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Mallory wants to invite her friend Brooke Howe over today, and I guess I was a little too slow digging out the phone book and looking up her number.

Family Day 2013

Thank you to whomever came up with the idea of Family Day. A three-day weekend to break up that long stretch of non-statutory-holiday filled time between New Year's and Easter? Sign me up.

We spent our day across the border at the zoo, having just renewed our membership. Funniest line of the day came courtesy of the border crossing guard as we were entering Detroit. He took a look in the back of the vehicle and said, "what's that, a hockey bag or something?" It was the delivery more than anything else that made me laugh, like it was such a foreign concept to him that he wasn't going to touch it with a ten-foot pole. Note to self: next time I have to smuggle a dead body across an international border, hide it in a hockey bag.

The zoo was not as empty as our last winter trip and a few exhibits were closed, but most were open. Mallory did her customary strike-a-pose-and-ask-for-a-picture-beside-each-statue routine.

I did my usual picture-overload-in-the-polar-bear-exhibit routine.

After the zoo, we ran a few errands. A few weeks ago I finished this quilt that I'd started a few years back and wouldn't you know it, the red dye ran and bled into the white, despite having per washed the fabric. They don't sell Shout Color Catchers in Canada but I'd heard they would solve my problem, so a stop at Target was in order. Well, I've used four of the Color Catchers now, and they are not fixing my problem. Damn damn damn. That's the last time I mix red and white.

On the bright side, the Target was right next door to a Party City, so we also came home fully stocked up for the upcoming birthday party season.

Next we stopped off briefly at Devonshire in Windsor but it was JAMMED so we did not stick around for long. Our last stop was at the Route 42 Diner which had been recommended to Chad. He said his burger was kind of meh, but the sweet potato fries were the best I've ever had.

And with that... The long weekend is over. Boo hiss! Back to work in the morning.

...and the other side of the coin

A conversation with Mallory

I found this template online and had to sit down with Mallory to fill it out. I knew exactly what most of her answers would be and I want to see if they will change. Will her favourite food always be rice? I sure hope she finds something better to eat than that! You might need to click to embiggen. Now, to keep chasing Liam down in the hopes that he will do it with me, too.

She'll never forget this one

Mallory (who, yes, lost her top front tooth earlier this week) had an eventful night in the ER on Tuesday after she stuck a Smartie up her nose. Yes, a Smartie. We handed out little boxes of Valentine Smarties to her classmates and made the mistake of letting her have some of the leftovers. She was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, quietly eating, when out of the corner of my eye I saw her put the Smartie up her nose. "Did you just put a Smartie up your nose?" I asked, probably a bit too hysterically. "NO!" she said, and burst into tears, and the river of hot-pink snot that started coming out of her nostril proved that she was not being truthful (another matter for another day).

So off to the ER we went. Mallory was beside herself, because her last ER trip was when she had stitches in her forehead, and that was pretty traumatic all the way around. When we got to the hospital, the doctor could see the Smartie up her nose, but couldn't reach it. We tried giving her a mouth-to-mouth type treatment in the hopes that the air pressure would dislodge the Smartie, but no such luck. The doctor hemmed and hawed over giving a referral to an ear, nose and throat specialist, but finally just decided the Smartie would probably melt sooner or later, and sent us on our way. He did warn though that because the Smartie was so far up there, it wasn't going to come out her nose; it would likely melt down the back of her throat. So we won't see physical evidence if and when it does come out. We will, however, notice if it doesn't come out; if Mallory's breath starts to stink to high heaven then she likely has an infection because the Smartie is still there.

On our way out of the ER, we passed a huge vending machine, and Mallory paused lovingly in front of it. "Ooooooo, can I get something??" she asked, a hopeful glint in her eye. I probably gave her the most exasperated look of all time when I told her that after sticking her last bit of candy up her nose, she would be lucky if I ever let her have candy again.

Building inside, building outside

I was finally able to track down some sugar cubes. Easier said than done in this day and age; really, when was the last time you saw a bowl of sugar cubes served anywhere? The kids couldn't get over them and wondered what they are used for, and the only answer I can really think of anymore is to feed to horses... right? 

We needed the sugar cubes to build a craft: wintry igloos. Liam took the job very seriously and meticulously stacked his. Mallory went willy-nilly on the first round and then asked me to finish it for her. She wants the end result but does not want to put in the effort. Somehow we have to get through to her that this is not the way the world works, but I finished the igloo up anyway. Secretly, I was having a lot of fun with it.

After we finished up our igloos, we headed outside, where the snow was starting to melt and it was easy to pack. Here, we completed a construction project of another sort, though kind of similar-looking: a fort, or half a fort, anyway. One wall of defense against the evil snowball thrower.

Mallory was Princess Diamond inside the castle (appropriate that she was wearing her tiara winter hat!) and Liam, the noble knight who was the first line of defense for the castle. Really, he just enjoyed getting pelted.

It was all fun and games until Mallory actually got hit by a snowball. And then it went downhill pretty quickly from there.

This morning, after a good dose of rain and some strong winds overnight, our fort is kind of a mess. One of the flags is missing and the whole wall is crumbling down. Building the fort got me thinking though, next time the snow is right - which is not likely to be til next winter now - how fun would it be to build a real igloo?

That's my heart talking though. My mind knows how much effort it took to get the dozen or so blocks that we did form packed up and stacked. Sticking with the sugar cubes will have to do for now.

Poor little Pip

Pip had something called FIP - feline infectious peritonitis. To make a long story short, it's genetic, it's incurable, and it's fatal. Pip's health rapidly declined over the course of 4 or 5 days and after a couple of trips to the vet, two kinds of pills, IV fluids, a shot of steroids and an overnight stay, the final diagnosis came and there was nothing that would have saved her.

It was just really unfortunate that we picked a lemon of a cat, as the vet said. The virus that causes FIP is carried by a lot of cats, especially those who come from shelters, but it's only when it mutates into the FIP form that it makes cats sick. Pip was just unlucky that way. And we were unlucky that the first sign of illness appeared the weekend after we'd had Pip for six weeks. When you adopt from the OSPCA, you get six weeks of free health insurance for your pet. We just missed that and all the vet bills are ours and ours alone.

The kids took it relatively well. There were tears, but far fewer than there were when we lost Captain. I think they also saw the writing on the wall with Pip; she was clearly not well. With Captain, he hadn't been eating, but we just thought he had a sore tooth.

I am sure we will get another cat someday, and probably sooner rather than later. But not right away. We were told that the virus that causes FIP can linger for a few weeks, and it was recommended that we wait at least a month before bringing another cat into the house. It's going to be a long month.

Worst Groundhog Day, ever

R.I.P. to our little Pip, who had to be put down yesterday. No, I am not kidding. It's pretty much the worst kind of deja vu ever.