Five years ago today: The Puppy Paddle

Five years ago today, we were at the Puppy Paddle with my mom, Kelly, and of course, Pepper:

After the russell sims water park closes for the season, they hold one final event before they dran the pools:  The Puppy Paddle!

Basically, everybody can bring their dogs to swim, play games, win prizes, and all that good doggy stuff.  Music, dog bones, tennis balls, and lots of happy romping jumping and splashing.  Pepper was a bit shy at first, but after some time and gentle encouragement, she was leaping off the edge with the best of 'em. 

Living with precocious kids

Yesterday, the 2 year old decided she wanted "more cookies!" and set off on an adventure to find some.  I didn't stop her, despite the fact that it was right before dinner and not a cookie-appropriate moment, since I knew there weren't any left.  She came in to report her findings to me with a cheerful "There's no more, Mama!  No More!  Guess I just have to eat the thing I see."  What was that, Hazel?  "What I see!  The thing that I see.  I just eat that, because there are no more cookies, we ate them all up." Oh, ok...um, what did you see?  At that moment my attention was called away, and Hazel snuck off to the kitchen.

A few moments later, Hazel began to shriek and she started shouting "No, Pepper, NO! Don't eat it, NO! PEPPER NO!!!"

Of course I jumped up and raced into the kitchen, where I came upon a scene that explained everything.  We had made a batch of 'home-made oreos' the day before to take to a dinner we were going to, and there had been some leftover filling which I'd left in the fridge overnight.  This had proved to be a mistake, as the fats solidified and the 'frosting' had turned into a rock, so I'd left it on the counter to warm up a bit and soften while I worked in the other room.  This enticing bowl of cookie filling is evidently "the thing" that Hazel saw, and she had dragged a step stool over to the counter to retrieve it. She'd set the (comically large) bowl down on the floor so she could climb down after it, and in the meantime, Pepper, seeing a giant bowl of buttery deliciousness in her territory, thought she'd hit the jackpot and had rushed over to gobble it up.  So this is the scene I walked into:  the two year old waving her arms in a panic while standing on a step stool watching the dog and a giant bowl of frosting she'd obviously meant to have for herself at her feet.

I couldn't help myself, and actually burst out laughing.  I was equally impressed, amused, and dismayed...it was so mischievous and cute of Hazel to quietly set about getting the sweet stuff without help (or permission) and such good problem solving in how to get at it, and so sad the way the plans had been foiled by the dog...and also sad for pepper, who didn't understand why she couldn't keep her prize (Good news:  I took it away, she's still alive!) ...it was a classic moment, if I do say so myself.

Oh, and to top it all off, the 5 year old was in the other room at the time "writing a book.  It's a chapter book."  What's it called?  "The Nature of Science."

Aww, her first treatise! 

The Bar Exam Leads To Messes.

So, I'm gonna go ahead and blame the bar exam for this one.

Anyone who has had the experience of studying for and subsequently taking the bar exam, and anyone who has supported someone through said experience can tell you what a beast that thing is, so I won't bother going into all that here, I'll just set this quaint little backdrop for the anecdote I'm about to share:

We have hardly seen James in weeks.  Months, at this point.  He's technically here, and we do get glimpses of him now and again - when he emerges onto the porch for a light breakfast before going for a short run (followed by a cool down walk with the dog, who ADORES this new routine) and a brief shower before hunkering down for the day.  He alternates between sitting in the glider in the corner of our bedroom and standing at a makeshift "standing desk" involving a stack of random stuff on a table, the height of which is just variable enough to go from fully upright to doing a sort of horse stance - all this to give his body some variation and exercise during the 12 or so hours during the day that he spends studying.

Unfortunately for his concentration, this routine means we know exactly where he is if we need to bug him about something, but we have been making a genuine effort not to abuse the power...he'll join us for a brief lunch and again for dinner, and will usually take at least a little break in the evening to play with the kids, who are so good and patient and understanding about the whole thing, but also really miss their Baba. At least his proximity means that he IS there if any of us really need him - like the time a few weeks back where Hazel tripped in just the wrong place and gave herself a pretty impressive black eye.

Anyway, because he's so crazy busy, its been back to the faux single parenting thing for me.  Granted, I have mom around this time since she's unable to work at the moment, and that is a HUGE help, but it isn't quite the same...And though she sometimes fools me into forgetting what she's going through because she's so incredibly strong, she IS still in the middle of going through Chemo - and she has a broken sternum, to boot...

