Happy Birth Day Carnival - Moe Edition

Six months later, the girls were just 2 and 6 months old. I started going to the gym. Life was well. Then surprise! We found out I was pregnant again and expecting a baby October 13, 2004. Oddly, we had just started making plans for celebrating our 5^th wedding anniversary in Washington D.C. Two weeks before we found out I was pregnant; I had a dream that I was pregnant and gave birth in D.C. Our anniversary is October 9^th. Even more odd, at Christmas, Einey (2) kept telling all our family and friends that she was going to have another baby. We never did finish planning that trip.

Again, another easy pregnancy. My thyroid started to act up (I’d always had issues) but it was easily managed. We knew early on that Moe was breeched. Again, I gained only 16 pounds. At 37 weeks, my doctor set up and appointment for 38 weeks to try a version for her or it would be time to schedule a c-section. A 37 ½ weeks, Tuesday, September 21^st, I went into labor. I hurried up and ate a big meal of spaghetti and meatballs (only because I had been craving it all day and Husband cooked it just for me). After I finished watching Gilmore Girls, I told Husband it was time to go. Since I was in early labor, they decided to monitor me overnight and do the version in the morning. Wednesday morning, my OB came in and said he had some options. We could a) try the version and if successful, continue on, b) continue on even with her being breech or c) do a c-section. He added, I know you’re not keen on option c, so if you want to try to continue on, we’ve got the approval. That was the last thing I expected to hear as the hospital has a pretty strict policy on delivering breech babies by c-section. So we tried the version. Twice in fact. It failed both times. And so, we continued on. At some point, in the early afternoon on the 22^nd, as we were pacing the halls, Husband remarked to one of the nurses “If she waits until tomorrow, I can remember the birthdays easier – the 23, 25 and 27^th”. Yeah, he still didn’t learn when to keep his mouth shut! Labor, unfortunately didn’t progress. And I couldn’t eat – I was still a high candidate for a c-section. I was finally allowed water and ice. Thursday morning, doctor came and tried another version. Nope. The hospital was packed with other women giving birth and they were short staffed. So my OB went back to his office and a ½ hour alter I got a new nurse. My OB cleared his schedule, sent me my own nurse and came back to start some pitocin. A half hour after the pitocin was started, I finally was dilated enough to do something. So, into the OR I was wheeled. In came my personal nurse and two others nurses (one being my birthing coach from Einey!). Doctor and Husband started talking about a kid Husband went to school with (Husband was classmates with OB’s son) who was going to be on an upcoming episode of Fear Factor. I puked – because you know – not the best thing to talk about and my stomach was empty. Then came shift change – they were still short, so my lovely nurses volunteered to stay as opposed to find others to come in. In came another OB (to assist if I needed the emergency C-section, in came the anesthesiologist (again same reason). In came the pediatrician. In stopped by some random hospital employees that said “I hear you have an unusual birth going on here (seriously – I laughed at that). And finally, after 45 hours of labor, out came Moe, ass first, all just over 6 pounds and 19 ½ inches of her on June 23rd, 2004. Since the OR is kept cold, out she went with the pediatrician and Husband close behind (he was torn whether to stay with me or go with her, I sent him with her). And then it was time to fix me. It was physically the hardest delivery I had, the most painful and longest to recover from. However, she did a great job nursing and nursed until 10 months when I again had surgery. We stopped not only for the surgery, but she finally decided to cut teeth and changed her latch, giving me one hell of an infection. When I went in the NP said “we usually see these infections in new mothers, not 10 months out”. Gee thanks. She had elevated bili levels as well, but not enough to be hospitalized. Moe is now 3 and ¾ years old and still doing things her own way. She started walking early, talking late and has been doing things her own way the whole time. She’s even the only person in our family with blue eyes. She’s definitely not going to take her status as third child lying down.

I'd also like to say, even though my labor was slow and not progressing, I wasn't allowed to leave and wait it out like they normally let you do. This was because of Meenie's birth. Since they consider active labor from the time of your water breaking to the time you deliver, that was 15 minutes with her. And since she came so fast, and Moe was breeched, they didn't want to put us in that situation and have me deliver her at home.

So I went home with three kids under three years old.

And so ended the having babies and having surgery cycle I was in for 3 years.

Be sure to check out the Einey Edition and Meenie Edition.

