Cat5

Note: Serendipity seems to insist on adding escape characters for every apostrophe at the moment. I\’m not sure why but I don\’t want to take the time to deal with it at the moment . . .

I just got back from picking Cat5 up from the vet. I have a bad feeling we might be at the middle of the end for her. I guess she\’s starting to get old for a cat. I recall the cats at my parents\’ home living for a long time with nothing more than benign neglect. I mean, my parents took them in to the vet once a year but that once it, they had very minimal intervention. I\’m sure they never got their teeth cleaned or anything like that. I could be wrong, but I\’m pretty sure Midnight lived to at least 15. Nimrod* might have been a little less but not by much. They both wandered off into the woods one night and never came back. Five is probably 11-12 years old. We got her at the Humane society about 7 years ago. This doesn\’t seem old to me but I was reading a couple of sites online that said cats tend to average living 12-15 years.

Several months ago I noticed that Cat5 was having litter box problems. I thought she was just being picky so I was more careful to clean the litter box. Then, I tried adding an additional litterbox in case she just wasn\’t wanting to share with Willow or wanted different boxes for different purposes. This seemed to help temporarily but that could have been my imagination. After Christmas, things got noticeably worse. She was having messes all over the house. I took her into the vet. He tried to get a good feel but couldn\’t without sedating her because she was so swollen and sensitive. So, he gave me some antibiotics with hopes that would hope any possible infection and asked me to come back in a week. During that week, it seemed like she was getting worse. She started leaking pudding-like consistency whenever she sat down somewhere.
When I went back the following week, the infection, if that is what it was, hadn\’t gone away. The vet told me that he really needed to sedate her and get a good feel inside because he was afraid she might have a tumor, possibly cancerous. I can\’t remember exactly what he said but I\’m pretty sure he was trying to gently prepare me for a bad scenario. He said something about not treating colon cancer (I think that\’s what he was talking about anyway) on cats because they have such a poor survival rate. When I came to pick her up that evening, the doctor said that he couldn\’t feel anything that indicated there was a problem and he preferred not to do a biopsy without a specific reason due to infection risks. So, basically he cleaned her all out, injected her with cortisone, gave us a 2-week supply of antibiotics and told us to call if she wasn\’t better after that.

Things seem to improve a lot during those first two weeks. She stopped having messes and seemed to be doing better. However, just this last week, things started going down hill again. She started going places other than the litter box again. Saturday night, I happened to glance at Five when she was cleaning herself and noticed she had a sore right above her anus that was bleeding. I got her an appointment for this afternoon and took her in again. The vet took one look at her and said, \”yes, that look like a tumor\” and told me he wanted to try to feel her again. However, as he picked her up, she squawked and so he looked at Five again and said it looked like there was something weird going on with her tail also (a structural problem of some sort). So, he wanted to do x-rays to double check she hadn\’t had a break or something that was the root cause of this problem. After the x-rays, he didn\’t say about seeing any breaks so I assume those where fine but he said she was so backed up that it was pushing her anus out. He recommended giving her an enema and another cortisone short. If that seemed to help, we might need to give her monthly cortisone shots. I left her, because he suggested I didn\’t want to deal with the aftermath, and was told to call in a couple of hours. I picked her up a half hour before they closed for the day. It turns out they had to sedate her again because she was so sensitive there was no way they could get the enema in her otherwise. She obviously had been through quite an ordeal.

I have a follow-up scheduled for 3 weeks from now (unless she doesn\’t improve or gets worse in the next couple of days, of course). If monthly cortisone shots fix the problem, that\’s great. However, she\’s been so miserable these last couple of weeks that I\’m not sure what we\’ll do if that\’s not the solution. I\’m starting to worry about her quality of life.

