Quinn can run like the wind, and will chase a soccer ball as long as you're willing to kick it. Most of the time he does not catch the ball though, or even remotely want to bring it back to you. Then today I discovered that if you drop kick the soccer ball for Quinn, he will catch it in midair every time. Sometimes it hits the ground and bounces back up, but he still catches it on the rebound. Amazing...the velocity of the drop kicked soccer ball is probably twice as much as when I just kick it around with him, but for some reason Quinn digs on the tooth knockout potential a whole lot more.
I really like it when Quinn and Lily are both leaping into the air at the same time to catch the ball and crash into each other. Total two stooges moments!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
no...more...rain...
Augh! It's going to be a long winter if I'm feeling trapped indoors already. Normally this time of year is just about my favorite, but this time around it pretty much sucks. Basically for the reason that rain plus lots of leaves plus energetic dogs and kid makes for a big mess. We absolutely have to let the dogs out for a run for about 45 minutes to an hour every day, rain or shine, or else they will tear the house apart. You would not believe what I have to go through to clean those two furballs up when we get back in the house. Thank goodness all I have to do for Milo is take off his muddy shoes and lift him over the gates in the kitchen, and he can go take off his coat and wash his own hands. There is a much more involved ritual when it comes to Quinn and Lily.
Before we even go out into the wet wilderness, I have to put gates up in the kitchen, and put towels down on the floor, in preparation for our hairy, smelly return. Milo and the dogs always come back in the house through the doggie door, so the towels catch most of the mud and crud. I take care of Milo while two wet dogs are winding around my legs, eagerly anticipating their rubdown. The two of them love being toweled off so much that they both sit perfectly still and offer one leg up to me at a time. (It took me ages to teach Lily the importance of hygiene, but Quinn caught on really quickly.) After their feet and bellies get cleaned off, then I dry off the rest of their mangy selves. Finally, I hop over the gates and take off my own shoes and jacket, and then move the gates so the dogs can have a bigger area of the kitchen to roam around in while they dry off the rest of the way. No way are those hounds allowed on the furniture while they're damp. The towels get thrown downstairs and I have to get out fresh ones for the next go-round. We go through at least four towels a day, when the weather is like this. We actually have more "dog towels" than we do good bath towels!
During all of this nonsense, Monet usually wanders in from somewhere and then takes off outside, which makes the dogs chase her out in the patio, so then they get all wet all over again. Argh!
The other reason I'm getting really tired of this wet weather is the stoopid wet leaves. I have to physically remove the leaves from the patio with the snow shovel, while they're still wet. Otherwise going on poop patrol is like a disgusting easter egg hunt. When the leaves are all over the place, more often than not, I find the poop by stepping on it because it's hidden under some leaves. Then I jump away to scrape the crap off my shoe and step in more crap. Plus I have to worry about Milo stepping in crap more so than usual. (He's a total crap magnet. If we don't clean up the poop as soon as possible, Milo inevitably steps in it, no matter where in the yard it is.) Yep, it's a real thrill a minute, when it's rainy in the fall.
Before we even go out into the wet wilderness, I have to put gates up in the kitchen, and put towels down on the floor, in preparation for our hairy, smelly return. Milo and the dogs always come back in the house through the doggie door, so the towels catch most of the mud and crud. I take care of Milo while two wet dogs are winding around my legs, eagerly anticipating their rubdown. The two of them love being toweled off so much that they both sit perfectly still and offer one leg up to me at a time. (It took me ages to teach Lily the importance of hygiene, but Quinn caught on really quickly.) After their feet and bellies get cleaned off, then I dry off the rest of their mangy selves. Finally, I hop over the gates and take off my own shoes and jacket, and then move the gates so the dogs can have a bigger area of the kitchen to roam around in while they dry off the rest of the way. No way are those hounds allowed on the furniture while they're damp. The towels get thrown downstairs and I have to get out fresh ones for the next go-round. We go through at least four towels a day, when the weather is like this. We actually have more "dog towels" than we do good bath towels!
During all of this nonsense, Monet usually wanders in from somewhere and then takes off outside, which makes the dogs chase her out in the patio, so then they get all wet all over again. Argh!
