Baz

Our Baby Bazzy

When I was a junior in college I fell in love with a fuzzy little spitfire. I found out his name was originally "Wimpy" but as I soon learned, this did not fit him AT ALL. I renamed him Bazil (aka Baz, Bazzy, Bazzyhawk) and he became a big part of my life. He was my very first baby. Unfortunately he passed away on the evening of May 13th (a very shitty Mother's Day occurrence indeed). We are pretty sure he went in his sleep. We expected it but you are never ready to lose a part of your family. He was old (10) which is surprising. He had adrenal disease and dilated cario myopathy and about 4 years ago our vet told us he might have a year at most. Baz responded very well to meds and we were able to manage his conditions wonderfully and he was as lively as ever. He began slowing down a while ago so we knew he didn't have much longer but we were lucky to have as much time as we did with him.  There is no way I can recount all my amazing memories of him and I'm not going to attempt such a hefty task because many would be left out.

My sweet little ferret:
Had a big fat sweet tooth. The first time I discovered this was when I had a big bag of twizzlers. I knew he loved to haul them back and forth from the couch to the loveseat and back again but it wasn't until later that I realized he was chowin' down on them too. He loved raisins, reeses and snickers most and hated anything chicken, meat or peanut butter flavored which most ferrets love. He was a rebel.

Was a T.R.O.U.B.LE. maker. This is not uncommmon with ferrets and I knew that when I brought him home. He loved to crawl into purses, bags, luggage, etc. He always managed to find things like TUMS and would nom on them. He also just liked to empty the contents of your bag.

He loved to ruin carpet. I will never forget the time I came home from one of my night classes and he had escaped his cage and went to town on the carpet by my bedroom door. Luckily I lived alone and my apartment was a craphole anyway!

Which brings me to the fact that... he was a master escape artist. Shortly after making him a part of my family I had to install a combination lock on the front door of his cage and make sure something heavy was on the top door, otherwise he would escape and raid the house.

He loves to crawl into spaces that made it impossible to retrieve him. Screw baby proof, you want to make sure your house is EXTRA safe? Try to make it ferret proof! Baz was into everything all the time.

He had so much energy and loved to play. He especially loved a little toy we had for him that had a ball and feather type thing at the end of it. He would catch it, squish it, and drag it away to finish the job! He also loved his scratching post and when we had his buddy, Quentin, the two of them would chase each other around for hours. In and out of things, over shoes, in shoes, over and under the couch.

He loved his buddy Quentin that we added to our family less than a year after getting Baz. Unfortunately Quentin passed away before his time but while he was with us the two of them were best friends. They shared a hammock and were always snuggling. Baz was not as friendly with Bowser since Bowser has roughly 70 pounds on him and it would have been a slight risk to have them play but they were friendly. There were a few times Baz escaped and was escorted around the house by Bowser.

These are all just little things about the one, the only, magnificent Baz! The only thing anyone really needs to know about Baz is that he was a part of my family and he was loved beyond all reason! He still is very loved and he will be greatly missed.

A Time I Had

A Week in May

Another Month Down
I have been seriously slacking on updates but I will keep up on my monthly picture update. Hopefully I will be able to get a few posts up here sometime soon.

This is Link a month or so after he was born in 2009:

He was my sweet tiny innocent little worm who slept most of the day, cried like a little goat and made everyone around him smile.

This is Link May of 2010:

He was still pretty tiny, had just turned 1 and was basically running everywhere he could. He was incredibly unstable and clumsy but loved exploring everything. He was very curious and enjoyed taking lots of walks and hikes with mommy and daddy even though daddy didn't return home until the first part of June. 

 

This is Link in May of 2011:

We were very busy preparing for our upcoming move and my little one was having to say goodbye to all his best friends. It was definitely hard since he had known some of them since the day he was born. He loved to play with EVERYTHING that mommy and daddy used (phones, computers, remotes, cameras, electronics that are easily broken by little 2 year old hands!)

This is Link this year May 2012:

My sweet baby is far from anything resembling a baby anymore. He loves to play outside and we have both managed tans since we spend the majority of our days outside whether it be the back yard, parks, walks, etc. He's very helpful, loves planting and growing things, and is incredibly creative and imaginative (apparently I am a "scooty booty chicken puff.") He impresses me everyday with how smart and resourceful he is. What happened to my baby!?

