Do As I Say...

Erin amazes me everyday. Not only can you carry on a conversation with her now, but she will come out with words we didn't know she knew. She almost always uses complete sentences now. I'm not even sure when exactly this started. I just woke up one day and she was telling me what to do!!

The other day she informed - "I no wear the yellow shirt". Keep in mind we've worn this yellow shirt already so this was nothing new. She then told me she wanted to wear a pink one. No problem, off to the closet I go. I came back with a suitable replacement and she was happy.

This weekend Tommy walked upstairs for something so she stood at the bottom of the stairs and said "Daddy come back here now!". Down he came. Empty handed.

I'm not really sure where she gets this bossy streak!

She will even answer questions and tell me things when I think she isn't paying attention. I told her yesterday that her juice was in the red thermos (the red one is usually milk) and that the purple one was juice too. She was watching Barney and I didn't think she was listening to me. About 10 minutes later she looked at me and said - "the red one is juice too Momma."

Can't wait to hear her recite War & Peace soon.

Dive Bomb...

I made an observation this morning. Erin is getting much quicker when she drops food.

Roxie is ALWAYS there when Erin is eating. Of course, Erin drops food to her on purpose sometimes but others it's a dog fight. Literally.

Erin has gotten to where she will dive for whatever she accidentally drops. Roxie has learned her tricks so now Roxie dives for it too. They are hilarious. Erin will yell "no" and jump on it like a grenade. Roxie doesn't growl or anything, she just pounces.

They're probably 50/50 on who comes out on top.

You would think that neither one of them gets enough to eat!

Have Coat, Will Travel...

I wanted a coat rack for the hall by our bedroom. It seems like we always have a coat or jacket hanging on a chair in the kitchen and it drives me crazy.

I went to my resident carpenter/woodworker/electrician extraordinaire and got exactly what I wanted. Daddy built it just by his imagination. I bought the paint and Daddy told me how to hang it because he designed a special hanging system for it to make it easier. It was a breeze.

Here's what it looks like hanging in the hall. I'm waiting to hang coats on it until tonight when the paint is good and dry.

Lost and Found...

We had an exciting morning. I called Momma and Daddy to see what they were going to do about meeting us at gymnastics and Daddy told me that Max was missing. He will hide anywhere and sometimes he's just under the bed not coming when you call. I was thinking this was the case until Daddy said they had been up all night walking the neighborhood looking for him and calling him. He said they never went to bed.

We immediately swung into action. Tommy and I loaded Erin up and we went to join the search party. I sent Amy a text on the way.

It was gymnastics day and we had already promised Erin she could go so Tommy ended up taking her to class while I stayed with mom. He took her and Mom and I went to the Animal Shelter right close to their house. It was gut wrenching seeing all those dogs and cats. I just wanted to cry. Max was not there.

Home we went to join Daddy on the search. We made a flyer and Daddy and I hung them on stop sign posts. About that time Amy and Matt showed up as did Tommy and Erin.

We decided to go door to door looking for him since there was no sign of him anywhere from the road and he's so crippled up that he couldn't have gotten far.

Amy and Matt went one direction and Daddy and I went in another. Mom stayed with the kids and Tommy drove around. I went to this one house a pretty good ways down the street and no one answered the door. I moved on and was about 2 houses down when a guy came out of the house I had been to and told me that they found him. Daddy heard us and came running over. The guy said that his mom and sister picked up a dog last night and his name was Max. He was walking funny and they knew he wasn't right. They called the numbers on his collar but they were no good. While we were there he looked at the flyer and confirmed it was Max.

He called his mom and she was already at the Animal Shelter dropping him off. I called Tommy and Tommy was just leaving the Animal Shelter again. Apparently she walked in right after he walked out. Tommy got Max all checked out and we showed up in the car.

Momma and Daddy were so thankful Max was okay. He's old and frail and there is no way he would have made it through the night outside. Those nice people saved his life.

Happy endings do sometimes happen. Yay Max!

The lesson learned too is to always update your dog's tags with your current information because you just never know. I came home and checked Roxie's! We're good.

Beep Beep

It was Drive In movie day at Erin's school. It's funny because it really is just more work for the parents. The kids are all too young to build their own cars, so the parents have to do it. I found that they make all kinds of duct tape in great designs so I picked a purple and pink butterfly print for ours and let it be some of the decoration on her car.

