An Extra Birthday Gift

Last night as John and I were out and about celebrating his birthday, we traveled around a good chunk of south central Wisconsin, hiking, touring the new plant his work opened up and then we went out for a bite of food  and a few drinks downtown Madison.  We eventually ended up at the Nitty Gritty. For those of you who don’t immediately get the most annoying happy birthday song ever stuck in your head at the mere mention of the name the Nitty Gritty is Madison’s birthday bar. If it’s your birthday you get a mug with a balloon and free beer all day, once an hour they play the birthday song and shout out all the celebrants that are there that day. Not surprisingly it is often filled with college kids, (you did hear me say “free” and “beer” in the same sentence right? ) As it turns out it’s also a great place for those of us who are following Dave Ramsey and his cursed, I mean lovely plan. Birthday boy drinks free and designated drivers get free soda, it was right up our cheapskate alley.

So we were standing around, making fun of the current fashion, enjoying our free drinks and having a lovely time. Then on a trip to the bar John got another little birthday present. A younger guy with his own birthday balloon said “Hey man, Happy Birthday” as John went by.  Not unusual, drunk people are pretty friendly. Then as I followed John by, he says in a voice laced with disdain “What are you like, 28?”

When I caught up to John I related what I had heard, his face fell for an instant, and then lit up, “Yeah, I am like 28!”

Happy 33rd Birthday honey!

Death In A Lonely Land by Peter Hathaway Capstick

I’d just like to say right now that I have absolutely no desire to go hunting for anything that has earned it’s reputation as a man eater or even anything that could possibly do so in the future. I do not want to go hunting animals that may attempt to eat me before I eat them. I do not want to hunt animals that don’t want to eat me but would be satisfied with stomping me into a pulp. I really don’t want to go hunting for something that would like to pound me into a pulp and then eat me afterward with nothing but a few dogs and a really big knife.  Yet, for some reason I love reading about people who do.

Maybe I’m nuts, or maybe it is that Capstick is an especially engaging author, pick up something of his and let me know!

Would I recommend it? Yes.  This book of his is not all big game hunting, it also has fishing, some discussions on firearms and ammo, (now I want a fully automatic BB gun, and that’s not something I ever expected to say) and bit of bird hunting.  While the variety of topics is nice the benefits of using a tube fly for salmon just don’t have the same memorable qualities as a “Midnight Date With A Black Jaguar!”

“Nnnn…ummm…OK.”

Since Ivy was born I have been a big fan of the theory that everyone should sleep where everyone in the house gets the most sleep.

I became a fan of this theory when we co-slept with Ivy the first night she was born. I hadn’t been specifically planning on co-sleeping, but we did it and it worked great. Why mess with a good thing? Ivy shared a bed with us for a few months before moving into her crib in a separate room.  We also co-slept with Clara up until she started the dreaded “sleep crawling.” Now Clara has also moved out into her own room and crib across the hall from Ivy’s room where she now sleeps in a regular bed.

Or should I say where Ivy slept in a regular bed. We have now entered a new phase of sleeping arrangements that I did not foresee.

It started when Ivy kept showing up in our bed in the middle of the night. Going with my theory if she was actually sleeping when she showed up, I probably would have left her there.  Ivy is not fun to sleep with, first she spends far to long, talking, whispering, wiggling and touching my face, then when she does fall asleep she turns into a dead weight that is impossible to move off your pillow and is only revived when it involves wiggling and flailing around to take up more of the bed. Ivy in our bed is not a plan where everyone gets the most sleep.

Here is how it would go:

Ivy would come into our bed.

I would try to ignore her.

It wouldn’t work because she would do really awful things to me (like set paper snowflakes on my eyelids, and if that doesn’t sound awful then clearly you’ve never been subjected to it!)

I would get up and put her crying back into her bed.

She would want to snuggle with someone.

Depending on my level of kindness (directly related to amount of face touching I had endured in the last few minuets) and time of night, I might lay down with her for a few minutes.

I would get back up and go back to bed.  Or if John returned her to her bed he would fall asleep there and I would never see him again.

Ivy would show back up…

If  you add into that the fact that Clara still wakes up in the night you have the recipe for one grumpy sleep deprived family!

One memorable night recently I put her back in bed three times only to find that when John got out of bed in the morning she had been sleeping on the other side of him! Something had to change.

