun that she didn't want to leave, lol. Then last Saturday our neighborhood community put on a "Halloween Spooktacular" and we met some friends there. We didn't know what to expect because we had never been but we all had a really great time. It rained a little before we got there so everything was a little wet, but thankfully it held off after that. There was trick or treating there, games for the kids, a bounce house, food, and a DJ. We will definitely be doing that again next year. Ashlan had a great time dancing with her friend, bouncing in the bounce house, and playing several games. We enjoyed the music, free food, and good company. We had went costume shopping a few weeks before and she picked Rapunzel. I was afraid she wasn't going to wear it because when she tried it on at home, she said it was itchy and wanted it off. I thought for awhile how I could fix the itchy part but couldn't come up with anything that wouldn't ruin the rest of the material. I ended up buying some camis, one which was purple, and it was perfect! You can't see it at all and it made her happy. She didn't want to take the costume off after that. :)

This weekend we will be going to Disney and meeting some friends there. We haven't been since June because we went on other mini-vacas, so we are so anxious, especially because food and wine fest is going on! And if you missed the big announcement, I'm about 17 weeks pregnant! Unfortunately, I won't be able to partake in the wine for food and wine fest, but I am looking forward to the food. There's always next year. :)

Ashlan has been loving her gymnastics class. Her and the other little girl in it have become fast friends and enjoy each other's company. The other little girl actually asked me if she could come over to play, so of course her mother and I said we'd do a play date. Last class, their teacher gave them a few minutes of free time at the end and they ended up holding hands and jumping on the trampoline. So cute!

So Ashlan has been completely binky free for about two weeks now! The first night wasn't too bad, the three nights after that were not good, but after that she has been a champ. I am so glad to finally have her rid of that, even if she was only using it while she slept. I wanted to do it before she was three anyway, and since the holidays were right around then, and we have family visiting after and we're going on vaca before, we figured it'd be best to do it now. She has really been a champ. We took her to Target and bought her a toy that she picked out for giving it up, so at least we felt better about taking it away, lol. It was kind of unplanned, otherwise we probably would have had the "binky fairy" leave her the gift. Oh well, this worked just fine for us.

So, oh boy, this is what happens when I only get around to one blog a month...enjoy all the pics! :)

Painting with Nana.