Summer Highlights

So where has the summer gone? It's already September, and I haven't blogged about half the stuff I planned on. I have all these posts semi-started (meaning, I put in titles to remind me to write the posts), but I just haven't had a chance to actually sit down and do the full posts. So here are picture highlights. Kind of like a clip show on a blog... :)

Riverdale Splash Park

My First 29th Birthday

Lily Feeds the Ducks...

...and Laddie is Attacked by a Goose

Camping...

...and Lily Falls in the Creek

Lily Tries Her First Fair Rides...

...and Decides to Hit Lagoon the Next Weekend

That about sums up our summer. I think we did a good job wearing everybody out...

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Life with Laddie

I recently decided to become one of those people who make their bed every day. (Hey...I'm willing to admit the few areas where I'm not perfect.) With Erik now back on days, I figured it should be super easy. We'd be getting up around the same time, so I could just do it before we all left the house. Of course, Erik's been on this schedule for several months now, and I never really followed through. But I've renewed my goal and I've reached it all week (yes...all three days of it.)

Since this post has Laddie in the title, I guess I better get to the point. So here it is. Anyone who's met my dog probably thinks he runs around like a complete maniac all the time. And most of the time, that's true. Definitely. But once he calms down, he is the biggest lump of a dog you've ever met. Especially at night. Just try to move him in the middle of the night because he's now taking up more bed space than you and it's 20 pounds of dead weight complete with an annoyed sigh.

So this morning, I started making the bed. Laddie happened to be curled up in the comforter, snoring away. Rather than disturb him like I usually do (that's the kind of person I am...friend to the animals), I left him where he was and worked around him. Because I had to pull some of the comforter out from under him, he woke up enough to watch me as I did my thing. He didn't move of course. Just opened his eyes and watched.

 I had just placed the last pillow and was moving on to my next project when he stood up. And where did he go?

Right on top of the pillows. It's like he knew what I was doing and was waiting until his throne was complete. Sometimes I think he does stuff like that just to bug me...

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Great White Hunter

For about two weeks now, Laddie has been obsessed with our air conditioner. Every time he went outside, this is where he headed:


Pretty soon, he had a big enough hole that he could get under most of the way:


And yesterday, the target was apprehended:


That mouse was pretty soggy and gross. And we were sure Erik was going to lose a hand in the process of getting him out of Laddie's mouth (hence the milk bone that held no appeal whatsoever).

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New Tag

Since we brought Laddie home almost 4 years ago, I've been keeping my eye out for a cute dog tag. We've had a couple, but none I've been in love with and his last one was screen printed, so the information was starting to come off. But then I came across this one and knew I'd found the one.
It's probably silly to get so excited over something so mundane, but I have to say that I love it!

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Theme Song

Last night while driving home from dinner, Lily started singing. We soon realized she was singing her own theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Lily!!

Then, she gave Erik a theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Daddy!!

Finally, she did my theme song, only it was quite a bit longer than the others:

Do, do, do, do, do, Mommy!! And Laddie poops...and she gets a little baggie!!!!

Apparently our walk with Laddie earlier in the day made quite the impression. I'll bet you can guess what happened while we were out...

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Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Saturday was Laddie's third birthday. Every year, I plan on making him some sort of doggie birthday cake, but I never seem to get around to it. Plus, all the recipes I've found make a huge cake and what do I do with left over cake made from pureed chicken livers or strained beef baby food?

At any rate, I just wanted to officially say happy birthday to our Laddie Boy, Pooch Dog, Hound Dog, Doggie Diddums, Buddy Boy, Mr. Von Schnauzer, Barky MaGee, Pup Dog... (Goodness! It's a wonder he comes at all when we call him! How does he even know what his name is?!?) Life definitely wouldn't be the same with out him and his blanket sucking, excessive kissing, lazy bones, lap needing, food sneaking, buckin' bronco ways.

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Laddie

Since my life is currently completely boring and unblogworthy, I decided to give Laddie some web time. With summer finally presenting itself, Laddie has began his yearly ritual of just sitting outside basking in the warmth of the sun and baking himself on the cement of our patio. He'll sit out there for HOURS and just sleep. And since he seems to enjoy it, we try to let him do it whenever possible.

