Introducing...SEEGER!

Well after four days of calling him everything from "Pooch" to "Mischief," the new puppy finally has a real name. In honor of one of our favorite activists and musicians our new puppy is named Seeger (for Pete Seeger). He's really an amazing little guy, very smart and curious. He already sits pretty consistently and we're working on "down" now. I think "stay" will be harder, because he's my little shadow. He follows me everywhere, which is kind of nervewracking because I'm trying to do my regular chores plus make sure he's not piddling (or worse) when I'm not looking. The good news is that he loves his crate, and doesn't complain when we put him in there to go out for a short while. His worst problem is that he's extremely nippy, and he's made both kids cry at one time or another. It's hard for them to understand that it takes time for the puppy to grow out of that behavior. I try to make sure to say to the dog, "You aren't allowed to hurt my son!" so that even though the dog doesn't understand, Ben sees that he's still higher in the pecking order than the dog. He's really good about using the bathroom outdoors, although we of course are still having some accidents. Thank heaven for Nature's Miracle! Knock on wood, but so far we've only had to get up once in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip. He takes about three or four naps a day (usually pretty quick ones) and sleeps from about 10:30 until 6am. Not too bad. I hope it keeps up! Anyway, here are some photos for you, and I hope to find some time to scrap them soon. Thanks for sharing our joy!

Home. Glad. Tired.

So, this was not the big wonderful birthday extravaganza I was hoping for. First of all, the trip out there was nightmarish as far as traffic went. It's supposed to be about a 4 hour drive. We left mid-morning on Thursday and got caught in some hellacious traffic on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn due to construction. Once we got out of that it was time to find some lunch and...nothing. We were driving through the middle of nowhere and ended up going ridiculously out of our way to get some nasty fast food. But then, when we though it was smooth sailing, we hit a huge snarl-up somewhere along I-78 that only allowed us to travel 10 miles in just over an hour and a half. What caused such a major traffic tangle, you ask? A horrendous accident? The Presidential motorcade? Barry Bonds in roid rage? No. Evidently it was a large, invisible elephant in the middle of the highway, because we never did see what the problem was (I'm assuming they managed to move it off to the side of the road by the time we got there because we did not, in fact, slam into an invisible, fleshy wall at any point.) So yeah, you get what I'm saying that the trip up was slightly less fun than a root canal. Seven hours after leaving home, we arrived at our hotel. But that was only half the trouble. See, Ben is not really big on getting things his way because he has a big pushy sister. It was hard for him to assert himself when he was offered his choice of things to do. He got a little freaked out and couldn't really make up his mind, so Rebecca tended to jump in and try to control things, a per usual. Also everyone (but most especially Ben) was still utterly wiped from our week in Mass. Neither kid has had a decent night's sleep since before we went to camp. Last night was our only "early" night of the trip and that was a 10:30 bedtime. Ben was having meltdown after meltdown. Just to be fair and balanced, I have to mention three awesome parts of the trip, two of which involve food, naturally. First, the new water park inside Hershey is WICKED. I sat back and watched, but the kids absolutely had the BEST time there. Thumbs way, way up. Also, we had a wonderful time traipsing around the Plain and Fancy Farm in Lancaster, and we had the most amazing family-style Amish meal there: fried chicken, ham, turkey, sausages, all kinds of sides including the best corn on the cob I've ever tasted, and mouth-watering pies for dessert. And finally, Ben was tickled when the waiter at the Texas Roadhouse brought out the little saddle for him to sit on and then announced to the entire restaurant that it was Ben's birthday. We all did a big YEE-HAW for him, which he loved. But, that being said, I have to confess that I am completely and totally happy to have it over with and be in my own house for a good long while. I need to get some sleep, because starting tomorrow I'll have to take little Carlos/Buddy/Arlo/PuppyDog Simon out to piddle in the middle of the night. Fun fun.

Aaaaaand, we're off again

Can you believe this nonsense? We're leaving AGAIN tomorrow, this time to take the kids to Hershey Park to celebrate Ben's 6th birthday. After all, Rebecca got a pretty big celebration this year, so Ben should get a nice hooraw as well. :D Personally, I plan on eating my way through a large part of the park. We get back Sunday, then leave on Monday to pick up our pup. The pups' owner called to tell us that they did some rearranging of the pups after the stud dog owner decided he didn't want one of them. So instead of Chase, we'll be bringing home Cesar. Ben is excited because that was his favorite, and I have several photos of him holding Cesar during our last visit. He wants to keep the name Cesar so he and the dog can watch the Dog Whisperer together, and Ben can say, "That's your name, Cesar!" Silly kid. I don't know what his name will be yet, but it definitely won't be Cesar. Ben also likes the name Carlos, for Carlos Beltran (his favorite Mets player), Rebecca is stuck on the name Buddy, and I'm pushing for Arlo. Dan tends to back out of the name discussions because he wants to wait and see what the dog's personality is like before choosing a name. Also, I think he's already puppied out a bit. We do tend to talk about it a lot. So I'm back to the laundry and the packing. Oh, and the present wrapping since we're going to let Ben open his gifts tonight. See you on Monday! and here is my layout that I did for the Peppermint Creative "Digital's Next Top Scrapper" competition. The theme was "something someone does that drives you nuts" and the technique challenge was to use a quote. Don't tell Dan I did this.

I've returned from the wild!

I'm just dying to get my hands on some mascara, dude. A week looking like a grunge monster is NOT good for the old ego. But I have to tell you, those kids totally LOVED my scrapbooking projects. We made a mini book and an explosion card, both of which can be found in the Scrap Rally forum at 123-Scrap.com. I think next year I'll go for the full August session (3 weeks) with a bunch more projects. Rebecca enjoyed being with her group, called the Inters, and she spent the night in the bunk with Dan and me. I think next year we'll let her stay in the kids' bunk. I'm not crazy about her being away from home for three weeks, but as long as I'm at camp too it'll be okay. Ben's group was called the Starfish, and there were three of them (all age 5). They were a riot. Photos to come. The bad news? I came home with a new obsession--knitting. The other arts & crafts teacher taught me a few basics, and I learned more by watching some online videos. The coolest yarn shop around here is closed today, but I think I'll hit it tomorrow and start shopping for yarn and needles and such. Today? Well, I thought we'd be chillin' in the pool after a week of lake swimming, but it's a rainy day. Instead we'll be heading to Petco to stock up on all the stuff we'll need when we bring our puppy home in exactly one week! The puppies' owner called me last night; the puppy tester was there while we were away and determined that Chase was the best puppy for our family's needs. The cool thing is, we got several photos of Chase during our last visit there. So that's exciting. Off to shower and slather on some makeup and perfume! MAN! I'll feel like a woman...