School's out!

I'm in desperate need of a blog-a-thon to get caught up but somehow it's not hitting the priority list. I need the relaxation from blogging more than you need to hear about our life so I'll try to snatch it in little snippets and catch up in bits and pieces--maybe in no particular order!


School got out almost 3 weeks ago! We're so excited to have Hayley around more during the summer and she sure is ready for the break! But before we get too carried away with summer fun...here's a quick catch up on a few school related events that happened April-June.

The Book Parade. I thought this was a really fun idea! The kids came dressed as their favorite character from a book then carried the book as they paraded around the school grounds.

Maya and Alice helped me cheer our little princess along! (I must confess that when I first talked to Hayley about who she could be I had high hopes of a more classic and literate character...but I had to admit...we had a book that had Cinderella in it and we had the costume so I guess she qualifies! Someday we will dress up as something besides princesses, right?!?!)





The School Arts Festival. Hayley tried out to be in the annual arts festival and made it. She recited two poems about mice...so dressed the part too! I forgot to take a cute picture outside so this is what I got in the school gym.

They set out the mats and we brought picnic lunches to watch the show. It was a cute program and good experience. It surprised me that my little confident actress actually got a little scared up there. But with mom prompting from the wings she did great and loved the lime light!

As a child I attended British school. At one point I took diction lessons with one other girl. We would memorize poetry and learn to present it "properly". I guess because of that experience I like to teach the kids fun poems. Hayley has a talent for learning them faster than me! Here's the two she performed...maybe you can try teaching your kids if it sounds fun. (Hint: We tape them up in the kitchen and practice while we eat meals). A favorite poetry book that we check out from the library from time to time is "Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young" selected by Jack Prelutsky.

Mice
by Rose Fileman

I think mice are rather nice.

Their tails are long,
Their faces small,
They haven't any
Chins at all.
Their ears are pink,
Their teeth are white,
They run about
The house at night.
They nibble things
They shouldn't touch
And no one seems
To like them much.

But I think mice
Are nice.

Good Neighbors
by May Justus

A little old woman
And a little old mouse
Live in the very same
little old house
She rocks in a corner,
He scampers in the wall,
And they never, never get
in each other's way at all.




Eating lunch with Hayley. This isn't really a one time event but I did remember to take pictures one time. We love going to eat lunch with Hayley. The school lets us come any time we want. I tried to make it once a week--helps me keep up to date with current friends and chat with teachers. Maya and Alice love carrying their lunch boxes in and eating with the big kids.





"Around the World" Fashion Show. Another cute event that the school held. Hayley wore my old school uniform and represented England. It was a fun and well organized event with cute kids dressed up, a few classes learned some ethnic dances, and the MC spouted out interesting and funny facts about the various countries throughout the show.

My Mini-Me

Before...

During...

After...

We're twinners!

How many more times is my little girl really going to tell me that she wants her hair the same as mine?!? And that she'll let me cut it even though I tell her I don't know what I'm doing! Brave kid. It turned out darling (if you don't look too close!)...but then she'd be a cutie no matter what!

It's a Girl!

Millie Messick

(a.k.a. "Silly Millie" when she's in trouble!)

60 lbs

3 years old

Yellow Labrador/Golden Retreiver Mix

Our first family picture with Millie. This was at the foster family's home when we picked her up on Thursday, June 4th.

On the way to her new home...

Now this is what life now looks life in our house!

Kids playing happily, (Alice climbing on the table--always climbing on something), dog quietly chewing her bone, Dad and Mom kicking their feet up while listening to happy giggles from the basement!

Really?!? Well, Millie is a pretty great dog. She's really mellow and more patient with Alice than I am! Nothing seems to phase her and it's amazing that Alice hasn't gotten her hand nipped or worse. She has definitely deserved it! I'm grateful that we don't have to worry about the kids with her! She knows several commands already and seems really teachable.

But...it is definitely an adjustment for all...especially me! I really like her and am learning to enjoy rubbing her tummy. But I admit that it is just one more body to trip over and clean up after. It rained non-stop the first two days that we had her and she had a day or so of struggling with house training (yuck!) so we were taking her out a lot. The house smelled like wet-dog and potty accidents and I couldn't stop sweeping up hair (they say she's shedding a lot right now for summer...hope it's true and it slows down). So if I burn candles all the time and vacuum even more than normal I can just about handle it. Luckily we picked her up on Thursday so Ryan's been home a lot to help with the adjustment period.

Nothing we didn't expect...I think we're going to make it. I just can't imagine doing this if the dog was any less perfect than Millie is!

Hayley is in heaven! She has such a natural knack with animals and is doing really well helping play with and train Millie. She has thanked us over and over for getting a dog!

Maya has warmed up to Millie really quickly and loves combing her hair. I'm sure it won't be long before she has bows and barettes in her hair! At least she's a girl!

