Dear Arianna, January 17, 2013

Dear Arianna,
    I will be writing two letters tonight, this one that was meant for yesterday now in the early evening and then I will write today's letter towards bedtime.  I was not much in the writing mood last night because of how the evening ended.  But before I just to the sad part, let's talk about the good parts.
    First, I chatted with online from my computer at school for a few minutes.  I remoted into the home computer to download something for Mommy and I saw you had your Games for Girls open on the computer.  SO, I opened up a Word window and said hello and that I loved you.  I then had to get back to class, but it was, I believe, our first online chat.  Another great bit of news is that I was able to come home earlier than usual from school, and you were awake.  You were very excited that you and Mommy had done so many fun things together during the night while I was in class.

 Turlough was helping you play and write!

    Mommy likes to bake for people's birthdays at work, and this time was no exception.  You, being the terrific assistant you are, helped Mommy bake twenty-four cupcakes, and they looked delicious   You also helped Mommy make turkey and ham wraps for dinner.  You've gotten very good at cracking and pouring the eggs and stirring the batter, and Mommy took a lot of great pictures of you baking in the kitchen with her.  In fact, while I was writing this you just came up to remind me that you cracked the eggs by yourself and you had a huge smile on your face as you told me.

 Such concentration working the batter!

  

 Pouring the batter into the cups.

  

 Then Ian came to help!

     Then you made mask with Mommy.  We are working hard to come up with new craft projects that we can do together to make sure we get to play together as a family and stay away from television.  We already got rid of cable TV, so if you watch something it is something you want to watch and not to be a channel-surfing couch potato.  I don't even think you notice we don't have "TV" since I have streaming set up to all of our screens and you know how to read to find "My Little Pony" or "Ducktales".  Evidentally, Mommy was also trying to get you to eat some cheese, that you didn't like.  I don't blame you.  When I first saw the pictures, I thought the cheese was part of the cat mask!

 

Meow!

     I came home in time to see the delicious result of your baking, bu I did not get to snack on one.  I did, however, really enjoy the turkey wrap that you and Mommy made for me.

Before

After

     Then comes the sad part of the evening   I asked Mommy if she had told you about Teddy, and she told me that she had not, so while you were still happy, I had to tell you that your little hamster had died.  She had bone cancer in her left arm and the tumor had swollen so badly she could no longer walk or hold her seeds to eat and we had to put her to sleep.  As you can imagine, you had a lot of tears and a lot of questions about death.  Then you asked if we are all going to die one day, and we told you the truth, but we also told you that that day is far away.  You wanted to see her one last time, and we explained that she was cremated at the veterinarian.  You cried for all of your lost pets, from Penny up to Teddy.  You also wanted to be held and snuggled, so that is what we did last night, and what I did instead of writing.

 Teddy loved her wheel so much, she would sleep in it so it wouldn't disappear.

Rest in Peace, little Teddy

    To end on a lighter note, tonight Mommy is making dinosaur molds for you so that you can paint them into magnets, but that is for another letter.

Love,
Daddy