Their own style

I have very little say in my kids' appearances these days. Parker is the accessory king...shoes, vests, hair clips, necklaces, headbands, etc. are all a must for him. He prefers Madeleine's shoes even though he has to concentrate really hard on not tripping since they're big on him. This look was one of my more recent favorites. He refused to let me put clothes on him.

Madeleine really likes the new skirt and leggings that I made her out of women's socks. We have also discovered that she can eat 104 baby carrots in one sitting, or at least while running laps through the house.


This is what happens when I'm busy e-mailing before her nap. Some days the 10 minutes of peace and quiet are worth it...she's quite the talker now.

Parker's attempt

Another generation attempts to raise his eyebrows. What a goof.

Memories

My aunt sent me a very kind quote after finding out about Maggie: the pain of loss is the proof of love. This past week has been full of both pain and love for me. I never realized how much space Maggie filled in the house and in my heart until her presence was missing. One healing activity has been to collect our favorite Maggie memories to remind me of the joys she brought our family.

Like how every single Christmas she's stick her head into the middle of the Christmas tree and stand still in some kind of pine-induced trance until we startled her back into reality. She'd emerge from the tree looking slightly drugged and guilty. We could never figure this one out!

Then there's the way she preferred to be fed her doggie kibble one piece at a time by one of the kids, as if they were her servants and she was the Greek emperor.

Of course she helped alleviate some high stress moments by "singing" when Madeleine's screaming hit a certain pitch...this was one of my most appreciated interventions of hers as the tension would be broken by girly giggles asking for Maggie to "do it again."

Or how she's sneak up beside you and rub her face all over your leg only to then prop her entire weight against said leg and expect you to support her. The accompanying accusatory look that she gave if you moved and caused her to slide to the ground would have incited an apology from the Pope for being so inconsiderate.

And then there's how she used to crawl up between Justin and me on lazy Saturday mornings (pre-Parker). She would snuggle in and breathe warm stinky doggie breath on us until we promised to feed her, at which point she'd begin nibbling on our chins to get us moving. Then after getting us up she'd linger on the bed to show us that she was the smarter mammal.

As time passes so does some of the pain. The memories and pictures will always be with us and her legacy will live on as every other dog we own will be measured against her. But if she were here I think she'd be wondering why I'm still crying. Our life is moving forward and for perspective, if the greatest personal tragedy I've experienced is losing Maggie then I've lived a very blessed life. She'd want us to keep loving living it. So I hope to share more glimpses of us doing just such a thing soon. Thank you very much for the support and kindness you all have offered to us. Your compassion and heartfelt wishes have been lifegiving during this time.

Love without condition

Maggie "Montana" Cline

1999-2010

After watching her deteriorate over the last few days it became obvious to Justin and me that it was time to say our goodbyes to Maggie this morning. While it was one of the hardest things we have ever done, we believe it was the right decision.

You were the best dog we could have ever asked for. Thank you for everything you brought into our lives. We miss you sweet schmuppy.

Another project

I embarked on another sewing adventure today: a jean skirt using recycled jeans. I followed a general pattern idea but altered it to (hopefully) fit Madeleine. I think I'll have to take the elastic out of the wasteband and make it a little smaller to fit her tiny waist but besides that I think it's pretty cute. We'll see if she likes it.

More sewing

I sewed Madeleine another sweater dress in class Wednesday night and began a t-shirt dress but ran out of time to finish it. Madeleine wanted to wear the dress this morning and spilled yogurt all over it before I could take a picture so I'll be washing it tomorrow. I'm hoping to embark on a few other projects this weekend: two skirts and baby legs. Seeing as it's a 3-day weekend I should be more realistic and hope to finish taking the Christmas decorations down.

Poking along

Life has crept along in our house since we all caught the crud Justin was battling a few weeks ago. The kids and I were housebound for over 10 days. We finally ventured out today for Parker's 15-month appointment. Despite his limited comfort diet of milk and crackers over the past week, he's still had a huge jump in his weight (25lbs. now) since his 12-month visit. We mainly attribute that to switching him to whole milk (off soy). And he's also increased in height (32in.) which gives us hope that Madeleine might not tower over him forever. His next appointment is in April so we'll see then if he continues on this track. He's waking up from his nap now so I'm off to rescue him from the confines of baby jail.