Three Kids and a Dog

Monday, February 25, 2008

Down!


Okay so this weekend we noticed Austen repeatedly saying a word when Adler was around. We know that he calls her "Ah" but this word had a 'Do' in it and was sometimes accompanied with a hand signal. Of course at first, we assumed that he was saying the word dog, but then we quickly figured out when he flashed the hand signal a few times that he was telling Adler down! Of course that would make sense. Adler is a huge attention stealer. When we are trying to play with Austen, she wants to be right in the middle of everything. We have trained Adler to lay nicely next to us while playing by using the command 'Adler down' repeatedly. Maybe too repeatedly since this is the first word that Austen really has said (of course he's said da da, ba ba, etc. but he's not saying those and associating them with any one thing). Who would have thought our kid's real first word would have been 'down!'

Watch out Adler, pretty soon Austen will be the bossing you around considering how quickly he's picking up your dog commands.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Adler, Austen and Us at Firestone

Cold weather. Many potholes. Two cars. Two flats. That's the summary of our weekend. On Friday, Tom came home with a "loaner" vehicle since he had to be towed (yes, towed) to the dealer. They informed us we had two damanged rims.

Well, on Sunday, we scored our second flat - one that the whole family witnessed. We came out of a quick run to the grocery store on the way to Tom's mom's house and there it was another flat. Not wanting to damage the rim, Austen, Adler, Tom and I slowly made our way to the nearby Firestone. Only problem was, we needed a quick fix. Tom and I were on our way to a work event for him and were dropping Austen and Adler off with his mom. Firestone says they can put the spare on quickly (my idea)and we could get it fixed later at our own local shop and be on our way. Good solution. Only problem was that we all had to get out of the vehicle in the cold and we didn't have a leash for Adler.

Lesson learned. Always bring a leash for your dog even if you don't plan on taking her out of the car. Plans change or there could be an emergency -- and most dogs need a leash near six lanes of traffic. With Tom in an unusual state of panic, I suggest we use the bungee cord as Adler's mock leash. We do. Adler obeys and the four of us sit on a weathered wooden bench outside of the local Firestone huddled together for warmth. Tom is called to confer with the guy as to where the wheel locks are and I'm left on the bench with an 80 lb. dog with a bungee cord as a leash and a 13-month old. What a picture. I just had to share.

Thought I'd share too a cute recent video of our two little ones (okay so only Austen is little). They really do like each other. See for yourselves.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Is it Enough to Make Me Want to Move to the Suburbs?


Did you ever have just a 24-hour period where everything that could possibly go wrong did? Well, for me it all started last Friday at about 3:30pm. I left work early to go to the doctor to finally get over this pesky virus that is still bothering me. Only thing is I see a resident. Living in a city with a lot of teaching hospitals, you see a lot of them - especially when you are trying to give birth! Anyway, I'm at the doctor for an hour and a half. Tom's out of town and I had planned on getting home by 5pm so I could walk Adler before I pick up Austen from daycare so I don't have to take him out in the cold. Only problem is the resident is super slow and I don't get out of there until after 5pm, nevermind the fact that he doesn't give me any drugs but says I can purchase sudafed and saline drops and writes it on a prescription pad like psychologically that's supposed to help me. Because I'm in the medical profession, I kept it together but I seriously felt like unloading on this guy. He was lucky it was just the beginning of my bad 24hours and not the end.

So I go pick up Austen. We take Adler for a walk. I use the Bugaboo stroller with the big wheels in front. (For all those who made fun of me for asking my parents for the Bugaboo as a shower present, you'll understand why now). I realize now why so many people in the city have them. People do not shovel their walks and the city plows couldn't care less if they plow you in. I dreaded crossing the street because that meant maneuvering the bugaboo over giant glaciers of ice. I think I only almost fell three times. We finally make it home. I dry Adler off, get Austen fed and bathed and put to bed. I think it's 9pm before I have everything cleaned up and am finally sitting down myself.

Next morning. I wake up. We have a big picture window in front. I pull up the blinds. It sets off our security alarm. I guess the glass break on the window is too sensitive but that's not what I or my neighbors want to hear at 7:30am. Austen is fussy this morning too and Adler parks herself in front of the door begging to go out. What more can I do? I'm home by myself so I put on Austen's coat before he even has breakfast and we are out the door with Adler to battle the gigantic glaciers once again. This time I only nearly fall twice.

Next up - Austen's music class. All is going well until the end of class when I sit him on a chair to put on his coat. Somehow in a split second he falls off the chair and onto the floor. Thankfully he is just scared and not hurt. I am afraid to even drive home from class with the way my luck has been going. I shuffle to the door and contemplate moving to the suburbs.

I picture a nice cozy morning feeding Austen and watching Adler frolick in our fenced in backyard enjoying the snow instead of me having to pack up Austen in the dead of winter when one of us is out of town so Adler can go for a walk. I picture a much bigger place with more storage for the same price as our current 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom condo. And, I picture daycare prices that aren't the cost of another mortgage. Of course, I then picture a long commute to work every day. This is reason enough for me to stay.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Finding Adler

Adler and Austen enjoy playing together, and just being together. In fact, it's Austen who knows Adler better than his own parents. Ask Austen where Adler is and he immediately searches for her on the ground if he's in my arms. When he finds her he smiles and points and says "Ahhh."

Austen can also identify his dad fairly quickly too (although he's still better at finding Adler). As for me, no recognition when you say "where's mommy?" I've heard this is common. Good or I may have a complex!

Well, our little munchkin still hasn't made much progress toward walking yet although he loves his two little "walkers." We can't wait to post videos when he does but in the interim here's another one of the two of them hanging out together. Be sure to watch all the way til the end and you'll see Austen imitating Adler. Enjoy.