Penny the Sleepy Dog

We go through a routine around here every night, and it has yet to lose it's comedic value so I thought I might share.

Penny's day ends at 8pm.  She curls up on the sofa and is sound asleep, snoring and twitching.  Curtis and I are up until 10pm, then it's time to wind the cuckoo, turn out the lights, and the run Penny outside one last time for the night before heading upstairs to bed.  This is how it has been every single night since we brought her home.

And yet, she insists that each night she won't be dragged outside at 10pm.  She is tiiiiiiiiired.  She doesn't waaaaaaaaaant to get up.  She Wants To Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Yes, she sounds quite a bit like me.

It generally goes like this: Curtis takes her out of an evening, so he tells her it's time to go outside.

She opens one eye, looks at him, closes the eye. 

He calls her from the door.  She turns her head away.

He takes her collar and gently pulls her from the couch, giving her time to catch herself and land on her feet.

She refuses to succumb to the fact that she's going outside, and flops gracelessly to the floor.

At this point she will usually get up and walk with him to the door, but on at least two occasions she has proceeded to close her eyes and fall asleep again on the floor, either right where she fell, or like last night, at some point in the 15 feet between the couch and the backdoor.

It hasn't ceased to be hilarious to us yet.

By this point in the nightly routine I head upstairs, but Curtis reports that upon reentering the house, she usually tries to get back on the couch or retire to the crate rather than brave a flight of steps to her rather cozy bed.

Her morning looks rather the same.  She is willing to go downstairs with me and outside, but as soon as she's back in the house she's curled up on her corner of the couch where she can snooze until a more decent hour (8:30am) and watch everything that's going on at the same time.

Happy Birthday Toby!

I can't believe Toby is 8 already.  8.  It hardly seems possible that my goofy little toddler has grown to the kind, sweet, loving boy I know today.  Each year brings new surprises and new challenges, but we are meeting them together.

He took oreos to school, because it is also Oreo's birthday, and because his best friend is allergic to milk but can have oreos :)

Toby is 52" tall now - only 11 inches to catch me.  He's in Level 4 swim class, and working to overcome his fear of the deep water.  He wants to take tennis again this summer.

He loves school, and does especially well in math and science - maybe not so much the memorizing of math facts, but he's good at problem solving.

He wants to be an artist when he grows up.  Or a bridge engineer :)

He loves legos, especially his new Lego Minecraft set he got for his birthday.  He also loves his SnapCircuits sets.  His birthday theme this year is science fun.

Toby and I are reading the Harry Potter books together - we started last year, and are working on the second book now.  He also loves the Magic Tree House series; it's the first books that really made him want to read.

His smile lights up a room, and his sense of humor continues to crack me up.  I don't know a lot of 8 year olds who understand sarcasm, but he does.  He also loves crafts, which makes a mama proud.

Happy birthday Toby.  We love you and can't wait to see what this next year brings for you!

I'm Done With Winter

Truly.  It is February 26th, and it is 15 degrees outside right now.  The thermometer is in the sun, so that's probably generous.  For a long time the question was, When will spring come.

The question is now Will spring ever come?

I know I'm not the only one; the weather is everyone's main topic of conversation these days, but geez, I am so sick of it!

Please come, Spring!

Um, Well, It Hasn't QUITE Been a Year

Yeah, so the title pretty much sums it up.  I haven't posted much lately.  I suppose I use Facebook so much to post what's going on around here that I forget how much fun it is to look back at pictures and stories in the blog, but it is nice so here you go.

 

I'm not going to try to bridge the gap between June 2013 and February 2014.  It's nearly a book...kindergarten, swim team, 2nd grade, failing soccer, losing Lex, finding Penny...so I'm just starting today.  February 24th, 2014.

 

Toby was being kind of a dweeb for the camera, so his picture doesn't get posted.  2nd grade boys can be that way.  I fear I will never have a decent picture of him again.  He loves to pose "goofy" for the camera though.  And he always wants me to take these elaborately construed videos which I don't understand at all.  Last week he passed swim level 3.  He's worked so hard this year at swim - I was determined that he should know how to swim before this summer, so he's been doing swim lessons twice a week almost all year.  He really seems to enjoy it - he's not the fish his sister is, but I'm glad he's having fun!  He starts Level 4 next week.  He really loves Cub Scouts too - he's a wolf this year, and should be getting his Wolf Badge soon.

Lucy is still in swim as well and gearing up for swim team preseason in April.  I can't believe it will start so soon!!  She's had a fantastic year in kindergarten, and reads at almost a second grade level already.  She's also doing well in math...if we can just get her pencil grip sorted out she will be flying along!  She and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie Series...she LOVES it.  It is so much fun to share something that meant so much to me as a child with her.  I sort of thought she'd lose interest after the 3rd book or so, but we're up to These Happy Golden Years now.  I think most of it goes over her head, but just to absorb the language, the storytelling...and we love our 30-45 minutes of reading a night!

Jay is...well, Jay.  He will never be more, never less.  He may just be a stubborn as me, which is saying a lot.  I think Curtis thinks I'm getting what I deserve, finally.  I'm not sure how the child is as big as he is, considering how little he eats.  He absolutely refuses to eat healthy food.  And he gets no desserts until he eats his food.  He rarely gets dessert.  So how is he in the 75th percentile on weight?  He's off the chart on height.  He also refuses to talk.  Every once in a while he throws down a word as a sort of challenge to us - a, hey, I know how to talk I just CHOOSE NOT TO.  It is beyond frustrating.  I would just like him to talk to me instead of BABABABABABABAAAAA!  Someday he will talk.  And I will regret wishing he could. 

Penny is a love.  We're working on leash training her - she's going to be a big dog and needs to understand manners, but with the weather we've had precious few chances to work with her, so hopefully that will get better soon.  She's a love though, such a cuddly sweetheart.

Curtis is growing his beard - well, it's grown now, he's simply maintaining it.  I love it!  It's a winter thing; it will be gone as soon as he gets hot :) 

That's the update for now.  I'm going to try to keep on journaling here!