Allie

She was J's first blonde and his first love. J says it was love at first sight when they met 12 years ago. She is his best friend. She is our beloved labrador retriever.
Today our vet told us she has metastatic cancer and, at best, she may be with us for 3-6 more months. I can't even write this without crying right now. I know that everyone loves their dog, but honestly, Allie is the best dog I have ever seen. I feel I can say that {somewhat} unbiased since I can't take any credit for how fantastic she is-J had her for 5 years before I came into the picture. One of J's family's friends actually offered J over $5K (yes, that's thousands) for Allie. J kept Allie and knew he had the better end of the deal.
Allie has been with J through highs and lows. She has given birth to champion puppies (best in show in California). She helped raise and train the other 7 dogs in our home and our families' homes. She is fiercely loyal and protective. At the end of my pregnancy with Av, when we had finished the nursery, Allie starting sleeping at the threshold of the nursery, as if to guard it. On another instance she and J were camping at the family farm. They were walking through the woods and spooked a coyote that charged J. Allie immediately defended J and attacked and killed the coyote.
Even though she is fierce, she matches it with her gentleness. She has allowed countless children to climb on her, ride her, pull her tail, and look in her ears. We even have a picture of our nephew, when he was a toddler, pulling her eyelid open to look into her eyes. Allie just continued to calmly rest on the floor while Samuel inspected her.
She has survived pancreatitis, attacks from other dogs, a coyote fight, a very traumatic birthing experience (she only had 6 puppies, but they were so large the vet had predicted she would have 12), and many other experiences I could continue to ramble on about, but now it is coming to an end.
She is more than just a dog to us. She is our friend and companion. She is Av's playmate. She is probably the best dog we will ever be blessed to be around.

If you have a pet in your home, give it a hug and some special attention today. Sorry to be so somber, but this is the outpouring of my heart today.

Timing

We have had two breakthroughs this week that have certainly improved life with a 2 year old. The first is using a timer. Av is one smart cookie and has learned the art of stalling. Our bedtime routine is a good example. We always take Av to the potty before nap and bedtime. Av figured out that she could sit in bathroom reading her books to prolong going to bed. Recently she has stayed in there for over 20 minutes! Last week we implemented use of a timer. Now I put her in the bathroom and let her know that I'm starting the timer. Now she knows that she has to hurry up in the bathroom or putting her toys away or finish reading her books. I think it is also helping her comprehend concepts of time. The timer is my friend :).

The second, and more exciting milestone, is that Av has took naps, yesterday and today, in her underwear-no diaper!!!! Av has been potty trained for almost 6 months, but still wearing diapers during naps and at night. Yesterday, right before nap time, Av asked if she could sleep in her panties. Of course I was thinking "No Way! This will end up terrible, I just washed all of her bedding this morning. She'll wet the bed and wake herself up, then be awful for the rest of the day since she didn't nap....." Against my better judgement I went along with it and I am so glad that I did!

Sorry if this is trivial and boring news to many of you, but in our house this is exciting stuff! I really shouldn't even be at my computer right now. We're going out of town tomorrow, it's 10 pm and I still need to finish laundry, pack, clean the kitchen, vacuum, and probably mop the floors-whew!

On another front, I think my husband has a crush on the Republican vice presidential nominee :).

Happy Birthday to me!

Don't I have a great husband!! J has always been a better gift giver than I am. I was expecting some sewing supplies, but instead I got a Wii and a Wii fit! Very exciting. I'm sure that J is going to enjoy my present as much as I am. I really hope that the yoga on it is good. Yoga is my new favorite workout. I'm thinking Av might even join me. I don't think I shared this when it happened, but sorry if I'm repeating myself. My normal yoga DVD is 1.5 hours long. I only had 10-15 minutes left on it a few days ago when Av woke up from her nap. I paused the video, got Av out of her room, and set her up with some yogurt so I could finish my yoga. I looked to my right a few minutes later and Av was on the floor with me trying to do the yoga positions. Seeing a 2 year old try to attempt yoga positions was the highlight of the day. Now she occasionally strikes a pose and announces that she is stretching and doing yoga.
I better run, in the time that I downloaded the picture and posted this J has opened the box, hooked it up the TV, and is playing with it. I can see this is going to be a "what's yours is mine" gift :).

Lessons Learned

1. ALWAYS check the pockets in your pants before you wash them. I am normally neurotic about this, but got in a hurry today and forget to check one pair. Of course, it would be in my new white J Crew pants. I put my vitamin for the day in my pocket as I was running out the door a couple of days ago. Obviously I forgot to take the vitamin that day. The whole front of my pants were a lovely yellow-orange color when they came out of the dryer. Thankfully, Shout and my Clorox bleach pen saved the day and the pants are fine.

