For Kahlua

Yesterday afternoon we said goodbye to our sweet old boy, gave him a kiss and let him go. He had been in kidney failure for several months, and on lots of pills and getting subcutaneous fluids at least twice a week to help flush out his system and do the job that his kidneys could not. We were lucky that the vet in our area in LIC agreed to let me bring him twice a week after work to have his fluids done because it was not going well at home - he fought like a doberman!! Feisty little doxie, body of a shrimp, heart of a lion. But the fluids did make him feel better so we kept it up. The last few weeks he deteriorated rapidly and stopped eating and we knew it was time. It was only fair. Prolonging it further would risk him having a seizure or a stroke and he was feeling lousy. I think he was tired. We said our goodbye Tuesday morning and I took him to the vet Tuesday afternoon and he agreed. His passing was peaceful, he was snoring in true Kahlua fashion in my arms and he passed very quickly. Never easy, but it was the right thing to do to help him along the path he was already on.

As many of you know Kahlua was my first dog. I adopted him in the early summer of 2004 in Massachusetts before heading off to grad school at Duke. I knew I would be living alone and really wanted to find a canine roommate. I found him on Petfinder, small adult dog about 7 or 8, with an even temperament. Perfect. I met him and knew that was it, he was mine. He was so excited to see us when we came to pick him up for good two weeks later, and get him out of the apartment he was sharing with way too many dogs for the space - a big hearted rescuer took him in when his family surrendered him and did the best she could for the dogs under her care. He kept running back and forth to the door and back to us, as if saying 'let's go! let's go!', little legs doing double time as I was trying to sign the adoption contract in the kitchen. Kahlua was ready for his next adventure in life.

We spent a lovely two years at Duke.  I have fond memories of coming home to him sleeping on the couch, getting up and stretching when he heard the door before coming to greet me. He flew home with me for breaks, went to the beach in East Hampton, spent Christmas in Wellesley, even came to work with me when I interned at NOW. He was such a pal, and always happy to be included. My second year we began going to doxie Meetups  in Durham where I met a woman who was very involved in dachshund rescue through DRNA, and I adopted Bailey. And the dynamic duo Bailey-Kahlua mudslide was born! I was hooked. Loved the breed, and wanted to be more involved in rescue.  I have Kahlua to thank for that. He had a wonderful little personality and has been an anchor for Bailey who has a more anxious disposition. They've been roommates and bedmates ever since Bailey joined us at 6 months in November of 2005. Bailey loved Kahlua, would always engage him to play as Kahlua tolerated his puppiness. I moved back to New York and to our apartment in Murray Hill and they were the self-proclaimed kings of the block, keeping each other company while we were at work, barking at all the other dogs in our building and the neighborhood, big or small.  People would laugh to see such peep-squeeks bark and lunge with all their might. All bark and no bite. Two years later came Maya to add to the circus and the five of us moved together to LIC, our pups taking all the change in stride.

For the moment, we are all sad that he cannot be with us, and trying to adjust to life and our routine without him.  He required a lot of attention, so the absence is definitely felt. We are also so grateful for having had him in our life. He was a wonderful little dog.  Personally, I have him to thank for showing me the ropes and making me a life long dog owner. If Kahlua taught us anything it was the tremendous potential of rescue dogs who truly need a second chance to love and be loved in return. My life is so much richer for it. Please leave your comments and any memories or stories that you have of him. We would love to read them and reminisce.

 Enjoy bossing all the big dogs around in doggy heaven Kahlua. Demand treats and belly rubs, and enjoy your naps in the sun. You were very loved and will be greatly missed.  Lots of love and face licks.

Spread a little love...

Welcome February! The weird 28-day month where we celebrate Black history, women's heart health awareness month, Valentine's Day and as a finale, my birthday. Maya will be 18 months old, except she was robbed of her 'official' 18 month old benchmark because her birthday falls on the 30th, so she's a little jipped of this ever so important marker of her toddlerhood and will just have to share mommy's birthday on the 28th.