Alex, over at Formula Feed and Flexible Parenting, is throwing a Birth Days Carnival this week in honor of her Younger Son’s (YS) 2^nd birthday. Since Meenie also celebrates a birthday this week, I thought I’d join in the fun and re-live the births of my daughters.

Happy Birth Day Carnival - Meenie Edition

Nine months later, we were expecting again, with a due date of July 21, 2003. Seven weeks into the pregnancy, I suffered the first of many gallbladder attacks (well the first of what we realized were gall bladder attacks – remember Christmas Eve 2001 the upset stomach?) – that sent us to the ER. With a diagnosis of gallstones and an OB who wanted to steer clear of surgery despite the surgeons “we should have a window between 17-20 weeks where it’s safe”, I was put on a very strict diet. No fat for most of the remainder of my pregnancy – I lost 50 pounds by my six week post-partum check up. So I subsisted on whole wheat pasta, multigrain cheerios, plain pasta and fruits/veggie’s for my pregnancy. That was back when I still didn’t like most vegetables. Husband figured out how to make a yummy homemade pizza that had no fat, some grilled chicken breast sandwiches and the best discovery of all – I could eat no fat ice cream with chocolate syrup (no fat!) or mix it up into a shake! I did slip and “cheat a few times”, but it usually caused me to have an attack.

At 28 weeks I went into labor (where I was 2 cm, 70% effaced and her head was engaged). After a few doses of some shot, we were able to stop it. Then I was on these pills (I can’t recall what they were) that gave me the shakes. I hated them, but they kept me out of labor for a month. At 34 weeks, I went into labor again. We got it stopped, I went home and 6 hours later was in labor again. They stopped it again, kept me overnight and released me the next morning. At 35 ½ weeks I was in labor again. Again they stopped it and sent me home.

At 37 weeks, I went into labor again. Husband had just worked 14 hours, came home and went to bed. Where I woke him up an hour later and said I think I’m in labor. He complained all the way to the hospital. “You better be in labor. I’m not leaving again without a baby”. We got almost to the hospital and I came this close to telling him that maybe I wasn’t in labor that we should go home. We got to the hospital around 9:30 am. Mostly we hung around, waiting to be seen by the doctor – the nurses checked me, but weren’t sure if I would be staying. The doctor came out of surgery (it was Friday and his surgery day) checked me – I was 4 cm but stretchy to 8. Since I was exactly 37 weeks (and had an induction scheduled for Monday anyway – so I could have gallbladder surgery soon) he broke my water (11:30 am), left the room to go finish up paperwork and said he’d see me in about 45 minutes. Husband called his parents and asked for them to bring lunch (since again, he hadn’t eaten all day). I was still in the triage room and they were preparing a room for me. No sooner had we walked out of the room, when I had the urge to push. He came back in top check and yup – ready to go. The nurses tried to get me to walk to my room, which still wasn’t completely ready, but the doctor put them in their place and rolled me don the room in the bed. As he was washing his hands and the nurses pulling out the equipment, one nurse said, “I see a head”. I never saw the man move so fast in my life. He leapt across the room in time to grab her. I never pushed- to force of the contractions did all the work. So on June 27^th, 2003 at 11:47 am Meenie entered the world with a bang. She was 20 inches and 6 pounds. Unfortunately, she swallowed before he could suction so there was a big tube shoved down her to suck stuff out. As I was being stitched up – I tore (but it was the easiest recovery by far) I heard the nurses say “I’m sorry but you can’t go in there, I thin she’s in active labor”. My in-laws arrived with Einey moments after Meenie was born! So I sent Husband out to get just Eieny and she watched in Husband’s arms as her sister was suctioned and then bathed. She needed a little bit of oxygen for a few hours, but was able to stay in the room with us.

A week later – July forth, they hesitated putting her back for jaundice. So we kept her outside at a picnic and were told if her levels didn’t drop by the 5^th, we’d be back in for some bili lights. They dropped. Meenie took to breast feeding like a champ. So well she went from 5 pounds 11 ounces at a week old to just over 9 pounds three weeks later at her one month check up. But it only lasted six weeks as I had to have surgery and couldn’t build up a supply (remember the surgery they wanted to do while I was pregnant and then right after – well then the surgeon decided to wait six weeks as it would be the least risky). Recovering from that surgery was really hard. Meenie is now five (tomorrow!) and still growing like a weed. She grew from a fussy/cranky/didn’t want to be held baby to a bubbly, happy, cuddly little girl.