A Time I Had

Back Seat Driving

Go that Way, Mommy!
Three years ago we strapped an adorable sleeping little boy into his carseat and brought him home. He slept soundly as we drove home and it was a special day for sure. Over the next year he spent a lot of time sleeping in the backseat of the car. Many times we would drive around a bit longer after he fell asleep just so we wouldn't wake him. Extra gas was worth a sweet sleeping little boy. The following year his sleeping was much less frequent in his carseat. He was so into seeing everything passing by but would still tend to fall asleep on a ride home from somewhere. From age 2 to age 3 is where our little man decided that sleeping and observing while riding in the car were no longer enough. Enter the extreme backseat driver.

Now, I have ridden in the car with people who think that I am not a good enough driver. I have had my license a while now. I'm still alive. I've driven a lot. Therefore when an adult is unhappy with my driving I just ignore it. Let me tell you something. It is not easy to ignore a small little boy in the backseat of your car telling you that you should have turned left when you turned right (yes, he knows right and left and insists I am always turning the wrong way). Every time we go somewhere lately Link has become my new GPS. Our car rides quite frequently sound something like this:
"Turn left mommy. No, that's not left, that's right. We need to turn around and go the other way. We have to go through the tunnel up on the bridge. But we just have to go left. No, no, not that way."
"Link, Mommy needs to turn right so we can get to where we are going."
"But, I think we need to turn left because now we are lost. Are we lost? I think we're lost. But we just have to turn left."
This is usually just a quick trip to the grocery store or the park. The same way we go every time but Link has come up with some creative way to get there and if I don't follow his directions, we are automatically lost.
I miss the days when the sweet, quiet little boy in the backseat looked like this:Though quite honestly, if this was what was in my backseat these days I might start to worry that I left him somewhere. I also really enjoy having someone to chat with on boring drives in the car. And who knows, some day he might just keep me from getting lost.

A Time I Had

My Baby is 3!!

The Beginning
Three years ago my impatient little firecracker tried to kill me. Seriously. They had to bring in the "special doctor" to patch me up and then they put two units of blood back in me so I didn't bleed to death. After spending a whole three hours in labor I then got to spend almost a week in the hospital before they sent me home with the official diagnosis of "we don't know what the hell is wrong with you" accompanied by a prescription of "maybe your own house will make you feel better" (along with some awesome painkillers... they didn't completely leave me hangin'!)

And Time Goes On
That was three years ago .Two years ago I spent my sweet boy's one year birthday with my parents as Dan was gone. One year ago we celebrated with D and our friends while a few weeks before he had gotten his first black eye. I was now trying to keep him from killing himself! Now he is turning 3 and I'm pretty sure his goal in life is to give me daily heart attacks and do the most dangerous things he can think of. One of his favorite things to do in the morning is to yell "Mommy" at the top of the stairs and then throw himself at me like a crazy flying squirrel while I am several steps down. We have a lot of stairs. So he has taken his initial birth day of trying to kill me, combined it with his second birthday of trying to kill himself and is now trying to do us both in. I suppose I'm OK with this. It makes life interesting and he keeps me on my toes. We even managed to keep him out of the ER for the entire year of him being 2. I'm sure 3 will be another story. I can see it in his eyes.

He has yet to have his 3 year check up but I already know that he hasn't quite hit 30 pounds yet as many of his peers have (and surpassed). He's a tall skinny little shit with a big fat head. This basically means he's a smart little bugger and he can get into many things. Again, I am fine with this.
He blows me away with his language skills. I know I'm around him all the time so it's easy for me to understand him but I am constantly being told how well he speaks (especially for a boy) and he is often mistaken for older than he actually is when he opens his mouth. This is upsetting since I'd like for him to seem younger to avoid paying for things now! I loved when everywhere we went he was free because he was 2 and under. You can only fake that for so long... especially when he is up in someone's face basically reading a thesis to them about whatever his favorite thing of the moment happens to be.