But with the glorious sun, which now lasts well into the evening, we also have the arrival of bikes, scooters, skateboards, and all manner of various wheeled contraptions that speed in front of our house at obscene speeds with their loud drivers accompanying them. In any other living situation, this wouldn't bother me (I don't think!?!). After all, it was our decision to live directly next to the park in the hopes that it would be a great selling feature when we're ready to move on.

Unfortunately, Laddie has some beef with all wheeled apparatuses that causes him to bark viciously at unsuspecting neighbor kids. (Some aren't all that unsuspecting and go by repeatedly just to be brats, but that's another story.) As a result, he has to come inside since we don't allow incessant barking. The thing is, Laddie hasn't quite caught on that if he behaves himself when they go by, he can stay outside. I'm sure he knows he has to come in as soon as he starts barking because as soon as the door opens, he comes running. If he hasn't done anything wrong, he just looks at you like, I'm not ready to come in, so what do you want? But instead of changing his behavior, he continues to bark, cutting short his basking time, only to want back out less than five minutes later.

That was the case today. Erik put him out and hadn't even closed the door before he started barking. So he came right back in. Since there were several kids out with bikes and scooters, I decided he could stay inside until bedtime because I had other things to do besides let him in and out all night. But he was sure determined. He sat on the door mat the ENTIRE night with his sad puppy dog eyes, just willing me to let him out.


I almost caved a couple times, but I held my own. If anyone has any tips for how to get a stubborn Jack Russell to stop barking at every person who goes by, please share. I know he's smart enough; if only he'd apply himself...

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Help!

There I was, just chatting with my mom and reading Lillian a book at the same time (isn't multi-tasking great?) when I realize Laddie is emitting the saddest, most pathetic sounding whimper I've ever heard. So I decide to see what the ninny's problem is. I didn't think it was anything too serious since he does the same thing when the vacuum hose is in his path. You can't convince him to walk over it, by it, around it, anything to do with it for any amount of milk bones you might offer. But since the vacuum wasn't out, I was curious to see what the deal was. Turns out he was stuck in his blanket. Yep...stuck. He likes to chew holes in his blanket. And occasionally, those holes get big enough that he can squeeze through them. Unfortunately, this hole was only big enough for half of our dog, whose waist has been slowing increasing due to winter confinement and a toddler who likes to share her chips.

After exploiting his misfortune for the blog, I freed him. I guess it's time for some blanket surgery so it doesn't happen again, but it was dang funny!

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Laddie's no Chuck

Thanks to Meg, I've become a huge fan of the blog dooce, especially the Daily Chuck. I see the things she subjects that poor dog to and wish Laddie would be obedient enough to let me subject him to the same things. But I finally decided today was the day. Laddie was going to pose for his own "Daily Laddie" pictorial.

Erik picked up a cute Valentine's Day tin for Lillian, and I came to the conclusion it would look adorable in Laddie's mouth. With camera in one hand and the tin in the other, I approached my target. I let him sniff it; no interest in putting it in his mouth. Of course, if he'd known there was a cookie inside, he would have been at it in a heart beat. So I changed tactics. It would be just as cute on his head, I thought. So I moved it up a little and placed it ever so gingerly on his head. Before I could get the camera focused and take the shot, it had slid off while he looked terrified of this metal disc I had placed on him. So I enlisted Erik's help:


The plan was to have Erik get him to sit and stay (which he's actually quite good at) and then put the tin on. I was all set to take the picture, so we were sure it would work. Not quite... The sit and stay was very good, but as soon as that tin came anywhere close, he was out of there. I guess I'll have to settle with having a dog not willing to do silly poses purely for my enjoyment.

But look at his intensity as he anticipates getting that delicious treat. I didn't know he was capable of such concentration!

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Family Pictures

Last week we did a photo shoot with Meg, and she got some great shots, despite an uncooperative hound dog and antsy toddler. Thanks, Meg!

