Good bye Charlie...

We've had some great times lately, and one notable sad time... after about a year of decline, I found old Charlie horse down in his stall Friday evening. Something happened to him while we were gone with Emma Kate's issues last winter, and he was never again able to walk normally (he shifted is whole rear end to the left to keep weight off his right hind leg) and I never again saw him lay down. I had wondered for a long time what would happen if he just laid down to take a rest- if he would be able to get up again or not. Well, I went out to the barn to feed the horses after putting the girls to bed (Greg was working), and I knew something was wrong when I hear Charlie neigh as soon as I clunked the door open. I turned on the lights and when I didn't see him over the stall wall, I knew he was on the floor. Judging by the way the dust was shifted in the stall, I suspect he was sitting on the wall (like he has for the past year, to rest), and his supporting leg must have given out or something- it looked like he went down right against the wall. He had scooted himself all the way to the other side of the stall, I assume in attempts to get up. He wasn't even strong enough to get himself sternal, and the one time he came close and tried to get up, it was a pretty minimal effort. He hadn't been down for long, but I knew pretty soon that he wasn't going to get up, with or without help. Luckily I had some sedative from years ago, I went ahead and gave it to him so he would just rest and not continue his efforts in vain while we waited for one of my old associates to come put him down. He went very peacefully, and must have been ready to go, as he only took about half the dose for a "regular" sized horse and was gone. Greg and I worked Saturday getting his body out of the stall (never a convenient place to have to put a horse down, for sure), and our neighbor (who also burried Ben while we were gone last winter...) came over and buried him very nicely, next to Ben. Before he was put into the grave, I cut his tail hairs off, hoping to someday make a keepsake out of it. He sure was a special horse, who saw me though a lot of the hardest times of my life, and even as giant as he was, he was very kind and trustworthy. Looking back on some of the pictures we have of him, it's amazing that he looked like an entirely different animal just a bit over a year ago- big and round and standing normally, with his mane all grown long. When I bought him in 1998, he was supposed to be 9 years old, so I always thought of him as my '89 model- I didn't know anything really about aging a horse at that time, so I just went with it. A few years later, I came to realize that he was much, much older than I thought, and for the last year or so, I was ballparking his age in his upper 20s. My associate suspected he was into his early 30s when she saw his teeth. Regardless, he had a very long life, especially long for a draft horse, and I'm glad that we were able to give him the last 7 or 8 years in pretty darn easy retirement, with no other real obligations other than to mow and fertilize our pastures. It's very strange not having him here after all this time, I keep looking out in the field for him and realizing he's not there- it's just habit to keep an eye on the horses from the house. Anyhow, one of the things that really struck me looking back is that Emma Kate had said a few times in the past that Charlie was "having a hard time" and earlier in the day before I found him down, we had gone for a pony ride- when we came back to the barn, Charlie was hanging out in his stall and Emma Kate looked at him for a moment and then said "Charlie's sad. 'Cause he's having a hard time." Maybe she picked up on something. A lot of things have been pushing us in this direction for the last 2 months or so, so it was not completely unexpected, but still, it was shocking to have that moment finally come to pass. I appreciate that he made the decision as easy as it could ever be for me to make- there was no other alternative, no other options, no way he could continue on. I find some comfort knowing that I didn't cut his life a day shorter than necessary- he lived out every single day he possibly could, and I hope he was happy. He will be missed tremendously, my old crotchety, worthless galoot. Good ol' Charlie horse, Charles, Booda, and of course, B.C. Flappin' in the Wind. :) Lots of good memories left behind for sure. Here's a picture of Emma Kate on Charlie in late June, 2010. There is a huge grin on her face! Charlie looks great here, happily munching on his clover, with his fly mask on, living in such luxury... :)

Other than that main sadness, things have been good here- the girls are doing well, Emma Kate seems to be holding her own, and Gretta is just plain wild! Emma Kate has really enjoyed playing with her big doll and the "too small baby clothes" that she puts on and off over and over and over, apparently that doll continuously makes poo-poo diapers every time she has just finished dressing her... :) Gretta has been imitating us a lot lately- in the bath the other night she did a really good job mimicking what I had done to wash Emma Kate's hair, it was very cute. Then she was airing out and had a little accident on the floor in the bathroom- I grabbed a little towel to clean it up, and she immediately grabbed a wash cloth and started cleaning the floor under the toys and around the tub! Such good little helper girls here... :)

Emma Kate has recently taken to "nursing" her baby dolls, very cute...