Be sure to check out the Einey Edition and Moe Edition.

Alex, over at Formula Feed and Flexible Parenting, is throwing a Birth Days Carnival this week in honor of her Younger Son’s (YS) 2^nd birthday. Since Meenie also celebrates a birthday this week, I thought I’d join in the fun and re-live the births of my daughters.

Happy Birth Day Carnival - Einey Edition

Alex, over at Formula Feed and Flexible Parenting, is throwing a Birth Days Carnival this week in honor of her Younger Son’s (YS) 2^nd birthday. Since Meenie also celebrates a birthday this week, I thought I’d join in the fun and re-live the births of my daughters.

My first pregnancy was fairly typical. I had the usual morning sickness, I worked and then, October 2000 shortly after returning home from celebrating our first wedding anniversary, we found out that the baby didn’t have a heartbeat. I was fourteen weeks along and it was the worst news ever. To further complicate things, after the D&C we found out that I had had a partial-molar pregnancy. It’s a fairly rare complication. Regardless of what caused the miscarriage (and we were glad we knew- many people never knew) and that it wasn’t fully a “baby” were still devastated. Due to the prognosis, it also meant six months of monitoring my HcL levels before even attempting to try another pregnancy.

Fast forward seven months later to May 2001 – yup, I was already pregnant and given a due date of January 18, 2002. After getting the go ahead in April, we never thought we’d get pregnant right away. May was bittersweet – we found out we were expecting the same time I was due with my first. And because of the miscarriage, we waited telling people. But also, we were given extra ultrasounds starting at six weeks to make sure everything developed properly. This pregnancy was textbook. I gained minimal weight – just 16 pounds! and many people commented after I gave birth that they didn’t know I was pregnant. Even people in our birthing class thought I had months to go. So 36 weeks into my pregnancy – and the day I had an OB appointment where the doctor told me – see you next year - and Christmas Eve, we were gathered at my parent’s house to celebrate Christmas with my extended family. I remember being uncomfortable- something I attributed to the pizza we ate – it always upset my stomach. We left around 11pm pm head to midnight Mass where I was still uncomfortable – hell I was 8 months pregnant and it was way past my bedtime.

I awoke around 8 am with this gush of fluid. I went into the bathroom, cleaned myself up and since it stopped –which a baby’s head acts like a plug when your upright, who knew? – crawled back into bed. About a ½ hour later, it dawned on me – woops, I think my water broke and it wasn’t me just pissing myself (not that I make a habit of doing so). So I woke Husband up told him we needed to go to the hospital (I didn’t even bother calling), and he, proceeded to take his damn sweet time. Seriously, the man got up, took a shower, and checked his email. All the while I was standing there saying, um you know I’m in labor (no contractions, but since it was my first time, I didn’t know what to expect next).

We got to the hospital around 9:30 am and they told me not to get comfortable, that it probably wasn’t my water. After all, I still had a month to go and I wasn’t acting s I was in labor. After confirming it was my water that broke and I was in fact staying, they hooked me up to the monitor. It did show I was having regular contractions, I just never felt them. And the monitor kept falling off. So we called both sets of parents and said we wouldn’t be joining them for lunch or dinner. Our birthing instructor was on duty and assigned as my nurse – so I was very happy!

The contractions started between 10 and 10:30 am – still nothing too bad. Around 2 pm, Husband finally took the nursing staff up on the free Christmas dinner being offered. And the jerk considerate husband who didn’t want to be away from his laboring wife fool brought the food back to the room with him. I quickly banished him from the room. The birthing instructor/nurse stayed with me. He finished his meal and all I could smell was turkey and cranberry sauce. Around this time as well, the contractions started getting hard. Not unbearable, but strong. I got a dose of Stadol to relax. At 3:30 pm the shift change came on. Still about the same. Around 4:30 pm I started to push and Einey was born at 4:42 pm, Christmas Day, 2001. She was 6 pounds, .08 ounces and 21 ½ inches long and covered in goo. Boy was she messy! She also was having a tad bit of difficulty breathing, so they took her to the NICU and took x-rays. Husband went with her. After the x-rays came back – lungs were clear – she was put in an incubator to help her breath. Now from the time they took her away and stitched me up until about 8pm, I don’t remember anything. I fell asleep. I remember being wheeled down to the NICU to see her and hold her for the first time. She had an oxygen tube that we needed to keep attached. But by the next morning, she was breathing fine and able to come back to our room. The next morning, Husband also uttered the famous words to my OB “That was easy, we should do that again soon”. It’s amazing he made it out of that hospital in one piece!

