Starting Preschool

What do I mean "Starting Preschool"?? I've been doing assorted Tot School posts for quite some time!

I have started the letter of the week program with Olivia so often, she's probably got most of the first half of the alphabet's worksheets memorized lol Then I get lazy and forget to do them. However, she's now firmly 3 years old now (3 years 4 mths to be exact!), it's time to actually get through the WHOLE alphabet. A through J we're going to double up on (A&B, C&D, ect...), these are letters we've already done at least twice. Then we'll go back to doing one letter a week.

The sites I use most often are 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler. I do use several others, but these 2 are the most common.

I set up a school notebook for her which she just loves! It's got a bunch of sheet protectors (which she can use dry erase markers on) with pages like her name, our phone number, our address, her birthday, a sheet each of letters and numbers and shapes. I don't know how often I'll switch them out, but she's pretty happy with what's in there for now.

I also have a whole pile of preschool workbooks that we've collected over the years. For one child, I probably won't even go through half of them, but it's nice to have a variety!

 Thus far, Olivia is loving to get official "school time." She even skipped on a favorite tv show earlier because as she told us she "had to finish her school work" LOL!

Bacon loves to "supervise" Olivia's school work (Photo credit to Brianna)

A Visitor

Today I got an expected visit from the Children's Aid Society (CPS, DHS, and so on). I knew the visit was coming. A certain troll follows my blog, and has for some time (my blog stats are quite telling of who searches for me *wink*). After I posted this post about Brianna's SPD/Aspergers meltdown, I knew this troll would call CAS, as they have many times before.

The worker showed up as we were dancing around the house to Let It Snow! lol very abusive house here *sarcasm* As I never have anything to hide, I invited her in and turned the music down (only a little bit though lol).

She said that she was here as she had gotten a report that I was trying to push syndromes and disorders on Brianna and restraining her. After she spoke with Brianna alone, we went on to the porch to chat. I told her straight out about the blog post above and how I knew I had a troll and was expecting the worker's visit. I offered to let her read the blog post that I knew her visit came from but she declined.

I told her that Brianna *presents as* having Sensory Processing Disorder and Asperger's but has no official diagnoses and probably never will as I don't feel it's something that she needs a doctors help for. I also told her that unless it came to a time that Brianna needed medication or other therapies that she would never be given a "label". Brianna shows many symptoms of SPD and Apserger's (and yes, I do say, when talking to others, that she has SPD and Asperger's) but I don't feel that she needs to feel any different about herself so it's not something that I've sat down and told her "you have SPD or Asperger's". We've talked about her sensory issues. But I don't label it to her as Sensory Processing Disorder. I explained to the worker that I research various coping methods for SPD and Aspergers to assist with Brianna various issues, but as I've always been a parent to try new stuff, so it doesn't even phase Brianna. The worker applauded me for not labelling my daughter and for not trying to con a diagnoses out of a doctor if I didn't feel it was needed. (Side note: I know that a lot of people NEED labels and that's perfectly ok, I just don't feel at this time that they are needed for Brianna)

When asked about restraining Brianna, I told her exactly what happened with Brianna's meltdowns and what I do (just like my blog post above). As I'm telling her about Brianna flailing and thrashing herself about, the worker herself, interjected that Brianna needed to be stopped from hurting herself or others. She told me that Brianna has no complaints and apparently even commented on how I help her calm down when she's upset. The worker said that it was a good thing that I went into such detail in my blog as others may read it looking for suggestions with their own children and by going into such detail, they would learn how to restrain in a protective, correct and helpful as opposed to an abusive manner.

The worker had some off the record questions about homeschooling as when she walked into the house of course the first thing she sees is Brianna's school work on the table and our posters and maps all over the wall. She seemed quite impressed with Brianna's progress.

All in all, it was a good visit and the worker told me straight out that she has no concerns and would be closing the file immediately. While this troll was trying to "get me in trouble", all they succeeded in doing was making me look good to CAS, so thanks troll!

Ottawa

This weekend we had the opportunity to spend some time in Ottawa in the early morning (read not so many tourists lol).