Year in Review and Current Status
-He is a Super Mario junkie. He loves cars, trains, transportation of any sort.
-He has an intense fascination when it comes to cats. He squeaks like there is nothing else in the world as wonderful as felines.
-Lovey is still his favorite thing. Thank God that thing survived him being two. We had some traumatic experiences such as Lovey bath time and the time Lovey got lost though.
-He went through two moves. Once from Alaska to Texas and then again from Texas to Las Vegas and he adjusted quite well which was a relief.
-He loves making new friends and hops right in these days. He used to be so shy and now I barely exist if his little friends are around. His self-confidence has sky rocketed which makes me so proud. I always knew he was awesome and now he knows it too!
-I'm not even going to mention his climbing skills as I think I have adequately covered that in the past. I will comment on how annoying it is that he grew taller and long ago figured out how to move things to climb onto other things easier. No candy is safe ANYWHERE unless behind lock and key.
-He still loves peas.
-He hates pizza. He will now gag if you make him eat it.
-He's a fruit bat. Name a fruit, he eats it.
-Mac & cheese is his go-to food much to my dismay.
-He loves his food spicy. Most kids don't know what sriracha is. My kid eats it in his eggs for breakfast and he loves spicy hot wings.
-He loves re-enacting scenes from movies with toys.
-He NEVER shuts up. Ever. Seriously. He even talks in his sleep.
-He is more likely to eat something if I let him help me make it and he LOVES to cook and bake with me.
-He loves to hand me things, mainly bugs and boogers. So glad I had a boy.
-He regularly has some sort of cut, bump, brush or gash on his head or face. At least one weekly due to his curiosity and lack of fear.
-He can write his name and knows all his letters and many of his numbers.
-He counts in English and Japanese.
-He has a really impressive throw. He chucked a wiffle ball at me, it hit my leg and it stung! This was not an up close throw. He threw the thing from half way across the yard!
-He loves all sports and really enjoys playing teeball in the yard. He can hit a ball all the way across the yard while on a tee or if someone pitches it to him.
-He loves to pout on the floor! (I don't want anyone thinking he's too awesome!)
-He's a little sassy pants for sure. He likes to tell me "No, Mommy don't say that" when I threaten him with time out or ask him not to do something.
-He loves books. We always read him at least two books at night. He would sit there and let us read his entire book library to him if we'd do it. It would take us all night.
-He loves to pet our faces and say "I like you. I just love you!" as he's going to bed. Silly boy.

I could go on and on about all the details (I kind of already have) but I'll just say that all the blood loss, all the pain, the days in the hospital and almost two months to make a full recovery after I had the little monster were completely worth it. He began as a pain in the ass and he still is one but not a day goes by that he doesn't make me smile. Many days he makes me want to pull my hair out and scream but still manages to make me laugh. He's dramatic. He's moody. He's fun. He's daring. He's cute. He's frustrating. He's fearless. He's loving. He's kind. He's kind of a butt. He's independent. He's well behaved. He's a monster. He's creative. He's smart. He's weird. He's crazy. He's trouble. But most of all he is LOVED. And now he's 3!!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet little Inky Worm! The silliest little goose I know!

A Time I Had

Nap Time, Please

The End of Sanity
Now I know I am in the minority amongst my friends but I still have a kid that naps... sometimes. While most of the kids his age that I know gave up the treasured nap on or shortly after their second birthday, Link has pretty consistently napped well past that. With his third birthday fast approaching he has decided to join his peers. In the last two-three months or so my spawn has been giving me two naps a week at most. Most of the time I throw him in his room and hear construction noises come from it shortly after. That's fine I suppose. I still get some Mommy time and he has to at least settle down for a bit (a tiny rest from his regular Tasmanian Devil routine). I would be completely fine with this, except...

Why My Almost-3 year old Still Needs a Nap:
When he is permitted to come out of his room and resume his tornado antics again he is usually fine... for a little while. I have noticed, however, that he is more likely to flip the f*** out at the slightest thing. Today it was drawing on his white board. We were practicing writing letters. He wrote his name a few times and after finally writing an "N" instead of an "M" we moved on. He asked to write Mommy's name so I wrote it on the board from him to copy. Aside from wanting to write it backwards he did a really great job and not only was I proud of him but he was proud of himself. Applause and pride everywhere! Then he asked to write Daddy's name. I wrote D's name on the board for him to copy. He immediately says to me "I want to draw an 'H.'" I tell him there is no H in Daddy's name. He gives me a super sad look. I tell him I'm sorry but I don't control these things. I suppose perhaps D's parents are to blame for this and he should really take up the issue with Meema and Peepa. So I tell him "Well we can try to draw the D, OK?" He agrees and then proceeds to draw the PERFECT little kid D. Seriously. I was even more impressed with the damn thing than I was with his H. Except it wasn't as perfect as he wanted it to be, apparently, because he lost his damn mind. Tears began flowing down his face, he threw the marker at the board and began screaming "That's not it! That's not a good D!" like tiny demons were protruding from the whiteboard and would surely devour him if we didn't fix it. I have no clue what his problem was. The little weirdo can draw an N that looks like an M and be happy with it but the near-perfect D was not up to his standards. This was surely the work of the devil. Anyway he got a time out because I have repeatedly told him not to throw toys when he freaks out. Freak outs are fine and kind of regular but when you start chucking crap at things and/or people, you may take your little cheeks over to time out. He then threw a fit of grand proportions. Like any good mom, I took a picture of it.

And this is why my kid still needs a nap every day.

A Time I Had