This was the best shot I got with Alice...that kid just doesn't hold still! Alice loves to grab Millie's face, honk her nose, put her hand in her mouth, feed her any food Alice has and who knows what else?!?! At times Alice seems jealous of Millie which is kind of funny. She's had to do a couple time outs for hurting Millie. Hopefully she'll learn soon! Millie on the other hand didn't take long to figure out who to go stand next to during meal times. Alice just hand feeds her everything on her plate if we're not watching. So, for now, Millie gets gated out of the kitchen when we're eating. What an adventure!

Out kitchen work space area is about 5 feet by 5 feet. Perfect when it's just me in there. But today we had to laugh! Ryan was making cookies with the 3 girls. I walked in to get food for Alice. Millie followed and before we knew it no one could move. Imagine Ryan in the little space on the left. And that's before you open the dishwasher to do dishes. One of her favorite spots to lay so far is right in front of the fridge which causes all sorts of problems when we're trying to get food made and on the table! We're still figuring out how to work in the kitchen with a dog. For now the gate is my friend!

All in all....welcome home Millie! We're so glad that you seem so happy to just watch our chaos and hope we all get to make lots of fun memories together!

A Moment in my Mother's shoes!

I remember my mom saying to me..."just you wait until you are a mom" or "when you're a mom you can do it however you want!"

Funny how now that I'm that mom, I think incredibly like my mom did back then!

This is Taffy's mom...and Taffy is in that pile of puppies somewhere!

Taffy was a puppy we got when I was 6 or 7 years old. We had moved to England the year before and lived out in the country with a huge backyard.

Of course with 4 kids under 8, I'm confident that we did the fun cuddling and playing and mom did the hard puppy work.

When they gave her back to the dog farm a year later I couldn't seem to understand but of course I wasn't the one that...

-had baby #5 two months after adding a puppy to the chaos!

-had to house train a high energy puppy while potty training a 2 year old and holding a newborn!

-had my house destroyed time and time again!

-cried after my dog ate half of a beautiful cake I had spent all day making for Valentines day!

-cleaned up throw up in the back of the station wagon every time we had to take the dog somewhere in the car! (I still remember the smell!)

-if we chose not to take Taffy with us (like on one of the three 1 hour round trips into town each day for school runs) we had to risk the evil neighbors coming and beating her to death! Seriously, these neighbors--the Mulligans--were out of a movie! They hated Taffy!

Those are just a few of the things I remember...I'm sure mom could write her own book to rival Marley & Me!

Our family was probably a bad fit right from the start--just not enough time and energy to devote to a dog with so much energy and enthusiasm. But from my little 7 year old heart, giving Taffy back was like giving up one of my siblings. I'm quite sure my vocal little self didn't hesitate to let my mom know how mean I thought she was. I'm quite certain I made many emotional and cruel accusations as I fought for Taffy to stay. I can just hear myself saying "would you get rid of me?!"

For that...I'm truly sorry mom. Your efforts to succeed with Taffy were more valiant than I can imagine! I will hold onto the hope that as my children scream bitterly at me someday...that 25 years later we'll see eye to eye and I may even get an apology!

This brings me to a confession...

I now have my own 6 year old daughter. And of course, she desperately wants a dog. She is even giving up some of her toys for our future "dog Messick."

Laugh, mom, laugh! I deserve it!

I feel the need to justify and explain the long and painful path that has led us to our current search for the perfect dog for our family....because I know what most of you are thinking!

• I don't pretend to even begin to understand Hayley's passion for animals or her need to connect with non-human life. I thought I loved dogs as a girl but as an adult I must admit there is not one bit of attraction towards dogs left in me! As my Mom used to say "I raise children not dogs!" When a dog comes up to me I have to fight the urge to put my hand in my pocket...pet a dog?!?! Yuck!

• Ryan and I have held a united front for years on this issue. We have all the reasons clearly down pat and regularly go through our arguments against and Hayley's arguments for a dog.
  
• One big argument is the size of our house...someday when we get a bigger house with a bigger yard we'll think about it. But in the current housing market situation (we're stuck!) Hayley may have her own 6 year old by the time that happens!
  
• The arguments coming from the 6 year old gallery have intensified in recent months. I thought they'd play out like they always have before. We'd fight the battle over and over until it eventually subsided for a while. But in the heat of one battle Ryan quietly admitted to me that he "kinda wanted a dog too." I knew from that moment that I was toast!

But I take full responsibility. I realize that this dog will fall into my care more than anyone else's so I better be on board. I started finding all the pros of having a dog...it was hard at first.

For now we'll say at the top of the list is a hope that this will fill a need for Hayley and maybe help ground her in a way that we aren't able to...if you know Hayley well, you may understand that...if not, trust me--after all, I'm the mom! I guess it's amazing what you'll do for your kids!

So for the past month we have spent countless hours pouring over breed books and learning all sorts about temperament testing. This past week we began visiting local animal shelters and today we spent several hours at adoption events. Our goal is to get a dog with a calm temperament that isn't a puppy (although those puppies are so dang cute!!!) It's a little adictive and somewhat fun but overwhelming to hand-pick our next family member.