With all the Sturm und Drang (go Tim Gunn) in the news these days, the unemployment rate, Haiti, economic woes and Toyotas not being safe (sheesh) it's nice to have places to turn to that focus on the positive. It is after all a 'love month'.  I came across Optimist World, a website that reports on positive news, charities, tales of triumph and all around 'fuzzy feeling' inducing stories. The Saints winning yesterday ain't bad either. And this Sarah Palin oops is just plain funny, unless you're a Republican which I doubt many of you (you being my loyal and dedicated readers) are. So enjoy.


Another fun project of late has been a little knitting enterprise I started up with a friend of mine. We call this little project of ours that keeps us up knitting at night Urban Baby Knits, and for those of you who are aware of Etsy, truly a little gem of a website, we opened up a shop there to sell well, you guessed it - knits for babies. We don't have much up yet but we're hoping to keep it going (so please check back! We'd love your feedback), and we sure are having a lot of fun designing items for it. I find it to be a rather satisfying hobby, with a concrete finished product at the end.

So there it is - we knit, watch football, celebrate birthdays, take naps, host friends, bundle up and make plans for dinner to make it through this ever so coldest of months. And if you're particularly tired and down about the weather and need a laugh - there's always Cake Wrecks.

Brain growth

Lately, our little blabber mouth has put several new words under her belt in a short amount of time. These last two weeks we've been rather taken aback by her development, as she seems to be learning a new word almost everyday. Its as if she was on the verge of a developmental explosion, observing the world around her and then finally hit the brink.  She's also become quiet interested in her own body parts and will point to her head, nose ears, mouth on cue - and today belly button, which she can't say but has become totally fascinated by. Now Maya of course many of you know has quiet the belly. So getting around it to actually see her belly button requires some maneuvering.  She'll take both hands and push her belly in while leaning over to view her 'bee bo'. She'll admire the button on her middle for quiet a while, before coming over to try and see yours (and stick her finger in it! it's maddening). It's pretty funny to watch.

We have her signed up to start at a nursery school across the street in the fall right after she turns 2. That's right, you heard correctly folks, she will be two this coming August. And although that is still a ways off somehow we now have this little person living with us. I'm rather excited for her to start school, she'll only be going two days a week from 9-2pm and there are several children in our building that go to nursery school there and everyone loves it. The space is very cool - a large loft space divided up with short book cases to create smaller spaces, reading areas, science area, drawing, eating area, a little gym and music room. I wonder what she'll wear on the first day of school.... hmmmm

The 12 days of a Wellesley Christmas

12. Hours cooking.
Always a good time to have a kitchen full of people while a few take on the business of feeding them all.
11. People total.
3 from NY, 5 from Chicago and 1 from Arizona invaded the 2 resident Wellesley-ites like a sandstorm. Our hosts were gracious and patient... and did a lot of work. Here Maya comforts Nathan Christmas eve while his mom and siblings headed off to Christmas service.

10. Hours driving.
Mucho trafico en route from NYC to Boston.  We don't have much to complain about in comparison to the Breits' 18 hour Odyssey (on the way back they managed to drive straight through).  Thank goodness for DVDs.
9. Hours sleeping.
What do young, hip parents do when they go on vacation?  They SLEEP!  Maya found her Heated Pack-N-Play Suite so comfortable that she managed to sleep until about 8:30am the first morning!
8. Sledding rides.
Maya was freaked first and didn't understand what was going on when we hurled her down a hill at the golf course (with daddy of course) but soon got the hang of it and complained when we were standing around at the top of the hill watching the other kids go.

7. Hours unwrapping.
Split over two days. Lots of people, lots of gifts!

6. People puking.
Oh yes... we got a particularly potent, particularly contagious 'fun virus' imported from Chicago this year that seemed to affect most of the adults in the house and a couple of the kids. On the upside it was short lived and recovery was about a day.
5. Weiner dogs.
Because 3 is not enough, Bailey and Kahlua joined the weiner fun with 3 long haired Hennessey dogs. Everyone got along. Bailey now has a pinup of Gina in his crate.
4. Screaming children.
Noah (6 yrs), Anna (4 yrs), Nathan (21 months) and Maya (16 months) all challenged each other on the decibel meter.
3. Trips to the store.
Inevitable.
2. Yummy Christmas dinners.
Can't beat honey baked ham on the bone, and beef tenderloin back to back dinners with a buche on top.
1. ...and a fire in the oven. No harm done.