I\’m afraid we may be near the end for Five. Five is much better with Calvin than Willow is. Willow is still, perhaps wisely, afraid of Calvin. Though, I\’ve never caught Calvin purposely abusing the cats. In any case, Five lets Calvin pet her sometimes which he really enjoys doing. In fact, when we were at the vets office I told Calvin that Five was kind of scared to be at the doctors office just like he is sometimes and Calvin immediately started petting Five, presumably in some sort of mutual sympathy. Intellectually, I know that Five is old enough that we\’re going to have to explain death at some point to Calvin. However, I cringe at having to do so soon.

*Yes, that was really his name. Being the naive Adventist I was, I named him after the great hurter in the Bible not realizing that was a derogatory term.

This Week’s Menu

Ever noticed that every so often I get serious about my grocery store habit? I’m once again trying to cut back. Also, I’m trying to get rid of all the extra ingredients I have around our house so I don’t have to move or trash them. I’ve decided to go ahead and cook all my dried beans and then freeze them. I use dried beans fairly often but sometimes run out of time so I grab the canned ones. However, freezing works well when I’m organized enough to do it. My slow cooker lets me cook them without paying too much attention to the process.

You’ll notice that both Brussels sprout and asparagus are still on the menu even though they’re high cost vegetables. That’s because they’re one of three vegetables Calvin consistently eats, the other being broccoli. He refuses to touch sweet potatoes though I keep trying. Yes, our child is weird.

  • Sunday – Sicilian Lentil Soup

  • Monday – Aloo Gobhi with Naan

  • Tuesday – Garbanzo Pot Pie with Broccoli

  • Wednesday – Southern Style Black Eyed Peas, Toasted Millet, and Brussels sprout

  • Thursday – Leftovers

  • Friday – Chick peas with a coconut sauce and asparagus

  • Saturday – Spaghetti with Edamame and bread

Tired

Every day I think, “I should write an update for my life.” However, by suppertime I’m rarely coherent enough to write anything. I don’t feel coherent at the moment either but should probably jot some sentences down.

Not surprisingly, life got very busy around the holidays.

  • Work got a little insane in the rush to try to finish every project before the last two weeks of December when it’s hard to get anything useful done.

  • It seems a tradition that Calvin have problems sleeping in November/December. This year was no exception. As a result, I often ended up too tired to get up any earlier than I absolutely had to. Unfortunately, this basically eliminated my morning exercising which makes the rest of the day seem less productive.

  • The Logan’s all congregated here for Christmas. It was a tight squeeze but mostly worked.

  • This was the first year that Calvin really got into Christmas. Though, he doesn’t seem to know what to think about a person dressed like Santa Claus yet. Jaeger and I aren’t big proponents of presenting Santa as “real” but it’s incredibly hard to get everyone else on board with this philosophy. In any case, Calvin really enjoyed the presents and got more than is probably good for him :-)

  • After Christmas, we went to visit my parents in Washington. Calvin got Christmas part 2. My mom went a little crazy with buying Duplos on ebay and as such, Calvin now has a fantastic Duplo collection. I don’t think Duplos can ever be better than Legos but we still have enough pieces to do reasonable projects now. For example, the train viaduct Jaeger built for Calvin. Calvin can also to pretty reasonable projects at this point but still typically has structural integrity issues to deal with.

  • Jaeger and I left Calvin with Grandma and went up to Seattle for a couple of days. It was nice to get away but I did have a bit of niggling worry in my head the entire time. I’m not much for big cities, Boulder is too big for my tastes, but Seattle seems pretty decent for a big city. I love the hills. I feel like I can get a good workout just walking a couple of blocks :-)

  • Saturday evening we got back to my mom’s house and Calvin glued himself to me for the rest of the evening. In fact, he seems awfully clingy ever since. I’m starting to think the couple of alone days might not have been a good idea. This makes me nervous about our Hong Kong plans next year . . .

  • Both the flight to and from Washington went really well. I think it may have been the best plan trip ever. Calvin didn’t really fuss at all during the trip. Plus, we survived it all without any potty accidents. Calvin was amused by the airplane toilet which I think helped.

  • Since we’ve gotten back, Calvin has been sleeping very poorly. He is taking forever to fall asleep and waking up in the middle of the night and insisting on sleeping with me. This is exhausting for everyone concerned.