So, nearing my third trimester while chasing my precariously precocious 2 and 5 year olds around day and night, trying to make the most of a summer on a shoestring budget (yay for lots of crafts mom has leftover from Kelly & me!) amidst everything else I have been attempting to do has left me a bit exhausted.

There are some (albeit, very few) times when the girls will be playing well enough together that, if I simply can't make it, I can let them know that I need to nap on the couch for a few minutes and they can manage not to get into too much trouble.  This afternoon, however, was NOT one of those times.

Today, I just crashed.  I was so tired I slumped over on the couch and dozed off without meaning to...mom was home, but not right there, and I could still hear chatter and such, so I thought I was ok anyway and didn't immediately rouse myself...but then I heard mom say, "Ooops ooops ooops!" and opened my eyes to see her swooping towards Hazel, who was standing less than a foot from my head, completely silent, every bit of exposed skin on her upper body - hands, arms, face, even her hair -completely coated in a body butter one of mom's friends had left for her.  "Lotion!" Hazel giggled, clearly delighted with her handywork.

And that is how the bar exam lead to my two year old getting into a perfectly classic mess.

Lotion indeed, my girl. Lotion, indeed.

Happy Halloween from the land of Oz

Happy Halloween from Dorothy, Toto and the Cowardly Lion!

For Julie & Eric: A Mostly Charlie Post

Who's that peaking over Cadie's cute little bum?

Why, it's Charlie of course!

Charlie is the big-hearted pup that Cadence and I (and occasionally James, too!) get to spend time with each (week)day. He's an overgrown Yorkie, which makes him just the right size to romp around with Cadence in a fairly even match. They love to play and bounce together, play tug of war, and occasionally they even let me play, too.

(I love how viscous he looks in that photo-but it's all camera magic, I assure you. Aside from showing a very surprised School of Visual Arts student what he thought of her work by peeing on her sculpture during our walk the other day, he's just a big (for a Yorkie) sweetheart.)

See?

Cadence took the above picture. Not bad, huh? Charlie had been standing on my shoulder, but stepped off just as she hit the button.

Who do YOU think is winning?

Kisses!

So, as I alluded to before, much like Cadence, Charlie loves to bounce. He jumps and leaps and flips and does all sorts of strange acrobatic feats when we play...he loves it, but I fear for the state of his poor hips and knees a few years down the line! See for yourself:

Yes, that is Charlie ABOVE the couch. Aia.

But Charlie is just one member of this amazing household. Although we almost never see them, his 'parents' Julie and Eric are also remarkably generous and thoughtful people. We met them through Eric's cousin Brittany, who I've talked about here before, she's one of our best friends from Kentucky, and her daughter Kate is one of Cadence's closest friends.

They have been very good to us, trusting us with their beloved dog, and being patient with our sudden absenteeism when all the badness happened last year with my grandfather passing and my hospitalization and subsequent retreat to KY all in rapid succession. Though they did have to find someone else after the drama dragged on for too long, the fact that they then took us back on once things had settled down a few months later really meant a lot.

And then, the other day, Cadence and I arrived for our daily walk to find a lovely note from Julie alerting us to the presence of some, well, presents for us! In a totally unnecessary but unbelievably sweet gesture, they had put together a gender-nuetral care package for Mama, Baba, and the new baby full of all sorts of wonderful things from wipes to a sweater to temperature-reading ducks and so much more.

And, of course, (and as if that wasn't enough!) there was a separate gift there for a certain Big Girl...a Congratulations on becoming a Big Sister gift, which was perfect. Julie indicated in her note that she had hoped to find a puppy that looked like Charlie, but I think what they found was just right:

Cadence named the puppy Domnayno, and has been carrying her around and taking her to bed with her every night. She wouldn't even put her down while she and Charlie played that afternoon:

So we owe many many thanks to Julie, Eric, and Charlie for all of their love and support over these past few months - we are unspeakably grateful.

See you tomorrow, Charlie!

Gearing up

Photo by Matt Cohen, Henna by Sandhya Patanga...amazing work!

