San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

That’s Not Your Language

So Chester got in an argument with a guy sitting outside of Cafe 360 the other day. Yes, a human guy.

We were calmly taking a nice morning walk on Bardstown. It was early and not too many people were out yet, except a table of 3 enjoying breakfast (or maybe it was a late dinner, since they didn’t look very rested). We stopped near them, waiting for the crosswalk light to change.

And then it started. One of the guys began to quietly “woof.” Chester dutifully ignored it, but the guy continued with increasing fervor. Chester just looked at the barker with disdain, but finally it crossed the line and my dog let him have it.

Chester told him off, but he didn’t get angry. He didn’t pull the leash or lose control. He just stood by my side and calmly barked his loudest woof, putting that eating guy in his place.

And I would have fussed at him, but when a human starts barking at your dog, you kind of feel entitled to let your dog bark back… you know what I mean?

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

Snow Makes You Crazy!

We have icicles hanging off our eaves over our front walk. But these aren’t just icicles. They are killer-death icicles. You only have to look at them to know any moment one of those babies is going to let loose and come plunging down with skull-fracturing force. And did I mention it’s melting out? Because it is.

When I first realized the peril just outside our front door, I started plotting solutions to keep the residents of the Davis-Mossburg house safe. It turned out we were fresh out of hardhats, so that wasn’t an option. I tried to convince my husband to shovel a path across the lawn to bypass the icicle-killer-death path… but that wasn’t an option either.

And this is when things got crazy.

I started thinking about Chester and how good he was at jumping through the snow, making paths to find the perfect pooping spot. And a scheme was born. I decided Chester was just the candidate to blaze a trail through our front lawn so we could reach our cars in safety.

I snapped Chester’s leash on him, armed myself with a box of stale ‘Nilla Wafers as incentive and we set out to save the family.

Chester was pretty excited about those cookies, until I threw the first one into the snow bank. He looked at me like I was crazy. I couldn’t really blame him, since I don’t think I’d get too excited about plunging into 30 plus inches of snow, wearing nothing but a leash. However, to a Beagle, cookies are pretty exciting, so after I tossed in a couple more to sweeten the deal, he decided it was worth it.

I don’t think he ever quite figured out what I wanted of him, but as long as I kept throwing cookies into the snow, Chester kept after them. I tromped behind him, beating the path down even more, until we had a big arc, bypassing certain icicle death.

Clumping through the snow drifts, wearing my husbands big boots (one of which was leaking), holding a box of ‘Nilla Wafers in one hand and a leash in the other, I realized I had completely lost it. Completely. The snow had finally gone to my head, causing me to do the kind of ridiculous things that make the neighbors stare at you. One too many snow days had pushed me over the edge.

On the other hand, I’d rather be crazy than impaled by an icicle. So I guess I’ll embrace a little insanity, although Chester may think twice before he accepts another cookie.

Killer Death Icicles

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San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

So Different

It constantly amazes me how different my kids are from each other.  I know they were both made the same factory and cooked in the same oven, but the end results were polar opposites.

Usually, I consider Leah my easy baby and Isaiah my hard one.  Isaiah is super dramatic.  Something as simple as, “No, you can’t have a cookie,” can result in a complete meltdown.  He’s as intense about play as he is about complaining, so there’s always lots of screaming, throwing and wrestling going on.

Leah, on the other hand is calm and content.  She play on the floor for long stretches without needing any attention.  When I lay her down for bed, she whimpers a little, but quickly complies and goes to sleep on her own.

The one thing that Isaiah never has made a stink about is pain.  When he falls down, he gets up and brushes himself off like nothing happened.  Even when he was a baby and got his shots, the drama was over as soon as the needle was put away.

Pain, however is the one thing that makes Leah freak out.  Having such an easy baby throws us off when she does decide to assert her opinion about something.  We took Leah for her shots yesterday.  She took the actual event a lot harder than Isaiah ever did.  But it didn’t stop there.  We literally had to hold her the rest of the day.  Even though she was completely exhausted, she refused to let us lay her in bed.

The one thing my kids do agree on is that they like each other and they like their dog.

Isaiah likes to push Leah in her baby swing.  If she’s crying, he’ll tell her,  “You’re fine, Baby.”  And anytime Isaiah pays attention to her, Leah smiles from ear to ear.  You can tell that she thinks her big brother is the coolest thing ever!

They do have slightly different ways of showing their mutual affection for Chester.  Isaiah uses the tough love approach.  Pushing, tackling and shoving are his usual methods, but sometimes he does offer a hug or kiss.  However, Chester is so used to Isaiah wanting to roughhouse, that he is pretty hesitant to stand still for a kiss.

Leah’s love for Chester is a recent phenomenon, probably because she just discovered him.  She follows him around the room with her eyes, a huge grin on her face.  Unfortunately Chester has never really warmed up to her.  I think he’s still a little scared of her.  So if I let her touch his fur, he ends up walking away and sitting on the other side of the room.  He’s goofy.

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The Kids

Wow! Have we ever been busy! Lots of birthday parties and Christmas parties. Last night we had our youth Christmas party. We cleared out all the chairs in the sanctuary and put up a bounce house in there! It was pretty fun and of course Isaiah loved it.

Chester even had a birthday! He is a big 2 year old now (that’s 14 in dog years). He got some bones and a new collar. It is red and looks really nice against his dark fur. Surprisingly, he got really excited when we pulled out his presents. I don’t know how he understood, but he knew he was the center of attention and he loved it!

Isaiah is working on potty-training. I think he thinks a potty-TRAIN is some really cool train he gets for learning to go on the potty. He doesn’t volunteer when he has to go, so I just have to make him go every half hour or so. It’s pretty exhausting. And he refuses to poop on the potty… I think he is scared to do that. Being almost 3 is very traumatic!

Leah is such a girl… obviously! She is really sensitive about how we pick her up. If we don’t hold her close to our body as we lift her up, she gets upset. She doesn’t appreciate her head being bumped, even if it is a very gentle bump. If a bunch of people hold her, she has a meltdown when we get home. I don’t remember Isaiah doing any of those things. He took it all “like a man!”

Another thing I don’t remember Isaiah doing is smiling all the time. Leah loves to smile, laugh and talk. We’ll go in her room to get her out of bed and she give us a big grin. She smiles when we change her, she smiles when she is eating, she smiles when she is playing on the floor. She’ll even smile at any random person that is holding her. We love having such a happy baby!

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