A few daytime discussions about how we all sleep in our own beds was getting me nowhere.  Ivy’s room was “Not for sleepin’ in”, she was lonely, her room was dark and before we knew it she would be back in our bed poking at my face. Then Ivy told me she wanted to sleep with Clara. I said,  “Nnnn…. ummm…. OK.” And we tried it.  Thank goodness I was able to curb the automatic “No.” that almost slipped out!

Clara goes to sleep about an hour before Ivy,  Ivy goes through her night time routine then slips into Clara’s room and sleeps on the bed we’ve made for her on the floor in there.

Since sleeping with Clara, she has not: come into our bed,woken Clara up, been woken by Clara (how, I have no idea, I think the girl could sleep through WWIII),or been woken by John or I (she has been stepped on at least once with no reaction).

Then in the morning Ivy likes to tell me that I can’t come in when they wake up because they are playing.  Really could life get any better?! I have been able to laze in bed for an extra half hour or so while I listen to them play- I have nothing but good things to say about our current arrangement!

I’ll admit it’s a little odd,  I never thought I’d have a three year old who would want to sleep on the floor in her baby sisters room. I also never thought that when I said “OK. Great!” when I was informed by that same three year old that she was peeing in the bathroom that I should inquire if she was using the toilet… clearly there is quite a bit of this parenting gig I haven’t thought of yet.

Dogs and their Owners

They say that dogs and their owners often look alike.

It is less common but it has also been put about that dogs and their owners act alike.

Personally I choose to believe that I am nothing like my dog.

I rarely drool, the only spots I have are freckles and while I’ll never be called petite I certainly don’t tower over my friends.

Piper hates to be disturbed when sleeping, sleeps late whenever possible, and has a tendency to think she’s in charge of everything, clearly we are nothing alike…

Right.

Right?!

There are two things that have been brought to my attention recently that I can’t dispute.

The first is that Piper and I go up and down stairs the same. I’m not sure why it bothers so many people but apparently tromping up and down stairs like a herd of elephants is not considered ideal. Piper and I are united on the stand that dainty stair climbing is  for wimps who have no sense of urgency in their life.

The other thing that I’m afraid I can not deny is that Piper and I are resistant to change on our home turf. Especially if this change were to be carried out by someone else while we were not watching.

Piper dislikes new items in the yard, brought by man, fallen out of tree, fallen out of sky, four legged or two legged, however it got there, whatever it is, if it hasn’t happened on her watch it is not OK. The very large tree branch that fell down in a recent storm got a thorough barking by Piper.  As loud as that was you wouldn’t want to be a  opossum or a cat that happened to cut through the yard.  Once Piper even barked at a headlight I had replaced on the truck, no idea how she knew it was different but she did!

As for me, well, you can ask Sarah how I feel about such things. She will probably agree that in two straight years of living together the only time we had serious issues was when she rearranged our room without me…

Ivy’s Michigan Stories

Ivy went along on the trip with John to Michigan. Talking to her you’d never guess that they were there for Storms surgery, nope, clearly in Ivy’s world the trip to Michigan was all about the pony ride.

It comes up in conversation (or out of the blue) like this:

-“MOM GUESS WHAT? …  I got to ride a pony!”

-“MOM you know what I did? … I rode a pony with Uncle Jim!”

-“MOM you know what feel you better? … Riding a pony!”

-“MOM I rode a pony with Uncle Jim like at the fair.  …. It was better than the fair.”

-“MOM we go to Michigan again and I ride a pony?”

Clearly the pony ride was a big hit!

Only two things can compete with the pony ride.

The stuffed pink poodle that she got as a gift that she actually threw(? lost? dropped?) out the window on the drive home. Lucky for Ivy Dad was the hero and went back for it.

“Mom, my puppy flew out the window, and you know who turned around and got it? DAD! And it wasn’t even dirty!”

Since it’s rescue it has accompanied her everywhere and has been called either Grandma Mary or Finley, she might not be sure of the name but it’s not getting let go of long enough to fall out a window again that’s for sure!

And my favorite, her story about the kitten:

“Mom you know what I did?”

“I held a tiny kitty, I held it like this” – mimed cupping hands against chest

“It was soo tiny and so black Mom, it was so black”

“And, and it’s eyes were closed!”

