Mena, part II

Well, we had to do it - Mena is gone.  I can't believe how quickly it went from my calling the vet about her having (what I thought was) a cold or pneumonia to our having to put her to sleep.  When I brought her home from the hospital Saturday, she was doing okay (just okay, though) and we thought we had a week or so.  We went for a walk, and she was really slow, but still in great spirits.  Although she was still putting on a happy face, she was deteriorating really quickly.

Last night she didn't really move a lot.  Going up and down the stairs was tough for her, and she didn't sleep much at all.  At about 1am she came to lay by my side of the bed.  When she woke me up at about 4am, I decided to get up with her and we cuddled downstairs for a while.  Once everyone got up we had our usual morning routine, called a friend to watch the kids, we all said our goodbyes, and we took her in.  The place was very nice, and we were with her until the very end.

Ellie and Mena

On our walk today with Mena, Ellie told us that "it's not fair that Mena's going to die."  Truer words were never spoken.

But then she also told us that "it's okay, she'll still be with us after she dies.  Just like the angels.  We can't see them, but they're with us."  She also said that "I'll miss Mena because she gives us all her cuddles."  What a sweet little girl Ellie is...pretty smart for an almost-4-year-old.  I hope I'm as strong as that when Mena's time comes.  But I doubt it.

Tonight we all hugged Mena, told her we loved her, thanked her for all the cuddles and for being such a good friend.  I hate being a grown-up.

Mena, the Dog

Wow, today has really sucked bad.  I took Mena, our 8 year old dog, to the vet because we thought she had a really bad cold, or pneumonia, or something like that.  After the X-rays, the doctor told me it was serious, and I definitely wasn't prepared for the rush of adrenaline that I got.  The vet told me that Mena had a lot (a LOT) of fluid around her heart, and that we could either go to the emergency vet, take her home, or put her to sleep right then.  !!!

I raced to the emergency clinic, and was told that no matter what, it was not good.  It was just a matter of how not good it was.  A few months, weeks, days.  They did the ultrasound on Mena's chest.  Apparently, it's not liquid.  A huge mass has crowded her organs and that's why she's been having problems.  

Any solutions they could offer would be more to ease our pain, not hers.  So we brought her home, took her for a walk, and are all telling her how much we love her.  That's all we can do for now.  When the time comes, if she doesn't choose for herself and die at home, we'll take her in and put her to sleep.  I hope the time is obvious, because I can't imagine making that choice right now.

Odd children's books

Most of our kids books are pretty standard fare - Sandra Boynton, Dr. Suess, etc. But there are a couple that I just think are a little strange for kids.

One is The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. This is one of those books with no words, which is great. We can make up stuff as we go along, and the boy (I think right now we're calling him Johnny) makes a snowman and has great adventures with him. Nice, huh? Except in the last frame he goes outside and finds his best friend melted.

Yay.

The other one that is strange to read to a 1 and 3 year old is The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice story, but I find it to be quite sad. So of course the kids LOVE this book. It reminds me of the love story in Forrest Gump, where the girl uses Forrest whenever she needs something (especially when she goes back at the end of the movie) but goes away whenever she wants, and she doesn't really love Forrest (at least that's the way I see it). In this book, there's a tree and a boy. The tree loves the boy, and the boy just uses the tree whenever he needs something. He takes and takes, goes away for long periods of time, and then comes back when he needs something else.

Wait a minute, is that tree his parent?

Anyway, at the end the boy comes back and sits on the stump (that's all that he left of the tree), and the tree is happy again just because the boy is back.

What a dumb tree.

Wow, has it been that long?

Well, I suppose now that we've been in the new house for 3 weeks I should probably update this for posterity's sake. Hmm...what's different?

Nothing.

Well, Matthew is turning into a world class climber. The other day I was upstairs cleaning (okay, getting a Diet Mountain Dew) and heard Ellie shriek "Matthew needs heeeeellllp!"

I ran downstairs to find Matthew in his old high chair. Ellie calmly told me that he needed help getting down. Yeah, I can see that? How did he get up there?

"He just climbed up."

Uh oh. I always prided myself on the fact that Ellie stayed in her crib until she was 3. Never once did she try and get out. I guess it's time to get the duct tape out and strap Mr. Man down at bedtime.

Since the high chair incident, I've caught him climbing up into it a few more times, climbing on top of every table in the house, moving chairs to get up on higher tables, and bringing a stool upstairs to climb up onto who-knows-what.

We were at the park yesterday and a little girl (probably 7ish) was walking on top of the hand-over-hand ladder thing. I had to shield Matthew's eyes to prevent THAT notion from entering his head so soon. I'm not ready for that yet.

Oh my!

Me: "So, tell me what you did at preschool today..."

Ellie: "I slept with Alex today."

Boy, they are growing up fast these days!

Toilet time

The other morning before taking Ellie to preschool, nature was calling, and there was no way I was going to let it go to voicemail. So off I went, and as I was closing the door Ellie ran in behind me and said "I'll help you!"

Just what I needed - my last sacred "alone" spot ruined.

So I got things started, and then she yelled, "No! No! Wait!!! You're supposed to be reading a magazine!"

At least she's learning from the best!

---

That evening, Ellie was in the bathroom for the entire dinnertime, singing and doing who-knows-what. Despite my calls for her to hurry up, there was no getting her out, and this wasn't a battle I was prepared to fight. Whatever.

There were lots of comments that were wonderful dinner conversation - "Ellie, are you peeing? Pooping?" "Yes pee! No poop!"

Finally, and I really mean finally, because I was practically ready to go to bed at this point, I heard the toilet paper start spinning madly, followed by, "Uh, hey! I think I pooped!"

OK, it's not so funny for anyone but Sharon, but she made me post this so she could laugh about it.