Looking up at the Peace Tower of the Center Block of Parliament

Brianna standing under the archway of the Peace Tower

The Cats of Parliament Hill. This cat sanctuary is on the Parliament grounds.  6 (fixed) male and female cats reside on Parliament Hill and are taken care of by volunteers. Brianna got some lovings from Fluffy, the cat in the center of this picture. **As it turns out, I'm especially glad that we made this trip as the Cats have all been adopted and the Cat Sanctuary is being torn down. As sad time on Parliament Hill**

The Centennial Flame. It was lit with Prime Minister Lester B. Person on Jan 1st, 1967 for the event of Canada's 100 year anniversary as a Confederation. Around the flame is the shields from 12 of Canada's provinces and territories (Nunavut is not included as it only became a territory in 1999) and along the bench is the date each province/territory joined Confederation and their official flower. Brianna thought it was great that even though it was freezing out, the water from the fountain was warm.

Brianna was just over the moon to see the Terry Fox monument that we talked about while studying Terry Fox in September. We spent a lot more time on Parliament Hill than with this monument but yet it's the one she talks about the most!

The National War Memorial. This memorial was originally build in remembrance for World War  I. However, it was  completed in October 1938 and officially unveiled by King George VI on May 21, 1939, just months before World War II started. It was later rededicated to include WWII and the Korean War. In 2000, the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added to the base of the monument.

The Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This soldier originally died and was buried in France during WWI. The remains were exhumed  in 2000 and flown to Ottawa. The honoured soldier had a full funeral procession to the National War Memorial. Then, with appropriate ceremony, the body of the unknown soldier was re-interred in a sarcophagus in front of the War Memorial. You can see in this pic the first of what will be a sea of poppies placed there by passer-by in honour of the Unknown Soldier.

Brianna loved seeing all the cool stuff in just a small 2 block area. Because Ottawa is Canada's Capital, it would take weeks or even months to be able to see everything Ottawa has to offer, but at least we got a good little start!

October Stats

I'm a statistics geek so feel free to ignore this post :D

Top Posts:
Current Curriculum (Aug 2012) (8/11/12)
Titanic! (4/20/12)
Weekly Wrap Up (10/12/12)

Top Referring Sites:
Google
Canadian Homeschool Society
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Top Keyword Searches:
Lima Bean Dissection (I giggle that this 1.5 yr old post is still so hot in the searches lol
Worksheets for Pre-K
Grading Cheat Sheet

Audience:
The USA gave me the most visitors, followed by Canada and Russia.
Most of my visitors came to me though IE, followed by Chrome and Firefox via Windows, Mac or Linux 

Weekly Wrap Up

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

This week started with Brianna and I re-organizing our Emergency Kits. I'm glad we did it because with moving last year we forgot to do it and there was a lot of stuff that needed replacing. We also spent a lot of time tracking Hurricane Sandy. Thankfully we're too far inland to get any horrible weather from it, but we did have some wicked wind and Brianna was amazed to know that this wind was from the hurricane.

Brianna is showing some real natural talent in the flute. She is picking up notes and songs easily. She also appears to be playing by ear quite often, and doesn't even realize it. She's also speeding through the music book. I put together a loose weekly plan to make sure I cover all the important points and she's already 2-3 weeks ahead of me!

She also completed her first reading log and is super excited to got buy and new book and start a new list!

This weekend we're doing a field trip to downtown Ottawa to see Parliament and some other monuments around the area. Brianna was especially happy to hear that we'll see a Terry Fox Memorial! Pics to come!

5 Question Friday

I'm linking up with My Little Life

1. What terrifies you the most? Outside the typical parent response of something happening to my kids.... falling. I am obviously not a fan of spiders, but falling just scares the crap outta me!

2. Favorite fall/winter drink? Hot chocolate! (I'd say coffee, but I chug that year round)

3. Do you and your spouse have the same political views? Yup!

4. What was the last book you read? Was it any good? The Maze Runner series. And yes, it was great! It falls along the same theme as Hunger Games.

5. Do you look forward to the snow each winter? Why or why not? oh hell yes! I looooove snow! 

Reading Log Completed!

We're very much book lovers here. This year we started a book report program of sorts with Brianna so she could earn more books. We found this book list and decided that for every 25 books Brianna reported on, she would earn a gift certificate to the cook store.

Well today she filled in her list and is over the moon to be heading to the book store tomorrow! She was even happier to hear that she can get working on another list and get another book card when she fills that!

Halloween Pics!

Happy Halloween!

My butterfly and my princess ballerina

Our pretty nails

We ended up with better and drier weather than we were predicting 

Olivia got pooped about 6-8 blocks from home and rode with her personal Daddy-chariot

Brianna was super sparkly!

