Missing Mimi

As you may or may not have noticed, Mimi is missing from our photo lineup on the right of this page. That is because she is no longer with our family. Wait. Let me rephrase. She doesn't live with us anymore but we will always claim her as an honorary member of our family even though she lives with her new family now.

During our preparations to move to Suriname we tried long and hard to find a way to bring Mimi with us. One airline wouldn't allow pets in the cargo area if it got too cold, the other wouldn't allow pets in the cabin period, and even if we hassled with all of that there was a 50/50 chance she'd be quarantined in Trinidad and Tobago. The only other option was to pay nearly $2K to get her here and as much as we wanted to bring her we just couldn't justify the price. So, we put some feelers out to see if we could find her a new family who would love her as much as we did.

We were blessed to find a wonderful family who came highly recommended (they used to be members of our ward in Virginia) but they had moved out of the state and lived a couple hours away. Despite the fact that we were moving out of the country in less than two weeks we felt like we owed it to Mimi to make the drive to deliver Mimi to her new home. So we did.

Apparently Mimi wanted to go out with a bang so she both pooped and thew up in the car during the drive. Nice.

We spent a little time with Mimi's new family and Andrea (the mom) was kind enough to take one last picture of all of us together. Then we said farewell to our sweet kitty and headed home.

It's been a hard adjustment not having Mimi around anymore. Charlie still prays for her every night when he's praying for the rest of our family. He always asks about her and wants to get things for her. When he saw these pictures he said, "I wish Mimi was here with us."

On the drive to Mimi's new house.

When we got all of our belongings here in Suriname we found that we still had quite a few of Mimi's belongings (they'd been in storage for a year). Seeing her stuff just reminded us what a void we have in our home. No Mimi sleeping on our bed at night or insisting on coming in the bathroom with us. No Mimi to chase all the lizards and bugs we keep finding. No Mimi to pet and love whenever we sit down for thirty seconds. No Mimi for Millie to chase now that she can run.

Last family picture.

We know Mimi is being loved and well taken care of, but that doesn't make us miss her any less. After this we've decided we're done with pets until our mobile lifestyle is over and we're in our own home. It's just too hard saying goodbye. We miss you Mimi and we'll always love you!

Recent Pics

Charlie has now discovered how to drink out of my regular water bottle without a straw. Every time I take a drink he grabs for it and tries to get some water. I typically leave a water bottle sitting in the living room (I can't have water in a cup or Mimi will tip it over as she tries to drink out of it by scooping water into her mouth with her paw). The other day we went down the hall leaving Charlie playing with his toys in the living room. He was busy babbling and playing when suddenly it went silent. Adam went in to investigate and found Charlie cradling the water bottle and sucking away. It really seemed like he was trying to hide and be quiet so we wouldn't take the water away from him. Very sneaky.

Charlie discovered his reflection in the guitar and was quite enthralled with himself.











Charlie rolled down the hall, tipped his bathtub over, and discovered the door stop. He was then completely entertained for several minutes as he flicked it to hear the twang.

















Charlie loves Mimi so much and is overjoyed when she comes anywhere near him. Occasionally she'll come close enough that he can pet her and he goes crazy!







Charlie loves spoons. I love this expression on his face.

















Here's Mimi helping Adam fix the computer.







We're wondering if we've got ourselves a future dentist...

I found my camera!

And alot has happened in the past couple weeks! Here goes..

I love this expression on Charlie's face. He's playing with Adam. Adam can always get the best smiles from Charlie. He's pretty much the only one who can make him laugh too.

But Charlie and I still have fun together! The downside to me taking the picture myself is that I can't make him smile...

Charlie's getting to be a little pro in the Bumbo. I think he looks like he's either on the toilet or on a throne here. Maybe both...

A happy smile and a toy he can hold onto. Nice.

I think Charlie's eyes look so blue in this picture!

Charlie playing with daddy.

Charlie is getting better and better at sitting up on his own. But last night when we were at a friends' house he decided to fling himself backwards and knocked into Cadie's head in the process. Ouch!

Random pics of Adam and Mimi.

Charlie HATES when his eyes get covered. He can be deeply asleep but if his hat falls over his eyes he'll start screaming until it's removed. Usually he doesn't even wake up during all this.

Some more pictures of Charlie.

This is one of my most favorite things. Rocking Charlie until he falls asleep - especially when he's upset and it just calms him down. Cuddling with Charlie is the best!

Adam was so tired he just collapsed in the midst of selecting a dvd to watch. I brought him a pillow. And all the surrounding crap is my scrapbooking stuff. Yeah, it's super messy.

Our *lovely* fire alarm has gone off 3 times in the last two weeks. Once at midnight, once at 2am, and once right in the middle of naptime. Was there ever a fire? No. Thank you for making us go outside in the freezing cold with our baby.

Silly boy.

Charlie tried out his friend Mia's jumper. He's not quite old enough to get it, but he did enjoy sitting in it for about 2 minutes.

We're trying to get Charlie used to the pack n play so that he won't be so traumatized when we go to Utah. Thus far, not very successfull.