Week 20

Ok, bad news out of the way first because I'm ready to write about some happy things.  Our beagle, Copper, has some kind of a mass on one of his hind legs. We should have results fro the toxicology tomorrow. The vet is thinking it's a sarcoma, which is basically a form of dog cancer. There are a wide range of sarcomas, so we are obviously hoping that this is either completely benign or one of the less intrusive forms that we can simply have removed and be done with. I don't know if we can deal with another loss of any kind right now, so we need this to be not a big deal. He's not in any pain or acting any different than ever, so we're hopeful.

Here's Copper hanging out with us in Tilly's room this week. Fingers crossed for this sweet beagle boy.

Now, on to happier things.

So, a certain little not-even-four-month-old-baby decided this week that she was ready to start rolling over and sleeping on her tummy.

So sweet, and so peaceful, right? Except that I'm a bit of a nervous wreck over it and have been checking the monitor (to make sure her head is turned to the side) and peeking in on her a bit obsessively.

I'm sure that within the next few days, I'll settle in to this new baby sleeping routine. Slow down, baby! You have lots of time to do big kid things.

Seriously, though, in the past couple of weeks, she has become so much stronger and more alert, flipping to her tummy, and holding her head up high and strong.

Look!

Well hello there.

Check out my sweet jeggings and my baby blues!

This photo is courtesy of Big Sister, and I love it.

Speaking of big sister, if anyone out there needs a fashion consultant, Nora just may be the person you're looking for.

Tank top and leg warmers? No pants necessary. The girl is a fashion visionary, right?

Also, when did my 4 year old become a teenager?

If we could have gotten to her with the camera just a minute sooner, she was dancing up a storm on her bed to the radio. It's one of her new favorite things to do. We had a bit of a dance party in there tonight, and she found it to be absolutely hysterically funny. I'm sure it wasn't my terrible dancing that was making her laugh so hard, though.

Also, speaking of how fast she is growing up, look at what she learned to do recently.

It's fun to hear her talk her way through it. "N, up-down-up. O, make a little circle..." I haven't tried to teach her any other letters yet, but she loves to write her name on paper and on her ipad, so maybe I'll see if she's interested in learning some more.

Other happy things this week:

1. My student loans are finally paid off after 13 years. So yeah, there is no time like the present to start saving up for the girls to go to college because student loans, while I'm thankful for them, are for the birds. But hooray!

and

2. We're headed to Nova Scotia in July! July 14-23, and I can't wait. We took Miss Tilly for her first passport photo yesterday, and we should have it in the mail in about 4 weeks.

I'm now heading into my final week of the regular school year. I'm so ready for a change of pace and to get one step closer to summer vacation and our big trip.