Wiggly Piglet’s Playpen

My friend Fluffy loved to run, jump, and eat,

He loved chicken, bones, cheese, dinner, milk, greenies, on a list way too long to read,

My friend Fluffy loved his sister MeiMei (sort of),

He would hit her, push her away from his dinner, ignore her, but he would always come back to love and share with her,

My friend Fluffy loved his walk,

He liked the flat parts, hated the down parts, and dreaded the up part, mostly due to the tall Great Dane with the short fence,

My frined Fluffy loved Baby Mckayla,

He followed us to change her, feed her, hug her and he eventually started to sleep in front of her room to protect her,

My friend Fluffy loved to hate skunks,

He would chase, get sprayed, we wash, chase, get sprayed, we wash, chase, get sprayed, we wash

My friend Fluffy had lots of friends,

He had more than 20 people at his 10th birthday when he nearly bit Mansur

Most of all, my dear friend Fluffy, loved the family that loved him back,

Rest well, my dear old friend, some day we shall meet again.

-Ted-

Mckayla caught her first cold. She was fine over the Memorial weekend until Monday night. She started having runny nose and coughing. At first, we thought she was teething again because she was ver fussy. She woke up in the middle of the night and didn’t want to go back to her bed. It was the first time we stayed over night at our house since April. We thought she was not used to her room anymore, so we put her in our bed and she eventually fell asleep. Tuesday morning, Nanny called me at work looking for the thermometer. She was only able to get her armpit temperature and it read almost 99 degrees. She was able to bring the temperature down with cold compresses on her forehead. Mckayla still had good appettite despite not feeling well. But she refused to nap in her bed – Nanny let her sleep in her arms for two hours in the morning and again in the afternoon. When I got home from work, she was doing much better. But shortly after we ate dinner, she was upset again. And her cheeks were red and warm. Ted and I had to take her rectal temperature for the first time. We had no clue what we were doing, but at the end, we did get a temperature close to 102 degrees. After 1 dose of Tylenol, about an hour later, Mckayla finally felt better. We gave her a bath and she was back to her usual self again – smiling and playing with her toys again.

According to my Mom, Aunt, and Jackie – Mckayla got sick because she misses them too much!

Check out Mckayla swimming!

I miss Fluffy….

When I pull my car up to the garage, I see Fluffy’s smiley face and wagging tail by the gates.

When I open the door to enter the house, I worry about smashing Fluffy’s face when the door swings open. (MeiMei learned to back away from the door but Fluffy never did)

When I brush MeiMei’s teeth, I automatically flip the two ended toothbrush over to put toothpaste on to brush Fluffy’s teeth.

When I get up in the middle of the night, I navigate carefully to avoid stepping on Fluffy.

When I walk down the hallway, I hear Fluffy’s distinctive footsteps following behind me.

When I look at the backyard door, I see Fluffy sitting there, waiting for us to let him in the house.

When I see MeiMei sitting by the window looking out to the backyard, I know she misses him even more.

But I know he’s at a place now, he’s no longer sick, and he can jump and run as he pleases.

                 Fluffy

August 26, 1996 – May 19, 2008

Fluffy’s been eating less since last week and yesterday he only had few bites of noodle that we had for dinner. We offered him chicken, canned food, all the different kinds of treat but he was not interested at all. I took him out for a very short walk yesterday. His back legs gave out on him twice during the walk down the driveway. He was trying to get to the bushes for #2, but he didn’t make it. He was dragging his legs and trying to walk further. When we got back home, he walked behind the bushes and didn’t want to come out. I think he was embarassed by what happened. He finally did come out after my Mom and Ted keep calling his name. Last night, his tummy swelled up again and his breathing was very labored. I let him out to potty in the backyard this morning, he puked out the thick mucous again. I offered him breakfast but he was not interested. He finally ate two pill pockets after he had some water. Then he walked very slowly to Mckayla’s room and wanted to go in. I let him in the room while I was getting ready for work. When I came back to check on him and Mckayla (she was still sleeping), Fluffy was lying next to Mckayla’s bed and wagging his tailat me. My Mom and Jackie will be home with Fluffy today, we’ll see how he does.

Since my Mom got here on Thursday, she’s been trying to get Mckayla to sleep on her tummy. I don’t really care how she sleeps because she rolls around while she’s sleeping and always end up in a different position by the time she gets up in the morning. Last night, she fell asleep while Ted was feeding her and she even slept through her teeth cleaning. After I put her down on her back, she woke up, whined a little bit, then rolled on to her tummy. She fell asleep shortly until this morning. We’re not quite sure what time she actually got up, but when we heard noises from the monitor around 7:30 in the morning. Ted went to check on her and realized that she’s playing with my Mom already while getting her diaper changed. After her feeding, I put her back to sleep again on her back. We got up around 10 when my alarm went off for my next round of pumping. I went to her room to check on her (her camera was aiming at the wrong spot so we couldn’t see her at all in the monitor), she was back on her tummy again and sound asleep. She didn’t get up until almost noon! That’s a record for Mckayla.

It was hot yesterday, but it feells even warmer today. It might be because I’m home today and yesterday I was in air coditioned room the entire day at work. If this summer is going to be hot like this, I think Mckayla will have no fun at all. She was in her onesies last night and was still sweating. This morning, when she got up, even though her room was still pretty cool, her extremities were already warm. Too bad, our pools are little dirty right now – both of them turned green when there’s a sudden temperature change. Otherwise, we could have hopped in and enjoy some cool splashes. But we’ll be heading to the Water Babies this afternoon for Mckayla’s swim lesson, I just hope the pool is not heated like last week.

Fluffy’s not a big fan of the heat either, he’s been lying on the kitchen floor trying to cool down. But MeiMei, on the other hand, is trying to her get her tan for the summer. She finds any spot in the house where the sun is shining on and takes her naps in the heat.

Mckayla had her first taste of apples yesterday.  At first, I thought she didn’t like it because she had this funny expression with the first taste. But after she finished the first bite, she imeediately opened her mouth for the next one. Then, with every bite, she made the same funny expression but opened her mouth for the next. Maybe it’s the tartness of the apples compared to the sweet vegetables that she had so far.

Mckayla has been trying to “crawl”. She’s been scooting on her stomach, but most of the time she’s not getting anywhere. She eventually gets frustrated and starts to cry. Last night, She played on her mat while I was watching American Idol and playing with Fluffy and MeiMei. She was playing with this toy that came with couple baseball sized plastic balls. As she clumsily picked up and dropped the balls, they started rolling in different directions. In attempt to get the balls back, she started scooting again. Because the balls were in different directions, She scooted in a circle to retrieve two of the balls. And what did she do with the balls? They went straight into her mouth.