Finally, the update I promised weeks ago!

Skeeter, in happier, healthier days. (June 2009)

Okay, I'll get the yucky news out of the way first... We put Skeeter to sleep a little more than a week ago (the day before Steve's birthday, unfortunately). It was a sad, SAD day, and such a heartbreaking thing to have to do, but he was very sick and there was no hope for him. He went peacefully and we were there to hold him until the end. We miss him so much, especially the happy, silly Skeeter he was earlier this year. What a good dog we had for 9 years. I cannot say enough good things about our vet, Dr. Tom Liebl, and the entire staff at Clinton Parkway Animal Hospital. They showed us so much compassion and support and shared in our grief when Skeeter passed. They're the best!

Now for a better topic--sweet Adele. She is fantastic, and such a joy. I love this age (even with its tantrums and trials). Her little personality is so fun and funNY, and she already has a fantastic sense of humor. I don't have a lot of exposure to 2-year-olds, but she seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to vocab/speech stuff. We received her 27-month questionaire from Early Intervention and one of the questions was if she was speaking in 3-4 word sentences yet. Uh, YET? Try for the past several months! We have to give an example, too. The hard part is narrowing it down to just one. Will it be "Momma! I need to go potty!" or "May I be excused, please?" or "See the big, blue bus, Mommy?" Decisions, decisions! Maybe this is all perfectly normal for this age, but I can't help but be amazed at her language/comprehension skills. It's probably because I know how far she's come and how different things could be. We still don't take much for granted!

I think one of the last times I posted, I mentioned we were trying out potty training. I'm happy to report that early training was successful, for the most part! She's in big girl underwear during the day and rarely, if ever, has accidents. She's still in pull-ups at night and for naps, but I can live with that. We're still working on perfecting the, uh, second type of bathroom event, but that is getting better too. We reward each one of those successful trips with a Barney viewing, and since she L-O-V-E-S Barney, it's a great incentive.

Last weekend we went to St. Louis for Steve's uncle's memorial service. It was a sad occasion, but it gave us an opportunity to see Grandpa and Grandma Buren, whom we don't see often enough. We sneaked in a trip to the STL zoo on Saturday, where the picture below was taken.

Adele, August 2009

The STL zoo is AMAZING, if you haven't been before. They've improved a lot of the exhibits/landscaping since we were there last time (at least 3 years ago), and it's definitely a world-class zoo. We rode the carousel and the train (and before we even started moving, Adele exclaimed, complete with scrunched-up face "I don't like it." She warmed up after a while), but she LOVED the sea lion show. She was fairly miffed when an older girl got called on to help with the show and she didn't get to go up too. Ah, it's so hard to be 2.

This weekend we're going camping with my parents and my brother and his family. Luckily the weather looks like it should be decent (the rain chances have been removed, thankfully). I hope the little girls have a good time and aren't too scared to use the outhouse! Hopefully I'll have some fun pictures to share from this weekend's adventure.

Enjoy what's left of summer--I know we will!