I also made eyes and eyelashes for the headlights, but I'm not sure you can see them in the pictures.

I put the car on the dining room table the other day and it's been there all week. Erin hasn't noticed it so she hadn't seen it. This morning I put it out so Tom could take it to school with them. She came down the stairs and saw it immediately and knew it was for her. I put it on the floor and she ran and got an armload of Minnies and stuffed them in there. She had to climb on top of all of them to even get into the car.

You should have seen Tommy's truck loaded down taking it to school. It took over the front seat!

Moving On Up...

Erin moved up in her Little Gym class last weekend.  Gram and Pawpaw had to take her so I didn't get to see how well she did.  She knows a bunch of the kids in there because they were in her other class before moving up.

We'll find out tomorrow at 10:00 how well she likes it.

I know I'll like it better because we can leave there, get lunch and head home for a nap.  (And yes, I include myself in naptime!)

Action Packed Week of Nothing!

I have to work the 10:30 to 7:00 shift for one week about 3 times a year.  I was out some last week and just lost track of time.  My week is this week.  Yay me!  Not only is it the late shift, I won the honor of working this coming Saturday all day too!  Double Yay me!

I was sitting at my desk at 8:15 yesterday when I got the reminder email that I'm the late shift person.  So, I was at work 2.5 hours early!!!  They sent the reminder email at 5:45 on Friday, well after everyone leaves for the day.  Gee, thanks.  I know it's my responsibility to remember, but no one ever accused me of having a great memory.

This shift totally throws the Mize household out of whack.  We have a very structured environment during the week.  We have a dinner time range, bath range, and bedtime of 6:30 for Erin.  (Yes, I know that's early but my kid needs her sleep.  Believe me, she crashes and is out by 6:45 most nights.  Don't be jealous.)  But... on these weeks things get moved around.

I refuse to call people like I'm supposed to during my "work hours" because I hate it when someone interrupts our dinner time.  So, I basically just answer the work phone when it rings after 5:00.  Some days we're busy and other days it won't ring at all.  There are 2 other people working that time slot as well, so it isn't so bad.  Of course last night the phone rang at 6:45 and the lady was mad as a hornet and took it all out on me.  Lovely.  Have a great evening.

On a lighter note, Tommy has a ticket to the Texan's playoff game this weekend and will be going to Boston with Craig.  He started out kind of worried about leaving us, but I think he's passed that now and on to excitement at the thought of winning.  Most of the Boston media is saying it's an easy Pat's win, so Tom is super ticked off and ready to tear the Patriots a new one.  You would think he was going to suit up himself.  Kind of like the Texan's own version of the 12th man.

Gram and Pawpaw to the rescue.  They will be keeping Erin for me during the day on Saturday while I work.  I'm not sure if they'll take her to gymnastics, but I would love to be a fly on the wall if they do.  They go almost every time and watch, but it's different when you're the one in the gym chasing after her and spotting her on the equipment.

All for now.  Got to go get ready to log on for the day. 

Resolution...

Not much to write about, but fulfilling a resolution to make more posts on the blog.

The Texans are in the playoffs and Tommy was there yesterday.  He said the crowd noise was incredible.  We're in a big time Superbowl pot this year.  I think the total of the whole pot is $10,000. Meaning if you win a quarter, you win $2000.  It's crazy because this guy does side bets too.  Like crappiest numbers win their money back, etc.   So instead of $2,500 you win $2,000 for the quarter.  Can't complain about that!

Roxie continues to still kick it.  She's not her normal self, and we can see a bit of a decline, but all in all she's getting around great.  She still hates Erin!  Some things will never change.

Erin has been going potty at school and tomorrow we start full time Pull-ups in our attempt to potty train.  It's been a slow process, but something tells me it's very rarely quick.

All for now.  More to come when I actually have something to blog about!

Photography

Just warning y'all now that I'm getting into my camera and photography in a big way.

I have asked for a bunch of camera stuff for my b/day and am planning to take a 3 hour class shortly. I remember a lot about photography from a class I had in high school but that was on old 35mm films.  My new camera is nothing like the old Pentax Vidor High sprung for.

Erin and Roxie will continue to be my 2 favorite subjects so be prepared to have to look at a great many pictures of the two of them.