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How to Spend a Sunday

A how-to from Laddie:

1. Follow your human around with Puss-in-Boots eyes 'cause they got out of bed before you were ready.
2. When they won't go with you, give up and curl up by yourself.
3. Look extremely offended when they transfer you to that bed on the floor they keep calling yours while they mess up your perfectly fluffed covers.
4. Once they finish ruining your covers, ruin their hard work and go back to sleep. You may have to move periodically as you follow the sun across the bed. But the best part of the day is when it's right on top of all those pillows.
   

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Is summer really winding down?

I'm a little late on this month's update, but at least I'm doing it. :) Erik was home for two weeks earlier this month while he worked at his new "home" store in Brigham. It was so wonderful to have him home again. We didn't do anything too exciting, but just having the company was nice. Now he's back up in Idaho, but as of Friday, he will be done with training. He starts on overnights on September 1. I guess one good thing about this training period was I got used to sleeping alone, so it won't be such a weird adjustment once he starts his new schedule.

Lillian is learning so much lately. She's a champ at sitting up now and rarely falls over when doing so. I picked up a stacker toy the other day so she'd have something new to play with. She can't stack them by herself yet, but she sure has fun tipping them over if I stack them for her. They can also connect to make balls of different sizes, which she likes to push around. It took a little trial and error to get where she could actually pick the balls up, but once she figured out she needed both hands, she was doing great. She's tried to play tug with Laddie a couple times by taking his toys, but Laddie usually just gently takes them from her and puts them somewhere safe for his enjoyment later. I played a little devil's advocate with a water bottle by giving it back to Lillian after he took it away just to see what he would do. He walked back over and took it away again...even though he didn't want to play with it at the time. Possessive little bugger!!

Even though Lillian still fits in her infant carrier, we went ahead and bought her a convertible car seat (converts to forward facing once she's a year old). I was getting sick of lugging the carrier around, and now that she can sit up, I don't need it when I go to the grocery store. Plus, the base had to be reinstalled about every other day because we could never get it to stay completely tight. I guess we were pretty lucky, though; most people only get a couple months out of their carriers because the kid gets too big pretty fast. We got to delay the purchase of a new seat for a long time.

She seems to be enjoying the babysitter. When I pick her up, she's usually playing on the floor with the sitter's son, who's about 4, maybe 5, months, I guess. Lillian tries to interact with him and he's not quite interested yet, but she looks like she's having a good time. The sitter always says how good she is and how well she naps...sometimes I wonder if it's the same person we're talking about...

It's hard to believe the summer is almost over. Lillian is 7.5 months old, and last month was the 1-year anniversary of moving into our house. It's flown by. I'm kind of hoping that the coming year will be a little less exciting. A lot happened in the last 12 months and I'm ready for some slow times...but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

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Life is Good

It's been a while since I've let everyone know what I'm up to. I turned 3 months old on April 19. Isn't that hard to believe? I'm growing big and strong. When people see me, they always say how small I am, but Mommy and Daddy don't know what they're talking about since I'm quite a bit bigger than when they first saw me. I'm still wearing preemie pants, but the 0-3 shirts are fitting me now. Before you know it, nothing in my closet will fit.

While Mommy works, I like to look at my gym. There's a smiley face that I especially like. I must get that from Mommy since she likes smiley faces, too. Sometimes I like to swing in my swing, and occasionally, I just have to be held. On those days, Mommy doesn't always get a lot of work done, but we sure have fun.

I smile a lot now, and I talk to Mommy and Daddy, too. Sometimes I don't think they have a clue what I'm saying, but they're pretty good at pretending and we have some nice conversations. My favorite way to lounge around the house is to sit up. I can't hold myself up yet, so they have to prop me up somehow, but the view is so much better than from my back and I hate being on my tummy. Mommy keeps trying to get me to like my tummy since the doctors say I need tummy time, but a couple minutes is all I can stand before I staring wailing. Those mini-push ups and rolling over are way over rated anyway.

Daddy and I are still having a good time when Mommy goes into the office. Yesterday we took a walk in the stroller with our doggie, Laddie. I sure liked that a lot. Laddie likes to babysit while Mommy gets work done around the house. He sits next to me to make sure I don't misbehave and tries to comfort me if I start to fuss. I can't wait until I'm big enough to play with him.

That should give you a good idea about what's happening with me. Until next time...

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