My Dog's Cone of Silence

Well, I was off from work today (thank goodness). T called me at about 8am to check on the dog. Apparently, last night, Sydney chewed off of his splint. I'm sure you recall he has a broken leg. Tim re-wrapped the splint before he went to work this morning.

Well, I checked on Sydney at about 8am this morning. His splint was nearly off. I freaked out. The kind of freak out when something is so medically gross I can't even deal with it. T finds this state of mine extremely funny.

I thought that Sydney's leg was in really bad shape and he was trying to walk on it without the splint. I thought it would re-break again. Fortunately, it did not (or at least we think it didn't). So T told me to take the splint off (all the while E is on the potty having a marathon BM, wanting me to read books to her and Z is crying and generally tearing up the house).

So I take the splint off and call the vet's office to see if we can get Sydney in so that the leg can get re-splinted. Then came the real challenge (as if the morning wasn't challenging enough)...getting everyone to the vet's office. You know how the Marines say they do more before 6am than most people do all day.....

Two kids get into their car seats. I carry one 60 pound dog into the front seat of my car, white hair is everywhere. We arrive at the vets office. Thankfully I get a parking spot in front. Z is in the stroller and E is walking. I put them outside the vet's front door (only about 15 feet from me). And head back to the car to carry the dog to the front dog. We all make it inside and I attempt to calm a frenetic dog to try to keep him from putting weight on his broken leg. Needless to say, I was covered in dog hair.

Another $100 dollars later....we have the cone of silence dog. Complete with a new splint! All in all, I think Sydney is very happy to be home. The vet says we can have an x-ray at 4 weeks (2 weeks from now) to see if we can take the splint off.

That was all accomplished by 9:15 this morning. Then all we had to do was get showered and head to ballet lessons. What a hectic life we lead. But really, I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

My Mama Moment

I got home from work yesterday a bit late (a whole other story). The children and T were already home from spaghetti supper at church and were bouncing around the living room. Z was crawling in and out of the stroller (you can see him in the bottom right side of the picture).

When I walked in and he saw me he said "Mama!". And that just about made my heart melt. He had been saying mama for a long time. And recently I suspected that he had made the connection that my name was mama. But today was the first time that I was 100% confident that he called me mama. So T took this picture of my smiling face after Z said mama.

My Foray into Blogging (by Mr.T)

What does one do when Mrs. J goes out to dinner? Why take over blog duties of course! And boy do I have a fan club! We are enjoying the new year and Z is even helping out with cleaning the house- a new year's resolution we didn't know he made (as frequently we will find important things in our trash can cleanfully placed there by Z). He is an animal with the vacuum!

Martha eat your heart out!

And here is J and E and Z pretending he is Mr. Potato(e) head. He was told this morning not to eat any Mr. Potato's parts and he proudly defies our mandate.

Well thanks for your viewership whilst Mrs. J is having enchiladas and margaritas and swapping white elephant gifts (the horror!). I'll be back- enjoy those salads and don't forget to tip your wait staff.

My Husband's Polar Plunge

Two Saturday's ago, T went to the annual YMCA polar plunge, where you can jump in their pool. In January. The water was 56 degrees.


T went twice. The first time he sat up in the slides and went down into the water. The second time, he laid down and went so fast that he threw water over the edge of the slide. He said it was
pretty fast.

My Banana Pancakes

This morning we made banana pancakes. E helped me make them while standing on the step stool. Z loves to climb the step stool, so after we were done mixing the pancake mix, we took some pictures of the two kids on the step stool eating some bacon. Clearly Z had to be my child as he likes bacon. However, it's also clear that he is also T's child as Z likes eggs.

Z is really starting to talk now. He can say cheese, uh-oh, fishie, shoes, ma-ma, da-da, hello, bye bye and I think I heard him say sissy the other day, which is what we call E sometimes, and a few other things too. He has learned more signs: more, eat, please, all done, help, kitty, dog, sit down, down, etc. He loves to snuggle. If you are holding him and say "Love Mama" he will lay his head down on you. At school, they have given up the sippy cups and gone to regular cups. While T was picking Z up the other day, T saw Z drinking from a cup. So here is a picture of him with his new skill.

E is doing great at school. The kids do something called directional coloring, where I think the teacher tells the students to color certain parts of the picture with certain color crayons. She is very good at it and impresses me with how well she colors in the lines. I didn't think four year olds could do that as well as she does it. All her teachers love her and comment frequently on what a sweet girl she is.

T is doing well. He doesn't have a lot of call this month which is nice. Today we're going to the polar plunge at the YMCA. T will don his bathing suit and go down the big slide into the pool and it will be freezing. Our pool was about 50 degree the other day, so I can only imagine that the Y's pool is the same temp. This is the third time that T has done the plunge.

Next week I'm taking a SAS training class. SAS is a database management tool. That will be a valuable skill for me to learn.

Sydney is getting around on his three legs. Last night he chewed a bit at his splint, so we'll have to figure out how to keep him from chewing.

My Dog's Broken Leg

Yes, you read that correctly. Sydney broke his leg. T took the kids and the dog to the playground on Tuesday and Sydney was trying to jump up on the playground equipment. We think he got his toe caught and landed badly and broke his leg. Now he has to wear a splint for quite a few weeks. He is actually getting around better than I expected. He is certainly happy to be home.




Here is a shot of Sydney, taken from above him, while he is laying down.


And here is E in her spiderman PJs!

And here is Z who just finished a bowl of....you guessed it....spaghetti!

My Two Kids

Hello everyone,

Here is a photo of the kids that is just so cute. Z is sitting in E's lap and they are just laughing their heads off.

This picture is of E and T. We were about to go out for a walk and E went up to her room to get her headband and put it on herself. Like her hair?