Tot School - Pumpkins

Linking up with 1+1+1=1

I haven't linked up in quite some time, mostly because Olivia hasn't been terribly interested in anything "schooly", but also because I'm been horrible at documenting what she HAS done. Now that's she's 3 I plan on encouraging/offering "schooly" stuff at least once a day, rather than waiting for her to ask for it as I did in the past.

For some things, we use Typical Course of Study through World Book as a guideline for what Olivia "needs" to know to "complete" Pre-K. Here's a current list of what we've got to work on...

- Matches shaped or objects based on size
- Completes incomplete sentence with proper word (really never tried this)
- Prints own first name (currently working on tracing it)
- Understands top, bottom, middle
- Knows age and birthday (we've got age down, working on birthday)
- Repeats a sequence of orally given numbers (if they're in order, sure. We're working on mixed up numbers)
- Is able to stand on one foot for 5-10 seconds
- Able to button a garment
- Cuts simple shapes
- Handles scissors well (just started with scissors)
- Takes care of toilet needs independently (fighting  through this right now *sigh*)
- Crosses residential street safely (working on it)
- Knows home phone number (working on it)

She loves to practice cutting but refuses my help in showing her how to hold the scissors so she can make more than one cut *sigh*

She's loving these pumpkin pages I found at 1+1+1=1!

We did some yard work this week, Olivia had a blast in the leave

She also wanted to help Daddy dig up the spent plants in the veggie garden :)

Olivia grabbed this foam magnet picture frame, wrapped it around her LeapFrog toy and declared it a hexagon!

Emergency Preparedness

With Hurricane Sandy coming, I am seeing posts all over my facebook about needing to buy this and that, not knowing where (or if) certain supplies exist in their house, how crazy the store are, and so on.

I am amazed to see all of these people who live in "prone" areas who are not prepared. I can understand needing some stuff cause you ran out, or needing to buy new food items to replace old ones (a lot of food items should be replaced every year). But people will admit to not even having flashlights or candles.

People NEED to have at least a basic emergency kit in their house and car. If you don't want to, or can't afford to go all out, that's understandable. But everyone should have at least the basics. We are missing MANY things that I really WANT in our emergency kits, but we usuall have everything we would NEED for 3 days with no way to get help or even get to a store.

I always had something super simple, but when Brianna came home to homeschool I made it part of our curriculum so to say. Each fall, before winter has a chance of starting, we check through our kits, bringing into the kitchen anything that is with in a year of expiry to be used in everyday life and replaced in the kit, making sure anything we may have had to use over the year has been replaced or is on the next grocery list, and generally checking over everything and adding as needed.

Brianna and I spent Sunday going through our house and car kits. There are many things missing as we used a bunch of it last year when we moved, so I have a list of items on a Need-To-Buy list.

Brianna sorting through our emergency kits

Here's a general list of what everyone should have in their house kit:
- water, minimum 2 litres or 1/2 a gallon per person per day, the more the better
- non perishable foods (canned, dried, ect... get foods your family will actually eat)
- flashlights, batteries, candles and matches
- first aid kit (even if you have a general first aid kit in your house, you should have one in a waterproof container or gallon ziplock bag IN your kit)
- daily medicines for everyone in the house (you can include things like Tylenol in this or your first aid kit)
- baby items if this applies to your house, diapers (in current size, each time your baby moves up a size, switch the diapers, you really don't want to be caught with a 1 year old in an emergency with size 2 diapers lol), wipes, formula, ect...
- cash (ATMs don't work if there's no power. $20 in fives/tens per person is a good amount)
- socks and gloves (ideally a full set of clothing is best, but at least socks and gloves will help protect the body parts most likely to be affected by cold first)
- toilet paper
- dishes and utensils (a plastic picnic kit is great for this)
- garbage bags (for transport and you can also put holes in them and wear them for extra insulation)
- basic tools
- fuel operated stove and fuel (think camping stove)
- whistle
- duct tape
- pet supplies if this applies in your house, food, bowl, medications needed
- sanitary pads (tampons get torn and crushed too easily, plus pads can be used in first aid)
- photocopies of ID, insurance papers, and any other important documents
- backup eye glasses, contacts, contact solution
- pocket knife
- disposable razor (can be broken and razor blades used)
- unscented bleach or water purification tablets
- emergency blankets (these look similar to tinfoil but keep body heat in quite well)
- cardboard and tinfoil (can be used to melt snow for water)
- bags (those reusable grocery bags are better than plastic as they're stronger)

