Life with a dog

We're watching our friends' golden retriever for a couple weeks while they're away. We've only had her for 30 hours and it's been quite the adventure! She's a perfect little lady, except when she gets excited or when she eats one of our finger puppets and barfs it all over the inside of her crate. Ugh.

The puppy in her wants to play all the time. So far, Alice has been happy to take her outside and throw toys until both of them come in hot and sweaty/panting.

Robert has a love/terror relationship with this dog. Inside the house, he's completely paralyzed and totally freaked out. He's scared she'll jump or lick or sniff or look at him funny, which she inevitably does. He spends most of his time behind a closed door (i.e. in his room, the bathroom, or safely locked in Mara's crate while she's wandering the premises) or high up on the couch. When they're outside together, though, Robert completely adores her. He throws toys for her and hand-feeds her treats. I caught a peek of him this afternoon giving her a big hug from behind.

James thinks this dog is the best. All the time. She's right at his eye level. He throws toys for her, feeds her any little scrap of food he can get a hold of, and sometimes plays a squealy game of chase. He's also fond of her crate and will play in there at every opportunity. He comes out covered in dog hair. Yesterday, he was rolling around inside singing a little song to himself. He likes to open and close the door on himself.

There are a few things I like about taking care of a dog...the very things that make her different from having a child. She's pretty obedient. She's trained to ring a bell when she needs to use the potty. I can lock her in her crate when she gets too crazy. She eats the same thing all the time without complaint. I can leave her home when I need to run an errand. Overall, she's been pretty darn easy to manage.

Does this make me want to get a dog? No. Quite the opposite. Perhaps I'll reconsider later when all the other little dependent lifeforms in this house have grown and gone away.

Garden in June

Here's a look at my garden in my absolute favorite stage of the growing season: June. I've got things growing, things blooming, not too many weeds yet and it's not too stinking hot to sit outside and enjoy it. It's all about the potential. No harvest yet. Harvesting is work. I like seeing the garden now while the potential is thick and satisfying.



Above, L-R: strawberry bed with marigolds on the end, a bed with the herb garden (basil, parsley, green onions, rosemary) and grains (sweet corn, wheat) and beanapillars (i.e. dry beans of some sort), and finally the screened bed (cucumber, watermelon, zucchini, collard greens).

In the back bed, I've planted a variety of small "artisan" tomatoes and a few more marigolds. The rhubarb is settling in nicely, too. Very, very good.

The little blueberry bushes are in the front barrels, poor things. Bigger than ever, but still dinky.




Above, you see the orchard and chicken pen. The peach trees are actually starting to look like peach trees! I guess I haven't botched the pruning too bad so far. I planted nasturtiums at the base of each tree. They haven't bloomed yet.

And this year I expanded my potted plant variety:




The big plant is a baby sunflower. Then there's an assortment of edible flowers that I started from seed: violas, borage, bachelor's button, zinnia, marigold. Alice planted a lima bean from school and more wheat in her pot. Robert put a stalk of corn in his pot this year. Even with watering almost daily, many of the plants are pale and growing poorly. I'm afraid my potting soil mixture was a bit off...50% soil-less mix and 50% compost just isn't cutting it. I just can't stand to buy "real" potting mix every year. What a chore! And pricey.

20 Weeks

I'm half way through this pregnancy and ready to skip to the end. Just bring on the baby, for goodness' sake. Between my expanding belly, my shrinking bladder, my dipping energy levels, and 3 more months of stinking hot and muggy weather ahead of me *sigh*...this ain't gonna be pretty :)

The last six weeks of pregnancy should be nice, though...October and into November. Cooler. Quieter (i.e. kids in school). Much less work to do outside in the garden.

Speaking of the garden, I met with several frustrating disappointments this week that made me quite cross (I've been watching the BBC's Doctor Who Series 7 lately, so my vocabulary is taking on an English hue...and I really, really want to try Jammie Dodgers):

• My "brilliant" plan to cover an entire garden bed in window screening is an enormous success...at trapping cucumber beetles around my cukes and melons. Dag-nabbit.

• I reacted too slowly to a solitary rabbit hanging out in our foot-high clover patch. Over the course of a few days, he found a mate and now there's a pulsing wad of bunny fluff in his shallow burrow...who knows how many babies are inside?! I don't dare mow anywhere near it.

