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Bits

BONES

A couple days ago I made the bed and discovered that Sydney had amassed 5 of her bones over the course of the night and early morning hours. FIVE! What could a little Pug need 5 bones for? For whatever reason seeing the bones made me feel extremely happy and a bit weepy about Sydney. I honestly feel like she’s my first child and she has been SUCH A GOOD DOG since the first day we got her. She’s a bit quirky,very smart and we adore her. Some day she won’t be leaving bones in our bed….I don’t like to think about that.

SWAG

So, I read the Justin Bieber Rolling Stone article and may or may not have blasted “Boyfriend” through our house a few months ago. Barry was under strict orders (don’t worry, I don’t really give him orders) not to share the information with anyone. But here I am sharing it with my 3 loyal readers (Hi, Mom!). Anyhow, after reading the RS article, I found myself compelled to use the word ‘swag’ as often as appropriate. Turns out there aren’t too many appropriate times I need to use that word in my life. Total bummer.

Except Barry got some swag at a nerd conference a few months ago. He came home toting a new lunch box with a thermos to boot. He started using the lunch box and the thermos got tossed into the abyss of our water bottle cupboard and forgotten. (You know that cupboard where broken, but still semi-loved, water bottles go?) Jump to a couple weeks ago when Summer finally arrived and we actually started packing lunches for our outings. I tried out the swaggy thermos and fell in love. Seriously, I want to marry this thermos.

It comes complete with a really weird image of two dudes sitting on an old car, but it keeps things VERY chilly and I can use the cute cup if I’m feeling really fancy.  Swag, swag, swag!!!  I’ve all but abandoned my fancy-pants water bottles for this freebie and so far I’m not regretting it. My only question is this: will the two dudes scare my little Kindergarteners once I start back at school…because they kind of scare me. I’m going to risk it and Swag it up. All thanks to The Biebs.

DUCKS 

We have a pond walking distance from our house where ducks live. Every so often we’ll walk by “the lake”  to see how they’re getting along and let Sydney sniff around. The other night Barry and I told Maggie that we were going to go feed the ducks and loaded her down with crusty bread and old crackers. She was beyond excited and we were happy to take an evening stroll. Well, of course the ducks were gone and we were left looking at a pond with hardly any wildlife, save for the bugs.

As we continued on our walk Maggie became upset that we couldn’t find the ducks. We explained to her that we didn’t know where they had gone, but we’d come back soon to look for them. Maggie wasn’t satisfied with answer and started to yell at the top of her lungs, “Ducks, where are you?? I got bread!! Where are you, ducks?”

She started waving around the lone hot dog bun and kept bellowing out her sales pitch to the ducks that probably couldn’t hear her.

DOLLIES

Since Maggie started falling in love with baby dolls, probably around 18 months, she has shown such compassion, love and patience for her babes. It makes me proud to see her mother in such a way. Lately she’s been putting them to bed and insisting that we be quiet. Heaven forbid we wake her sleeping babies. I know how it feels when someone or something wakes up my baby, so I always oblige and tip toe around their bed. Syd continues to be evicted from her bed/disc in the living room. It doesn’t worry me, because clearly she has found another place to chew on her bones. (See above).

THOSE TWO

Last weekend Barry went hiking with some of his friends for another over-nighter. When he got back home, Maggie “helped” him unpack his backpack and wanted an answer about everything that he pulled out. We’d just returned from camping, so she knew a thing or two about tents, sleeping bags and backpacks; however, it was his special water pump that captivated her. She spent the longest time pumping water in and out of her little pool. And when she was done, they plopped down on our drying tents and had a love-fest. It never, ever stops making me feel happy, fulfilled and grateful seeing them together.

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The No-No Word Files

There are so any good things happening right now that I want to document, remember and be able to look back on, but the end of the day I’m ready to curl into a ball and sleep. I’ve wondered to myself lately if I’m still a blogger because I’ve so neglected this blog in the past months. Of course I’m still a blogger because I’m certainly not sitting down to journal out our adventures and scrapbooking them away  ~ so this continues to be our book. Our slice of life.

