Summer Camp Part 1

Alice's last day at Bluebonnet was the week before our vacation in May. We decided Alice would stay home with dad for the summer and attend a couple of summer camps each month. The weeks she is not in a camp has been dubbed Daddy Camp. Dad will have to blog about their specific daddy camp events, but from what I can tell, daddy camp is a hit :-)

Alice's first summer camp was acting camp. The play they would be doing was Annie. I was worried Alice would be shy and have a hard time with new teachers and kids, but Alice surprises me daily :-) She LOVED acting camp. Even though she had a small part in the play, she sang loud and proud in all the musical numbers. She also learned most everyone else's part too. The week after acting camp Alice would be a one girl show re-enacting pretty much the entire play.

The next week was gymnastics camp. This camp was only half day, but Alice did great with new teachers and kids. She defiantly liked acting camp better, but this was fun too. We did go ahead and sign her up for another acting camp in August.

The next few weeks are daddy camp weeks. Then we have dance and art camps. Look for Summer Camp  Part 2 later in the summer :-)

UPDATE:  Weeks later and Alice still breaks out in songs from this play while we are driving.  She will also go through all the lines for all the characters of the play on occasion.

Practicing her lines

Alice is Piper (orphan) in Annie during acting camp this summer.

Cupcake survives!

I know the last post was doom and gloom, and we really were mentally and emotionally getting ready to tell our little man goodbye, but Cupcake turned a corner a few days after the last post.

After the weekend, we took him back to the vet for fluids and evaluation. The vet really didn't expect to see Cupcake back from the weekend. He thought he would crash and that would be the end of Cupcake, but he surprised the vet! His numbers were still high, so the vet game him another antibiotic to try. We were still waiting for test results, although we did get a positive from one test for Rickettsial, a tick born disease.

Monday night, Cupcake began to act a fraction more like himself. So we gave him his medications and crossed our fingers. The next day he was even better. On Wednesday we finally got our diagnosis for Liptospirosis. And so a THIRD antibiotic was added to the regiment in addition to an antacid for upset tummy, and appetite enhancer, and a phosphate binder (since his kidneys are still not working).

So far his lasting symptoms are reduced appetite, some bladder trouble (ie potty accidents) and he drinks too much water and then throws it up (sometimes). He is currently banned from sleeping with Alice until he gets the bladder back under control since Liptospirosis can be transmitted to people through urine, but he is pretty much back to his old self. He plays, he runs and lays out in the sun. We are thankful he made it through.

Our Little Man

We thought Alice and Cupcake Bailey would grow up together, but things don't always turn out as you had planned. Our happy, playful energetic puppy started feeling poorly on Saturday April 13th. We thought it was just a virus or something and he seemed to perk up a little by Monday, so we held off taking him to the Vet. But by Wednesday, we knew he was still sick and had eaten little in the past 2 days. Larry took him to the vet that morning and spent about 3 hours there waiting for test results. They told us he needed to stay in the hospital overnight so they could give him fluids and antibiotics. We went to see him the next day and were told the antibiotics were not helping so he needed to stay at the vet and we would see again the next day. We visited again on Friday and still received bad news. His white blood cell count was still high. Their general diagnosis was kidney failure, however the cause remains unknown.

We brought him home for the weekend to take care of him ourselves versus taking him to the Emergency clinic for care over the weekend. The only thing they could do for him we could not was give him IV fluids. We know he still feels really bad, but he has tried to keep with some of his routines. He spent a lot of time laying in the sun in the backyard, and Sunday morning he padded back to Alice's room to snuggle in bed under the covers for a while.

 

Yesterday Alice crawled into his crate with him to give him a hug and whispered into his ear "I've never told you this before, but I love you". She has actually told him this many times :-) She knows he is sick, but is struggling with really understanding what that means.

We are trying to make the most out of our days with Cupcake, but we all know our time is short.

Walking Cupcake Bailey

Alice and daddy took cupcake Bailey on a walk around the neighborhood.

The Throne Room

About a week ago, I realized that Alice had stopped inviting me to the bathroom with her.

Ever since she became potty trained (a few months before she turned 3), Alice has always requested an escort with her potty trips. At first it was me or her dad. Over the past year, Alice has slowly stopped inviting her dad, and even started requesting I shut the door so dad couldn't see her go potty. Although dad was still invited 'in a pinch' it has eventually become only when mom was not available.

About a week ago, I realized that I hadn't been invited to gab in the toilette for a few days....
I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm glad she is growing up and becoming more independent, but I'm sad she is growing up and becoming more independent.

Alice will be starting kindergarten in a few months. I'm already feeling anxious for her regarding this next step in growing up. Soon she will be reading, wanting to spend time with her friends more, and then heading off to college :-)

Something I'm not looking for

Scene:  Alice is working her way through a large pile of stuffed animals making a large mess in the process.


Dad:  "What are you looking for?"

Alice: "I don't know."

-pause-

Alice:  "There might be something I'm not looking for in here."