• One of our new hens has started laying eggs! Yay! The frustrating part is how sassy and bossy this breed is compared to our last flock. As soon as they hear our back door open, they start squawking and moaning and whining in chorus. They want out. All the time. They mob the pen door and try to escape  while you're fiddling with the latch. Once you're inside with the door closed securely behind you, they periodically peck at your legs and shoes. Curiosity? Aggression? Affection? I don't like it, whatever it is. Robert's terrified of them. Alice is the only one brave enough to gather eggs. Until we start getting five eggs a day, I'm leaning towards eating the birds. The kids put up the portable fence so the hens could get out on the grass for a bit. Within 2 minutes, the birds were perching on top of the fence and flying over it. Our last flock NEVER dared that.

In other summer news, I've had the kids doing some workbook stuff, just to keep their skills sharp. Alice adores the books. She gets Robert to adore them. School is her thing. She is the exact personality that basic public school was founded on. These workbooks are like crack, feeding her addiction to the "introduce a mildly challenging concept, test your understanding of the concept, and reward mastery of the concept" thrill center of the brain. It's nuts. If you give her something truly challenging, she wilts into a puddle of self-doubt and frustration. But these workbooks are wily. Just a little bit tougher with each page:

"Subtracting three-digit numbers from each other?! *gasp*"
She's never done it before, but it's almost EXACTLY like subtracting 1- and 2-digit numbers from each other, so she devours it and does a happy dance.

"Times tables?! *gasp*"
But she's already super familiar with 2+2 and 3+3 and 4+4, so calling it 2x2 or 2x3 or 2x4 isn't that different. Chomp, chomp, slurp. She's giddy with joy.

"What's 'present tense'? Oh wait, I've been using verb tenses my whole life and that's just the name of one? Easy peasy."
Write, write, write, write, write.

I'm excited to see her enthusiasm here, but it also scares me. It makes me wonder if she's getting the kind of challenge she needs in the classroom. There has NEVER been a program in our school district for academically talented kids, by the way. I called up the district myself to ask. Never. I can't be the first parent wondering if her child is getting the right kind of challenge, right? What do all the other parents choose to do in this situation? Where are their kids now?

Anyway, I'm still fighting myself on this whole issue...how much do I push? How much do I let slide? She's only in first grade, for goodness' sake. If there were a quiet, easy way to do this that didn't take resources away from other high priority needs in the district, I'd do it! But as it is now, I get to research and ask hard questions and stew over everything :) My kind of project.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

It is summer time.  This past week the kids had a pool/birthday party that they went to.  Everyone had a really good time.  Even though James was too nervous to venture very far into the pool.

We also took the kids to the splash park on Saturday.  They had fun, but they spent more time playing in the sand and on the playground than in the water.  James did not even really try the water at all.

Ultrasound picts and other updates

Here's the whole series of ultrasound picts, minus the gender shot (click on the picture, then look for the right arrow symbol to cycle through the series in my Flickr photostream):



As I mentioned before, the kid was cooperative and chill. When Alice doubted the technician's first assessment, "What if we think it's a boy, and then when it's born it's actually a girl!" the tech went back some time later and reaffirmed her initial diagnosis. Clear as day. No doubt. Boy, boy, boy.

Later that day, Robert asked why the baby wasn't a girl. Bobby said something to the effect that a boy was part of Heavenly Father's plan for our family. Robert thought about it a minute, then said, "Well maybe you should have prayed for it to be a girl." I said, "No, I don't pray for boys or girls, I just pray that my babies will be healthy and wise and fit in well with our family." Robert thought another minute and then said, "You should have prayed "Please bless her to be healthy. And please bless her that she will fit in to our family." That boy surprises me in so many ways.

I moved Robert's bed and dresser into Alice's room today. They are officially roommates and LOVING it. It's been a good week for them. They finally clicked in their play and they've played happily for hours on end. Alice is the boss, yes, but Robert's okay with that as long as she doesn't get bossy. And Alice appreciates Robert's company. In fact, her feelings get hurt if he doesn't choose to sit by her for meals or car rides. I like that there's a co-dependence building there.