One more thing that stands out. Husband thought he'd be helpful and bring some stuff back home before he brought Einey and I home. SO he grabbed my bag of clothes that I wore to the hospital in, not bothering to check inside. Two days later when we were checking out, I got dressed and went to put on my shoes. Yup, they were at home, in the bag. Luckily it was unseasonably warm that December and I had thick socks! The next two times, I made sure I had shoes at the hospital when I left!

A week later – New Year’s Eve, we were back in the hospital for some bili lights. Breastfeeding was rough – we lasted 6 miserable weeks. After two days, we were sent home and haven’t looked back. She is now 6 ½ years old and headed into second grade in the fall.

Six months later, we started trying for number two. Einey was such and easy baby, and we were more than ready to add to our family again. I had just left my job for my foray into stay-at-home-motherdom.

Be sure to check out the Meenie Edition and Moe Edition.

Summer Fun - the low cost way!

Living in the state of "were going to keep raising gas prices and you can't do anything about it and oh you blinked, here's another $0.15cents - hahaha- fools" means more people are staying closer to home this summer and looking for low cost summer activities. Husband on the other hand, has finally gotten bitten by the travel bug (go figure!). So here are a few low cost ideas to get you through the summer.

Local Library - Our local library has a variety of summer programs, in addition to the summer reading programs. There are preschool story times (which I may take advantage of), craft days (which I've signed Eieny and Meenie up for. Hello Mommy and Moe morning coffee time! We've missed you!) and girl scout craft days - which you neither have to be a girl or a scout to attend. Only Einey meets the age limit though.

Swimming - We have several local lakes to swim at during the summer. Many are free, and aren't to far of a drive. We've brought the beach pass for the closest one though. not only is it real close, but it's also less crowded and is the only one which employs life guards.

Playground - When you have a brand new super cool fun for hours playground in town, what's not to like? The kids spend hours running around playing, can make themselves go on swings themselves now and love seeing which friends will be there that day. Call a friend to meet you there and it's an added bonus. The kids can play, the moms can sit in the shade of a tree and talk, all the while keeping an eye on the kids of course! Pack a lunch or a snack and water bottles to prolong the visit and get the most out of it. An extra special treat is after playing hard all morning - kids who don't nap may actually fall asleep in the afternoon!

Hiking - We've combined hiking with letterboxing (click the link below the post for more information) for endless summer fun! You can find our stamps all the way out to the Cape! The kids enjoy it, we enjoy hiking and it's easy to do. You can choose how long you want to be out in the woods. It's fun, cheap and educational! Just make sure you bring proper equipment - letterboxing stuff if your letterboxing, water bottles, insect repellent, sunscreen, and snacks like granola bars. Our hiking bag (always packed and ready for a moments notice) also has helmet lights (for looking into hard to see places and or course, if you get lost, a compass, and a whistle. We also always carry a cell phone at all times. You just never know!

Pick your own - This morning ,we took the girls to pick strawberries. We got just over 3 pounds for under $4.00! The kids had fun (unlike the last time we went to the crazy lady's farm). We definitely plan on going back - for more strawberries as well as Blueberries (which are ready from mid July through September!0. I even plan on freezing some so that the girls can have fresh blueberries in the dead of winter.

Summer Rec. offerings - Each year, our rec. department has a theme day. Two years ago - it was pirate day. Last year (and this year as well - due to part of the day being rained out last year) is cowboy day. They encourage the kids to dress up, send them on a scavenger hunt and give out prizes. Plus there are skits to watch, food to eat and games to play. All in all, it's a fun, cheap day!

Summer music series - Another activity we like is the evening summer music nights. Some nights are kids themed, others are not - but it's still fun to take them to Jazz night, or Celtic night. And nearby, they do river fire (not as big as Providence, but close by and the kids loved it)!. So I'm writing down dates now for local concert nights. It's always fun to pack a lunch and a blanket and let the kids enjoy themselves!

