A letter to my JJ

My darling little boy,

I have been thinking for a while about writing this, and as you are getting ready to start Kindergarten, now seems the time.

You are my sweet boy - you think of others, and ask about others, you ask questions about things you hear and see on TV, concerned for safety and wellbeing of people you don't know, and never will. I love that you are so caring! You genuinely care about your sister, and while there are those times when you fight, you are so good about trying to help her, and teach her how to do things. It is fun to listen to you try to help her, and watch you develop those 'teaching' skills.

You are my imaginitve boy - you have such a creative mind, loving to play pretend all the time! I love when you pretend to play things like Buzz Lightyear, or your version of Rescue heros. It is fun to watch you develop the characters in your mind and share them with others. I know that your sister and cousins don't always want to play your games, sometimes you are willing to adapt to their 'changes' to your design, other times, you play by yourself, but either way, you are creative, and your imagination will take you anywhere you want to go.

You are my sensetive boy - sometimes too sensetive, as you loose control of your emotions at the drop of a hat at times. But sensetivity goes hand in hand with that sweetness and caring that I love. I know you are anticipating your start of school with both concern and excitement. You are going to LOVE Kindergarten, as you loved preschool, learning about new things, doing projects, and meeting new friends. You are going to be great at it!

You are my smart boy - you have always amazed me at your understanding of thing, thing that you say, and what you know and remember. You remember things that I would never think you would remember, events, facts, etc. You are learning to write, and by the end of this year, I have no doubt you will be reading! You are putting always trying to figure out how words are spelled, sounding them out by yourself.

You are an amazing little (ok big) boy....and I love you so very much! You amaze me every day. I love you!

Mom

Additions to our family

It has been a while, and it has been a month or so since we added to our family.....2 furry additions. We lost our cat a couple of years ago....she was old, and not well, so it was a blessing. Also a blessing that she was old enough that she wasn't around the kids that much (by her choice) so they weren't overly attached. We went to the humane society on July 4th to look at kittens. After 'visiting' with one really wild kitten, Cari was terrified, but we found a darling little black kitten....she kept calling and calling from her kennel, we could hear her all over the place...and we kept going back. She was super cute, all black, and I do mean ALL) and about 3 months old. We decided to 'sleep on it' and put her on hold, which means, we put a deposit down on her that was not transferable to any other animal....but we just wanted to make sure we were really ready.

But wait, you say....you said there were 2 additions....... yes.....who knew the humane society had BOGOs????

We went back to get our little "Cherry Bomb" (it was right before the 4th of July when she came in after all) ...as we decided if we were going to do it, now was as good a time as any. We asked if, when we were ready for a companion for our new friend, if one the same age, or older would be better. Thats when it happened. "Oh...have you heard about our "Double the Love" deal? If we chose another cat that same day, at least a year old that cat would be free! You really can't beat that. So....we looked around some more. We walked around and around, gently reminding the kids that the other kitty had to be at least a year old, and although the 2 month old kittens WERE really cute, we couldn't get another one that size/age. They just kept wanting to go back to Cherry Bomb (yeah, we didn't keep the name) because, of course, you could still hear her crying through the whole place!

I happened upon a beautiful 2 year old female cat named Cassie. She was dark grey, orange and white, and just beautiful! She had just had a litter of kittens 2 months before, and they had all been found abandoned. She was skinny, but very pretty and sweet as could be. So, we took home our new friends, Cherry Bomb, and Cassie.

The first order of business was trying to separate the 2 because everyone says that when you bring 2 cats into a new environment together, it is better to let them each get familiar separately first. For like 2 weeks! So, we had to figure out where they were going to be that we could enclose them.

I know many read my posts on Facebook regarding our high jumping kitten, and the kitten naming process, but I will share the short version here as well.

We put the kitten in our 'front entryway' which is probably 3 x 3....with a piece of wall board (5 ft tall) covering the archway into the living room. It worked, for about a day. Then she started to jump over it.....repeatedly! Cassie was in the basement for the time being, because she was older and able to be down there and not get into too much trouble. But it was NOT kitten proof! We ended up having to lock the kitten in a large dog kennel temporarily until the 2 could be together. It was about all we could come up with. I feel for her, but she is out as much as possible.

Oh...names for "Cherry Bomb"....there were a number suggested, both by my husband, my kids and friends.....originally we had settled on Midnight, but soon after decided it just wasn't right, and went with the name JJ originally chose..."BlackBerry". Jim calls her BB for short. Cari still wants to call her Sophie once in a while....LOL I told her she could name one of her dolls Sophie instead.

The cats have since been 'introduced to each other, and get along very well. Generally, Blackberry wants to play, Cassie will tolerate it for a bit (like 30 seconds) then the wrestle, she pins BB and then goes about her business. There was a little growling and hissing at first, but over all, they are doing really well. Cassie didn't even make a peep when Blackberry started eating from her food dish last night.....not that I let her for very long!

They get along ok with the dog too.....the dog wants to play as much as BB does, so they race around the house playing. Cassie isn't interested in that and has let the dog have it a few times, thus Smokey leaves her alone for the most part.

Over all, they have added some fun and interesting times to our household, as if there weren't enough already! The kids are really loving having the cats, and are adjusting to how to behave around them and treat them. JJ says every night that he really wants one of them to sleep with him. Not sure if I am ready for that, or if the cats are either for that matter.

And when I am the only one up at night, and have Cassie on the couch rubbing me, and BB climbing up to walk around my shoulders, there is nothing better! ;o)