JJ and Our Little Beaver

I discovered a lump on JJ's hind right leg a few weeks ago.  Jeff was finally able to take him to the vet this past Saturday.  It is just much easier if he takes the animals to the vet than if I have to lug a 20 pound cage in one hand, and a 23 pound kid in the other!  Anyway, they did a needle biopsy on it, and said that they really thought it was just a cyst, but that it needed to be removed.  Apparently, they were concerned that it might burst.  They also suggested that since he was going under that we should get his teeth cleaned, which we knew he needed.  So, Jeff took him back yesterday at 7am to get the mass removed, and his teeth cleaned.  They called about 11:30 and said that he did great, and we could come get him after 3pm.  Jeff just picked him up on his way home.  They told us not to let him jump or play excessively, and we should watch him to make sure that he wasn't pulling or licking his stitches.  If he started doing that, we would have to bring him back and get an e collar.  He started in as soon as Jeff let him out of the cage.  He was just licking, but then started pulling at the stitches.  Jeff decided that he would go to PetsMart and get a collar.  Well, they only had one for a dog, so Jeff got the smallest one.  But, by the time he got back with it, JJ wasn't messing with it.  So, we didn't put it on him.  However, we got up this morning to discover that he had pulled out one stitch!  Jeff took him back first thing this morning.  He had to leave him, so that the vet could check him out.  They called about 1.5 hours later and said that they thought it was fine, and they were just going to put an e collar on him, and I could come and get him.  So, after Madison's nap, we went and got him.  He was soooo pathetic.  He HATES the collar.  Actually, I don't think hate is a strong enough word!  I took it off of him so he could eat, and I haven't put it back on him.  I've been watching him, and he hasn't even messed with it once.  Maybe it was just that one stitch that was bothering him.  I think we might just put it on him when we go to bed.  I don't know.

  

So, here are his pics...

And the story of our little beaver....Sunday, Madison was being very uncooperative about her afternoon nap.  Jeff had gone in once, and tried to calm her down, and she was fine until he put her back in the crib.  She started crying immediately.  I told Jeff that I would let it go for a little bit, and then I would go in.  Well, she would cry and then stop for a long time, but always started back in.  Finally, after like 20 to 25 minutes of this, I went in to discover the little beaver in action!  Yes, she was chewing on the the front crib rail!  She had obviously been doing it the entire 20 to 25 minutes.  She had brown finish all over her face and shirt.  It was bad.  Of course, we have a crib that has extra wide rails, so it is very difficult to find anything that will fit on it.  Jeff did some research and found an extra wide crib rail cover.  He thought I could get it at target, but you could only get it online.  So, I ordered it yesterday and had it overnighted!  Anytime she is awake in her crib now, she is gnawing at the crib rail.  It's awful.  I've even caught her doing it to the coffee table!!!  Jeff will be helping me tonight to install the crib rail cover.  I hope it works!  So this is why I've been calling her our little beaver!

Here is the damage!

And, because I know you can see the mess on the floor, here is a better pic of it.  This is what Madison has been doing lately.  She goes in her room and turns her basket full of toys over and pulls out ALL of the toys!!  UGH!

While Jeff is away....

Jeff had to go to Boston for the day, so he left extremely early and won't be back until very late.  This means that Madison and I had the entire day to ourselves.  We didn't do much.  We ran a few errands, and got Chick-Fil-A for dinner.  She sure loves their nuggets and fries, but who can blame her!!  Their nuggets are about the only meat she will eat!

So, here she is this afternoon watching Baby Einstein with JJ.  For whatever reason, JJ seems to like her and vice versa!

Tonight she did her new favorite thing...get into Nacho's basket.  Nacho has a basket by the back door that has towels to wipe him down, his coat, his harness, his leash, etc.  And, Miss Madison just loves to pull it all out and sort it, and then put it back and do it all over.  Of course, Nacho HATES it.  He just sits there and whines at her.  I don't know if this is because he thinks he is going to get to go on a walk, of if this is because he just hates to have her touching his stuff.  I think it's a combo!

Here she is chewing on his harness!!

And, here she is making sure everything is out of the basket!

And, finally she is done, but Nacho just looks sooo disgusted!

So, that was our exciting day!!

San Francisco

San Francisco was a lot of fun despite the weather.  The entire time we were there the weather sucked!!  It was fairly cold, rainy, and windy the entire time.  It did clear up some on Saturday.  It was by far the best day.  Our hotel was in Union Square, so we decided to start out early and go shopping.  It was fun, and we got a few things.  Union Square had a ton of stores, and about the time we were figuring out what this HUGE long line was, it started raining fairly hard.  The line was for the cable car.  We decided not to get on even though this nice couple gave us an all day pass.  We were just trying to get into a store or something.  We called it an early afternoon and went back to the hotel. 

Here's some pics of Union Square...

This is me in front of some building Jeff thought was famous.

A pic of a cable car..

Union Square...

Macy's...

Neiman Marcus...

Williams-Sonoma...