  • We’re working on getting the house ready for sale. We’re hoping to move down to north Boulder in spring or summer this year. We’ve been donating boxes of stuff that for some reason we thought we needed at one point and now know we don’t. It’s amazing how much junk we’ve accumulated. It’s really true that your stuff expands to fit whatever space you have available.

I’ve sure much more has been happening but my brain isn’t cooperating and coming up with any more bullet points. Calvin continues to be cute, frustrating, and lovable. Sometimes I alternate between exasperation and pride within seconds of each other. At least he keeps our life interesting.

Another post, so soon!

Downs

  • Calvin’s temper has gotten worse the last month or so. I think a lot of this has to do with not getting enough naps. However, some of it is probably just being 2 1/2. I’m working on deciding what behavior I let slide and what I think is unacceptable. It’s tricky. I think this is one of the big upsides to being in a relationship when you have a child, you have someone else to brainstorm with you and tell you when a stance is reasonable or not worth the effort.

  • I started exercising more consistently after daylight savings ended. That extra hour was helpful for both Calvin and I. However, this last week has been pretty bad. I don’t think I’ve gotten up early to exercise since before Thanksgiving.

Ups

  • We had swim class today and Calvin participated in most of the exercises. Calvin loves playing in the water but actual classes are hit or miss because he usually doesn’t want to follow someones else’s schedule.

  • When Jaeger got a raise this fall we assigned most of it to hiring bi-weekly housecleaning. It’s so nice having someone else worry about dusting the piano, etc. The weeks they don’t come I still clean the toilets and the bathtub but that doesn’t take too long.

  • I’m happy it’s the Christmas season. I bought a fake Christmas tree this year with my expenditure allocation. Jaeger grumbled but told me I could put it up as long as I used my allowance for the tree. I really would prefer a real tree but Jaeger’s mom told me it’s really hard to keep a tree alive in Colorado and I wanted to put it up the day after Thanksgiving and not take it down till the New Year. It turns out that buying a tree this year was a good idea as the Logan’s are going to be visiting us for Christmas instead of us having to travel to east Washington.

Cute Calvin Moments

  • Calvin is excited about Christmas. I’ve wrestled with how to address the Santa Claus issue as I don’t see any reason Calvin should believe in Santa Claus. I know people think you can’t have a magical Christmas without Santa Claus but I don’t agree. I never believed in Santa Claus and I always loved Christmas. However, I don’t want Calvin going around and ruining other kids’ day if their parents teach them Santa Clause is real. I’ve compromised by starting most sentences with “some people believe that Santa Claus . . . ” We’ll see how it goes.

  • Calvin is picking up more of my speech patterns. It’s weird hearing myself parroted back. When he drops something now he’ll say, “Oh bother!”

  • Calvin wants to help with everything. His two favorite phrases are, “I can do it” or “Can I help?” It’s charming but would be much more useful if he was coordinated enough to do much.

Culture Experience: In which we learn that kitchen spoons don’t make sturdy drum sticks.

I’ve been wanting to take Calvin to a concert, a play, or some other cultural event for a while. However, finding a child-friendly event at a good time of day, i.e. not at night, has been tricky. A couple of months ago I stumbled across Colorado Symphony’s Drums of the World concert. It was for the last Sunday in November at 2:30 pm, a good time if Calvin isn’t too cranky from lack of a nap. I put it on my calendar but didn’t get tickets in case we ended up traveling for Thanksgiving.

By the time I went to buy tickets, it claimed that there weren’t 3 seats placed together. Or, more precisely, the website failed every time I tried to buy 2 adults + 1 child but had no problem with 1 adult + 1 child. Jaeger seemed less than enthralled with the concert idea, probably fearing Calvin would throw a tantrum in the middle. I was also nervous at the prospect of taking a 2 1/2 year-old to a concert but it was specifically geared towards families so I figured this was as good a time as any to try it out. In the end, I just bought tickets for Calvin and I. Jaeger agreed to drive down with us and hang out in Denver during the concert then end the day at Watercourse restaurant.