We bore our friends constantly with our "dog talk" right now. But if you care two cents about dogs and want to know: breeds we've considered seriously but that are ruled out at this point are beagles and king charles spaniels. Our current favorite is yellow labradors (larger than we first wanted but with the right child-friendly and potential obedience qualities). We're open to advice on breed and temperament!

What do the kids think about this new pursuit?

-Hayley: has been surprisingly patient with what a long process this is. She asks regularly if "we're ever going to get a dog!" She also begs to do chores constantly to save money up for our dog. I have to be honest...it's wearing me out to have to come up with chores for her all the time but I'm glad that she's willing to work for a dog.

-Maya: just wants a "sweet" dog. To her "sweet" dogs come when you call them and don't bite. She fell in love with a little Chihuahua at the shelter and even though we told her someone else was going to get that dog she now wants to name whatever dog we get "Chihuahua" and with the cute way she says it I could almost agree.

-Alice: thinks she's in heaven getting licked by dogs. She gets so excited to go see all these dogs and isn't the least bit scared or intimidated.

Where am I in this process???

Surprisingly excited. As we meet new dogs I find myself really trying to get to know them. I even pet them for long periods of time (thankgoodness for hand sanitizer when we get back to the van!) I think dogs, imagine a dog in my life, and even dream about dogs right now. Part of me wants to hurry up and find one so I can get on with other stuff! (whatever...I'll be training and cleaning up after a dog from here on out!)

When we first started these discussions I dreaded having another body in my house all the time...but now I am actually looking forward to the potential companionship. So hopefully this is a good sign. Now if I could just stop getting emotionally attached to dogs that other people end up getting this would be so much easier. But hopefully we'll have an exciting announcement in the next month or so...

We're Going on a Worm Hunt...

Ever read this book? It's a favorite in our house. Such great repetition and rhyme that the kids end up reading it with us even if they can't read!

Well, in honor of a very rainy week in our part of the world and to ward off some fast approaching grumps, we went on our own "worm hunt". Yesterday, we hadn't left the house all day and Hayley was suffering from two straight days of no recess. Dad was getting home late and so I locked the door on the messy house and forgot about the fact that dinner wasn't made. Put my grumpy unwilling kids in boots and started singing silly songs and marching along the sidewalk like a crazy mom. Within a few minutes I had a willing army of happy worm hunters. An hour later I had to drag them all into the house equally unwilling as when we tried to leave. Guess the idea was a hit!

We're going on a worm hunt,
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day
We're not scared!

(go worm-hunters!)
(and you're cute too Alice, even if you don't have rain boots!)

Oh Oh!
A sidewalk.
A slippery slide-y sidewalk.
We can't go over it
We can't go under it
We have to go through it...

Left, Right...
Left, Right Left!

We're going on a worm hunt,
We're going to catch a big one
What a beautiful day
We're not scared!

Oh Oh!
A puddle.
A deep wet puddle.
We can't go over it
We can't go under it
We have to go through it...

Splishy, Splashy!
Splishy, Splashy!

The happy worm hunters displaying their catch! (Maya didn't want to touch it so she carried a worm all the way home on the arm of her coat)

They even had fun watching one of the worms split itself and I was reminded again how much I don't know when they asked me about the biology of how that happens and how the worm is still alive? Home to research so I can answer these important questions...

Seasons

I'm so grateful for the seasons! It always feels so good to slip into a cozy warm sweater in fall when the air finally feels cool again. And as summer approaches my toes are so excited to reunite with flip flops and have more freedom again!

It's so easy to complain about the weather. We all do it. But right now I'm enjoying the teasing nature of spring. Last week we got a little taste of summer...

Maya has been asking me for the last month if it's hot enough to run through sprinklers and I keep telling her not quite yet. So when we hit the 90's and were still in April I was a little shocked, but couldn't really say no to swim suits and sprinklers anymore!

But alas, it was just a little taste of things to come....today we enjoyed slipping back into those ever so fun boots and splashing in puddles with clothes on!

Museum-ing with the kids

I'm slowly getting back into the swing of entertaining and engaging the mind of a preschooler. I used to do so much with Hayley when she was Maya's age and I'm getting back into the groove of it again. It's such a fun age...they are just little sponges! Maya is more of a homebody but is slowly getting less stressed-out in crowded areas.

A week or so ago we hit the downtown scene with some friends while Hayley was at school. I love the American History Museum...by far my favorite Smithsonian! Such a variety of displays to check out. And now that they've added two awesome kids science-y areas we are just in heaven there!

This was the winning picture of the day! I left Maya arranging these shapes in mirrors while I chased Alice and came back to find her entertaining herself with funny faces! What a cute little goose!

So many other cool activities but I only pulled out my camera now and then!

I love all these hands on learning things! We could have stayed so much longer but had to get home to pick up Hayley from school. She was such a great sport about missing out. I think leaving Hayley out is half the reason I don't ever want to plan fun things with Maya and Alice during the day but I'm learning to just get on with it. I did so much with Hayley when she was younger so she's really not "missing out" it's just her turn to do other things, right?!

And gotta get that shot of the car ride...after all that's half the fun...what kid wouldn't love chocolate chip cookies and a movie as you are magically beamed home?