This is Maiden Lane.  We never got the chance to go down it, but it looked really neat.  There was a guy singing opera when we passed by.

Tiffany's...

Cable car in front of Tiffany's...

Jeff in front of our hotel, JW Marriott...

Jeff had made us reservations at McCormick and Kuleto's. It was at Ghiradelli Square, and we ended up taking the hotel town car down there with another couple who had reservations at another restaurant.  When we arrived, there was a line out the door.  We thought it was just poor people who didn't have reservations.  NOPE!!!  We had 7:15 reservations, and we finally got a seat around 8pm, but it was after 9:30 before we were finished eating.  It was a really, really bad experience.  Then after we left, we thought we would just be able to hail a cab.  Wrong again!  We walked for awhile, but I was in heels, and I kept telling Jeff that I was not going to be walking all the hills of San Francisco for a cab.  I finally spotted a hotel, The Argonaut Hotel.  We ended up having the doorman there get us a cab, but we weren't the first people that had this idea.  The guy was really nice, and he said that Tom Brokaw and Sinbad had just recently stayed with them.  We finally got a cab after about 20 minutes, which wasn't too bad.

I only took like 2 pics down at Ghiradelli Square, because it was night, and I thought we were coming back.  Here they are...

Sunday we had all these plans to go to Alcatraz, and then hang around Fisherman's Wharf, but it was waaay too rainy and windy.  We had already bought our Alcatraz tickets, but decided that we didn't want to go because of the weather.  I don't do well when I'm wet and cold.  Plus, I started getting some sort of cold/congestion that day and didn't really want to be by the water.  So, we decided that we would just mess around the hotel, and then go out and see what it was like.  If it looked like it was clearing, then maybe we would go down there, but it never cleared.  We did some more shopping, and we made reservations at Lark Creek Steak at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.  We were actually supposed to eat there for Valentine's Day, but Jeff didn't like that it was at a mall.  However, it was like 3 blocks from out hotel, and the food was excellent.  We had a really nice time for dinner, and then walked back to the hotel in the rain.  Anyway, the restaurant was located on the 4th floor of the centre, and it was between Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's.  There was this gorgeous rotunda.  It made me think of something you would find in Vegas.  Here it is...

And, here is our restaurant...

Monday, we were just going to take it easy getting ready and then head to the airport at noon.  We had a 3pm flight, and we figured this would give us enough time to get checked in and eat lunch.  Well, our flight ended up being about 2 hours delayed because of the weather!  So, we ended up spending about 5 hours in the airport.  Here is Jeff, being so thrilled to be stuck in an airport!

The airport did had this express spa, and I was really tempted to get a mani and pedi!!  But, I didn't.  I bought the second book in the Twilight series, and I just read.  Jeff read the newspaper, and then he did his favorite pastime and people watched.  So, we didn't get home until close to 11:30pm.  It was a short night, since Jeff had to get up at 5:30, but we were both glad when Madison got up at 6 so we could see her.  I think she was just a tiny bit excited too!!

Overall, we had a good time just being together.  We have both said that we want to go back when Madison gets a little older.  We think it would be fun for her!

And just because I can't post without a pic of Miss Madison, here she is today after her nearly 3 hour nap!!  Yep, she took a 3 hour nap.  I think my mom just played with her too much or something!!  Her hair still won't lay down!

If it's not one thing, it's another!

Well, the reason I haven't posted in awhile is that I've been sick...again!!  This time with a fairly severe UTI.  After 2 trips to Care Now (a hybrid like urgent care) and 2 different antibiotics, I'm finally better.  Yesterday was my last pill, and I just feel sooo much better.  So, I didn't do a whole lot except lay around when Madison was asleep last week...so, not much to blog about!

Madison has discovered a few new things.  First, she LOVES to look out our back door now.  I think it's because she wants to go out there.  Here she is EARLY Saturday morning looking out!  She can stay that way for a very long time just looking out and banging on the glass!

And, all of the cats have discovered Madison's chair.  They all want to sleep in it.  So, here Madison is trying to get JJ to leave.  It doesn't take much to get him to leave!

And, here she is after she made him leave.  She's very proud of herself!

Madison has also discovered her laugh and learn purse.  She's had it since her birthday/Christmas, but has never really shown any interest in it.  Well, that all changed this weekend.  She absolutely LOVES it.  It's so cute to watch her get all excited when it starts singing, and she just loves to pull everything out!

She has also really started to pull up on her knees to her table.  She likes to do that a lot now.  I guess it's one more step to pulling all the way up!

Jeff and I are leaving on Friday for our San Francisco getaway.  We are both excited and ready for the break.  I'm getting a little anxious about leaving Madison.  I know it will be alright, and she is in excellent hands.  However, it still doesn't calm the nerves!!  My Mom is coming on Thursday, and then she will leave Tuesday.  We get back late on Monday.  I think both my Mom and Madison are very excited to get to spend so much time together!

So, if I don't get a chance to post anything before, Happy Valentine's Day!!