Okay, so I dropped the blog - third times a charm like Brian said. I was just soooooo overwhelmed! So much happens at the end of the year, and you have to document it and hopefully add a little pics too - but, we were so busy enjoying it! After Zoe's birthday was Thanksgiving - great to be home visiting friends and family. Then came Christmas - loads of fun!! Lots of sugar plum dreams and even a housecall visit from Santa! Then came the new year... and wow, it's already April!
In that time, one of our girls got bigger and we lost the other. Unfortunately on March 18, 2010 we lost our beloved Zoe. It was a rapid decline, and it was time for Zoe to go... we actually tried to give her a treatment plan again, but she was in extreme pain and not healthy - all of the signs were there. We knew this day was coming and embraced it seven months prior, but it didn't make it any easier whatsoever... we wanted to keep fighting for her until the end! She was our baby!!
She started rapidly declining on Sunday and passed away on Thursday. Looking back, I do think she was telling us... she would go out in the back yard and just stand in the same place. And typically looked away from the house, periodically looking back... and then she would come in after some coaxing and then turn around and walk back out, doing the exact same thing. It's like she was trying to tell it she was leaving. We took her in on Monday, developed a treatment plan with the vet, and then by Wednesday we took her back in again because the treatment plan wasn't having any impact on her. Wednesday night, we went in to say goodbye as a family (dressed in our green!), and it was good. Zoe was in bad shape, and of course it went about as well as you would imagine with a three year old in a vet examining room - most kids might have been a little timid, but seeing as how Charlotte knew all of the staff there and we found ourselves in those exam rooms many times taking Zoe in, Charlotte felt like she rules the place! What IV, get out of my way :) Still, it was great to say goodbye to our girl We loved her so and told her what a good sister puppy she was and how much we cared for her. The next day Brian and I planned to go in to finally say goodbye to her and she had other plans - she went before we made it there.
Our family still mourns Zoe and the house is definitely empty. Hard to believe it's only been a month, but we talk about her all of the time! Friends have been very kind to us giving us a book, a frame for Zoe's picture and a tag to remember her by. And Charlotte was definitely impacted - we have been very honest with her, and she knew all along that Zoe was sick (and very well explained to me by another mom - big sick and little sick! Zoe was BIG sick!), and we told her that she isn't coming back... once in awhile she will bring her up and say that she misses her "very a lot" :) We tell her it's okay to miss her and that we miss her too.
One day I think our family will embrace another dog, but for now Zoe holds our heart.
On to a happier note... Charlotte turned THREE!!!! Wow, three is SO MUCH FUN! She is so funny, witty, smart, onery, sweet, loving and a bit devlish all wrapped into one ball of big blue eyes and curls! She most definitely keeps us on our toes. Some say that three is harder than two - the end of two was a little daunting for Brian and myself, so we were holding on tight white knuckled wondering what three would bring... I dare go into details, for fear of a one-eighty ahead of me, but I do think we've turned a great corner! This past January and February was scary, so maybe it was leading up to three for us? One can only hope!
We had a great celebration - Olivia themed - with our friends/family in Cleveland. We celebrated in March in Cincinnati with the Dean side also covering Daddy's and Aunt Amy's birthdays (and saw Yo Gabba Gabb live on stage!), and we'll see Mom's side of the family later this month. This child could not want for more!! :) She is spoiled rotten, but so creative and sweet and endearing too - it's hard not to shower!!
Another big milestone - she's potty trained! Brian had a day off last December and PT'd her in one day - literally that night we went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate - and she went in underwear!! We went to stores, restaurants, everywhere. We did put on pull ups for the trip home to Cincinnati for the holiday and after those few days, we went back to the underwear - and she didn't miss a beat. She is quite in tune with going to the bathroom and it's definitely not a secret when she accomplishes the goal! Which includes: running through a store or restaurant yelling to me about her success (while Daddy trails); giving specific details on her accomplishment; and even still justifying how some accomplishments warrant m&m's over others... let's just say it was carried out without a hitch and we are very proud of her! She expressed interest very early (18 mos) and even started telling her teachers 5 times a day that she had to go - we ALL thought she would be potty trained well before she was. Then she dug in her heels, declared that diapers were for babies and that she would only wear pullups (this was shortly after she turned 2) and carried this on for more months... finally at age 2y 8mos she was potty trained - looking back, I'm glad I didn't push b/c it was way too easy when she finally was! Typical Charlie Girl - on her terms. The girl knows what she wants!
Another milestone - she moved up to Montessori class! We were experiencing some not so lovely behavior in January and February... and apparently she was doing the same at school and they came to us asking if we were noticing a change at school - um, YES!!!! So, school proposed bumping her up early. Her Montessori class is supposed to start at age 3, and has an integrated class of 3, 4 and 5 year olds. By this point she was spending a few hours a day in Montessori anyway, so this was a good and natural progression. In typical Montessori fashion... they wanted to do it on her terms - and the transition was ROUGH! Rough on her, on us, etc. Looking back I almost think it was too flexible / borderline wishy-washy. I get why they want to do it on the kids terms, achieving their buy-in, but we've never been a big transitioner when it comes to Charlotte's changes. We just start doing something new... so, I think the fact that she had options of being in Toddlers or Montessori was too much - finally two weeks after this we cut the cord and sent her to Montessori fulltime and she didn't miss a beat. She did great! And she's really enjoying it! It's a whole.new.world. Toddler always did a great job of having an appropriate curriculum and she leaned so much there (again, integrated ages 18 mos - 36 mos). But, this was like popping straight into school. Independently child-led (Montessori), and definitely play based (they have killer practical life stuff! It's great!), but she is just learning so much!! She tells us about planets, and how they go round and round; what a groundhog is and how it lives in the ground and we wait for it to come up; she sings a ridiculous amount of new songs (she's been practicing for her upcoming performance - spring show), etc... It's so fun watching her being completely engaged and captured! And I think this is linked to the turn in behavior as well - thank goodness!
Well, this will catch everyone up for now! Back on the blog.
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