-I asked how big it was-

“It was NOT big Mom it was TINY!”

After our conversation I saw the picture, she was right it was tiny!

Ship Of Magic by Robin Hobb

I was so disappointed in this book.

I probably should have taken a breather between finishing the Tawny Man series (also by Robin Hobb) before starting a new one, but I was on a roll and I didn’t.

I really wish I had.

I loved The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy  they were awesome, for reasons I have already spoken of here, here and here. This book was not as good, reading it right after Fool’s Fate made it seem even worse. Too many view points, too cliche of characters, and an unsurprising plot. Near the end things were looking up I’ll read the next one and cross my fingers it gets better but as for this one…

Would I recommend it? No. I hope it was a fluke and the writing that so impressed me with her other books returns in the second of this series.

Keeping It Elevated

Over the weekend my Uncle Jim (you may remember him from the Pewaukee Triathlon) and his super staff fixed Storm’s knee.  While Uncle Jim makes a pretty good biker for an OFG we are fortunate that he is a far better veterinary surgeon than triathlon team member. Nobody in this family is going to talk smart about out-suturing him, we just come visiting with our broken dogs and make sure to say please and thank you! Uncle Jim had a big job with Storm’s knee, from what I heard about it everything in her knee was messed up in some way, a few of the major items: grinding off extra bone growth and replacing her ACL! All reconstructed in her bright pink bandage (chosen by Ivy of course) Storm is back at home and doing well. Right now Storm is confined to her crate and while she may get tired of that in the weeks to come today she’s going with the flow, and making sure to keep that leg elevated!

And no, I don’t force her to lay like that it really is her preferred sleeping position!

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and Felicia Bond

“By the big red barn in the great green field, there was a pink pig who was learning to squeal…”

Sorry, I see the book and the words just start rolling off my tongue, I can’t help it!

Ivy loved it as a baby and I read it so many times I accidentally memorized it. Then when Clara started reading books we pulled it out with the rest of the board books and it took about two times through before I had all the words back again.

Someone tell me why I was never able to master my times tables but I can memorize kids books on accident!

Regardless* of my math ineptitude this book has my favorite sort of sing song rhythm to it, making it easy to memorize (if you are into that sort of thing) and fun to read out loud.  As if that wasn’t enough to make one little book lovely the girls seem to really enjoy the super detailed illustrations (can you see the hose on the barn in the picture?).

Would I recommend it? Yes, both the kids and I agree on this one. Besides, I have it memorized and I don’t hate it, it’s got to be good.

*I was going to use irregardless in this sentence but thought I’d better look it up to see if it meant what I thought it meant. My dictionary had this to say about it:

…”The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however.” … “Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.”

So I did…

…but every time I’ve read though my draft I say irregardless in my head.

Sister in Training

Ivy has already put Clara in training, which is only right, she is the big sister after all.

Some of the things Ivy has been training Clara to do I could do without: high pitched squeaking at the dinner table, yelling nonsense words in the backseat of the truck, and Clara really didn’t need her sister telling her that dog food is delicious.

With other things it seems like Ivy might be trying to help. The best example of this is trying to teach Clara sign language. We taught Ivy signs when she was a baby, loved the results and so are trying to do so again with Clara. The trouble is that Ivy is “helping.”  Sometimes she helps by giving Clara what ever it is she wants, without being like mean ol’mom who waits for a sign. But perhaps most frustrating is her tendency to make up random hand motions for Clara and pretend they are signs.  I’m hoping Clara will be able to pull something useful out of the whole experience but my hopes are dimming as time goes on.

Of course there are other things that Ivy is training Clara in that are truly helpful. Ivy teaches her how to play somewhere else while I’m cooking dinner, they are working on how to walk, and like every good Tom Sawyer Ivy is teaching her about her new job.

Ivy loves it when Clara comes out to check on the sheep with her, and because she is with her big sister Clara loves it too!

Sometimes looking up to your big sister is a literal sort of thing.

Ivy’s only disappointment with Clara’s training so far is that she hasn’t yet managed to teach her how to climb the fence, fortunately Clara is just happy to be out counting sheep with her sister!

So given all the training Clara’s had recently I shouldn’t have been surprised when I realized throughout the day that the “BAAS”  Clara was producing weren’t at all random…… she was looking for sheep!