Some of our household kit

Stuff that's nice to add but you won't die without it:
- travel ponchos
- pencil and note pad
- playing cards
- chap stick
- expandable wash cloths (ya know, those little tablet things that when you add water they become a full sized wash cloth)
- light sticks (find them in the camping section, they usually last 4-8 hours)
- kid kit (kid entertainment, couple matchbox cars, coloring book and crayons, ect...)
- toiletries
- generator

Here's a general list of what everyone should have in their car kit:
- water (at least one bottle per seat, even if you only have 3 people in your family, if your car is a 5 seater you could a some point have up to 5 people in your car)
- food (things that won't be affected by heat/cold, granola bars and the like)
- blanket (both regular and an emergency one is a good idea)
- socks and gloves
- first aid kit
- seat belt cutter
- small shovel
- scraper/snowbrush
- candles (preferably in a deep tin), matches and flashlight
- whistle
- basic maps
- non-clumping cat litter
- jumper/booster cables
- basic tools
- cardboard and tinfoil
- something reflective or flares

Part of our car kit

Some good ideas for the car:
- travel ponchos
- expandable wash cloths
- hand warmer packets
- light sticks
- kid kit
- garbage bags

Calling All Canadian Homeschool Bloggers!

Homeschool Canada has recently put up a linky to join us Canadian Homeschool Bloggers together. Come and add your link! http://homeschoolcanada.ca/canadian-homeschool-blogs/

Weekly Wrap Up

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Brianna started her new Gr. 5 math book this week (sorry no link, my previous link for this book appears to be dead and I can't find another one). As with every time that we start a new workbook, she is amazed how simple the beginnings of the books are. I reminded her again, that most kids don't do any school work over the summer break so they need to spend the first while doing review. We school year round, so Brianna doesn't need review, but she loves getting some easy work for a while :)

We're starting to actually *read* sheet music. The beginning of the flute book that we're using (my flute book from high school, the link is of the current version) has the letters written within the notes, now the letters stop and it's regular sheet music. Brianna's having some issues learning it, not surprisingly, but she's slowly picking it up.

Brianna and Olivia also helped in doing some fall clean up in the yard. We got some Halloween bags filled with leaves, more of the garden pulled and some spring bulbs planted. A beautiful day to be outside!

Losing

Tanya will not be homeschooling with us from now on. I disagree with the decision, but hey, it's not my kid, so obviously I don't get a say.

5 Question Friday

Linking up with My Little Life

1. Who wakes up in the morning with the kids, you or hubby? Technically hubby, but he doesn't get up with them, he just gets home (he works nights). It works perfectly because I'm an insomniac and once I finally get to sleep (sometimes as late as 4-5am) it's nice to be able to sleep past 7am!

2. Do you watch the World Series even if your team isn't in it? Nope. Hubby does, but I skip it unless the Blue Jays are playing (which they suck the last few years, so....)

3. What is the best compliment you have received? "I love you for being you" Simple, I know, but I think it's great :)

4. Do/did you dress up to take your kids trick or treating? I do sometimes, but most of the time no

5. Do you have a favorite bible verse? What is it and why? No, I'm not religious. I do *have* a bible though and my sisters are religious so I am familiar with a lot of them, and a lot of them do have secular meaning to me, but I don't have a specific favorite.

The Day After a SPD/Aspergers Meltdown

As is usual, Brianna's day today is a complete 180 from yesterday. I don't know if her meltdowns are cause buy a build up of *everything* and the meltdown releases it all and lets her be human again, but 99% of the time, the day after a meltdown is heavenly!

Brianna woke up this morning wide eyed and bushy tailed and full of high spirits. She snuggled Olivia on the couch for some morning cartoons, did her math work with no complaints, was all full of love-you-mommys. When she left to go to my sister's for French, she remembered on her own that she had forgotten her French book and ran back home to get it.

While I absolutely hate the meltdowns, the next day is so pleasant that it almost makes up for the cruddy day before. It's so nice to have happy Brianna back again. Hopefully since it was over a year since the last one, that maybe it will just never happen again! *fingers crossed*

SPD/Aspergers Meltdown

Today Brianna had a meltdown. It started as something insignificant (even to her if she were to think about it tomorrow) and snowballed. Brianna doesn't handle being upset well and it usually quickly gets much worse and she sometimes can't settle on her own. Between having a total freak out in which she thrashes her own body around (risking hurting herself) and often throws/smashes items (risking hurting others' belongings) and needing a lot of pressure to feel comfortable and able to relax due to her SPD, I have often relied on full body restraint in these times. This involves me sitting on her hips (the strongest part of her body so my weight doesn't hurt her) and holding her legs with mine and her arms with mine to apply the most pressure. This both gives her the pressure she needs to be more aware of herself but still restraining her to prevent her from hurting herself or others' property.

