Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Sad Days

Well, today was one of those days that doesn't quite go like you plan.  This morning I was putting our 3 1/2 year old lab, Jack, back in his kennel after his morning potty break.  I grabbed him by the collar from behind him (bad form for a dog owner), and he whipped around and bit me--hard, on both hands.  Ryan ended up putting 20+ stitches in my hands, and my function is somewhat limited for a couple of days.  My right hand especially is pretty swollen and tender, but I learned to type one-handed in all my years of nursing babies and working on the computer at the same time, so I can still do some things.  I'm just a bit slower that way.  Unfortunately, this is not the first time Jack has shown signs of aggressive behavior, and we have hoped he would grow out of it, or that we could train it out of him, but that has not been successful.  At this point Ryan decided we would just have to put him down.   So, this afternoon Ryan took both dogs down to the Humane Society--Jack to be euthanized and Jill to go up for adoption.  Jill never showed the aggression, but we just don't have the time to really train her to be a good family dog right now with everything else going on.  Plus, the girls never really loved her because she's so rambunctious and jumps up on them, so they wouldn't walk her or play with her.   Anya is the most sad of all the girls because Jack was her Birthday dog when she turned 1.  As Ryan tucked her in tonight they were talking about Jack being put to sleep and she said, "I wish this was a dream and not real life."   Ryan is in the depths of despair--he had dreams of Jack being his garage buddy and bird hunting dog for many years to come.  A few things to be grateful for with all of this--Jack bit me and not one of the girls; the girls are home for spring break, so they can really help out for a few days until I regain most of my function; it wasn't a busy work day for Ryan, so he won't get behind after not doing much work all day.  So the timing was good, even if I never would have chosen the experience.    

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Photo Booth

On our Mac, we have a fun feature called Photo Booth, which is basically a built-in web cam.  The girls love to sit in front of the computer and take pictures of themselves with all sorts of cool and interesting effects.  Here's a sampling.







Getting so Big!

Paisley is growing up so fast!  She climbs on everything and anything, and can open drawers and doors now, too, thanks to lever door handles.   This morning she climbed/fell out of her bed. I heard here awake and fussing, but was still half asleep and couldn't get myself out of bed, until I head the "Thud."  I went in and found that the same sound had pulled Lexi out of bed, and she beat me to pick up Paisley.  I realized that the crib was only on the 2nd lowest setting, so I can drop it another inch lower, so hopefully that will buy me a few more months in her crib.  I was debating whether to put the crib up in our new house, or move her to a bed at that point.  I guess I'll be lucky if I can keep her in the crib until the end of the summer!
  Here she is sitting on Ryan's desk next to the microscope, where she found a chocolate treat. She seems to have a built in radar for chocolate.  A few short minutes after getting her down from this precarious perch, we found her on the stairs, also with someone's chocolate bar.

She found both Lexi's and Sierra's candy drawer and regularly raids those. 
She is also developing quite a little vocabulary.  She can say Hi, Momma, Dad, Di-da (for Christa or sister), shoe, juice, woof (for dog), more, and night-night.  At least we think she says all that.  She has had a poor snotty nose and diaper rash this week, and is cutting 4 molars (one has broken the surface), so she's been a bit out of sorts this week. 

Sunday, March 15, 2009

San Francisco



Last weekend Ryan and I spent a couple of days in San Fran for the American Academy of Dermatology Conference.  He goes most every year (last year I was in the hospital having Paisley so we missed it) to shake hands and bring in some new clients for his practice.  We were able to squeeze in a visit to Muir Woods, just over the Golden Gate Bridge, and Stinson Beach, a trolley ride to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square with a view of Lombard Street in passing, and dinner and shopping for trinkets for the girls in Chinatown.  It was fun to be in a big city again--I love the vibrancy and the culture that comes with a real city.  But I'm always happy that I'm living in a bit more sheltered town here in Boise.  I helped out in Ryan's booth on the tradeshow floor, where it is always interesting to people watch.  Walking along the streets of San Fran we noticed a few scraggly men shaking their cups and asking for donations-some playing music, others just hoping people would drop in some change.  We mused that our activities in town weren't all that different, we just have a nicer backdrop.  Maybe next year we'll bring along the violin and just have the case open in front of our booth, "Biopsies to spare, anyone?"    The girls were well taken care of here at home, and it was nice to have a couple of days break, even though we were working.