The plan today was to leave for Denver as soon as I finished working, at 1:00 pm on Sundays. It did not start out auspiciously as Calvin completely refused to wear the outfit I thought was appropriate for the concert (think “business casual” for a toddler). In the end, we compromised on a Thomas the Tank Engine shirt with nicer pants. However, Calvin still wasn’t happy and protested the entire way to the car. Given the clothing fracas, we were running later than I hoped. However, we got to Denver in plenty of time. Jaeger parked the car and walked us to Boettcher Concert Hall before departing for The Tattered Cover.

When I bought the tickets, I was trying to avoid the balcony areas for fear Calvin would try to launch himself over the edge. So, I paid for orchestra level seating and was surprised, and a little nervous, to discover we ended up in the 3rd row from the front. Normally, I’d consider this great but I was nervous Calvin would find it too loud. My fears appeared confirmed as the babble of voices, pre-concert, were loud enough for Calvin to insist that I cover his ears with my hands. An usher stopped by and asked if we’d like earplugs but Calvin threw a fit when I suggested he put them in his ears.

I had brought a small backpack in with us containing essentials such as his potty seat, books, etc. I had that in “Calvin’s” seat as the seat backs were so high that Calvin couldn’t see over them. When I sat Calvin in my lap, he was barely high enough to see the stage. They did have booster seats available but Calvin isn’t very good with boosters. He tends to fall out of them because he wiggles so much. I tried reading one of the picture books to Calvin but all he wanted was to keep my hands over his ears. I made sure the backpack had all our stuff in it in case I had to grab it and go the instance the concert started.

The concert started with a piece called “Take That” composed by William Albright. The lights were dimmed with spotlights on two performers on the stage with 2 performers behind us in the audience. It was very dramatic and loud. To my surprise, Calvin uncovered his ears about half-way through the performance. By the second movement in “Threads”, by Paul Lansky, Calvin was opening enjoying himself.

I felt myself relax until a couple of movements later when Calvin started insisting he needed to go potty. Normally, when he tells me this, I race him to the nearest restroom, no questions asked. However, we were in the middle of a concert. I asked him if he was sure, he was. I asked him if he could hold it until the next song was announced. He agreed but squirmed during the rest of “Threads.” As soon as it was done, he and I raced, hopefully without too much notice, out of the concert hall to find the nearest restroom. I was amused to discover that we weren’t alone as at least 4 other families also headed for the restrooms.

Unfortunately, we missed the next piece which sounded like it was fun. However, we made it in time for a piece titled “Martian Tribes” by Emmanuel Séjourné. It was fantastic. Probably Calvin’s favorite. All four percussionists came out dressed wacky with knitted winter hats that looked like they had frog eyes on top. One person started playing the marimba and the others skulked around until their turn came and then they jockeyed with each other for space at the marimba. It’s hard to explain but this video gives you an idea of what it sounded/looked like.

After that, they played a piece called “Eine Kleine Tischmusik” involving, among other things, wooden kitchen spoons to bang against a table. It turns out that kitchen spoons aren’t as sturdy as drum sticks. Near the end, one performer was so enthusiastic that part of his spoon broke and went flying. There were several other pieces after this but I think Calvin was getting a little tired at that point. He didn’t complain or anything but he laid back against me and didn’t seem quite as into it as he had the first part. Of course, I thought he did very well for such a young child.

After the concert, we met Jaeger and went to Watercourse for supper. As usual, the food was great. Right as we were getting ready to go, Calvin lost it. I think the day had just been very long for him and he was ready for it to be over. We hurried him back to the car and had to forcible put him in his car seat. He hollered for a couple more minutes but then settled down. I was afraid that he was going to fall asleep but we managed to avoid this by finding an adulterated Thomas the Tank Engine story to download from the library and read to him (sometimes smart phones are worth their weight in gold).

