Mini Heat Wave

Last weekend and the early part of this week we saw a mini heat wave. (100+) Josh and I become creative in staying cool in our poorly insulated place. It comes down to us sucking on icecubes by the end of the day. Claire LOVES this pastime and soaks herself thoroughly in the process. I highly recommend those little pacifier looking this with the mesh bag on it. I can give one of those filled with ice to Claire and she is happy for minutes on end.

On Monday, before the temperature climbed too high, we ventured to the park. I took Lola too, I hate leaving her at home and she LOVES the park. I just have to brag for a moment. Lola is a wonderful dog. Stubborn at times but more than anything loving and obedient and good. Knock on wood, she differentiates between her toys and Claires (even if they are all in a pile on the floor together). She is patient with Claire while we teach Claire dog manners (don't pull ears, use Lola to help stand up, pull her collar/tail/fur). Anyway, once again Lola proved to be a great dog. She is very excitable and enjoys the company of other dogs so I was curious how the park would go and how much wrangling I would have to do. Lola was content to be anchored at a park bench and sniff around on the grass while Claire played in the swing a few feet away. When Claire was bored of the swing we relaxed on a blanket in the shade of a big tree that Josh probably knows the name of but I don't. Lola's leash hung on the stroller, not even really anchored but she was content to sniff and lounge in the grass even as other dogs passed by.

For her part, Claire was transfixed by the grass. Now, I had a number of allergies as a child, some of which have carried into my adult life. I am hesistant to let Claire dive into things that I knew were allergies of mine as a kid, grass being one of them but this child would not let up. She kept scooting to the edge of the blanket and attempting to dig up handfuls of grass, leaves and dirt. We finally had to head home because I grew weary of pull dirt clods and grass out of her hands to prevent her from sampling them.

Maternity Leave

I had all these plans for maternity leave. I believed in my heart that Claire would not be arriving until at least a week after I had taken off of work. I had a whole page list of things I was going to do before the baby was born. I've pulled that list off a shelf a couple of times now and just laughed at my ambitiousness.

I feel like after five weeks I'm finally switching over from "survival mode" into "enjoying this adventure mode." I am beginning to differniate Claire's crys. Lola is becoming a champ at walking with the stroller making our outings far less challenging. We are falling into some semblance of a routine. Josh and I are trying to steal time here and there for talk about things other than diaper changes, burping and when the next feeding is. We have not braved a date night away from Claire yet. With eating every three hours it makes things a bit difficult.

We have made the transition to Fuzzi Bunz diapers. So far I am loving them. We have not put Claire in them for night time yet - they are still a little too big and I am therefore nervous they would leak a little - but she is wearing them during the day. She has the cutest diaper butt whem wearing them.

This weekend we attended Earth Dog Trials in Woodland. Border Terriers were bred to be ratters and go into holes after foxes during the "hunt." Earth Dog simulates a similar experience by building tunnels for the dogs to go in and rats (in a cage) at the end of the tunnel for the dogs to "work." "Working the rats" means the dog digs and barks at the caged rats for a specific period of time. Lola is in the intro division. She went right for the tunnel and the rats but didn't make a peep and therefore didn't pass. I'm not complaining at her lack of barking however.

The Punkin Patch

The punkin patch was actually the brain child of my sister. I still don't know if Josh is a fan of the name but I guess its a little too late now. So the punkin patch it is.

We've had a couple little punkins with us in the past few months, punkins of the four legged kind. First were rescue kitties Ben and Stuart. Josh found them under a bridge under a creek at work. They were between 2-3 weeks old. Ben and Stuart lived with us for five weeks before going to their permanent home with my newlywed sister and brother in law.

After Brieanne and Brandon picked up the kitties we brought Lola home to live with us. Lola is a 10 month old border terrier and loves being a crazy girl running around the house with her squeaky ball and playing with puppy pal Ruby at the dog park. So for me, going from a no pet home to three pets in six weeks was a little crazy.