Adventures of the Amorsleys

This morning the time had come for our grand ol’ dame, our one-eyed wonder. She had been getting more and more senile over the last year and her hips were all kinds of wobbly and her kidneys were starting to go. It was a very difficult decision, as she was still very alert and seemingly happy. She spent most of her days curling up with Libby (with lots of ‘spa time’) and purring whenever anyone in the house got near her. Her wobbliness was at times funny, at times distressing, and sometimes not present at all… her leaps from couch to ottoman continually amazed us.

She will be dearly missed… she’s the last of an era. I got her and Jordan within a two-week period when they were around 8 weeks old, way back in 1991. With her passing, I no longer have a cat who’s “mine.” Libby isn’t really attached to any single one of us and Walter is definitely Hazel’s cat.

We’ll be burying the old girl in our designated pet cemetery in our backyard, right next to her best-buddy-in-life, Jordan.

Here are a few shots from her last day.

We went to the Fall Festival at zel’s school last night and had a great time. Virginia was able to wear her “costume” that the Kennedy’s sent (with perfect timing!). The pic is a scan of a polaroid, so not great quality, but we’re glad they were there, as we didn’t get a picture before leaving the house. It was going to be just zel and virigina, but miss v got cranky, so camey had to join the pic.

camey was lifting up virginia and plopping her down, over and over, to lots of giggles on virginia’s part. I managed to catch a round of it, and at the 19-20 second mark, virginia makes a weird little sound that you can hardly hear on the video, but got camey really laughing.

big tall girl from wendy morissette on Vimeo.

I got some leg warmers for Virginia to extend her summer wardrobe into the fall and I love how they look! Her chubby thighs are fabulous. I caught several different facial expressions in this sitting.

Here’s Virginia with her first Harley outfit from her Grannie Annie and Pepere. Check Zelly’s page for more pics with the two of them from this sitting.

here’s virginia doing her very best Bubba impression:

this is a fairly common site: virginia chillaxin on the couch with harlow. libby will join in, curling up on virginia’s feet, when there’s a blanket over miss v.

Virginia is starting to interact with us a lot more and getting quite vocal! Here’s Wendy talking with Virginia about her day.

conversation with virginia 10/4/09 from wendy morissette on Vimeo.

Last week, Virginia started really working at getting her fist in her mouth. Sometimes, it takes both hands working together to get just one in her mouth, but she makes it happen.

Virginia finds her hands from wendy morissette on Vimeo.

As you can see, she’s still a bit erratic with her movement and occasionally bonks herself in the eye or the cheek or the forehead… which amuses us, though I hope she doesn’t give herself a black eye! She does scratch herself in the process sometimes, so I have to be vigilant with keeping her nails trimmed!

Virginia had her 2-month checkup today and doc says all is well! She’s 12 lbs, 8.75 oz and 23 1/2 inches long; which puts her in the 90th percentile for weight and height. It’s quite a difference from when Hazel was a baby and had her very own chart, since she was too small to even BE on the regular chart. In fact, by the time Hazel weighed 12 1/2 lbs, she was walking!!!
Some milestones include rolling over from stomach to back (always using left knee & arm for pushing), focusing on our faces, tracking our movements, smiling back at us, pre-laughing (sort of a huffing noise), squealing, kicking on purpose (kick toy!!), staying awake for more than an hour and sleeping (sometimes) for more than four hours. We are settling into sort of a schedule, but it’s still very loosey goosey. She’s a very easy baby so far, and we’re having a lot fun with her.