Thankfully as she ages, these meltdowns happen less and less often. In fact, before tonight, the last one was over a year ago. She also settles a lot faster than she used to. Within 1 minute of applying a full body restraint she visibly calmed down and was able to hear me coaching her in relaxation techniques (slow deep breathing and so on).

I'll admit I'm a yeller. I yell too much. But thankfully, I'm also aware that in a meltdown I NEED to keep a calm, almost soft voice. Yes, I will raise the volume a bit so she can (hopefully) hear me over her own screaming, but I make sure to keep it calm. When she first started these major meltdowns around 6 years old, I just yelled and screamed back at her. One day I actually sent myself into an anxiety attack because I was so over frustrated with her and why nothing would work to calm her down. Since then I've learned that the meltdowns are most often out of her control and yelling just makes them worse as now, not only does she feel out of control, but there's no one there to help her get back into control.

Tonight was short lived, thankfully. The meltdown itself only lasted about 30 minutes and calming techniques only took about 15. They have taken as long as 6 hours. Brianna crawled into bed afterwards and took a short nap and felt and looked a million times better when she came down for supper. If it runs as it normally does, tomorrow will be a perfectly happy day where there is little memory of tonight's meltdown. I don't know if it's ignoring what happened or she really doesn't remember much of the meltdown, but at least it's not dragged on for days.

Brianna and Tanya's First Duet!

It's simple music, but I think it's pretty great since it's only their third week playing!

Siblings Sharing a Room

I was reading a blog post today that inspired me to write one of my own. Now I don't have as many kids as that blogger does, but I still get questioned often about Brianna and Olivia sharing a room.

Brianna and Olivia are 7 years apart, so really, I'm not surprised too much by the questions. However, when I was pregnant with Olivia, without being aware of our plans to have the girls share a room, Brianna BEGGED us to let Olivia sleep in her room. Seeing as this was our plan anyway, we of course agreed. We lived in a 3 bedroom, but we had been discussing my mom moving in with us. We figured she probably wouldn't be as excited once Olivia got here and Brianna realized that babies can cry. A lot.

Once Olivia was born, we had her in our room because I was nursing and it was easier to have her near me. We told Brianna that as long as Olivia was waking on a regular basis during the night that we'd keep her in our room so she didn't wake up to the baby crying all the time. Almost every morning Brianna would ask if Olivia slept through the night.

Finally, Olivia was sleeping through the night most nights and we moved her into Brianna room. You'd think we had hung the moon! Olivia was a much earlier riser than Brianna (still is *sigh*), but Brianna didn't care. We even got them a bunk bed last summer when Olivia broke out of her crib.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years and we moved into a 4 bedroom house. A LOT of people assumed Brianna and Olivia would get their own room. Nope, even with an annoying toddler sister (lol) first thing Brianna said when finding out we were buying a 4 bedroom was "now you can have a craft room mommy!" Not even a single thought to getting her own room. (and yes, I got my craft room lol)

Also in this house is a much more usable basement that all ready had a little 6x12 area almost completely walled off. We thought it would be a great place for Brianna to have away from Olivia since she was going to be 10 this summer and had some fancier stuff like her science kits to keep away from little fingers. Again, Brianna's first thoughts were to making this space a play area.

When we have another baby, that baby too, will share a room with Brianna and Olivia once it's sleeping through the night. Their room in this house is roughly twice the size of their old room and will easily fit their bunk bed and a crib. Lee and I have discussed that once the baby would be old/big enough to move to a twin that Olivia would be old enough to move to the top bunk and we'll probably turn the basement room into a bedroom for an at least 13 year old Brianna.

But for now, our set up works for us. In today's age, it may be unusual, especially given the age difference. But other than the occasional complaint from Brianna about Olivia trying to crawl into bed with her lol everyone is happy

Weekly Wrap Up

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

The girls were happy to try out the French Dictionary of the review books we got. Right now my sister and I are using that book and the Living Languages set that we picked up earlier this year (which we had to start over as we ended up needing to take too long of a hiatus from it).

