Quote of the Day

“What is that smell?!  It smells soooo good, like apple pie or something.” –Tucker, walking into the room after I had been using bleach. 

Quote of the Day

“Sorry, Daddy, me do it.” Molly while putting away silverware

SuperBat Man

These days you can rarely catch Tucker without a super hero costume on.  Even if it appears that he does not have a super hero costume on, he often has it on underneath his clothes and as soon as he walks in the door at home, he sheds his ordinary exterior right on the kitchen floor to become Batman or Superman.  He never wants to wear a jacket over these costumes because it impedes the flapping of the cape.  In fact, the other day it was a 33 degree rain outside and I caught him running out the door in a short sleeve/shorts Batman costume.  I managed to convince him to put on a long sleeve shirt and pants underneath his costume, and he happily played outside for a relatively long time in the 33 degree rain.

My Go Rocket Moon

Molly is talking a lot these days, relatively understandably, but sometimes you need some context.  Like yesterday, I was pushing her in the jogging stroller and stopped so I could hear what she was urgently telling me.  It sounded a lot like “my go rocket” – and it turns out I had heard completely right.  Apparently, she had tilted the shade back so she was staring up at the sky and could see a crescent moon even in the daylight, and was thinking about going there.  She later clarified, “My go rocket moon!”  She wanted to take me, Austin and Tucker but she did NOT want Clarence to come.

Molly also calls everything hers.  When we pick Tucker up at the preschool that she will go to next year, she spends most of the trip to and from clarifying that this is “my school” NOT “Tucker’s school.”

Florida Pictures

 

 

 

Recent Pictures

Molly is turning into a big girl these days with shoulder length hair, a big girl bed, and very infrequent naps now.  (Personally, it seems like it’s too soon for her to be giving up her nap, but it does have the advantage of her going to bed early!)  She is still a force and it often seems like Tucker is begging her to play with him, not vice versa!  They love to play the “night-night” game where they roll around in Tucker’s jumping nook and don’t sleep.  They also have recently started imitating snakes together, and creeping into the room while hissing.  Tucker’s favorite game right now is superhero, and Molly dons her cape and enthusiastically says “super hero!” too.  Molly is still obsessed with Elmo, she does not like Clarence our new dog (because he steals food from her and because she likes to pull rank and boss someone around), and insists on diapering her dolls and dressing them in sleepers and tucking them in beside her when she sleeps.  She is fascinated by "boo-boos” and has her own box of bandaids so she can apply one to whatever imaginary boo boo she decides she has.  She also likes to put her hand over her eyes and pretends people who are looking at her don’t exist if she feels on the spot.  She loves doing errands with me and will ask to go to the store, totally out of the blue, just because apparently the grocery store and dollar store are so much fun.  Molly is at a delightful age right now; her language is exploding, she doesn’t need quite as much supervision, and she can be so enthusiastic and smiley and happy.

And here are some pictures of Tucker and Clarence digging.  (Tucker frantically went out after church to dig with him, hence the blazer.)

 

  

 

Tucker has brought some sweet things home from school recently, like this paper on MLK day that says his dream is for everyone to love God.  Below, he also states that his chosen profession is to be an ice and water maker.  But he changed his mind recently in a new sheet that came home saying he actually wants to be a priest and that his favorite thing about himself is that God made him.  Awwwwww.

We are reading the Narnia series, and are on our fifth book.  Tucker LOVES this series and begs for multiple chapters to be read at once.

Tucker also is obsessed with super heroes.  He has taken to wearing his super man pajamas over other clothes so it will look like he has bigger muscles.  I saw some paper falling out of his outfit yesterday and asked what that was about—the crumpled paper was also about making him appear more muscular.  Crazy that a 5 year-old thinks like this.

Otherwise, Tucker’s main interest remains crafts.  It takes him eons after his rest time to clean his room because of his propensity to cut paper up into really small pieces, and how hard it is for him to part with any of those pieces.  He also loves to wet paper and make little balls of paper, which he delights in showing us as his treasure.  He recently has been explaining to me that tape turns to plastic under water but turns back into tape after it dries.  The other week he went into the yard and found some bits of paint that had peeled off the roof, a crushed whiffle golf ball and a couple other random odds and ends.  He put them all in a little bag and declared them his treasure which he displayed proudly and has tucked away into a secure location.

Clarence the Chewer

Clarence is on both of our bad lists today.  First he ate all the oatmeal out of the pantry yesterday and experienced massive indigestion two nights ago that resulted in lots of clean up.  Yesterday he ate lots of uncooked old rice out of the compost bin and experienced massive indigestion last night that resulted in lots of clean up.

But how can you not love that sweet face?