Throw a party! - Last year I threw a water party. I set up the sprinkler, put out trays of bubbles and huge buckets of water. There were relay races, there were water fights. We even dug for treasure from ice cubes! This years plans include a color party - tye-dying fun! - and an afternoon kids tea party. Eieny is planning her own pizza party. Unfortunately the date she picked, her best friends are both out of the state on vacation. Luckily, summer has just began!

Just one of the boys

Apparently, Einey is "just one of the boys". She went to a birthday party (baseball game) this weekend where she was the only girl invited. When we first got the invitation, the mother or the child and I were talking and she told me "T-ball Kid* gave me his list for his party and Einey was the only girl on it. I hope you don't mind". I kind of thought it was funny. And I had no qualms with letting her go. After all, her friends would be there.

And Einey is the type of girl who has more male friends. I don't know if it's a comfort thing, after all, she does play rough and likes sports, or what. What I do know is, it's going to change soon. She's already noticing the difference on the soccer field where she's been kicked in the calves on to many times by boys her age, who are just bigger and stronger than she is.

But so far, she hasn't indicated any "specific likes accompanied by giggles". And that's just fine with us.

*Name changed.

Stealing Silverware

We went out to dinner last night after meeting some out of state friends. When it was time to go, I noticed a fork on the floor and kindly asked Moe if she could pick it up (I hate leaving messes on the floor). I turned around to ask Husband something and we started to walk away. It was then that I noticed Moe now had a handful of utensils.

"Um Moe honey, you need to leave the silverware here"

This of course, elicited a round of laughter from the surrounding dinners. All of whom said the girls were very cute and well behaved (which is always good to hear even though we don't always think they are well behaved and Meenie wasn't always using her "indoor voice").

So we put the silverware back on the table and made our way our, chuckling at our little silverware thief*.

*When I asked her later why she was taking the silverware, she said she was bringing them to the lady. Which she either thought is what I meant when I told her to pick up the fork or she thought she needed to clear her own dishes? Which she does when she and I have out morning coffee dates.

Summer Fun

School is officially out - the girl's finished June 11th. While we haven't hit the summer doldrums yet, we do have a few activities planned for the summer. Husband has many weeks home this summer thanks to an odd work schedule and stacking vacations on his days off, so while our summer will be mostly unscheduled, we did sign the girls up for some activities to keep them busy and get them out of the house. Hopefully, we can get some home improvement projects done when they are not here (although Mos is too young to accompany her sisters to most things, we'll have one week at least where they are all gone for three hours a day). Of course, it's the one week Husband is working and we have out of town guests the first two days.

Head on over to New England Mama's to check out some fun summer activities.

Jackpot!

Friday Payday from Uncle: $1.00
Cleaning up huge mess after your sisters: $5.00
Birthday gift card from friend: $15.00
Price of a really good report card: $16.00
Price of a Nintendo DS Lite: $129.99 + tax

Finally saving enough money to buy your own Nintendo DS: Priceless



Einey's last report card came on Wednesday, the last day of school. After six months of hard work, she's finally saved enough money to buy her self a DS. She's saved birthday money, report card money, cleaning up money, Friday "payday" dollars from uncle, returned can change, and other money she's gotten here and there. It took her six months, but she never once wanted to get instant gratification by spending her money otherwise. She knew she wanted a DS and it would take awhile, but after six months, she's finally the owner of a metallic rose DS.

We hope, in having her save money, that she'll appreciate it more and take better care of it. We hope, that this lesson, will go along way. We could have just brought her one (something many people have asked: "well why don't you just give her one?") but felt that if she earned it, it would be better for her.

For now, she's happy with her new toy. Now to make sure she puts it down and goes outside!

Ways to beat the heat

While replying to a blog post, I realized I had enough material to make my own post about ways to beat the heat. For those of us in New England, it comes the day the heat wave is supposed to break (I'm sorry, my brains were fried the last few days!). Days like the past few, it was even too hot to go to the lake to go swimming - especially since it was all out in the sun.

Give the kids paint brushes with the containers of water and let them "paint" the deck (and anything they want on it). My girls LOVE it! They paint the house, the deck, flower pots, furniture, the grill. Each other.

Or give them some different sized Tupperware containers and cups to fill. Or use water droppers.

And freeze some small toys (animals, dinosaurs, plastic jewelry, etc) in plastic cups and let them dig them out with spoons.

Let them take their Polly Pockets, Barbies, My Little Pony's or Superheroes out and give them a swimming pool. Polly Pocket loves to swim too!