All-in-all, I would say the concert experience with Calvin was a success. There were some nervous moments but it’s something I’m ready to try and repeat again.

Menu this Week

Someday I’m going to post more than just menus. However, this will have to wait till Calvin goes back to a normal sleep routine . . .

  • Sunday: “Curried Squash Soup” from The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman with Steamed Asparagus and Bread

  • Monday: “Millet and Chickpea Pilaf with Saffron and Tomatoes” from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison with Stuffed Acorn Squash and Halloween Candy (Double the Millet dish for freezing)

  • Tuesday: Takeout

  • Wednesday: “Ratatouille” from Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen (double for freezing)

  • Thursday: Leftovers

  • Friday: Braised Tofu with Wild Rice and Edamame in the Pod

  • Spinach and Cheese Ravioli with Broccoli

Menu this Week

  • Sunday: Been Burritos (made extra to freeze)

  • Monday: Garbanzo Pot Pie with Green Beans

  • Tuesday: Takeout

  • Wednesday: “Thai Tofu & Winter Squash Stew” from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (try making double portion and freezing)

  • Thursday: Leftovers

  • Friday: “Tossed Spinach Lasagne & Goat Cheese Gratin” from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (try making double portion and freezing)

  • Saturday: Store-bought Ravioli or Spaghetti and Edamame

Menu this Week

  • Sunday: “Mathura Palak Paneer” and “Sesame-Flavored Green Tomatoes” from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

  • Monday: Variation of “Garden Paella” by Rose Murray

  • Tuesday: Takeout

  • Wednesday: “Stuffed Pumpkin” from Dr. Sukol’s website and “Braised and Glazed Brussels Sprouts” from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

  • Thursday: Leftovers

  • Friday: “Slow-Cooked Creamy Black Lentils with Whole Spices” by Raghavan Iyer with a variation of “Stir-Fried Okra with Tomatoes” by Suneeta Vaswani

  • Saturday: Store-bought Spinach and Cheese Ravioli and Sauteed Spinach with Sesame Seed oil and Garlic

Additional Notes: Soak the beans for Friday overnight. Make a double recipe and freeze half for later.

Schedule Change

When Calvin was an infant, the daycare center we found didn’t offer part-time daycare for infants. So, even though I worked part-time, we paid for full-time daycare. Most of the time I’d pick him up after I finished work. However, since he was full-time, I basically was able to choose which set of hours during the day I wanted to work. Plus, if I was sick or for some reason got overloaded with work, I could keep him in for the full 8 hours. I got use to this flexibility.

As most of you know, Calvin has always been an intense child that needs to know he’s the center of the universe. This makes it difficult to do anything useful when he’s around. As a result, I got in the habit of taking an extra hour after I stopped working to clean the house or do other essential things such as pay bills. Once he graduated from the infant room, I debated changing him to part-time care. However, the cost savings weren’t enough to off-set the work I wouldn’t get done while he was home. Plus, Calvin only takes naps at daycare now. He probably hasn’t taken a nap at home, unless he’s in the car, for more than 6 months now. Apparently, Jaeger stopped his naps at 2. However, it’s very obvious that Calvin still needs his nap. He’s an absolute terror when he doesn’t get one.

I mentioned that I can’t do anything while Calvin is home, right? This includes supper preparation. I’ve tried all sorts of ways to get dinner on the table when Calvin is home but the only thing that actually works is letting him watch TV. We don’t have broadcast or cable tv so the only “tv” Calvin watches is from DVDs I’ve checked out from the library. I do like this method as it prevents him from seeing commercials and it’s easier to vet exactly what he’s watching. However, increasingly I noticed that he’d throw mini-tantrums when I turned off the TV. This worried me but I wasn’t sure what else to do.