2. Av is learning how to use her feminine charm. Yesterday we decided to spend our afternoon at the pool. Av was playing with one of her friends in the pool and her friend asked Av who her best friend is. J had just walked up to us and Av affectionately looked up at him, batted her lashes, and said "Papa." I think his knees actually wobbled. Can you say "wrapped around her finger?" Girlfriend knows where her bread is buttered.

Beat Down

Whew, what a day. If we had tequila in the house I would consider bypassing the margaritas and going straight to shots. I think Av's goal today was to see how close she could get to the line and if she would actually get in trouble if she crossed it. We had to go through many "corrections" and even multiple types of corrections. I knew it was bad when the lady behind us in the check-out aisle at Wal-Mart shared advice she had once been given-- that children have bad days sometimes, just like the rest of us do. Part of me was encouraged by her words, and part of me was embarrassed.

Seriously, when do girls start experiencing PMS? In the bedtime routine alone, Av had multiple breakdowns. She burst into tears when we put her toothpaste away after brushing her teeth! Last night we had an owl in yard and we went outside to listen to it "hoot"-{all of you Chi-O's out there would have loved it :)}. Tonight, after she was in the crib with the lights out, she started crying again b/c the owl flew away and we didn't say "goodnight" to it tonight.

All I can say is, I'm thankful that tomorrow is a new day, and God's mercies are new every morning.

If you need a good laugh today, like I did, go read this post from a pediatrics resident.

Are Contacts Edible?

Av and I joined my mom and a few of her friends at the beach for a girls weekend. We had a wonderful time and Av ate up the attention since she was the only child there. We enjoyed the pool, the beach, and sitting on the porch drinking coffee in the mornings. Mom knows Av is fairly obsessed with dress-up and ,being a good grandmother, got Av a new outfit-dress, crown, jewelry, and shoes! Av had stripped and changed into her "princess dress" within 15 minutes of arriving at the beach. She even wore it to the pool.

Av and Mom, below Av and her pool friend, Maggie

The following is the real story of the post and what produced the best laugh from the weekend. Mom and I shared a bedroom, but since Mom is a gracious host, she gave the master to 2 of the other girls. Our room didn't have a bathroom in it, so Mom's bathroom bag was in the master bath. Saturday night Mom needed to take out her contacts, but the girls in the master had already gone to bed. Mom didn't want to wake them, so she just put her contact in glass, but as we were going to bed, couldn't remember where she put it....the following occurred

11 pm Sun. Mom asked if the glass was on the nightstand, I didn't see it there, Mom figured she left it in the kitchen

6:30 am Mon. Everybody but Av and me left to go to a conference

10:30 am Mon. Av pointed out an empty glass (the same kind of glass Mom's contact was in) on the kitchen counter and said "that glass has yucky water." I had no idea what she was talking about since it was empty. We had margaritas out of those glasses the night before and I wondered if she had somehow tasted leftover margarita.

2:00 pm Mon. Mom came back from the conference and found the glass she had used for her contact. Turns out it was on the nightstand, but behind a lamp-which explained why I didn't see it Sun. night. Oh, and the glass was empty!

We put 2+2 together and came to the conclusion that Av drank Mom's contact and saline solution! She hasn't been sick yet, so I guess everything is fine!

Crazy

I put Av down for a nap 1.5 hours ago and she has been singing/talking to herself the entire time!! I hope she falls asleep soon, b/c we have to be somewhere in 2.5 hours!

A Day in The Life

When you have two 2 year olds and a three year old together for hours, lots of activity ensues! Two precious friends of Av's, Morgan and Page (Darby's girls) came over on Friday, and what a great day we had!

The girls played Ring-Around-the-Rosie

Then went to the swingset

Rode bikesAfter all the outside play, they had to come in and cool off by standing over the vents!

Once inside, the girls "helped" with my to-do list. Morgan vaccuumed, Av mopped, and Page went grocery shopping.

Then they discovered a fun game of me "sleeping" on the floor behind the sofa, and they would jump up over the back of the sofa to roar/yell and scare me to wake me.

Then the girls "killed" a tiger and an alligator (toys), but there were significant injuries and we all had to be rushed to the hospital (aka-the sofa). We all had broken legs and I lost one of my legs in battle. Morgan had the most significant injuries. She broke her head, hair, eyelashes, ears, nose, cheeks, teeth, tongue, lips, throat, neck, tummy, shoulders, elbows, arms, hands, fingers, fingernails, back, legs, knees, toes, and feet. Right when I thought we had fixed everything she lost her vision and was unable to open her eyes. Thankfully Av and Page concocted a miracle elixir in the playroom kitchen and, after 5 doses of it, Morgan was able to see and open her eyes!

As you can tell, it was an eventful day. We hope to do it again soon!

PS-I tried to add more pictures, but either blogger or my computer is freezing up when I try to do so! Frustrating.