If you have a glass door (like to a deck) or windows in easy reach, give them some foam tub toys and let them stick them to the glass.

Take out the tub toys.

If they have a toy fishing rod, give them objects the fish out of a bucket.

Give them objects and let them conduct sink/float tests. If you give them a piece of paper, they can write their results down.

Water Balloons - they just need to pick up after themselves!

Super soaker's. Juts make sure they all have the same one/same size or you'll hear arguments.

Turn on a sprinkler.

And if all else fails, give them ice cream for dinner. Not that I know anything about that. cough, cough, Monday night. cough, cough

Cross-posted at New England Mamas.

I don't know but I've been told, someone here is getting old

I don't know but I've been told,
Someone here is getting old.
Happy
Happy
Birthday
Birthday
To you
To you.

Yesterday was my birthday. We celebrated by inviting a few friends and their kids over for a cookout. It was originally supposed to be a surprise, one Husband has apparently been planning for a month. So earlier this week when I mentioned he was home and we hadn't seen our friends in awhile, and he laughed at me, I knew something was up. He spilled the beans, but no worries. The day dawned nice freaking hot and humid. It was day 2 of a heatwave to hit New England. Can I say that this ALWAYS happens (can anyone remember the baptism of '05? Water balloons and super soaker's). But we made the food and proceeded to celebrate anyway. We sat up chairs in the shade and turned the sprinklers on for the kids. All in all, it was a great day. It was nice and relaxing for me (husband however, was stuck playing cook, even though I tried to help a few times). Flowers (lots of flowers, seeds, cut and uncut), gift certificates, a bird feeder, new sandals (because I busted one pair last week - how convenient and another pair is almost gone), a custom bookmark, a set of postcards and a camcorder! rounded out my gifts. Even the thunderstorm that rolled through (with a nice cooling rain) didn't disrupt the party. I now have alot of plants to get planted, but it's FREAKING HOT, so maybe tonight when it cools down.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from yesterday.

"Mom, why did you invite OUR friends to your party?"
"It's all wet over here" (right where the sprinkler was)
"How old are you again? 26? 27?"
(after the above mentioned song was sung by a chorus of first graders)
"someone may be getting old here, but it's not her"
"If I don't do the dishes tonight, tomorrow won't be your birthday, so that means I'm off the hook, right?"

Thanks to everyone who came to my cookout, called or emailed me birthday wishes yesterday!

On weaning...

It appears that I may have to wean Moe. Wean her you say? But isn't she almost four? Yeah, not that type of weaning. It's no secret that Moe and I usually hit a local coffee shop once or twice a week after we drop her sisters off at school. Where she chooses a fruit latte and muffin and I choose a latte and cinnamon stick (okay, not always but 99.99% of the time).

With summer vacation fast approaching (tomorrow for Meenie, next Wednesday for Einey), I can't imagine that our quite morning jaunts would be the same. For one, Moe is calm and somewhat civilized when her sisters aren't around. I could see them chucking the coffee bean centerpieces around at each other! For another, it's not cheap! I spend much more than I probably should (read if I made my own damn coffee in the mornings and stuck with something a little healthier) on our trips. Throw in another two and I'd be quickly throwing away their tuition money. And lastly, and probably most importantly, it wouldn't be the same. That is Moe and mine time. A special time that we get to spend together just the two of us. Daddy isn't even allowed on our special jaunts.

So for whats best, Moe and I will suspend our morning trips until the fall. Let's hope I she can last without my her morning coffee smoothie!*

*and for the record, this morning after dropping her sisters off at school, I heard, I'm thirsty, let's go get a smoothie.

My kids are weird

Capital W. E. I. R. D.

It's no secret that my girls enjoy walking around in cemeteries. In fact, whenever we drive by one, they like to point out whether or not we've visited that particular cemetery. And if we haven't they ask when we are going. So yeah, if you can't find me this summer, I may just be hanging out with the dead.

Anyway, I came down the stairs today to find Meenie and Moe in an embrace. Both looked a bit sad. When I asked what they were doing (because yeah, if they're hugging, it's a strange day indeed). They informed me that their "babies" (stuffed jaguar, and elephants) had died. It was then that I noticed the "grave stones" (couch pillows on the floor with a stuffed animal under each one).

I'm not sure where this fascination with death has come from or even if it's healthy. All I know is that they have a firm grasp on life and death.