About a week ago I was listening to the Freakonomics podcast episode title The Upside of Quitting. In it, they discussed sunk costs. I’ve always been pretty good at not letting monetary sunk costs determine my future actions. However, I realized that daycare was a huge sunk cost that I wasn’t fully utilizing. I had been picking Calvin up between 2:30-3:00 everyday. However, if I kept him in an extra hour, I could use that time to pre-make supper. Then, once I picked him up, I could completely devote my full attention to Calvin without having to worry about doing anything else. It got even better. I took a look at the daycare schedule and realized that the extra hour Calvin was there is during outdoor play time. So, I’d be swapping him sitting on the couch watching TV for running around on the fantastic playground equipment that daycare has.

This was the first week we’ve tried this schedule. However, it’s been a weird week in a couple of ways so I’m not sure this was a really good test. Monday, Calvin slept in till almost 9 (usually he gets up at 7:30) so I didn’t really have the extra hour I was planning. Tuesday is swimming lesson day and this is the one day we consistently get takeout. So, I used the extra hour to clean the house. Wednesday, Jaeger and I went to evaluate a potential prescohol for Calvin. The person I talked to said most parents take about an hour. I should have realized I would take longer. We took a full two hours. I probably spent more than an hour of that just asking the director questions. This meant that I was much later for work than I planned so I spent the extra hour working instead of fixing food. Today, Calvin slept in again, though not as much as Monday, so I was late to work again. Plus, Thursdays are the day that I go work at the library and that takes an hour in commuting time (30 min each way). So, I didn’t really have much extra time today either. Given that it’s past 9pm and Calvin’s still resisting sleeping, I suspect he’s going to sleep in tomorrow also.

Even though this week hasn’t gone exactly as I envisioned it, I think this schedule is going to work out well for us. In general, it just gives me more flexibility in my day. I’m hoping that next week things will be calmer.

October is Here

Downs

  • Calvin still isn’t consistently falling asleep in a timely manner. However, he obviously needs the sleep. I think he fell asleep around 9pm last night, which isn’t bad compared to some nights, but he didn’t wake up till some time after 9am this morning. Given that my mom was here, that wasn’t a big deal but normally I have to get him up by 8 at the latest for daycare.

  • I really would like more time in the day.

  • A little over a week ago our dishwasher took 3 tries in order to wash a load of dishes. This probably could be fixed by an appliance repair person but I’ve never liked this dishwasher and figured we might as well replace it. On one hand it might not make sense since we’re only planning to be here another year. However, our current dishwasher looks old and grubby so I think this would help the kitchen appear more attractive if nothing else. After a fair amount of cross referencing, I found a fairly low-end model that got decent ratings on Consumer Reports. I went to Lowes but it turned out they only stocked the stainless steel version. I needed white since everything else in our kitchen is white. So, they ordered it for us. I figured I could wait two weeks since it was still mostly working. Except, the next day it completely stopped working. So, we’ve been without a dishwasher for more than a week now. I’m hoping our new dishwasher arrives very soon.

Ups

  • My mom was here for the past week and Calvin loved having another person around to cater to his every whim.

  • I’m continuing to enjoy the Tai Chi classes.

  • Autumn is coming! The temperatures are starting to get back to humane levels. I can’t wait for the crisp fall air to come back (though I might be in the minority).

Cute Calvin Moments

  • Calvin’s vocabulary and sentence structure continue to expand. This morning he told Grandma, “The garbage truck picks up my trash and dumps it in the truck.” I thought that was a pretty good sentence. Now if only his pronunciation would improve.

  • When it was time to go to daycare today Calvin crawled into the driver’s seat, sat up, and pronounced that he was going to drive us to daycare. I told him that he wasn’t allowed to drive to daycare till he was 16.

  • Calvin is continuing to enjoy going to the pool. He doesn’t particularly like the swimming lessons because he doesn’t like being told what to do. However, he really enjoys splashing around in the water.

  • Since we’re planning to move next spring, I’ve been looking for preschools in the Boulder area. I’ve narrowed it down to three choices based mainly on distance from where we’ll probably live. We are scheduled to go to an open house at one of them and I need to arrange visits for the other two. Should be interesting . . .