Happy holidays.

Moments of Brilliance

Every so often little Miss. Maya Hennessey has a brilliant moment of shining toddlerhood to make us proud. Three instances in particular stick out in my mind:

1) We were home and Maya was up to her usual tricks and antics, sharing her cookie with the dog, pulling ornaments off the tree, throwing her things on the floor and exclaiming 'uh oh' as if she had nothing to do with it and so forth. One throw too many and her daddy responded by saying 'bad baby', not an uncommon phrase around here and joking of course. Maya responded by sticking out her tongue and blowing a raspberry at her dad. Too funny!

2) We were sitting at the Thanksgiving table, it was about 6:30pm and little Maya had had a long day by that point and was tired and acting up. I put her on my lap and jokingly asked her a question I frequently do, "Maya, who's the boss? Maya? or Mommy?". Would you believe that she took the opportunity to say her name for the first TIME!!!! "Maya!" she exclaimed and we all burst out laughing. Perfectly on cue.

and my personal favorite....

3) One of Maya's favorite phrases is 'bad boy' (pronounced 'baa bo') which was originally aimed at Bailey (our dog). She says it a lot. We were in the Supermarket not too long ago, Maya in her stroller when she reached over to a nearby shopping cart where a little boy was sitting in the child seat, his mother nearby perusing the aisle. She touched a few items in the cart before I scooted her away and the little boy noticed and said to his mommy, "Mommy, I think that baby is trying to steal our stuff."  His mother ignored him, muttering something like "I highly doubt that" and kept shopping. Feeling the need to defend his shopping cart (Maya did try to reach into the cart afterall) started saying "bad baby! bad baby!", somewhat to his mother's embarrassment. While she tried to address his supposed inappropriate behavior, our little munchkin piped up - and you guessed it!! Whirled a 'BAA BO!' his way. Our feisty tike made us proud and we couldn't contain our laughter.

As they say - timing is everything.

Macy's Winter Wonderland

We decided to brave the crowds on Saturday and take Maya to see Santa at Macy's. We went to Bloomingdale's last year when she was only about 2 months old and took a Santa picture- little oblivious thing that she was thought nothing of the strangely dressed man in a chair. The Bloomie's Santa is quietly sitting on the 9th floor amidst the children's clothes on a fancy chair on a little red stage with an elf or two hanging around and a photographer. Nothing like the Macy's Santa. For Macy's Santa we stood on line for a little over an hour, weaving in and out of all the back offices and human resources departments to finally end up where we got on the line.  We then entered a well done train, with cars that vibrate. You walk through them and get dropped off in Santa land, aka North Pole. There were fancy train sets, and lots of Christmas trees, a giant talking tree, ice skating bears, and a singing bear chorus. It was like Disney Land amusement attraction - pretty fun and worth the wait. We finally got to Santa and we tried to prep Maya as best we could anticipating a potential problem - but to no avail. Sure enough I sat her on Santa's lap and moved away so we could get a shot and she proceeded to scream. And kept screaming. Finally I sat down next to her and Santa to get the shot. We didn't end up buying the picture, we may try Bloomie's quiet boring Santa if we want a picture - less stress. It took us about 25 minutes just to exit the building the crowds were sooooooo bad and we got home exhausted. We hosted a fun holiday brunch on Sunday and got to see some friends we don't usually see and are now staring down the last full week of work of the year. Looking forward to Christmas in Wellesley.

The Grinch who stole the ornament

We took off last Tuesday for a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving break in East Hampton. We went to the movies (first time in months,) the duck pond (a huge hit with the munchkin), and took a much needed break.  Sunday we loaded up the car to the brim (inevitable with two dogs and a kid plus some black Friday shopping), complete with tree on top like the Griswalds on Christmas vacation and headed home. We weren't sure if we could pull off the tree this year, too much opportunity for destruction, but we decided to give it a try since we are not home for Christmas every year and therefore don't always get a tree. So far the resident toddler has been behaving and leaving the tree alone. Well for the most part - she does pull off some of the ornaments occasionally, but then being her father's daughter that she is she tries to put them back - nice and tidy.