It is strange having a young dog in the house after Ben’s 12 year-old mellowness.  Plus, Ben was never as high-energy as Clarence, even at Clarence’s age.  And Ben also came to us fully trained.  Clarence, on the other hand, steals food from kids, counter surfs, pantry surfs, and chews, and chews, and chews.  So far an Elmo spoon has gotten decapitated, many writing implements will never again see the light of day, a doll’s hands have gotten chewed off, superman and batman have both died horrific deaths, a retractable leash has been chewed in two… and more, I’m sure.  But who’s counting?  (Though I do have to say, for all his faults, he doesn’t eat poop, or socks, which is very nice.)

But he is just the best as well.  He chooses a belly rub over his food first thing in the morning, and will curl up with his head in my lap.  Ben had a concept of personal space on the couch… not Clarence.  If I am napping, he will happily nap lying on top of my legs.  He also lies at Tucker’s feet in the car, and will dig holes with Tucker for an hour in the yard.  Boy and dog together is just the sweetest combination.

Clarence runs like a deer, with amazing speed and in leaps and bounds.  He enjoys retrieving a whiffle ball from batting practice and manages to thwart the garden fence and get stuck inside at least a few times a week.  He has also figured out the invisible fence and took himself for a walk to the river today—think we will need to be turning up the voltage on that one. He also has the longest tongue and is partial to giving kisses, so watch out! 

   

Quotes of the Day

“I wish I got band-aids for Christmas like Molly!” –Tucker

Lesson: you never know which Christmas presents will be a hit.

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“Molly’s best friend is Luke.  My best friend is… [long pause while he thought deeply about this] Molly.” –Tucker

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“There is always snow on interstates because the wheels turn so fast that they create snow.”

-Tucker

Welcome, Clarence!

A house without a dog doesn’t feel like a home to me.  (Austin likes having a dog but doesn’t quite feel the same way.)  Ben is absolutely irreplaceable, of course, and that fact is so obvious to me that I know getting another dog isn’t about trying to replace him.  So when I was on vacation last week I started looking at dogs that need a home in our area.  And I saw Clarence.  He’s a 1-2 year-old black lab mix that showed up at high kill shelter near Richmond in the middle of November.  A rescue brought him into a foster home until they could find a permanent home for him.  There’s no history on him, but he seems pretty happy and well-adjusted to me, and was already neutered and house trained by the time he got to the shelter.  I wonder what his story is.

In any case, the day after we returned from visiting my mom in Florida, Tucker and I went to visit him in Richmond, and unsurprisingly, he came home with us.

He is very different from Ben. He’s much smaller—maybe 40 lbs to Ben’s 75 lbs, and as he fills out a little might get up to 50 lbs. He’s also an athlete, so quick that it’s hard to get good pictures, though he is not hyper. He manages the 36” vertical leap up to the kid’s treehouse platform easily. And when he walks around the house he’s light on his feet like a cat. He likes food a lot but he doesn’t inhale it and so far has not eaten a single textile product or other much grosser stuff. He still jumps some, and he chews a lot, everything, all the time. He is quite a snuggler, too.  Welcome, Clarence!

 

Merry Christmas

 

  

 

Goodbye, Benny

Ben went lame earlier this week, cause unknown.  Probably a minor injury that stiffened up overnight, but on Monday morning Ben couldn’t walk and was also acting very sick.  Tuesday he had a 106 fever (in the danger zone for dogs).  Apparently, he also had an obstruction in his small intestine… and tumors all over his x-ray… and arthritis so massive in his hips that the vet was impressed he had been able to walk at all before the injury.  With antibiotics and pain meds, we kept him comfortable this week, hoping he would rebound, but instead his leg got more and more swollen, and he started developing a sore lying the only way he could lie without being in too much pain.  The picture is of Ben this week surrounded by pictures Tucker drew for him to cheer him up.  Half the pictures are portraits of Ben, and half the pictures are pictures of food.

This morning, my yellow man, my first baby, went to go meet his first master, my Uncle Brian who passed on in 2004.  It is sad to come home to an empty house, sad not to have to hide the laundry up high so Ben won’t eat any socks.  But I’m happy that he’s out of pain, and happy that this world is not all there is. 

I will remember you, Benny:

…lying next to me on the couch, snuggled in close.

….driving with you in the passenger seat, your paw on my arm just so I wouldn’t forget that the primary purpose of cars is petting.

…for the softest ears I’ve ever felt.

…for snoring so loudly that you’ve made whole groups of people laugh in our living room.

…for being the best kitchen floor cleaner I could ever wish for.

…for your world-record setting eating pace.

…as mad dog chasing a stick around in a circle.

…as the slowest (but enthusiastic) running companion ever.  I always knew you were built for love, not for speed.

…for the total lack of grace you had swimming even though you loved it.  It took me a long time to stop worrying that you would drown with all the water you ingested.

…and for so much more.

I will miss you, my boy.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Quote of the Day

“I love money so much, I wish it was the only thing in life.  And maybe chocolate.”

-Tucker, after learning about coin values this week in school

Hiking at Ivy Creek