Hamster Happenings...

• Twinkles has been properly named a male, well, at least a gender neutral name. Kourtney has named him "Sunny".
• The litter size has dwindled down to 3 and we haven't told the girls this of course. It's a little too early to introduce them to the harsh realities of the animal world and natural selection.
• Tutu and Sunny are in separate cages now. A few nights ago I woke to Sunny trying to make a jail break by gnawing through the cage. I have never seen him so anxious. Besides, we don't want to have another litter on our hands a few weeks from now! Tutu and Sunny seem to be getting a long just fine on their own.

New Arrival! And you didn't even know we were pregnant, right?

Here is Tutu keeping her pups warm.

OK, so I didn't have a baby...But imagine our surprise when Kris looked into our hamster cage last night and found about a dozen little squirming babies! Santa supposedly gave Alyson and Kourtney two sister hamsters, but boy, was he wrong!



You think the gestation of rabbits is short (about 30 days)...the gestational period for a dwarf hamster is 18-30 days with 21 days being the average. And they can breed within 24 hours after the female gives birth! Okay, so that may be a little more information than you would have liked, but it's amazing what we found out on the Internet last night after our little find.



Another pretty incredible piece of info about Siberian Dwarf hamsters is that unlike many other rodent species, the male helps out in the rearing of the pups. We were concerned that he might eat the babies (we still can't tell if "Twinkles" or "Tutu" is the male). But, we are lucky that's not typically the case for our breed of hamster. Our hamsters have divided the litter in half and are busily transporting them and taking care of them.



Then there is the question of what we are going to do with these little things once they are old enough to wean (in about 4 weeks)? The pet store Santa got the hamsters from won't take them because they have to get their hamsters from licenced breeders? If a store in Michigan sales ferrets or rabbits they are required to get all their critters from licenced breeders.



So, if they should survive, do we have any takers? Please comment if you would like to take one off our hands...we don't suggest two because you never know...you may be in our situation a couple months from now!

Kris' Update Wish Granted...

Kris reminded me that this blog is our family's virtual journal and that we need to provide updates more frequently. Well, Kris, your wish is hereby granted...


Kris

• Kris was on the road a lot last month. He had two accounting conferences, one in New Orleans and another one in Virginia. Kris has decided that he likes traveling for vacation but not for work! He also began teaching this semester.

• Kris also began teaching this semester. He really enjoys it, but grading has been very time consuming.

• On the bright side, Kris gets off the same vacation times as his students do. Whether he decides to work those days or not is up to him. In a couple of weeks we will be spending spring vacation at Myrtle Beach! We are so excited to see the ocean and take in some sun.

Alyson

• Alyson is ever growing and ever changing. She has lost two teeth in the last two weeks. Now Alyson is missing her front two top and front two bottom teeth. Surprisingly enough she can still whistle through the big gap in her mouth (she can not actually whistle with her lips).

• Alyson is beginning to read beginner books on her own. About two and a half weeks ago she read a book to a therapy dog at the local library. Kourtney sat beside the dog and let him put his head on her lap.

• Alyson also had a piece of her school artwork chosen to be displayed for one year in a local government office. A banquet will be held for the children and their families very soon. Kris and I haven't actually seen this particular piece of artwork so we can't wait.

Kourtney

• Kourtney is on a learning spurt. She asks me to make her homework almost on a daily basis and looks forward to going to Alyson's school on Friday mornings. Alyson's teacher is great about letting Kourtney participate in class, and now Kourtney can't wait until she is in kindergarten too!

• Koco has also been enjoying the hamster she got for Christmas. Twinkles gets a lot of attention whether she wants it or not and is an expert on warfare...ok, Twinkles really knows how to use her mouth to defend herself and is not afraid of letting people know it!

• Koco will almost daily say "It's so nice having a baby." And lately she's been adding, "I want a baby boy." If she only knew there's no choosing when a baby comes and what gender it will be.
  

Ellary

• Ellary is sick right now but is still such a good baby. She also knows what a camera is all about and will smile whenever one is pointed in her direction.

• Alyson and Koco are daddy's girls. Ellary on the other hand is a momma's girl and I love it. I hope she maintains her loyalty and easy going disposition as she gets older. She has been such a blessing and a pleasure!

• Ellary has just two teeth (really only 3/4 of one and 1/2 of another). They have taken their sweet time breaking through. Of our three girls it's taken her the longest to have any teeth!

Jessica

• I am on a sewing binge lately. I have several pregnant friends that I'm making burp clothes and tag blankets for. I have also made several sets of curtains, a skill of mine that is left much wanting. If anyone has any EASY instructions on how to make pleated curtains, PLEASE let me know (I may have to borrow your book again Crystal!) Needless to say, Kris' Christmas present to me is getting some good use.

• I'm also trying to take (when everyone is healthy) the girls out to story time at the library, playgroups and to other fun events in the community. We saw a folk singer perform a few weeks ago, and we attended a get to know Michigan kind of event as well. I can be somewhat of a homebody if I don't try to get out so it's been quite an achievement.

