Sick Day

Ignore the fact that the date setting on my camera was wrong.  This was actually taken this year, not next year. :) Owen woke up feeling bad a few weeks ago, and this is what made him feel better. A pillow case I made for him, for sick days, and a blanket we made together, in an effort to practice tying knots.  The pillow case has become an everyday use thing, instead of reserved for sick days.  I think the blanket was more of an exercise in patience than it was a successful knot-tying effort.

Tape fetish

OK, so I don't think Owen is unusual in his obsession with action figures. However, I can't help but think that the utilization of tape in the story line is somewhat original? :)

Poop patrol

We have 3 dogs. They generate a lot of "by-product".  It has to be picked up, in order to allow for safe passage in the backyard.  Enter the Poop patrol.  Owen has become somewhat obsessive about the poop.  Maybe I've made him that way, or maybe it's the age.  (We are working on restricting the potty words to potty time.  He and his friends seem to relish saying "underwear", "poop", and "pee"....go figure.)  Regardless, when we go outside to play, I always take plastic bags and go on patrol.  Owen used to stay on the patio asking repeatedly, and LOUDLY, if  I was picking up poop.  All the neighbors know when we are outside, that's for sure.
He used to travel to the playhouse one step at a time, asking if there was any poop "right there" before he put his foot down, then repeating the question before placing the next foot down, etc etc until we reached the swing.  He's much more casual about the whole thing now.  However we have some issues with action verbs, it seems....he was playing on the patio last week while I was down on the bank picking up, when he suddenly yelled (LOUDLY) "Mom! Are you finished pooping yet!?" I quickly yelled back (EQUALLY AS LOUD) "...picking UP poop, Owen! I'm picking UP poop! NOT pooping!"

Step-granddog

Yes, I know it's another dog post.  Bizarre probably that what has gotten me off my duff and posting again are the dogs.  I was cleaning out pics from my camera.  There were pics from Halloween on there. :( But there were also pics from Christmas on there. No, this pic is not from Christmas. This pic is from September 2007-ish.  That's Ashley, snoozing with Owen.  Having direct contact with him was really the only way she ever let herself relax and sleep.  Otherwise she was diligently on-guard, watching the rest of us to make sure we didn't screw this up. :) 

 Ashley and Isabelle were buddies, too.  Isabelle still misses her.

Ashley and Owen, 2 months before she passed away.  Notice the body contact....

Owen was feeling a little puny this day, and fell asleep on the floor....That's Ashley piled up there next to him....contact again. :)

Fast forward to this Christmas 2011.  My step-daughter and her family have a puppy.  Not just any puppy, but an Aussie....The coloring isn't the same as Ashley's, but the body type is.  And this puppy's personality now, is Ashley's personality in the last half of her life, after Ash overcame a lot of the issues caused by her early abuse. 

This video is of the puppy (my step-granddog) and my sister-in-law's dog, playing at my step-daughter's house.  Yes,  I filmed more footage of the dogs than the kids on Christmas day. HA! To say that I'm in love with this puppy is understating it.  I've made it very clear that should anything happen that they feel compelled to give her up, she is to come to me. They are NOT give her to anyone else.  She is MINE...they just don't know it yet. :)

Notice the butt-wiggle that turns into a full-body wiggle...characterizes the Aussie to a T. You can't watch this video and not fall in love with Aussies....

The Frog Dog (formerly The Monkey Dog)

Most of you reading won't remember when Isabelle first came to live with us.  She was a foster from the local humane society, and COMPLETELY different from all my herder-type dogs.  I've been told that Schnauzer-type dogs are just like she is, but to us, she was just DIFFERENT (understatement). She did not walk on the floor for 6 months. She hopped from couch to table to arm chair to as far as she could jump towards the door to go outside.  ....

She wanted to carried like a baby, with her arms around my neck and her legs wrapped around my waste (hence Monkey Dog)

She also refused to be left in the house with no means of egress.  I used to say she refused to be potty-trained, but that's not it.  She's the most obedient dog I've ever had, albeit the one with the most hang-ups (yes, she even tops Ash in that department). We would go outside, go potty, come back in, and I would shut the door, she would look at me and promptly squat and go.  I put in a doggy door, which fixed everything,  except on the days the lawn guy game, when I would lock the doggy door to keep them inside.  She would watch me lock the doggy door, and promptly squat right there in front of me

Isabelle was 9 in December, and while she's losened up quite a bit as she's aged, she still took me by surprise by reverting to a behaviour I haven't seen her do in awhile, a remarkably youthful frog-dog pose.   

For some reason I consider these to be the doggy version of the Splits, an activity that most adults can no longer perform after the age of 16...

My baby is growing up

I took this picture at the park last week.  Cheeto crumbs aside, I was shocked at how grown up he looks all of a sudden.                                                                    This is Owen and his niece Kaili at the park.

And this is Owen and his first cousin once removed (or second cousin, I forget how that works) Adison at Memaw's.  How about those Terminator shades?!

And this is US...the Fam.....on Owen's 4th birthday.  All  he wanted was a Spiderman cake.  While that's not all he got, I had to make sure that we got the cake!

"I'm a good helper..."

Owen's mantra these days is "I can do it. I'm a good helper!" 

 This picture makes me happy and sad...I can see the young man he'll be, washing his first car in the drive way, in this pose....snif!

 He's watering the bricks flower beds out front...

 Repotting some plants.....

 I love these next two pics....he's taking his job so seriously!

 New sand in the sandbox...last year's sand somehow made it's way out onto the pavers over the course of the year!

He's right...he is a good helper!