As you can see, Baby #2 is growing well! We are especially happy to have no cause for concern after the crazy events that took place early in this pregnancy, and are now reveling in the normal worries and concerns that go along with preparing for birth! For instance, can I make it through the rest of the winter without buying a new coat? (If things start warming up in march, I think I might!) Can I last without upsizing my bra, again?? (um...not so sure on that one.) Do we go with vitamin K shots or oral drops once Baby gets here? Are we doing a good enough job of preparing Cadence for how much life is going to change in just a few weeks? (Yikes, the weeks are in the single digits now!) and of course, the big one...what are we going to name this kid?

Since we don't - and won't - know the sex of the new baby until he or she arrives, we need to be prepared with multiple names...we're good when it comes to girls' names, but have found choosing boys names to be insurmountably difficult. There seem to be fewer options for boys before you cross into the realm of 'weird' or just insensitive, and of course there are all the usual politics of who already has what name and what each thing means and the connotations of choosing one over the other...all knowing that this is the name your kid is gonna be stuck with for the rest of their life (or at least until they figure out how to get it legally changed...but even then, you can never fully shed it!). We're hoping to keep the name, whatever it may be, to a culture we have some personal connection to, not just blindly yanking a sound we like from a culture we are totally ignorant of...but finding a name that fits that criteria that we both like has proved difficult at best. Throw in that we found one name that we both liked, and Cadence, who's opinion matters despite her tender age, since she's perfectly representative of this kid's future peers, literally laughed at it declaring that it was "a very silly word," well...we're kinda stuck. And we don't seem to be alone, this sounds like a problem of the era, since we've talked to several expectant couples who are encountering the same issue...boys names are hard!!

Anyway, I'm hoping to be able to update a bit more frequently (I know I know, I keep saying that...) now that I've completed my work on The Adjustment Bureau and am down to just two gigs, one of which is more fun than chore since it mostly involves letting Cadence play with a puppy. (Did I mention here already that we have happily resumed our dog-walkin' duties, and have been spending our afternoons with Charlie once more?)

We'll keep you posted as we get ever closer to the arrival of this very busy little kid, and I promise we'll have a name...we are determined!!

winter storm/first sledding

Last month, Kentucky experienced a sudden winter storm. While it devastated most of the state, it was also decidedly beautiful. The first day coated every last detail in a thick layer of crystal clear ice.

The following day, the ice melted away and big, fluffy snowflakes fell, and left just enough cover to allow us to break out the sleds. Just enough. Just exactly enough.

The above pic is Cadence about to embark on her very first sled run...

...and that is the celebratory wave to Baba at the bottom!

Mama heads down

Baba hurtles down, pursued by a valiant Pepper dog.

Cadence insisted on being in the sled at all times.  This is how she got around.  Good thing she has a young aunt and a protective dog to do the heavy lifting when Mama and Baba are tired.

James, right before he zooms past me and into a muddy canal, which stops the sled, but not him.

Baba looks on while Cadence goes on a ride with Kelly

Surveying the scene.  She's angry because we made her put the gloves on.  She refused to let us put them on earlier, but her hands were frozen and the executive decision came down that frostbite would ruin the day more than gloves, so a brief anger interlude ensued.  But then Sledding resumed and all was well.

Kelly demonstrating what happens when you sled down the dangerous side of the hill, into a very helpful sapling, protecting you from the barb wire a foot in front of you...

Cadence rides with Baba!  Can you find her?

Cadence is unamused by the small hill Kelly chose.

Racing!  Cadence and Kelly Vs. Baba.  Baba is taking the long route, I think.

Snowy boots!

Pepper the Valiant rushes off to secure the perimeter as Cadence, Baba, and Kelly reach the bottom

Gratuitous Cuteness.  And for any who are wondering:  yes, those are pajamas.  Living in the south, we didn't have a snowsuit for her, so we dressed her up warm and then stuck her footie pajamas over it all to seal the deal, followed by her boots and outerwear.  The result?  Warm, and cute!

Another example of Cadence's up-hill transport team

Ok, we all know where this one is headed, right?

Here's Kelly as she's juuuuust about losing control....

and here she is doing a synchronized flying routine with the sled:

Before landing, still synchronized, sprawled out flat on her back...notice Pepper is already running to her rescue.

All in all, it was a great afternoon, and I'm so glad we were able to take advantage of it.  [The very next week, it was 72 degrees out and no one even bothered to think about coats.  Go Figure.]

After this, we went home, and enjoying some mexican hot chocolate.  Think Cadie likes it?