Little Sick Child

Ellary developed a night cough about a month ago that progressively got worse. I took her to the doctor a few weeks ago who said it was a viral infection and to check back in with him if her cough got worse. Well, she began to cough so much and so hard on Thursday night that Ellary couldn't keep her milk down. Then Friday morning it happened all over again. The poor little girl was miserable! Instead of waiting around for her 3:15 appointment, I took her right in to InstaCare. The doctor diagnosed Ellary with bronchitis and an ear infection and said we should notice some improvement within three days.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT ELLARY WAS GETTING BETTER...I layed her down for a mid-morning nap today and the poor babe kept coughing and coughing. I ran upstairs and just after I pulled her up over the edge of the crib, she projectile vomited all over me, on my mouth, on my chin, in my hair, down my shirt...Luckily the milk hadn't settled too much in her tummy so it didn't smell as bad as it could have and her clothes were unscathed! In that moment of disgust, as I peered into the eyes of a non-coughing and relieved baby, I thought about a memory I have of my mom holding my dear niece who had just vomited and how my mom, being a sympathetic puker, threw up too...Good thing my mom wasn't me at this precise moment or the mess would have been atrocious!

There is no way a mom can be mad when something like that happens...to see your child feeling so bad, and when they are braving an illness so well even though they have no idea what's going on...it just gives me the kind of patience for them that I wish I could maintain everyday in spite of the circumstances.

Ellary is sleeping like a baby now. And I have taken a shower and I am clean once again...

A Touch of Spring

We experienced a touch of spring after most of the snow melted about a week and a half ago. Kourtney really enjoyed riding her bike while I pushed Ellary around in the stroller on the Preserve trail. We also spotted as many as six deer grazing in the preserve behind our house. Then just a few days ago four deer were eating our lawn, one of which (the one with the broken front leg) stared at me through the slats of our wooden fence. It was great to see them again. They always seem to reemerge when the snow melts. We had the pleasure of watching the red fox hunt and pounce just like a cat does, and an opossum also came out of hiding to scrounge for food.

Now there is snow back on the ground. Alyson is happy because she can sled. Kourtney on the other hand wishes it would all go away so she can ride her bike again.

Notice the doe's broken leg that looks like a hook. Although it doesn't function much like a leg anymore, she still gets around quite well.
You can see the oppossum's head just above the shadow of our house to the left of center of the picture. (Click on the picture to make it bigger)

New Book

You're all probably glad there will be no more postings about us sledding...at least not for a while because guess what. Most of the snow on our hill has melted. It was truly a bittersweet moment in the Allee house on Saturday when the wonderful warm sun came out and began thawing the ice off our roof, causing the icicles on our roof to come crashing down on to our deck, and of course melting the snow on our sledding track...

So, now on to other things. We are officially done reading "James and the Giant Peach". The girls liked it. And we plan to see the play performance of it in May. We are now reading "Charlotte's Web" at the suggestion of a friend. The girls are really enjoying it.

Heart Hop

Last night Alyson's school held a dance called "The Heart Hop" for students and their families. While Alyson and Kourtney had a great time dancing, I on the other hand, was having a healthy dose of reality that I have daughters old enough to dance to many of songs I danced to (I should say attempted to dance to) when I was younger. Talk about feeling old!

For instance, the D.J. played three songs that echoed throughout the gym at stake and high school dances when I was a teenager: 1.) Macarena 1993, 2.) Cotton-Eyed Joe 1994, and 3.)YMCA 1978. Yes, I know you all remember these songs, and probably even when the first two mentioned here came out. Now imagine, if you haven't witnessed this already, your children dancing to these songs, and actually knowing the movements to Macarena and YMCA. Well, that is what I witnessed last night. Alyson apparently learned most of the moves to Macarena in gym class. Then it took her no time to learn how to move to YMCA when it played last night.

I realized even more so as I watched them that there is no stopping time. It will just keep moving at the speed of lightening. Soon enough my girls WILL be attending youth dances, and dancing to songs that mark their generation. Still, they have a lot of growing and maturing to do before then. There's so much for them to look forward to that I can't help but be happy for them.

AND...I am so grateful, judging from their dance moves last night, that they have better rhythm than I do!

Here are two videos from last night. The first one shows Kourtney jamming away, the second is of Alyson doing the YMCA. Her teacher (me) was slightly impaired as I held baby Ellary in one hand and the camera in the other while I tried to show her how to make a "C". Kourtney, by this time was getting so tired. We were there for about an hour and half. Needless to say, they slept very well last night!

Sledding Obsession

Obsession...maybe. But when you live in a place with so much snow, and freezing tempretures, you have to find some way of enjoyng it. Sledding has become our way of dealing with all this snow!

Here are some pictures from Monday night when the bishop's daughters came over to sled with us. Ellary just sat in her carseat and watched everyone have fun. She is the most patient baby ever! In some of the pictures you can also see the platform made of snow that Kris and I built so the girls could get a good start down the hill. The whole track is frozen over and includes a turn and a jump. It's not the steepest thing ever, but it's just right for the girls and other neighborhood children.