Music is becoming so much of a big part of our schooling that next week we'll actually be having Tanya come over on Tuesday (normally comes over Mon, Wed, Fri for school and the girls do French at her house on Tues and Thurs) for a special music class.

Olivia likes to "help" Brianna practice

I'm very concerned about Tanya's cadets right now. The cadet take part in the Santa Clause parade every year. I thought it would be cool for Tanya to be in it next year... no, she'll be in THIS year! This is a kid who never touched a flute before, can not read sheet music what so ever, and she's excepted to play the music in the picture below NEXT MONTH!

This (below) is the music Tanya and Brianna can actually do right now (actually this is their weekend assignment lol). As you can see, super simple, shows the fingerings, has the note letters written right on the notes. I played flute for 2 years and I don't think *I* could easily play the music above!

5 Question Friday

Linking up with My Little Life!

1. Where do you hide junk when people come over? If you're a close friend or family, no where lol For actual company, in the laundry room. It's the size of a small bedroom so it can fit a lot of crap lol

2. Do political ads help you decide who you are going to vote for? Hell no!

3. What's your favorite holiday party to host? Christmas, mainly cause it's the biggest one with all the fixings :D

4. You go to an island with your husband and can only take one personal item. What is it? That would depend how long we'd be there....

5. If you found out your spouse was a Dexter style serial killer (only kills people to save others) would you rat? Hmm... that's a hard one! I mean, murder is wrong... but some of the people he kills we'd be stuck with in the justice system forever then they'd get to live way too good of a life in prison...

Review Books Are In!

I'm so excited! We got our first package of books from DK Canada to review! We got:

Complete Guitar Manual

DK First French Picture Dictionary

Help Your Kids With Math

Math Dictionary

Hopefully we'll have a review to post here soon!

5 Question Friday

Linking up with My Little Life

1. Did you have any homecoming traditions? None what so ever as we have nothing to do with homecoming lol

2. Do you ask your spouse before spending money? Nope. For that matter, I'm the one who handles the finances anyways :)

3. If you could be famous for something what would it be? Is there fame in coffee drinking? Um.... maybe to be a published author

4. Have you ever seriously thought you were going crazy? About 3am when my colic-y daughter was about 4 mths old...

5. How do you eat your steak? Burger? (as in, well done, medium, still moo-ing...) Steak, medium, burger, well done.

Weekly Wrap Up

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

This week was quite the musical week! On Tuesday we were gifted a guitar by one of the moms of the girls who teach our homeschool art class. It's an older, child-sized guitar, but perfect sized for Brianna. She has actually mentioned several times over the last few years about wanting to learn how to play guitar, so this was perfect!

Tanya joined air cadets a couple weeks ago and decided she wanted to learn how to play the flute for cadet band. This works out great as I had always planned to encourage the girls to learn the flute seeing as how I own one.

This week, Tanya brought her flute home from cadets, Brianna got very excited. When I told her I had planned on teaching them to play, you'd think I had just hung the moon!

My flute and ooooold high school music book

Today we had our first music class. Tanya had learned the C and B notes in her cadet class yesterday, but we'll be following my old high school music book and did the F and E notes. Now of course, to help her with her cadets stuff, any sheet music she needs to learn there, we'll be doing the exact same thing here as a tune as simple as Jingle Bells can have 16 different variations of sheet music.

We also had sadness this week as our 10.5 year old cat, Timmy died. Timmy grew up with Brianna as he was born in my bedroom less than 2 months before she was born. We do have our new kitten Bacon (that Brianna got for her birthday over the summer) to keep us smiling though.

Death

Today my husband discovered that our cat, Timmy, had died overnight.

Hiding in mom's Snuggie

Timmy was born in my bedroom 2 months before Brianna was born. Timmy and Brianna grew up together.

His favorite place to be at our old house was the enclosed porch

Today has been a quiet day. School is the last thing on our mind. Tanya came over for her usual school day and she's been hanging out talking with Brianna.

Trying to bite open the elastics that held his food cupboard shut

Olivia, thankfully, is too young to really understand.

Trying to ignore the new little person (Olivia)

We've buried him behind our house and Brianna is planning to make a marker for him.

Guarding Olivia as she slept

Brianna loved putting little hats on him

He always wanted to get into Lee's beer cases

His favorite way to sleep, with his face pressed into a wall

When we got our new cat, Bacon, he tolerated her enough to let her sleep in the same room

And occasionally he'd just sleep ON her