Their room is pretty much split right down the middle. Both Alice and Robert like having a place to play their imaginative games together away from James' meddling curiosity.

And then there's James. He and Robert just can't get along somehow. Each gets defensive and pushy when the other is around. It's a self-perpetuating cycle of violence and hurt feelings. We'll work this out somehow, but probably not until Alice is back in school full-time.

James is talking more and expressing more complex feelings/desires/thoughts. I finally feel like I have THREE kids. I've had two kids and a toddler up until now. It's a big difference when the toddler suddenly turns into a loud, talking, complicated fellow with specific needs and a desire to be heard accurately. My whole life just got a bunch louder. Now to teach the kids to take turns talking :)

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

We're having a boy! What a relief to finally know. We'll share ultrasound picts once I have everything I need to get the scanner working properly...*grumble grumble*.

Alice came to the ultrasound with us and the boy news did result in a short period of sobbing and comforting. She cheered up as she saw more of the cute baby features moving and wiggling around (kidneys and brain measurements are only SO exciting for a 7-year-old). She also cheered up at the thought of Girls' Night being an exclusive affair forever after. The Father-Son Campout will just be another party for us at home. As for Bobby, well, he'll have his hands full those nights :)

Robert's reaction to the boy news was funny, too. He was really hoping for a girl because he's convinced girl babies are cuter. And since "girls make babies", our house would be "full of more cute babies"...in the long run...somehow. When he learned he would be having another brother, he let out a disappointed, "Awww," but cheered up immediately when we informed him of his new baby brother's nickname and the sucker waiting for him in the car.

My own personal reaction to the gender news was immediate relief. Like this, "A boy? Oh, whew." Would I have felt the same with a baby girl? Probably. I was mostly relieved just to know. With each pregnancy, the gender reveal has become more and more important to me. Don't know why. Wish it weren't. That's how it's been.

This baby boy was active enough to dispel medical concerns and perfectly calm in every other way. He's normal to the point of boring. The placenta is way up high and towards my spine, so it's no wonder I've been feeling him move so early. During our brief look at him this morning, he had a habit of bringing his hands up to his face and ears. The technician was trying to get a picture of his face and all she could manage was his nose and upper lip. We joked that he was playing peek-a-boo with us and Alice decided that THAT should be his in utero nickname. So, now we have a Buddy Boo, a Jamesy-Boo (aka Little Boo), and a Peek-a-Boo. Bobby and I rallied for "Peek-a-Beau", but we'll see what sticks over the next 4-5 months.

I chatted with the midwife briefly about a few early signs of depression I've been experiencing. Good "sleep hygiene" seems to keep it at bay so far: going to bed on time without fail and taking rest/naps as needed during the day. That's good advice for me any time, but especially important now.

Alice and Robert are excited to start sharing a room. I'm interested to see how their relationship develops over the next few months.

More Fathers Day Pictures

Alice and Robert were in quiet time for quite a while, and when they were done they brought me a huge present full of random things, and a ton of pictures.  The following is a select subset of the pictures they produced.

Planets And Universities with Lava on the side by Robert

Love Cake by Alice

Angle Fairy Ballerina by Alice and Robert

Abstract Creature by Robert

Hammer Crusher (Hammer Rocks on bottom) by Robert

Bird in the Rain by Robert

Father's Day Interviews

In an updated version the car got a mustache and eyebrows. 

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Today is father's day, so I have the morning free of meetings, which is nice.   I don't have a lot to say, but I do have a few pictures to post.  These are a book and a newspaper that Alice wrote.  She saw an American Girl Doll movie about a reporter and that just solidified her desire, so much so that the next day she set up a news room in her bed room and hired Robert as a reporter.

My Tooth Fell Out:

The Grand News You Want to Know: 

 

Bobby's Sunday Summary

It has been a very long time since I last wrote much of anything.  Life has been rather busy and a little strange too. I was out in CA all this past week for a conference, like Susan said.  Sorry I Jon, I didn't call because I was so busy I really didn't have an extra evening free to go hang out.

But Today was a fairly good day.  Especially this afternoon.  The weather was great, not too hot, not cold.  And we just spent the afternoon playing.