shady grove

listening to an album called 'songs for little pickers'. sam is dancing (read:jumping around like a ninja), jake is reading, dyl is giving sylvie a bath.

next week is march break! the boys, the girl and i are going to camp out at my mum and dad's house for a few days. i can't wait to get out of the city - it is feeling cold and dirty and monotonous. being spoiled by the 'rents will be nice too! no doubt after a few days of the country, i will be very grateful to come back. dyl is stuck in the city but getting rid of us noisy and demanding people will probably be a pretty fabulous vacation for him :-)

*bad news*
we lost butterscotch last week. he had been missing two days when kimber (our across the street neighbour) came and told us that he was lying in the alley beside her house. terrible. i haven't cried that much in a long time... and then, i had the horrible task of telling the boys that their kitty wasn't coming home. they took it very badly at first; it was pretty heartbreaking to see/hear/feel them mourn. we slowly pulled ourselves together as we talked about him, even managing to smile as we remembered some of his crazier and more adorable antics. we made a little shrine-type memorial for him in the living room - we each drew pictures of him and laid out a few of his favourite things (cat nip mouse, kitty treats, a piece of yarn). sam wrote a little note on the back of his drawing that said: "there are many colours of yellow... butters was all of them". that night we had a little feast in his honour - pancakes and butterscotch pudding. we must have done something right because no one's had any nightmares (except me, but that's because i actually saw his little stare-eyed corpse.) Anyway, RIP, yellow cat. You were a good little pal and i miss you!