The dog and cat officially met this morning. I’ve gotten myself into the habit (and have shin splints to prove it, thankyouverymuch) of waking at 5:45 each morning to take the dog on a walk. On our way out the door this morning, she came across the cat. Now, the dog is becoming increasingly comfortable in our house. She’s also become more comfortable eating the cat’s food. And taking the cat’s space on the floor. And stealing all the attention the cat once got (which, admittedly, was very little. She didn’t really like hanging out with us when the kids are up and about). I had a funny thought on the way to work this morning. I envision the cat pacing drill-sargeant style back and forth in front of the dog’s crate during the day while we’re all away from the house. I figure she’s laying down the law for the dog, as far as the cat is concerned. “Now, furball. Here’s the way it works. The humans don’t like it when we pee, poop, or puke on the floor. If you’d like to keep your happy home, I’d suggest you straighten up your act. They’re only going to fall for that crap they read in the dog-training book about your bladder being small and immature for a little while longer. And when they put you outside, for cryin’ out loud, don’t bark! I’ve been waiting to go outside for 9 years now, and they don’t let me, and there you are trying to wreck your perfect arrangement of spending expanses of unsupervised time in the backyard by howling, barking, and otherwise being stupid. The food in the hallway outside the kitchen is M-I-N-E mine. I’ve been kind and generous in sharing it with you the past couple of days, but now you’ve eaten it all and I’m starving. So. If that happens again, I’ll demonstrate upon your face what exactly you’re missing by not having dew claws.”

“Oh. And one more thing. The big comfy bed where the humans sleep? I have free reign to go there at any time of the day or night. You, on the other hand aren’t even allowed upstairs yet. So let’s not forget our place in this family. Capiche?”

Yay Spring!

The weather has turned nice again here the past couple of days. It has been wonderful to be outside with the kids and the dog. A has mastered 2-wheel bicycle riding, and when he's not on the bike, he's tearing around on his scooter. J is content to spend hours at a time on the swing. And the dog has to be the laziest puppy ever. Either that or she's collecting lots and lots of energy to use up later. Oh boy...

There are a few exciting things happening in our neighborhood this spring. Our neighbors on one side are here for their first spring and summer, so they're taking care of the outside of the house that has needed some TLC. They're newlyweds and it's fun to watch them planting flowerbeds together. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that D and I were newlyweds (read: without kids!), doing the same thing here at our house. Our neighbors on the other side are in the process of painting their house. All of the houses here on our part of the street are old homes. They're all sided with wood, and they have slate rooves. Quaint, but lots of work. Anyway. There's an army of grown kids, friends, boyfriends, and family members next door scraping the old paint off the house. They've been at it for several weekends in a row. Last night I was out in the yard with A, and he was looking thoughtfully at the neighbor's house. He very sincerely asked me, "Mom? How long do you think it will take our neighbors to un-paint their house?"

Big News...

A & J have a new playmate in the house. Her name is Annie. They are crazy about her. I think we’re just...well...crazy.

I’m always surprised by spring. I don’t know why...I’ve lived in a 4-season state my whole life and annually go through the extremes of temperatures. So the warm sunny days of April shouldn’t really come as a surprise to me. But they always do.

This fact became evident to me today as I was leaving the house, and again as I was leaving my school around noon. It was surprising to me that I didn’t really need a coat today. And it was surprising to walk out the door at school to feel warm breezes and sunshine. After months and months of cold, dreary, gray days, I guess I had become kind of conditioned to it and the warm spring air just took me by surprise. It’s a lovely fact of life in Ohio. But I’d really not want to live in a place where it stays warm all the time. Uh-uh. Not me. (And if anyone tells my husband that, I’ll make them pay...)

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Tonight at dinner A was done with his meal and was getting down from the table to go play...or take something apart...or watch this. D made him stop long enough to wipe his mouth off with a napkin. Not one to take the second it would require to get a clean napkin, A grabbed the one he had left on the table at breakfast. A one-inch section of the napkin stuck to the tablecloth, and the napkin ripped into pieces as he tried to pick it up. “Uh...yeah,” he says. “I had yogurt for breakfast. And waffles. With syrup.”

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Not that I advocate teaching toddlers to use language like this. But I absolutely laughed my a** off at this today. I sent the link to D, who said he had already seen it. He said he thought of sending it to me, but figured I would find it tasteless and shameful. Boy was he wrong.

Lovin' my Boys

I was digging through mountains of clothes this morning, continuing on the spring break spring cleaning rampage. D and A left for a bit, and when they came back, A proudly burst into the room where I was working and handed me a wrapped gift box with this inside. It’s my new addiction, and D has only himself to blame for it because he started me on it. So yay! A new spring Vera.

Thanks, guys!

(And just an update on that cleaning thing. This morning I took 3 garbage bags full of clothes to donate, another garbage bag and a box full of clothes to consignment, and I have 2 overflowing bags full of hand-me-downs for a girlfriend. I feel pretty darn good! I also feel like I ought to go through the kids’ stuff more frequently than every five years...)

Amen, sister!

Spring Break

...and in less than 24 hours, the temperature has dropped forty (!) degrees and the sun has disappeared. Can you say...depressing?

D took the rest of the week off work. We decided to “do something fun with the kids” today. After long debate and discussion over what exactly that would entail, we decided on geocaching and a possible visit to in-laws. Geocaching was impossible at the first try, and just too damn cold at the second try. In-laws weren’t home. So, all-in-all, not a terribly successful day. But we did eat a pretty good late lunch together and everyone managed to keep it mostly in control at the restaurant (adults and children!). A spied some little quarter vending machines near the door of the restaurant filled with candy and asked if he could get some on the way out. I think it’s here that I ought to mention that we refer to the contents of these vending machines as “shut-up toys” or “shut-up candy.” I think you get the idea. So we told him that if he ate a good lunch, no problem.

So, good lunch eaten and good behavior all around, A got his wish. He surveyed the line of machines and chose the little m&m-ish candies, only with peanut butter inside. After he got his handful of candy, he said, “MMMMMMMMM!! These taste like recess!”

Cheaper than Therapy

I’ve cleaned out two closets this morning. Like, reeeeeeeally cleaned them out. Threw stuff away, organized everything into bins, put everything back away in a nice, neat, organized fashion, and spent the remainder of the day wondering why we had 3 gi-normous EMPTY bottles of Tilex shower cleaner in the bathroom closet. I sent a HUGE pile of old coats and things to charity. I learned that our coat closet does, indeed, have a FLOOR. I decided that there is no longer any point to saving my twin extra-long sheets from college, since we have no twin extra-long people or beds in this house. I also organized all my stamps, inks, scissors and other geeky craft-type stuff.

Holy crap do I feel productive! I keep going into the bathroom and looking in the closet with its nice, neat sage-green bins of supplies and perfectly neat piles of nicely folded towels all stacked with the folds facing out...and wondering, “Whose bathroom closet IS this?”

I have only one thing to say:

He who makes a mess of my nice and neat newly-organized closets will pay. Dearly.

In case anyone is wondering, I’m on spring break this week. So is A. So he, J, and I have been hanging out enjoying the beautiful spring weather. This afternoon they ate their lunch in the treehouse part of our swingset, and they thought it was the best thing ever. It reminded me all over again how oftentimes the simplest parts of parenting are the most satisfying. I had only made them PBJ sandwiches with fruit and chips on the side...nourishment for the afternoon’s activities. But eating it in the treehouse made it very special, and they thought I was supermom.