Heading out to find "the perfect tree"

The girls checking out a baby tree

It was some tough terrain for a walking baby!

Gretta got a big kick out of the ornaments on the tree at the farm where we bought our Christmas tree, she loved the lights!

Decorating the tree at home- the girls had a blast

Emma Kate was very determined to keep all the ornaments out of Gretta's reach- we had some "safe" ornaments on the lower part of the tree that we put there on purpose, but she kept removing them and putting them as high up as she could reach!

Pony rides! We had our neighbor friends come over to play and go for a little pony ride in the front pasture

Gretta's favorite way to "ride" Snowy- she loves to give her kisses on her round little rump!

Gretta this afternoon- she saw the camera come out and just jumped in front of it and gave me a sweet smile!

And then Emma Kate did the same... they're such hams!

The girls have been doing really well lately, Gretta is walking all over the place like a champ- she has finally decided that walking is the preferred mode of transport, over crawling! She has been quite a character lately and one of my favorite things she does is that every now and then she will stop and just do this little bobbing dance, sometimes she does it when we ask her to- it is so cute! She has been especially lovey too- she is big into giving head butts for kisses, just like Emma Kate always did as a baby too! Emma Kate is crazy as ever, she runs around the house like a wild woman most days. We found a nice little pony recently, and both girls have really enjoyed having her here- her name is Snowy, and we like to call her the "pone pone" since Emma Kate picked up the nickname. We have had fun taking her out for walks while the girls ride, and both girls have really gotten a kick out of feeding her over the stall door- we have some especially yummy hay reserved for putting weight back on Charlie, and Snowy thinks it is scrumptious! Gretta started it all on her own one day- she grabbed a handful of the hay and walked right over to Snowy's stall, held it up, and Snowy came and took it gently from her hand! Emma Kate got a kick out of it and started doing it too, then they just fell right into a routine where Gretta grabbed the handful of hay, walked it to Emma Kate, who would then take it to Snowy- they do it over and over, and they both get a huge kick out of it! Not to mention little Snowy... she thinks it's pretty awesome too! :) We've got to get some pictures of the girls with Snowy- we usually have our hands so full when we're with her that we don't have an opportunity to carry a camera.

Here are a bunch of pictures to update, from Gretta's first birthday, making Emma Kate's halloween costume (she was our cat Sophie!), Trick-or-Treating, playing at the little park, helping Daddy make the door latch in the closet, and of course, a picture of Snowy!

Gretta's one year checkup

Gretta went in for her 1-year checkup on Monday and came in at 19lbs 12oz, and is in the 50th percentile for height (can't remember the number off my head!) Everything checked out just fine, and we are to continue working with her drinking from a cup. She still chokes a little on water and juice, but it seems to be a bit less frequent, and she's doing well with a different style sippy cup, whereas before only one cup was slow enough to prevent choking. As if she was waiting for her official checkup (as opposed to her actual birthday), she pretty much started walking the next day! She is a lot more stable with it now, and seems to have improved in balance just overnight! She will walk several steps without hesitation, although she still mainly goes from point to point, rather than walking all over. She still mostly crawls to get around, but today she was even stooping to pick up a toy and standing back up with no assistance! The knees of all the pants in her wardrobe are rejoicing!! :) She is *also* finally sleeping thought the night more often than not- Greg and I finally sort of moved out of her room and are sleeping downstairs in the new master bedroom, and I think Gretta likes having the place to herself. She occasionally will fuss for a minute or two maybe once in the night, sometimes twice if we accidently disturb her while dealing with Emma Kate, but she typically settles back down easily just by talking to her and shushing her. I...am...THRILLED to say the least! It is such an awesome change, and it was well worth waiting for- she transitioned to it so easily and quickly, it took very little effort! We still end up getting woken up at least once in the night for Emma Kate, and more often it's at least 2 times, sometimes 3. She seems to be doing better about not crying and freaking out as much, most times she's calling for a potty run, or for help getting her covers back up. Seems like the thing that upsets her the most still is when Jack curls up on her bed- she wants him GONE! She loves him so much, but she says he purrs too loud and keeps her awake! :) Gretta has also recently developed a fascination for the nose- she likes to point to and touch everyone's nose... and occasionally that little finger tries awfully hard to slip into one side or the other- she finds that absolutely hysterical! She seems to be communicating somewhat as well, with her own baby babble of course, but I think we're starting to see some patterns! We still have pictures from her birthday and a few more recent shots to post, but I'm leaving it for another night... I'm off to bed while the sleeping is still good.

