Toads-in-the-Hole

In addition to playing with the toilet water, Henry's new talents also include sneaking upstairs to play in Adelaide's bedroom all by himself.

It's been a busy weekend around here ... I worked the weekend, caring for four new people and their moms; Joel was on-call for Surg Path and grossed in two Whipples; Adelaide tackled a nasty snappy cough and fever; Ophelia did not make any new friends with our retiree neighbors with her excellent alert barking; Nine - in cahoots with our retiree neighbors - logged her 768th complaint about Ophelia; and Henry found untapped sources of entertainment in the bathroom.

Posted by Aimee at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, I finally learned to embroider ... or, I ought to say, I am finally learning how to embroider.

My little sis picked up the hobby from a chum and embroidered a cool set of dish towels for my parents' kitchen. "Wow!" I said to myself, "those towels look super cool! I wish I could do that!"

As it turns out, I didn't say it to myself. I said it out loud.

So, now I am embroidering.

I am especially proud of my little french knots.

(Thanks to Sublime Stitching the rad patterns.)

Posted by Aimee at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adelaide has decided that after becoming a Dentist, a Baker, a Doctor, and a Mama that she would like to be a Ballerina. So, we enrolled her in a little Trial-for-3-Year-Olds dance class at our local community center and had our first class this evening.

After donning our leotard, tights, and slippers, there was but a brief moment of hesitancy ...

followed by complete, whirling-dervish joy.

A moment not to forget: During the class's spinning, leaping and cavorting, the instructor's iPod seemed to accidently skip from Tchaikovsky to Beyonce, blasting her pop hit Single Ladies. Adelaide is familiar with this family favorite from our favorite episode of Glee, and breaking from the dancing, ran screaming over to me, "WE KNOW THIS ONE!"

Posted by Aimee at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Earlier this week, Adelaide decided that she'd like to try sitting in the adult chairs at suppertime and graciously offered Henry a chance to sit in her beloved high chair. Henry loves his newfound seat, and fusses now if we put him back in the old green baby high chair. He seems to enjoy his dinnertime proximity to us, our fancy-looking food, and all of our other mealtime trappings. He screamed and bellowed during last night's meal because Adelaide had a spoon and he didn't have a cool utensil of his own. That problem was easily remedied, but sibling rivalry may be just beginning. Funny, Adelaide doesn't seem to feel competitive with Henry at this point. But at every possible turn she is very mothery, offering him tips on the best way to get what he wants and scolding him here and there for minor foibles and faux pas.

Posted by Aimee at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After a trip to the vet and a few hundred dollars, we learned that Ophelia has lost another 10 lbs. and her good humor because of intestinal worms. What a relief! Here we thought it was something we said.

She's been dosed, and has received some probiotic treatment to reestablish her normal flora. She's still extremely sad, but we'll give it a few days.

Posted by Joel at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We are just over a week into our newly-found role as dog parents and things are going okay.

We don't have too much to complain about ...

Ophelia has destroyed just a handful of our belongings (especially jingly baby toys, which look all too like her own stash of doggie toys). She's a puppy, and she chews. And so, our house has never been more picked up, even Adelaide's getting in on the tidying!

As Joel mentioned, Ophelia comes from a long line of protectors and guardians, especially at night. After the sun goes down, Ophelia takes a short power nap and then is up from about 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. guarding her flock. Guarding includes lots of alert barking and posturing (if she's outside). I've learned to sleep through her loud barks, but she sometimes keeps Joel awake, so he's hoping that she grow out of the barking.

I think that she knows that we're her people now, and that has possibly led to a strange new turn-of-events.

Since last night, Ophelia is sad.

She wags her tail, but keeps her head low and down. She doesn't bark with the same vigor that she did earlier this week. She doesn't smile. She seems tired on her walks, including the one that we took in City Park this morning.

Why?

We have a couple of theories ...

A) Maybe she's realizing that she's here to stay. Maybe she misses her friends at the shelter? Is that anthropomorphizing things too much?

B) Joel took her for a mile-and-a-half run yesterday and while she jogged along, she was exhausted and pooped out when they came home after 20 minutes. Other than that workout, she's been getting at least two daily walks. Maybe she's not conditioned ...

C) At the recommendation of the people at the shelter, we've been feeding Ophelia easily digestible dog food because of her recent g.i. upset. Still, she's been certainly getting bits of fluff and plastic with all of the toys and shoes she's devoured. And yesterday, we gave her a rawhide chew to encourage her teething. Maybe she's sick again ...

Whether the realization, the activity, or the food, I'm a little worried.

Posted by Aimee at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Adelaide says, "In Cinderella, when Lucifer opens his mouth really wide, you can see his uvula."

Posted by Aimee at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January's frosty windchills bring Henry's ninth month birthday!

Our little Hal Pal is the proud owner of two tiny bottom teeth, a late gift from Jolly Ol' St. Nicholas on the Third Day of Christmas ... Thank goodness, because I don't know what we would have done with three French Hens!

He's using those new chompers on lots of new foods, of course. But, Henry's love of carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes is still obviously apparent in his skin's orange tint.

He's also sharing his thoughts and ideas with us with quite a bit of baby babble. Perhaps to compete with his sister's interruptions and rambling tales of her day, he has taken to emitting a loud, high-pitched shriek whenever he feels that his voice isn't being heard. Just last night, though, he crawled to me saying, "Mammamamamamamaaa." Sweet.

He's working on pulling himself to stand alot, and has successfully mastered climbing two stairs (after two steps I think he looks down and gets a little nervous about being up so high). And he still doesn't really like to crawl on the tile, and consistently does a sort of push-up move with only his hands and feet touching the floor when he gets stuck in the bathroom or in the kitchen.

He's still our best sleeper, sleeping for about twelve hours at nighttime!

Posted by Aimee at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few days since our family adopted Ophelia have come with a steep learning curve. Having a 100-pound puppy in our house means a different sort of lifestyle ... The kind of lifestyle, where even though the temperature is in the teens, we all bundle up and head outside at dusk. To grill supper, to roughhouse in the snow, and to investigate things with our new umbrella!

Posted by Aimee at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)