Woman’s Best Friend

There are certain things I get really passionate about.  Child abuse is one of them.  Adoption is another.  Circumcision is a HUGE one. Organic food and recycling are a couple more, but the one I’m going to rant about here is: Pets. Particularly DOGS.

If you know me at all, even a little bit, you know I’m a lover of dogs.  Before I moved here I had two dogs (a Shepherd/Weimaraner mix and a Great Dane/Lab mix), that I sadly had to leave behind.  They are in the best possible hands, so I’ve never worried about them, but there are times I miss them like crazy.  

This is Kaiden the day after my son was born. He always liked to be as close as possible to the newest member of his pack.

 

My sweet Kaia and I. We like to snuggle in front of the heater on cold California mornings.

 

Rowan used to like to (gently) play with Kaiden’s tail. He would laugh and laugh when Kaiden wagged his tail and it tickled his tummy. That dog was so stinking patient too.

When I live in a place with lots of space for a dog to safely run around and can either buy a house or have a landlord that is okay with dogs, you can bet I’ll have another one (or two)!  We’ve got two cats, and two hamsters, but it’s just not the same. Hamsters are really bad at fetch.  Don’t even get me started on the loyalty of a cat!

21 Reasons A Dog is the Best Investment you will Ever Make!

20 Reasons A Dog is Man’s Best Friend.

Do yourself a favor, click on those links.  You won’t regret it.

So, I could go on all day about dogs, but I won’t.  I’m going to leave you with one last image:

It’s sad that this just isn’t common sense.  Dogs are social creatures, they want to be a part of the family.  They want love and attention and gentle physical contact.  They want to cuddle and play fetch and tug-of-war.  They want you to be part of their pack.  They don’t want to be chained up out in the cold or in the muggy heat.  I said this over on Facebook, and I’ll say it again here: getting a dog to keep it tied up outside all the time is wrong.  You are not a good pet owner if you do this.  In fact, I consider it cruelty to animals.  You’re darn right I’m judging you for it too.  (Don’t get me wrong, putting your dog outside while you’re gone for a few hours, or at work is one thing. As long as they have food and water, and shelter from the elements-that’s normal. Chaining them to something 24/7, 365 days a year is another thing.  When you’re home, and when it’s cold or blisteringly hot, let them in.)

Dogs want to be your companion and your best friend.  Let them.  

*Cue music…I BELIEVE I CAN FLY…I BELIEVE I CAN TOUCH THE SKY!

Yesterday was wet and blustery, cold and raw.  Naturally Rowan wanted to play outside.  Weirdo.

He circled the yard in his gator a few times, tied up a tree with bungee cords, and sat on his bike, cursing the rain.  While he was doing all those activities, keeping his blood pumping and staying warm, I was doing this: Rowan had the brilliant idea to dig out the kite that is currently rigged with a coat hanger, heavy string, and a BBQ skewer.  I tried to explain that it probably wouldn’t fly, as I didn’t want him to be disappointed when he couldn’t get it in the air.  As is his way, he persevered, and for a half hour he and I ran around the yard trying to get that darn thing up.  He eventually told me that I wasn’t doing it right and released me from my duties as string holder.  I went back to reading my book on the porch, and not ten minutes later I looked up from “The Decameron”, and he had that dolphin kite soaring.

As any parent (or anyone who has spent any time with little kids) knows, they are strikingly persistent, optimistic, positive, and have a way of showing you your own bad attitude.  Time after time Rowan has proved me wrong.  When I say that he won’t be able to do something, it only drives him that much harder to want to do it.  Sometimes I love seeing that side of him, like when he flew the kite.  Other times, that side of him gets him in trouble, like when I told him not to use an entire tube of toothpaste in one day, so he did.  Stinker.

Anyway, I need to learn that just because I can’t figure something out, doesn’t mean HE can’t figure it out.  With every passing year the lad grows smarter than me, and not for one second do I want to repress that part of him.  If it means that I have to buy a few extra tubes of toothpaste, and clean a few messes, I think I can deal with that.

Your Little Bit of Culture for the Day

Rowan asked me if he could have a Facebook account, something I’m not ready to say yes to. I told him that if he had anything he wanted to tell people, or someone he wanted to send a message to, that I’d be more than happy to pass that along. Just out of curiosity, when would you allow your child to get a Facebook account?

Yesterday was a particularly challenging day, behavior wise. When he decided to pull this little gem out of his pocket, it was just the right amount of cute to help me shake that last little bit of frustration I was hanging on to. Some days are just so exceptionally galling. Yesterday was one of those days.

