Farewll to a good friend

Last week was a difficult week for us. Not because of anything to do with the baby, but because we made the decision on Monday that were going to have Daniel put to sleep on Friday evening. He hadn't been doing well lately and given that he was recently diagnosed with cancer we didn't want him to suffer any longer. The anticipation was agonizing for us, but on the brighter side, Daniel had a really great week. He was more active than he had been and was eating well again. For the past few months Daniel has been exclusively eating canned food and we've had to monitor it closely, as when he walked away from his dish, Tobin would gladly finish his food for him. It is because of this habit that we ran out of canned food on Thursday night, so I ran out to the store at 10:30 to get him more; 6 cans more to be precise. Christine called me on Friday morning to inform me that it appeared as if Daniel was on pace to finish all 6 cans. I spent the second half of the day at home in order to spend a little extra time with Daniel. I'd like to think that Daniel had a good last week and especially a great last day. We were both there for him at the end, and honestly, it's one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life.
Daniel had a great 16 years with us and we're glad to have had him for that long. We was a good pet and friend.
Aside from all that, Christine has entered the 18th week, which means the baby is about 8 inches long and 6 oz. Her uterus is roughly the size of a cantaloupe. We also found out that fetal movement is technically called quickening, which for those of you fans of "The Highlander" movies occurs when one immortal lops of the head of another and sucks away all of their life energy. Yup, sounds just like a fetus.
This weekend we kept ourselves distracted by doing some more work on the baby's room, prepping the walls for painting. The weather was also nice enough that I could finish repairing the window frames in our white room.
We were also relieved to hear today that my Mom's surgery was successful and that she is on the road to recovery. She had to have a mass removed from the tissue between her skull and brain, that was putting pressure on her brain. The surgery went better than expected and was done approximately 2 hours early. The mass they removed was benign to the relief of everyone.
Lastly, we're getting excited for the ultrasound next week. Christine's mom will be in town and Christine had scheduled the appointment for Thursday, which also happens to be her birthday. I will be off that day as well, so we can all share in the occasion.

Hope you all have a great week!

John