PICTURES FINALLY!!!!! :)

Ok, so I finally figured out how to load pictures again, since both this site and the Walgreens site I have the pictures on have both changed... I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me, but when I finally figured it out, I realized how much easier it is now!  So... to get caught up on a bunch of things...  I'll try to comment on pictures below...  We've had a busy time here, mostly enjoying the absolutely gorgeous days outside and at the "little park" with the girls.  We had a wonderful day yesterday, for Gretta's first birthday, although not much celebrating, since Greg had to work.  We're planning on a bit more of a little party tomorrow, as well as pumpkin carving!  

Mimi and Emma Kate playing in the new master bedroom, shortly before we finally got carpet installed!!!

Little monkey!!

Tutu hat!

Look at that GRIN!!!!!!!

Cute little poser!

Everyone's new favorite old toy, the spring horse.  Both girls can get wild and crazy on it!

I'm pretty sure this smile came along with a "Tssssss"

Walking with Daddy to get the mail before having cupcakes for Emma Kate's 3rd birthday!

At Emma Kate's request, we had a "little party by the barn" or actually in the barn as it turned out...

Sampling is allowed, but only if it is your birthday!

Yummy cream cheese icing on carrot cupcakes, Emma Kate chose the "mint green" color

This is what happened when it was time to blow out the candles- she went crazy running out the barn door!

Guess she reconsidered and came back for more cupcakes...

She did NOT want to blow out the candles, and made Daddy do it!  Later in the house, she had me set them up and she blew them out about 3 or 4 times, I think she was a little freaked out by them at first!

Modeling the beautiful bracelet from Auntie Kimberly

Good 'ole Gretta the barn goddess, never afraid of getting down and dirty!

So much fun to be had in the barn!

Gretta especially likes throwing the gravel dust on the bush hog, or wherever she happens to be sitting...

Having fun in the little hay maze we built for the girls

We wanted to see if Daddy could fit into the little hole... he scrunched in pretty good!

The birthday girl, in the "dark" tunnel as she calls it

Gretta, setting out on her own hay adventure

Emma Kate, all packaged up and ready to ship

We had a brief stay at the Highland Festival in Radford, neat but crummy weather, we opted for pizza instead before too long...  maybe next year we will get to see some cool games!

Gretta liked the tambourine!

Our newest thing lately, PIGTAILS!!  So darn cute!

We were waiting for Daddy to pick us up, as it had started drizzling, I forget what I was doing but it was pretty silly and she was LAUGHING!!! :)

Arrival at the Sinkland Farms Pumpkin Festival, a local tradition.  I couldn't help constantly thinking of what was going on last year when we went... we had already made one trip to the ER and it was only several days before our second one and the nightmare trip to Wake Forest.  This year was much easier... Gretta fell asleep shortly before our arrival, and enjoyed a nice snooze in the stroller

Great animals on display each year, they are very sweet and love to get petted, draft horse, donkey, mini donks, pigs, goats, chickens, bunnies, maybe a turkey??

That's a BIIIIIIIIG pumpkin!

She didn't want to sit still for long!

Emma Kate developed a real fascination for the milking display...  she was amazed by it!

Great training for future chores... :)

3 years old!!  Those are the funkiest pumpkins by the way, they look like they have peanuts glued all over... weird.

Emma Kate with her "find"

Sweet little pumpkin for  a sweet little girl

Headed out for the first hay ride, Emma Kate loved it and was very upset when it was over!

Waiting for a ride back from the pumpkin patch

Gretta stretching her legs

The girls... at least one of us was looking the right way

Gretta loved exploring the funky little gourds and sorting the in and out of the bin 

Just the right height

Playing in the leaf pile up at the little park, both girls had a blast with it!

Um... yeah... this is definitely not a hen...  Our standard sized chickens got moved out to the garden and the silkies now live in the old coop.  I had been noticing that one of our "hens" was so much bigger than the others, and just never got a good look at "her" in good lighting.  Well, there's no more wondering why "she" was so big... "she" is definitely, without doubt, a "he!"  Oh well, hopefully we're the only ones that ended up with a rooster, we gave groups of chicks to two people out of our order of 25, and they were all supposed to be females!!  whoops... :)