Sproing!

Today was the first class of dog obedience. Daisy is officially the class clown. She was very good when I asked her to do something, but in between she was so very excited. They eventually gave her a peanut butter kong to try and distract her for a bit so she wouldn't have a heart attack. At one point the whole class was laughing at her because she decided to show them all her jack russell terrier impression, leaping into the air with all four feet clearing the ground. One of the trainers commented that they had never seen such a big dog do that before! She was play bowing at all the dogs, even the ones trying to bite her nose. At one point she got bored, laid down and rolled over onto her back with all her feet stuck up in the air and scratched her back. It's very hard to describe but very funny if you see her do it. Only 6 more weeks to go!

Already?

It's Sunday night and time for the week to start all over again, sigh.

I washed Daisy today and for a water dog, she wasn't really into it. But lordy be that dog sheds! I'm not sure how there's any left on the dog by the amount I've swiffered off the floor. We took a long walk this morning and another one tonight. She walks beautifully when it's just me, and not so well when the whole family is out. She has just decimated a peanut butter kong and is now happily chewing a chewie. She gets to start her obedience classes on Wednesday.

We had family pictures today. I prefer to just torture the children with this, but Beth insists on making us all get our picture taken. I was bribed with dinner out if I participated. It's so very entertaining trying to get all of us looking and smiling in the right direction. Max doesn't understand how he is suppose to pose, Mia is yelling "NO" and Wilson is crawling off under the radar. We got some good pictures which we will have to share soon.

Max is afraid to go outside. We have these annoying wood boring bees that look like giant bumblebees all around the place. They come every spring and terrorize him. They are kinda aggressive and will buzz all around your face, but they don't try to sting. Max doesn't care. He is just hysterical when forced to go outside. I'm pretty sure that Mia and Wilson think he's crazy.

Beth is chillin' out working on her brain training game for the Nintendo DS. I keep telling her that her brain is gonna get too big for her head soon if she keeps it up. I'm just hanging out here with a cat on my lap typing up some useless stuff and pondering going to bed.

Daisy

Meet Miss Daisy, a yellow labrador who is 10 months old and now lives with us.



She use to belong to a friend of Beth's boss, but the wife developed life threatening allergies and Daisy had to find a new home. She lived with 3 kids in her previous house who adored her, and in fact came to us with a blue nose from a kid with a marker.

She has to learn a few more manners and get socialized a bit more, but she is really a good dog for a pup. She's house broken and has had only one accident, which was my fault for accidentally scaring her.

She gets so excited when she sees the kids. I do have to be careful with her since Max and Mia get scared so easily when it comes to dogs. But as you can see from the picture above, Max already likes to play ball with her and Mia says, "Hi Daisy" in the mornings and hasn't cried once at her.

We still have one whole side of our yard not fenced in yet (fence guy comes out Friday) but she shows absolutely no interest in getting away from us.

The cats are amusing. Emma hates her, Poster is a bit worried, and Anubis commands the dog respects her authority. They are all getting use to each other nicely. Fieffer HATES the dog. When she gets near his cage, he lunges at her with his front paws and acts all "I can take her!" There is no free bunny range time at the same time as Daisy.

It is a lot of work having a puppy, especially one that weighs 65 pounds. I walk her a mile in the morning, play ball with her for however long I can in the evenings and another mile walk before bedtime, all the time working on her leash manners and obedience. I think having absolutely no way to avoid all the exercise will be good for me too!

Vacation

We survived our vacation to Brown County Indiana. I wasn't sure based on how the trip started, a van full of stuff and crying kids. Then Max had an accident and Wilson barfed all over the place. But once we got there things seemed okay.

This was the cabin we rented. It was a lot of fun. Three bedrooms and two baths, with a walking trail and camp fire area and a hot tub used by Beth and Katy. The first night there I saw deer just off the porch and there were all sorts of birds including pileated, red bellied and downy woodpeckers.

Aunt Katy and Wilson hanging out during the camp fire.

Max peeking over the railing from the second floor.

Mia and Max rolling around in the kitchen.

Wilson loved the stairs. I think he managed to only be eaten by them once.

The Story Inn located in Story Indiana. It's a fun place. While we were there a bunch of horses from the horse camping area showed up. Mia looked at them and announced, "Neigh!"

Max, Mia, Beth and Katy went hiking in the state park one day while I stayed home with sleepy Wilson. I got a little peace and quiet to read my book.

We also did a fair amount of walking around Nashville, a historic artist colony. Much stuff to look at and be tempted to buy.

Overall, a good time and Aunt Katy was a real trooper with the chaos that comes with us and the kids. She even wiped noses, which was more than we expected from her! Now, back to work.

He's 5!

Max had his 5th birthday on Wednesday. There was the birthday celebration at school which was attended by Beth and Grandma. Then he got to go to lunch with both of them and spent the rest of the day at the zoo with Grandma.

All he wanted was a blue lightsaber, which Beth and I got for him. The thing lights up and makes all sorts of noises. He loves it.



He had his birthday party on Saturday at the Galaxy. It has a three story indoor playground which the kids loved. Ryan is in the playground above. The kids also got tokens and were able to play games to get tickets which they traded in for prizes.



Some of the party goers. Max got a lot of great presents and some fabulous hand made cards. He got a night in shining armor with a handmade card of a night slaying a dragon from Ryan. He's been running around wielding the sword and threatening everything. He got a cool track for his matchbox cars which connects to some other tracks that he has from Tori and Dom. He had them all connected into a giant car thing yesterday and it was pretty fantastic.

Birthday boy with pizza sauce face.

Max told me that he wanted a planet cake for his birthday. It took me a bit to find the perfect place to do it, but I was successful.

Now we have to get ready to leave for Brown County tomorrow.

40

Max's school is celebrating their 40th year. Today, all the kids in the school got to participate in making a giant 40 in the parking lot while the fire department used their bucket truck to get the photographer in the air. Here's a time lapse video made by the Columbus Dispatch with the picture at the end.

Tude

Mia had a note sent home from school the other day saying that she was doing the exact opposite of what was asked of her and did we know why? We've got some ideas, and welcome to our world of the terrible twos! (and she's only 19 months!)

Exhibit A: I was in the middle of doing something and Mia came up to me with a book saying, "Please." I told her no, and she stomped her foot and brought her eyebrows together a little. Then repeated, "Please" as if to say, I know I didn't hear you right the first time. I told her no again, and she stomped and brought the eyebrows even closer. This repeated about 3 times until the eyebrows were completely together and she was giving me a serious drop dead look.

Exhibit B: Mia had a runny nose and wanted to rub it all over her face. I was explaining that we don't do that, we use a tissue. She gave me the frownie, eyebrow glare and then stuck her finger up her nose. I told her to stop it, she cocked her head at me, raised an eyebrow and shoved the finger back up the nose. So, I sent her to time out. Afterwards, I called her to me and explained that she has to do what I say. As I'm talking, she looks at me and shoves her finger up her nose. Before I can say anything, she stomps her feet, spins around, marches over and puts herself into time out.

Exhibit C: Although this is funny, I think it still shows some attitude. Last night I was tickling the tar out of her and she was laughing like she was going to split in two. I decide to aggravate her and ask her if she was ready to go to bed. She shook her head no, then waved her hand like she was trying to shove me away, then took her binkie out of her mouth and spelled, "N-O" put the binkie back into her mouth and then asked me to tickle her again.

Oh, I hope she makes it to two......