Avery
Avery has decided that she wants to take a break from kung fu. She still enjoys class a lot, but I've noticed that she seems to need more of a break from activities than she did before. Dropping kung fu for a while means she'll have all of Monday afternoon off, which will be her only break in activities during the week. We never do classes/scheduled activities for her on the weekend, so the weekends are always breaks.
Avery's reading progress is coming along nicely. She is more willing to try sounding out words to read them. And she'll randomly spell things for me in the car. I asked her to spell rabbit the other day. She, without sounding it out aloud, said, R A B I T. Which brings me to my question: how do I respond at this age? Do I say well done and leave it at that? Or, do I say good job, but it has another B in it?
Avery's latest purchase with her allowance savings was a face painting kit. She loves it. First D tried to paint Avery's face when she asked. He painted the most pathetic version of a butterfly ever. She goes into the bathroom to look at it. I ask her, "What do you think?" When I get no response I ask meekly, "Are you a little disappointed?" She emphatically responds, "I love it! It's fabulous!" D and I just grinned at each other and shook our heads. That is one truly wonderful thing about having a dramatic and enthusiastic child: she LOVES everything (except when I say no, but she is a kid after all). Last night before dinner, Avery painted her own face. Then we painted my face. I think Avery must have taken lessons in how to make my nose look even bigger than it actually is. :) --- Tuesday
Avery is doing slightly better with Abbie. She's still afraid of Abbie when she comes towards her, even though Abbie typically just wants to sniff. She does a good job at just turning her back, but her body language conveys fear. I am having a dog trainer come over on Saturday to help us to help Avery get more comfortable with Abbie.Abbie
Potty training is finally going well. For the past couple of days we've had only one or two pees in the house. Both of those were excitement pees versus just going off and finding a place to pee. I'll take it! I'm optimistic that I might be able to schedule a full carpet cleaning in a couple of weeks.
Walks are going great! I've been taking her daily, which is doing good things for me. I don't think I've lost any weight, but my pants fit and feel better. Abbie is a great walker. She pays attention and doesn't pull. She's not freaked out by noises or vehicles. She gets excited to see a jogger go by, but we're making progress on distracting her with good things (i.e. treats) when that happens.
She knows two commands consistently: sit and look. Look came about because I have tiny treats I use on our walks. I often toss them on the ground because it's too hard to feed her from my hand while still walking. Because they're small, she'd often miss seeing me throw it on the ground. She'd look at me waiting for me to throw it. I kept having to bend over and point to it. Pain in the butt. So I started saying look while tapping my foot next to the treat. It took a few days of doing it, but she now knows to look towards the ground and search for a treat, usually near my tapping foot. I haven't worked on any other commands. I think she knows what crate and bed mean (that we want her to go to those locations), but she doesn't follow the commands without a treat being guaranteed.
Abbie has gained 7 lb since her first vet appointment (20lb --> 27lb). She's growing so fast. Most people we see out and about comment on the size of her huge paws. Avery says "her little paws are adorable." She's free feeder and typically doesn't eat the whole bowl at one time. The exception to this is when I put salmon oil on her food. I bought it to help with her coat and the small amount of dandruff she has. She LOVES it. My strategy now is to put it on a cup of food. Then put more food in the bowl without the oil. This prevents her from chowing down on all the food and will hopefully enable us to continue to free feed.
The puppy in her is out, loud and proud. She's testing boundaries all over the place. Jumping up to eat scrambled eggs off my desk; jumping on the bed and knocking over water glass on the night table; D's lost three socks and I've lost one; the living room carpet has been further damaged with pulling of it up a bit; the cheap rugs in front of the doors in the kitchen will need to be replaced once she's fully potty trained. I'm still head over heels in love with her, so all this just makes me smile.Me
I've known for a while that I do best when I'm on some sort of routine, but not so strict that I want to rebel against it. It's a balancing act. With daily dog walks back in my life, it makes establishing a routine easier for me. I've implemented a few "rules" for myself to make my mornings more productive. First, no computer time until after Avery's been dropped off at school, the kitchen and living room have been cleaned, and Abbie has been walked (assuming the plan is to walk her in the morning versus a planned afternoon walk). I'm also doing my best to keep on top of clutter in the house so it doesn't build up. Discipline in these areas is not a strength (shocking, I know). So far so good. It's been a week and all is going well.
I am obsessed with Scramble and Seinfeld reruns at the moment. I can watch Seinfeld reruns and play at the same time since I don't have to pay full attention to the episode to know what is going on.
I'd forgotten how special the relationship with a dog can be. Abbie and I have truly bonded. I love seeing her, I love feeling proud when she learns a new command, I love that she wants to be with me. I just love her I guess. I'm also talking about Eddie and Turtle all the time as a result of her arrival. She reminds me of all the wonderful things about Eddie in particular. It has always been easier to remember Turtle's great traits since the end came so quickly for her. With Eddie, I needed time to forget the last couple of years that just go progressively harder.Job
I've decided to get a part-time job. I don't want it to be stressful or at the level which I was previously working. The salary is unimportant to me, as is status. I just want something that is outside of the house and which gives me some sense of myself aside from mother and wife and CEO of CdT. Somehow I think that last title will not get me a job. I've found a few jobs to apply for, though I expect it'll take a while given how long I've not worked. I'm working on my resume now and hope to submit it to two different companies later today. While I don't relish the idea of a job search and interview process, I am excited about this change. --- Saturday
As far as what will happen with Avery's schedule, clearly that will depend upon what hours I'll be working. I asked Mom if she'd be interested in taking over some of the functional duties of Avery care such as driving to and from activities and sitting at times when I'm at work. She said yes. We have to pay her because neither D nor I would feel right not paying her for regular childcare and nanny-type duties. Mom managed to negotiate her hourly wage lower than the original offer. That woman has some skills!
Random
I'm having a new deadbolt put on our front door. The current one just gives us so much trouble that I figured I'd just put on a new one. At the same time, I'm having retractable screen doors installed on both the front door and the door to the patio. It'll be nice to be able to keep the doors open in the summer while Avery is outside playing. Plus the benefit of fresh air. I'm more likely to open a door than a window for some reason.
I'm obsessed with Diet Dr. Pepper at the moment.
The day we picked up Abbie from the breeder (oh the guilt that I bought a dog from a breeder, but I wanted a GS damn it!) my navigation system failed me. We got lost in the vicinity of the house, but were basically driving in circles around the house. Anyway, whilst doing that we saw a camel just hanging out in this front yard. A camel. Last night at dinner, a coworker of D's was talking about driving somewhere near Canby when he saw some woman walking a lion. You leave Portland and you never know what oddities you'll see. Full face tattoos have nothing on walking a lion along a road, imho.
Whale vomit. Who knew?