Rowan asked that I post this video of his poem/prayer, that frankly, I had no idea he knew. It’s from a story we read a few days ago. ONCE! A sponge, that one is.

Fruit

Rowan: Mom, I know the fruits of the spirit.

Me: Really?

Rowan: Yup, they’re love, joy, peace….um….uh…..and quiet.  Yup, love, joy, peace and quiet!

Me: *blink blink*

If he hadn’t puffed up his chest and grinned at me so proudly, I would have corrected him.

 

Best of Buds

A few days ago Rowan found his soul mate.  It doesn’t matter that there is four years between them, or that he lives a half hour away.  It doesn’t even matter that it’s a he!  All that matters is that Avery has this:

This is only a portion of his (dad’s) collection!  I’m pretty sure that is part of what Rowan’s heaven will look like.

One of the things I love about hanging out with Avery, other than the fact that I get to chat with his mother, is getting to see what Rowan will be like as a big brother some day.  At first there was a little frustration about Avery wanting to move Rowan’s carefully lined up tractors, but after explaining that Avery was too little to understand, something seemed to click.  Rowan became patient and kind, loving and playful.  He gently told Avery, “No thank you, Avery, I’m playing with that.”  Sometimes Avery would move on, but if he didn’t, Rowan would silently plead with his eyes to take that kid somewhere else!  If we didn’t though, he would play with Avery for bit, explaining the parts of the tractor, or what kind of tractor it was.  It was adorable to watch these two tiny men together.

Avery’s first birthday is next week, and he was the lucky recipient of a little slide that they put together while we were at their house.  The slide was great.  The box it came in was better.  Rowan patiently played peek-a-boo with Avery, letting his little friend shut him up in the box time after time.  If Avery wandered off, as one year old’s are prone to do, Rowan would invite him back to play, and they’d giggle as I threatened to ship them to Alaska.

We also went on a hay ride this weekend.  It was a bit chilly, but perfect for warm hats, and wrapping up in quilts.  For an hour we cuddled against a scratchy bale of hay while nibbling goldfish crackers and watching the world pass by.  🙂

BUGS!

Every week I clean the church I attend.  It’s a rather old building, that used to be a restaurant, with the nursery being the bar.  Last year they literally removed the bar from the nursery.  Anyway, with it being such an antique building, there are lots of cracks and holes, and places insects and little critters like to crawl into when the weather turns cold.

Every year I can tell when fall has arrived because of the billions and billions of ladybugs-some alive, some not-that crunch under my feet when I walk into the building.  I wish I could get a picture that does the amount of bugs justice, but it’s too hard to capture such a freaky spectacle.  Here’s what I was able to get:

This is exactly one square foot of swept-up bugs.  I vacuumed less than a week ago. Ugh.

This is just a smattering of carcasses on the windowsill

Now that you’re properly unhinged and are feeling imaginary legs crawling on your neck, I’ll cancel all that out with a picture of Rowan. 🙂

Less FB, More WP

Hey listen, I’m taking a step back from Facebook for a while.  (I will post on there that I posted on here.  I’m well aware of the irony, so there is no need to point it out.)  I’m sick of being bombarded by ads telling me where to go, what to buy, the clothes to wear, and what I’m doing wrong in regards to raising my kid.  I mean, it’s all well and good to have opinions, and goodness knows I have my own!  It’s just that, well…I don’t know.  Quit telling me what to do! 

SO! This isn’t my, “I’m deleting my Facebook account, so please tell me not to go” post.  Not at all.  I’m still going to check in and post once in a while.  I’m just not going to do those things nearly as often.  For those of you who are lamenting over a lack of updates about Rowan or how much homework I have, FRET NOT!  I’ll probably treat this blog at my Facebook and leave shorter posts or pictures here.  I may protect some of the more personal stuff with a password, but I will share that password with you for a small fee.  Or a baked good.  

Interesting fact: I’m sitting at my desk wondering how much crap  I can spew to up my word and page count.  Perhaps I’ve been writing too many papers lately?  SEE! A post about how much homework I have!  Now do you trust me that I won’t leave you wondering about mundane stuff about my life?

Now for some random photos:

43 useless points to the first person to name the city this mug is from.  Also, quit making me miss said city.  You know who you are!

 

It’s shameful how much Playmobil this boy has.  (This isn’t including vehicles and buildings, though in my defense, most of it was bought used off of Ebay by my mother.)