Sleepovers

Garrett is always begging me to sleep in his bed with him. He always says, "Sleep with me all night long," so finally last week we had a little sleepover. I snuggled up with him for the night. It is pretty cozy. However, I woke up at 2:30 am with a crook in my neck. When I got up, he immediately rolled over and took my spot. So I crept back to my own bed because I didn't want to disturb him and thought I could use a little room. In the morning Avery was the early riser so I was up with her when Garrett finally woke up. He was pretty disappointed that I wasn't still in his room. He said, "That makes me really sad." So we'll have to have another sleepover soon!

Avery's buddy

I haven't downloaded my picture of Avery and her buddy, Casey, but when I do, I will post it. She and the dog are inseparable. If Casey goes outside to go potty without her, Avery stands at the backdoor and cries and Casey justs sits and looks back at her. It's like I'm separating two best friends. So usually we take him out to go potty together. She tells him, "Go po-y, go po-y." I think she likes to tell him what to do. If he picks up something he shouldn't, she says, "No, no, no, no, no!" She also requests his "ball" all day long. We have to put his balls away so he will settle down during the afternoons, otherwise he could play all day. He drives me a little nuts by repeatedly pushing his balls just out of reach under the furniture. Avery also hand-feeds him his dogfood and occasionally eats it herself and tries to drink from his water bowl. As if that's not bad enough, when we took him to the vet, she licked the floor in the exam room. Yuck! Maybe she thinks she is a dog??
One morning last week as I was cleaning up after breakfast, I peeked into the living room to find her propped up on Casey like a pillow, watching cartoons.

Go Potty

Avery may toilet train very early. At least that is our hope. She has watched and admired her brother for some time now. Before she hops in the bathtub she tells us she needs to "go po-y" and she plops down on Garrett's little potty. She sits for several seconds and then hops up on the stepstool to wash hands. She's 16 months old, so we're hoping she might be training by 18 months?? We'll see.

Reverse Psychology

I have figured it out: how to get your kids to eat their veggies...
Just tell them, "You better not eat your carrots. Don't do it! Do NOT eat those."
I tried it with Garrett and it worked like a charm, several times actually. Until we had peas. He ate several handfuls in between giggles, then made a funny face and spit them out. He said, "I don't really like peas."

Obedience Training

We enrolled Casey in obedience training which was part of our adoption contract with Golden Retriever Rescue. Our first class was quite interesting. I don't know if Casey was really tired or if this was his reaction to the stress of being in a strange place with strange dogs, but every time we stopped walking during class he would curl up at my feet and appear to fall asleep. This dramatically different than the handful of older puppies in the class that are jerking at their leashes and gagging themselves. Everyone is probably wondering why we are there! We are headed to our 3rd class today. So far we've learned to sit, heel, begin to stay, down, and turning while heeling. Casey seems like a bright student!
We did learn something about Casey the first day of obedience. We had kind of figured out that he becomes car sick after about 35-40 minutes of driving. Obedience class is about 35 minutes away, but not wanting to medicate a dog unnecessarily, I decided to try the trip without motion sickness medicine. It worked fine on the way there, however, just as we rounded the corner for home, he began licking his lips A LOT. I pulled into the garage as fast as I could and jumped out to open his door just as he puked! Luckily on his dog blanket and not the floor of the van!!

Take-out Only

Our days of dining out are rapidly coming to a close. I just blogged about our disastrous meal at Cheeseburgers in Paradise and we had a similar time tonight! After church tonight, we decided to hit Applebees for supper since we had a gift card. It was pretty much a repeat of the night before. Avery screamed bloody murder the entire meal. I asked for boxes and paid the tab as soon as our food arrived, thinking we were going to box up our food and hit the road. We did manage to quickly scarf down our food while taking turns standing and bouncing Avery. If we attempted to sit down with her, the screaming would begin again. So I guess it's take-out only or "Brooke's Kitchen."

Back from Vacation

We just returned from a "mini vacation." We spent a day at Coco Keys Water Resort in Omaha and a day at the Henry Doorly Zoo. It was a wonderful time and we are all tuckered out. We had a blast at Coco Keys. The kids were too small for most of the water slides except for the area for small children and the "lazy river" as Greg and I dubbed it. We spent most of our time floating around in big circles on inner tubes with the kids relaxing on our laps. Avery even took two naps on our laps while floating around. I have to admit, this was quite relaxing. Greg and I did venture up to try out the biggest water slides for ourselves. Greg went first while I watched the kids and then I took my turn. He advised me to try the dark tunnel which sends you whizzing down a loopy slide in complete darkness on an inner tube. I think I screamed most of the way down! We also spent our first night in a hotel as a family of four. Garrett loved it and didn't want to leave the next morning! However, he crashed at 9:00 that night while watching cartoons. Avery on the other hand was running laps in our room until lights out at 9:45. By 7:00 the next morning, we were all snuggled together in our king-size bed.
We hit the zoo the next morning. Unfortunately neither of our kids are really interested in zoo animals. Garrett is more fascinated in comparing the dirt in each exhibit and picking up dirt, rocks, gravel, and sand everywhere we go. They both loved the train and we even tried out the new Skyfari exhibit which is like a ski lift ride over the zoo. I was a bit surprised that there were no age/height restrictions so both kids could just ride on our laps. Garrett loved this. Avery was very quiet but would wave at people below and say, "Hewoo" (hello).
We finished off the day by hitting a favorite burger joint in Omaha, Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Unfortunately Avery was exhausted and literally screamed thru the entire meal. If we attempted to talk to her, ask her a question, or tell her "no," she would just scream louder. We ordered Garrett & Avery a kid's meal and neither one took a single bite! All in all we had a great time, but it's good to be home!!