Author: maggie

Crawling

(taken earlier this week)

Otherwise known as the triple threat for Wilson. In order to make it to his 4th birthday he had to meet each one’s challenge. I must say- he passed with mostly flying colors. Each of these trips in the past has been met with screams yet to be heard on earth over mundane grooming tasks. But he made it through them all, only crying about getting his finger pricked (Miller had her check up that day, too. She just looked at the nurse when her finger was pricked- should have let her go first!) “I like doctor Ellison- he’s pretty nice!” “I like that new dentist- she’s pretty good” “I got my haircut, and I didn’t even cry at all.”

I was so overwhelmed by his behaivior at the dentist that I took pictures! This is our new pediatric dentist- who wouldn’t love a woman with this kind of train table in her office!

Miller also had a great time- she even let the dentist poke around in her head, too!

Okay, so she’ll be 10 months in less than a week, but here’s her real 9 month video. I made it while on hold with a lovely little outfit you all know as the I-R-S. Of course I was on hold for half an hour before I finally thought of something constructive to do with the time. I get well into the video and they come back- so it just sort of ends. Oh well. We love you Miller, Happy 9 months!

Following is a post I was creating live and minute by minute during a squirrel hunt about a month ago. I never could get the videos to load, so I never got this post published. There’s been a lot of activity since then (ergo the post a few back where I give a very brief update), so I’ll complete the saga (I know you’ve all been hanging on by thread to hear the end) . . .

What has lots of teeth, two tails, black and brown spots and is a little, okay a lot, crazy? Jack AND Tate trying to get a squirrel in the wall! That’s right it’s baaaaack!

They are currently hanging out outside while Phil devises a plan to get the rodent out. So far it’s involved the pellet gun and removing the plate from the wall from the original invasion. The squirrel was not in that section of the wall this time. Jack was the first on the scene, he’s more familiar with the sound of course. Tate came in for back up and just went to town. Tate has got a thirst for blood like no untrained, non-hunting, lap dog I’ve ever seen. I spent the better part of two afternoons last week cleaning HUMMING BIRD blood off the ceiling of my parent’s house (they left town for a few weeks, I went to pick Tate up so he wouldn’t starve while they’re gone, and this is what I’m greeted with- how high and how fast did that dog have to just to catch a HUMMING BIRD!? At first I couldn’t find their ladder so I went to ask the man across the street for one- he loaned me something that resembled a ladder. It was held together by a vine that had crept onto it while being stored safely in the yard and paint drips from previous projects. I returned, um, that and came back the next day with my own. But, again, I digress . . .) The dogs had to go out because Tate was well on his way to chewing through the wall board.

The current plan is that Phil has cut a very tiny hole in the wall where we think the intruder is. He’s stuffed it with a cotton ball coated in peanut butter. He’s planning to shoot when he sees movement on the cotton . . . I’ll let you know how that turns out. Why do I think I’m going to wake up to a bed full of squirrel babies in the morning?

For bonus points . . . What’s almost four, wears Halloween pajamas, and is STILL awake narrating the whole thing?

So now, the rest of the story.

I woke up that morning at about 3 am to Phil running around with his pellet gun. I asked what was going on. He said “it” was trying to get a snack. I asked what it was. He said he thought a rat. So he went in to shoot it while it ate. It fell to the floor (on the inside of the wall). So, another hole has to be cut to remove the rat. The rat turns out to be a FLYING SQUIRREL. He was not the only carcass in the wall, either. There was a skeleton in there.

We go to be the next night and wake up to more scratching in the wall. Phil takes Tate in the laundry room and this time is sounds like it’s coming from the hole that the critter man cut. Phil peels back the flashing and Tate sticks his head in. Tate gently removes the old piece of drywall that had fallen in to get it out of his way. He places it on the ground and goes back in. He starts pulling and tugging and out he comes with a mouth full of, you guessed it, a flying squirrel sibling. We go to bed. And we go to bed with nothing for a few more nights.

But the story doesn’t end here. One night as we’re going to bed Jack is going nuts around the door and windows in our bedroom that look into my studio. We check everything out, see nothing, and send him to bed. He spent the next day at the vet, but when we were getting ready for bed the next night he starts all over again dancing and jumping around the window. We’ve had it and send him to his bed. I’m awoken at about 1am to him huffing and puffing at the door again. I turn on the light and think maybe he’s seeing the reflection of our fan in the glass of the door so I hold him up so he can see there’s NOTHING. He won’t stop acting crazy so I decide to shut him out in my studio and close the curtains so he can’t see in. As I’m getting back into bed I take one look back at the windows and notice a small blob on the curtain rod. I don’t have my contacts in, but I know this blob is NOT supposed to be there. “Phil there IS something over there.” He gets a broom and I go in the bathroom, shut the door, climb up on the counter, and wait. The next thing I know a super shrilled shriek is coming from my room and then there’s the sounds of a dog/squirrel chase. Jack gets a mouth full of flying squirrel sibling #3! I’m still recovering from the fact that it was in our room for over 24 hours and that it probably hung Mission Impossible style over our heads in the back hall as it scampered from the laundry room in to ours. I’m not sure Jack will ever recover from it . . .

Temper Tantrum

Miller is honestly one of the happiest babies I’ve ever seen- she can sit for an hour alone completely entertaining herself. For the most part she’s excepting of strangers. She’s pretty easy to distract if she does get a little disgruntled.

One sure fire way to make her mad is take something away . . . and if calling her Princess Baby doesn’t perk her up, you know she’s MAD. . .

I love how she pauses every few seconds to check and see if anyone’s there.

Hopefully I’ll get a better 9 months video. We have had our fair share of tears around here lately though- double ear infection, shots & finger prick at the doctor, the top 4 teeth trying to come in, and she’s starting realize that she could be mobile if she could just put it all together- so frustrating! So this video is a little more fitting of the last few days 🙁

Flying squirrels can scream.

Question.
Do you know what one sounds like at 1:00 in the morning in your bedroom?

I do.

It’s just too much. I don’t even know if I can blog about it- maybe later. Just know that it happened and it’s the third one in a week.