The other reason I'm getting really tired of this wet weather is the stoopid wet leaves. I have to physically remove the leaves from the patio with the snow shovel, while they're still wet. Otherwise going on poop patrol is like a disgusting easter egg hunt. When the leaves are all over the place, more often than not, I find the poop by stepping on it because it's hidden under some leaves. Then I jump away to scrape the crap off my shoe and step in more crap. Plus I have to worry about Milo stepping in crap more so than usual. (He's a total crap magnet. If we don't clean up the poop as soon as possible, Milo inevitably steps in it, no matter where in the yard it is.) Yep, it's a real thrill a minute, when it's rainy in the fall.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Curious George moment
Milo loves to help me cook. He really loves it when we make stuff that involves the big stand mixer, because I let him turn it on and do the mixing. Normally this is no problem because the control lever on the mixer is really hard to push from setting to setting. Tonight we were mixing up batter for a coffee cake for breakfasts, and we had all the ingredients in the mixer bowl waiting to be mixed. The most prominent ingredient was flour, of course. So Milo turns on the mixer and instead of just pushing it one notch to stir, he managed to get it all the way on high. You can imagine the mess that followed. Thank goodness it was mostly flour!
Of course I was standing right over the mixer so most of the crud went on me before it found its way to the floor, the walls and the table. Luckily for Milo, I am in a good mood today so my reaction was just to crack up laughing. He turned off the mixer as fast as he could and said "Uh oh. Am I going to get yelled at?" I said "No, but maybe next time control yourself and your immense strength when you're turning this thing on." Then Milo asked me if Daddy was going to say "What did you do to the mixer?" and I said "Probably not, but he's going to laugh when I tell him this story." Milo said "Whew!!" and then helped me clean up by staying in one spot and not spreading the mess around even more. Later, after I was de-floured and the kitchen was back to its normal, Milo was talking on the phone to Aunt Heather and he told her that he turned the mixer on low blast and the flour went pffffffttttt everywhere.
No, I did not take any pictures of this moment, though I should have. At the time, all I could think about was getting the mess off the floor at least, so the dogs wouldn't be rolling in it, plus I wanted to get the dang cake in the oven, already.
Of course I was standing right over the mixer so most of the crud went on me before it found its way to the floor, the walls and the table. Luckily for Milo, I am in a good mood today so my reaction was just to crack up laughing. He turned off the mixer as fast as he could and said "Uh oh. Am I going to get yelled at?" I said "No, but maybe next time control yourself and your immense strength when you're turning this thing on." Then Milo asked me if Daddy was going to say "What did you do to the mixer?" and I said "Probably not, but he's going to laugh when I tell him this story." Milo said "Whew!!" and then helped me clean up by staying in one spot and not spreading the mess around even more. Later, after I was de-floured and the kitchen was back to its normal, Milo was talking on the phone to Aunt Heather and he told her that he turned the mixer on low blast and the flour went pffffffttttt everywhere.
No, I did not take any pictures of this moment, though I should have. At the time, all I could think about was getting the mess off the floor at least, so the dogs wouldn't be rolling in it, plus I wanted to get the dang cake in the oven, already.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Santa, if you're listening.....
Milo is a huge fan of what he calls "blow-ups," as in the huge gaudy things that are made out of nylon and generally clutter up many a front lawn whether they're inflated or not. Yesterday we went on a three store blow-up tour. I needed to get some shopping done and the promise of looking at blow-ups was the bribe I used to get Milo in the truck. This one at Lowe's is far and away the most favorite of them all (and we saw a lot of blow-ups). Santa, if you're listening, please bring this for Milo for Christmas!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
My boys
Sometimes Milo gets to "drive" the Nova, when Corey is backing it out or putting it back into the garage. Clearly, Milo enjoys every second of it, and enhances the car's engine noise with his own. My boys love their race car!
What a mess!!!
This is just a small sample of the destruction our lovely Lily can cause when she's left by herself with nothing to do. Milo and I came home from an hour or two of grocery shopping and walked in the door to this. It was not a happy homecoming that evening. Lily put herself in time out right away, and stayed there even though it was really chilly outside.So, based on Lily's behavior, and the fact that the Obamas are looking for a dog, Corey and I have decided to offer to donate our Lily to be the presidential Barack-xer. She's sweet, affectionate, hypoallergenic and an excellent recycling machine. What more could they ask for? The only drawback to the plan is that we'll probably all end up in Guatanamo when Lily snatches some important presidential treaty out of the oval office and leaves it looking like this.....
Runs With Scissors
Well...not yet he doesn't. Milo is avidly learning to use his scissors to cut stuff up. The other day Milo desperately needed something to do so I could get some stuff done in the kitchen. I handed him his scissors and a pile of construction paper scraps. Half an hour later, the dishes were washed and I had a large pile of confetti to sweep up off the floor. Milo was concentrating so hard on holding the scissors the right way, and figuring out how to hold the paper at the same time, I just had to capture the moment on film. He's getting pretty good at cutting straight lines, but we still need to work on curves.
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