Happy Birthday Leilea

John says, "You know, this is the one we'll be bailing out of jail someday," and if you know Leilea, you know what he means.

This girl was a surprise from day one. Today, the only surprise is how we ever lived without her in our family. She's hilarious, and vivacious. Tenacious and determined. I can very easily see her being our comic relief, as well as our dramatic entertainment. Everything Leilea does, she does it with gusto.

When I was pregnant with her, Iwa was just turning three and Kawika was about 7 months old. Understandably, I didn't have much time to focus on me, on her.. put my feet up, anything. I would forget I was pregnant until someone would ask me about it. It was an easy pregnancy, and the easiest birth ever. This girl was determined to come into our family and has not let anyone forget her since.

She added a little more chaos to our crazy family but that is definitely overshadowed by the amount of laughter, cuddles, and love she's added to us all.

Happy birthday, girl. We'll post bail for you anytime.

Oh my gosh

I'm looking at that last post a few days after and I want to say that her hairdo is proof that God has a sense of humor. He gave me two girls- and three kids with heads full of hair at birth. Most normal moms long for hair on their little ones and would do better than these Sha-nay-nay-esque pigtails.

We usually keep her clothed, too. This was right before jammies came on.

Just felt like I should explain. Yeesh! It's a good thing she's cute on her own.

Leilea walking

okay, this is so 3rd kid syndrome but... when Kawika started walking I videoed one of his first attempts and put it on the blog. Leilea has been taking steps for a while, but she's just now mastered it and actually walks across rooms unprovoked. Of course, we wondered if Kawika would EVER walk, because doing so would be a feat over gravity. Either way, here's Leilea walking. in our messy house.

.... to catch you up a little, we've been a little under the weather at the Frisky house. First, Iwa got Strep. Then, of course, Kawika got strep almost the next day. Who would be third? Nurse Mommy, of course. I don't remember being that sick since I had chicken pox in the 5th grade and I had to take a nap on the floor on the 10 foot walk to the bathroom to take a shower.

A week later I was still feeling bad and Kawika starts with a fever and Leilea is acting not well. I take them in (with my mom, thank you) to find out that Leilea has a sinus infection and Kawika still has strep.

Of course, shortly after that, Iwalani starts getting feverish and she's still got it too. The next day, I go in myself because I'm still fatigued and feeling feverish and looking up my symptoms on webmd.com, seeing things like "Scarlett Fever" and "Mono". Nope, just still have strep. This time they gave me a different antibiotic and Prednesone.

.....which brings me back to my messy house. I have had two doses of that Prednesone and I am feeling better than I have in 3 weeks. All of a sudden, the house needs a total overhaul, toys need to be gone through, laundry needs to be done, and I'm just the girl for the job!

Good foward

I got this email from a friend a few days ago and I just can't get over the fact that I could have written it. I mean- some of these thoughts are word for word things I've wondered before. The actual email had a bunch more but here are a few of my favorites.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what was going on when I first saw it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem.....

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room.'

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it..

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

I wonder if cops ever get annoyed at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat kid before dinner.

Yuck, yuck, YUCK!!

Iwa and Kawika had strep throat about two weeks ago. Apparently, it's my turn now. I haven't felt like this since I had chicken pox in the 5th grade. I just don't get sick often. I don't think I got it from the kids, though. Whenever I tell doctors I work at an elementary school, they take a step back and say, "oh. Well, there you go." It's a petri dish.

Anyway, it's really hard to be a mommy and be sick. John is doing a great job of taking care of things for me so it's not that. I just don't like having to be careful with them and worrying that they might get it. They don't really get it when I don't feel good that I can't get down and play with them.

Iwa was so sweet yesterday when she said, "Mommy, if I danced crazy and sang a goofy song, would it make you feel better?" Of course, it did.

Diesel

Here are some pictures of the new boy:

We're not sure if he's totally a Dane but, like I mentioned earlier, we don't care. He's cute, pretty calmn, and hasn't had an accident in his kennel so far. All those are pretty good to me.

General is taking very well to him. When we brought him home there was no agression, just a lot of sniffing. It's like General was expecting him. It's cute, too, because you can tell General is helping him learn the way we do things around here. He herds him in when it's time to come inside.

Iwa's on her knees in this picture so he's not THAT huge, but I still can't believe they think he's only 4 months old.

When I told Iwa that we got a new puppy, she shrieked, "Is she a girl?!" to which I had to tell her, "No." Then she got excited and said, "Is he little? Can me and Kawika pick him up and cuddle like Grandma's new kitties?" And... well... "No." She loves him anyway.

It's a boy!

We've been casually looking here and there for a buddy for General that would be about his size. We really love Great Danes, but we never wanted to pay the hundreds of dollars for them as we found them.

Once I talked to a breeder about an ad he put out that mentioned less than perfect Danes being sold for less than the "show quality" ones. I told him we didn't want a show dog, just one that would look kinda like a Dane and have the temperament, but he'd be a family dog. He told me that after he put that ad out he decided he didn't want his name associated with less than perfect dogs and drowned the inferior puppies. That turned me off to breeders completely.

That brought me to the Arkansas Great Dane Rescue. The few times they had puppies we were interested in, they were difficult to deal with and still wanted hundreds of dollars for them. I realize it costs a lot to neuter and vet these animals but surely there's going to be one out there for the Friskys: practically free.

Our patience paid off.

We kept in touch with the lady from the place we got General. She was a mail lady who fostered him with her Pomeranians and Chihuahuas and fell in love with him. She told us that if we ever wanted to get rid of him to call her first. I'd like to say that's why I kept in touch with her but really, he's an awesome dog and I just felt sorry for her and knew she would love to know how loved he is.

One day on her mail route, she found an abandoned house with four grey puppies pinned in the back. Two brothers, two sisters.

They're all vetted and ready for adoption. His brother and sisters were adopted out this weekend and someone wanted him- they were holding him for us- so we made the quick decision to bring him home yesterday.

He's what they call a blue merle- dark grayish with black spots all over. He's almost as big as General, although I forget just how big (and handsome) General is until there's another dog around to compare. He looks very muscular and graceful next to this awkward, gangly puppy. He seems to be a sweet relatively calm boy- cuddly- and so far knows the meaning of "no".

I'll post pictures once he gets comfortable.