Enjoying Kirstin

We had a wonderful weekend this past weekend.  We had to go visit Matt's folks because we were out of hamburger.  You never realize how much you need hamburger until you don't have any.  At least in this household.  So, we made the trip down to the Minnesota River Valley.

While we were there, I finally had a chance to have some time with Kirstin.  That doesn't happen nearly as often as it should right now.  Emily takes up a lot of my care and time and while I try to give Kirstin the attention she craves, it sometimes doesn't happen very well.  Especially with a teething baby that will cry if she's not in my arms.

But I was finally able to hand the fussy baby over to Grandma and take some time with Kirstin.  There were some kittens in the window well in our room in the basement.  It's a very deep window well, and there was no way the mother cat (who is tiny!) would be able to get them out of there on her own.  I felt sorry for the poor little things who were just huddled in a corner trying to keep warm.  Their eyes were open and they were moving around some, so they weren't just born, but still young enough that they needed a lot of attention from Mama Cat.  So, to spend some time with Kirstin, she and I made a kitty house.  Matt went down to the shop and got an old mineral bucket and cut a door in the side of it so we could put it upside down and the cats would have a warmer, more protected place to live.  Then Kirstin and I hopped on the gator and went to find a big rock and some straw.  I was going slower than I normally would because Kirstin was with me.  Finally, she looked at me and asked, "Mom, can't you make this thing GO?" 

I obliged.  She did fine.  I did ask Matt when we got done running our errands if he goes fast with her in the gator, and he fessed up.  He does.

Kirstin and I put the straw in the mineral bucket, upended it, patted down the straw a little bit, and then put the big rock on top of it to keep it from blowing away in the wind.  We had a perfect kitty house!  Kirstin ran around the yard and kept finding leaves to decorate it, and finally she pronounced it "beautiful!"

Matt helped us get the kittens by getting into the window well and handing them to me.  They're wild, so they did not like being taken up into human hands.  I got bit and scratched and hissed at (which by the way, a small kitten hissing is absolutely hilarious to me).  I put them in their new home and then we left them so Mama Cat could find them again. They did not stay in the house we made for them, but they did move to the bushes on the side of the house, so they have more cover there than they did in the window well.

After all that, Kirstin, Matt, and I went for another gator ride. Matt grabbed a plastic lawn chair from the deck and put it in the back of the machine and sat upon his throne like the royalty he is (royal pain?).  He had a lot of fun as we went up to see the old school bus.  We had to go through some old pasture land with many gopher hills.  Then we went to see the cows.  By this time Kirstin was nearly falling asleep in her seat, so we cut the ride short and headed up to the house again.  On the way back we stopped and grabbed some gourds to dry and paint from the trailer Grandma Millie put them on.  Kirstin had fun picking out some for herself and making the acquaintance of the barn cat, Swen.  He's a lovey cat, and jumped right up on the gator for some pets. 

Later on after supper, I got Emily squared away with Matt and a bottle, and Kirstin and I went to the hot tub.  It was chilly out, but that made it even more perfect to be in the hot tub.  We got to hear some geese, see the stars, and just play, laugh, and relax.  She started to do the Hokey Pokey in the hot tub, but I stopped her just as she slipped and swallowed some water.  We got out, and we raced back to the door to go in, and then to the bathroom so she could take a shower.  She did her rendition of the Hokey Pokey in the shower for me.  Then, after getting all cleaned up, she got wrapped in a towel again and gave Grandpa and Grandma a naked rendition of the Hokey Pokey.  We were all laughing so much. 

It was a very good day spent with Kirstin.  She's such a loving and caring little thing and it's amazing to me to see how much she knows and can do.  She changes so much every day.  I'm not going to let myself miss out on that.