Maggie’s become a hilarious little person these days. I’ve always thought she was a hilarious person, but her language has absolutley exploded and she doesn’t miss ANYTHING. I knew this day was coming, but the proof hit me this past week as she chirped from the back seat words that I’d rather my darling daughter not know.

We were picking Barry up from work to have a lunch date (sushi!!!!!) and I stopped to get gas at the most crowded gas station in the world. As I was trying to manuver the Element out of the gas station, with the bike rack attached on the back, to make the 1 mile drive down a hill to Barry, we were cut off by a truck. I was frustrated….


Me: That truck is causing problems.

Maggie: That truck causing problems, Mama?

Me: Yep, that big, white truck. We need to go that way.

I then successfully got out of the gas station parking lot but had to make a quick turn, but was cut off by another car.

Me (under my breath): Sh*t balls.

Maggie: That sh*t balls, Mama? That truck sh*t balls?

Me: Yes, Mags. That truck sh*t balls.

What else can you do? I tried to act like it was okay for her to be saying that in hopes that she’ll forget.  I haven’t heard her say it again, but the girl has mind of a steel trap and I’m wondering if it will come back to bite me. Ah, sh*t balls.

There are so many other eloquent examples of Maggie’s language, but this was one where I realized that I need to watch myself.

Maggie has also caught onto the fact that books hold stories and she can ‘read’ them herself. We keep finding her curled up in various places reading and almost nothing makes me feel more proud and happy; I’ve got a child that loves to read!!! Yahooooo!!! We’ve started a semi-regular routine of going to the library to check out books. We’ve been going to story time since she was about 6 months old, but now she has a whole new understanding of the place now that we ‘take books home.’

[I’m cutting this short because Maggie has just arrived at my side announcing that it’s time to Face Time with Thomas and she’s quite persistent, so I’m going to go see what Thomas is up to…their ‘conversations’ are always funny.]

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Sleeping Face

Maggie has a series of faces that she can run through to practice any of her emotions. The one that always gets me is her Sleeping Face because she scrunches her face and eyes up and pokes her lips out while making a tiny snoring sound. It is by far her best face. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to ask her to do Sleeping Face too often because when I need a laugh she can bust it out and I’m bustin’ a gut. 

Yesterday was a planned rest day – still recovering from last week’s events – and after a long nap and as much food as a teenage boy would eat, I felt like Maggie was ready to go in the afternoon. One of her favorite activities to do is work on puzzles together. We’ve got some that are a bit advanced for her, but if we help her she’s willing to work on them. It’s a nice activity. After we’d completed one of the puzzles, Maggie started to joke about my mom and Sparky coming to visit, checking out the window and cracking herself up when they weren’t there. 

I half-heartedly went along with her. But Maggie just keep getting more and more goofy, eventually claiming that she was Sydney. She then proceeded to climb into Syd’s dog disc and pull her face into Sleeping Face while cranking out HUGE snores. I about melted onto the floor laughing. She kept doing it, even while I went to track down my camera. I love Maggie’s sense of imagination coupled with sense of humor, I hope she never tries to hide either. 

And speaking of Sydney…my dad called this past weekend wondering how Sydney had done during The Week Of Sickness, he loves that little pup as much as we do. Of course Syd was the very best Therapy Dog anyone could ask for. She stayed closer than usual, which means that she was never, ever far from our side. I’m pretty sure that she could sense the tension a few times. There was one specific time when Maggie’s temp was not coming down and I called Barry in a panic –  not sure what to do, fearing another seizure.  Sydney, who often ignores us when we’re on the phone, was staring at me as if I were talking to her, tilting her head from side to side. I wished in that moment she was Dr. Syd, but felt comfort in the fact that she was not going to leave Maggie’s side for any reason. 

She’s a very, very good dog and we’ve been telling her that often. We’ve also been trying to get her back on her two-a-day walks, which she deserves after last week’s chaos. Maggie has a great Sleeping Face, and I’m certain that Syd does too, but check out these images of Sydney’s Game Face. So rough and tough.