Busy Saturday...and some sad news

Earlier in the week, Kimberly emailed me about taking the girls to the Charlotte Dragonboat races, which is sponsored by the Charlotte Asian Society, on Saturday.  As David had yet another day long track meet on his calendar, I thought that sounded like a great plan, as most of our Saturdays without David involve me looking frantically for earplugs as Maggie chatters my ear off.  I will just preface this recap to say that I forgot the camera so I have zero pictures to share.  I told Maggie about it and since we have seen the dragonboat episode of "Ni Hao, Kai Lan" at LEAST a thousand times, she was prepared.  And an aside to Noggin:  please, PLEASE write some new episodes of Kai Lan.  Please.

Maggie woke up at 5:40 on Saturday morning which must have been about 10 seconds after David left and she was crying for daddy and I thought, no WAY are we getting up now.  I put her in bed with me and lovingly said, "Daddy's not here and we are not getting up, so lay down and go back to sleep."  Which she did.  We got ready and Kimberly and Co. came and picked us up.  I got to sit in the back with AK and Maggie and it was a bit of a struggle shoving my hips between those 2 carseats.  AK showed me how she can dance to "In the Club" by 50 Cent and rubbed/pinched my arm for a long time.  Maggie talked.  The dragonboat races were way up at Lake Norman which meant we had to drive for a very long time.  When we got there, we parked at a now defunct movie theater and waited to ride a giant charter bus to the actual park.  It was a bit of a China flashback as we piled into the charter bus.  We missed the first round of dragonboat races but there was a stage where different dance groups were going to perform plus some booths selling food and trinkets.  Really, it was kind of small scale.  When we got to the festival grounds, Mark said that AK was not going to sit there for the dancers and took off with her.  Kimberly and I suspected that maybe he didn't want to sit there for the dancers.  There were a lot of speakers and we got bored, so we walked around and watched the boaters (?) practice their paddling on land and smelled some yummy smelling food.  Then Maggie noticed the playground and that was what she wanted to do for the rest of the time we were there.  It was SO hot and humid and then it started raining.  Then the Bathroom Inspector needed to examine the facilities, which were, of course, portajons.  Yay.  Maggie wanted to know why I didn't sit on the potty and I told her it was because I didn't want my butt to touch the seat.  Nevermind that her butt had been plopped firmly on the seat.  Mark bought AK and Maggie a red snowcone to share so they ate that while Kimberly and I watched the Mei Mei group of the Little Lotus Dancers perform.  VERY cute.  The next group of dragonboat racers wasn't supposed to race for another hour and we hadn't eaten lunch so we just decided to leave. Maggie was a little bit upset.  I told her that the dragonboats were sleeping and we couldn't wake them up.  I felt SO GUILTY.  I can only guess what she was imagining was going to happen at the dragonboat races, but I'm sure that we didn't do it.  We ate lunch at Jason's Deli and Maggie devoured her meal, so not only was she disappointed but also starving.  Sigh.

After that, we went over to Northlake Mall to do a little shopping.  Kimberly and I both had 30% off coupons for Gymboree and you know I can't pass up a sale at Gymbo.  I bought this necklace for Maggie because of the Mommy Guilt.

Isn't it super tacky?  It's VERY her, though.  This morning when I got up, she had it on, plus a couple of strings of Mardi Gras beads and 4 bracelets.  We walked around a little longer and I took AK to change her diaper.  She did not even blink an eye when I took her out of the store and down to the bathroom.  Kimberly said she thinks AK feels as comfortable with me as she does with them.  That made me feel really good.  I do love her, even though she likes to hand me her slimy bobo (blankie).  Then we headed home and Maggie fell asleep and AK rubbed my arm some more.  Maggie and I had gross frozen pizza for dinner and we were VERY tired.  I watched an extremely inappropriate movie after she went to bed called "Deception."  Ew.  It was still a way fun day, even though we essentially drove to Huntersville to play on a playground.

Okay.  On to the sad news.  I never wrote on my blog about this but Louie was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago and had to have insulin shots twice a day.  We were doing pretty well with that and his blood sugar had finally stabilized.  But this morning when I got up, I noticed that his water bowl was empty.  I refilled it and less than an hour later, it was completely dry.  He had also thrown up all over our bathroom.  He looked weird to me.  His eyes were glassy and he was walking kind of funny.  He started yowling in the bonus room and we got there in time to see him have liquid diarrhea (sorry) all over the carpet.  I went and did some quick internet research and determined that he was in ketoacidosis which is when your body can't control blood sugar properly so it starts burning fat.  We knew what we were going to have to do.

David took him to the emergency vet and they put him to sleep.  He was so sick.  When I took him to the vet a month ago, he weighed 8 pounds.  After he had been on the insulin for 2 weeks, he weighed a little over 9 pounds.  When David took him in today, he weighed 4.1 pounds.  

I don't know if I can convey to you what an awesome cat Louie was.  He was not a normal cat by any means.  He let me carry him like a baby and he loved sleeping on laps and on our bed.  He was so sweet and loving and I miss him so much.  I hope you're playing with Tony in Heaven, buddy.  We love you.