Day Two Hundred Twenty Seven

Elijah Celebrates His 3rd Birthday


Grand son Elijah celebrated his 3rd birthday this afternoon with a Scooby Doo themed party and his family and friends at his house.

The giant slide has become a birthday tradition. Here's Elijah man coming down fast!

He loved his new Spiderman bike from Granny and Grandpa and took it for a spin down the hallway.

Another birthday tradition is each kid taking a swing at the candy-filled pinata. Elijah enjoyed opening his gifts (tossing the clothing aside, of course), playing on the big slide til he was red in the face, and loving every minute of his day of days. I'm sure he'll sleep well tonight!

Day Two Hundred Twenty Six

Eddie Kitty sez, "This vet stuff is for the birds!"


Eddie returned to the vet this afternoon for his temporary shots, including the Feline Leukemia vaccine. Poor kitty. He was not a happy camper. I had to keep a firm hand on him or he would have high tailed it out of there. Eddie weighed in at a whopping 2.14 pounds at about ten weeks old. His age is mostly an educated guess. He was pretty scrawny when he showed up at my house just after the fourth of July. He eats like a pig these days. I can only imagine he must have weighed less than a pound a month ago.

Grand daughter Shelby was my helper for Eddie's trip to the vet just after school. She loves animals. I can picture her becoming a veterinarian some day. After two shots in his skinny bottom and some worm meds and ear cleaning, Eddie was good to go. Little does he know I've scheduled another appointment for him in four weeks when his manhood will be stripped away (Ouch!) without his permission. I hate that for him, but it must be done. He'll also get another round of shots--most likely a rabies vaccine. Poor thing. He cried all the way to the vet but was strangely silent on the way home. Maybe he overheard me making that appointment....

Day Two Hundred Twenty Five

Grand son Elijah turns 3 years old on Monday, August 17. He's going to partay this Saturday. He wants a new bike, so Neil and I got him this one at Wal-Mart tonight, along with a helmet to wear when he's burning up the road at his house. Shh...don't tell him.

Day Two Hundred Twenty Four

The First Day Of School--Start To Finish


Shelby, the reluctant third grader, poses for a first full day of school picture before making the long trek to the school building (which you can see directly behind her). She's got that "Aw, man! I can't believe this is happening to me!" look on her face.

Elijah, the dutiful little brother, has said his goodbyes to his big sister, grabs Eddie the striped kitten, and heads back inside where mini waffles and Scooby Doo await.

Elijah attended the open house for Mother's Day Out this morning and met his new teachers. For lunch, while his sister slaved away at school, he pigged out on a cheeseburger and apple fries at Burger King, then did some heavy climbing on the BK playground. It's a tough life, but somebody's gotta do it!

This was the weirdest and kind of saddest thing we saw at the BK playground. Elijah was the only kid in there and put his Crocs in the rack. But there was this one little pink sneaker just sitting in there all by itself.

I thought this was odd because it's an expensive Converse All Star tennis shoe (sneaker if you grew up in the fifties). Probably belonged to a three or four year old little girl.

Neil and I kept calling to Elijah to go down the slide. He called back to us that "There's something in here." I immediately flashed on the kid in The Shining (by Stephen King) who encountered "something" inside a big drainage pipe. And there was that one little Converse sneaker left in the shoe rack.....I was totally creeped out. Then Elijah called "It's a wasp." Oh well. I have an over active imagination sometimes. He did eventually go down the slide.

After lunch, he was down for the count for a couple of hours in my bed, then wandered into the living room and crashed again on the floor.

Time for Shelby to come home! He ran to greet her.

The devoted little brother watching for his beloved big sister to come home from her first day of school.

Here she comes, crossing the street to Granny's house. The school day finally came to an end!

Elijah gets left holding the bag as they march toward Granny's house where there will be Popsicles and mindless television after a day spent quite possibly growing some new brain cells.

As a tired and flushed face Shelby grabs the remote to channel surf, Elijah sits down next to her and asks, "How was your day, Shelby?" It was the sweetest thing, and it totally made my day.

Day Two Hundred Twenty Three

The Last Day Of Summer Freedom


Today is Shelby's last day of freedom for a while. Tomorrow school starts. The kids chose Ocha for lunch. Here are Holly, Shelby and Elijah after a big meal of rice and spicy chicken.

I was trying to get a picture without the rabbit ears, but it wasn't meant to be. This is our last weekday lunch with Shelby until the fall break in October I think. She is now a third grader and Elijah will be attending Mother's Day Out two days a week.

The Coke can says it all. Summer 2009 is over for school kids in my neck of the woods, even though Autumn won't come around for another six weeks on the calendar. It ends too soon.