Little Miss when we try to take her for a walk in the rain:

Calming before the storm(ing)

[caption id="attachment_1975" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Snuggles for siblings[/caption]

Our current "child" is needy, high energy and relatively spastic most times.  When it is just G and I at home she calms down and is the snuggle bug we know and love.  When we have visitors? She won't settle, wants to jump and leap and lick everyone and just get all the attention from all the new people.  It is so overwhelming both for us and for those coming for a visit. We have been making such a huge effort with her lately to calm that wild spirit and get her to just relax.  We want everyone else to get to enjoy her the way we do...a snuggley, tooting, snoring, sweetheart.  Not a wild eyed, jumpy, nibbly, excited tinkler.

 I feel bad because lately she has been hearing a lot of "down, no, off, NO" from us...and yes I realize she is a dog, but she sure has the puppy dog eye look down pat to make us feel bad after we reprimand her.  We both just want her to be a good girl, and not accidentally smother/jump on the baby once that big change happens.  Everyone tells us how quickly the pup becomes second fiddle once a baby arrives, and I can definitely see that happening...I am just hoping we are able to keep working with her over the next two months and tame some of that wild puppy spirit.  I tried explaining to her this morning that she will be spending a LOT of time in the newly fenced in yard if she doesn't simmer down, at least a little.  I am sure once Gus starts eating some real food, Brooklyn will realize that the baby is her meal ticket (or snack ticket I guess?!) but until then I just sense her getting annoyed that someone else has her parent's full attention.  (I guess I should say owners?  But it's hard not to think of her as our fur baby..maybe that is the problem hahaha)

Weekend Report---crafting with mama edition

Garret was away this weekend so I went to my Mum's and had a lovely weekend crafting, ice cream eating, napping, snuggling with my nephew, chasing Brooklyn, organizing, laughing, reflecting and hanging out.  Friday night my sister in law and nephew were there as well so we had some laughs, and girl time--was wonderful.

[gallery columns="1" type="square" ids="2038,2029,2031,2032,2033,2035,2034,2036"]

As always these weekends that I so look forward to fly by and my list of  what I hope to accomplish doesn't quite get crossed off.  I tend to forget I am a mere mortal and like everyone else only have X amount of hours in the day.  Aaaand like many other pregnant ladies I need to schedule "napping" somewhere in between crafting, movie watching and dog walking.

I do have a nice feeling of accomplishment from the weekend though, which I am hoping to use to push me through this week of things to do.  My Mum and I went through some of my old boxes of "stuff" at her place, as well as a box that was my Dad's.  My boxes were fun, we got to laugh at old pictures, weird things that I just HAD to keep once upon a time (and I could finally at age 33 be convinced to throw out)

 It is unsettling to try to take a step back and examine ones life based on the items that remain behind. As we were going through my father's things I couldn't help but wonder who will be the one going through my things one day when I am gone. There were so many random things that had obviously meant enough to the man to cart around with him for years and years, but held no meaning to me. Pictures of people I don't know, matches for restaurants I have never been to.  Memories that just don't belong to me.  I guess I felt a bit sad that there are those parts in his life I will never know anything about....and to be honest  it also gave me a creepy sense of my own mortality. I thought of one day, my children, or Garret, going through boxes wondering why I kept some of the things I did, a Radiohead concert ticket from '96, random childhood toys, my weird treasures that could only mean something to me.  It is just interesting to see the physical manifestation of what is left behind when you are gone.  Everyone has their own personal memories of you, but you will still have left a footprint, a mysterious paper trail of what once meant something to you.

Here is a picture of Brooklyn so I can end this on a more positive note:

[caption id="attachment_2041" align="aligncenter" width="388"] iStalker 2.0...still a-snoozing[/caption]

iStalker

My friend Harrison and his parents gave us a really cool shower gift.  This baby monitor from Apple...we set it up last night and it is really cool.  We were playing with it last night and decided it set it up in the kitchen today so we can see what Brooklyn does while we are at work.[gallery type="square" ids="2025,2023,2024"]

It is no wonder why she is all pumped up and raring to go when we get home! She spends the day in her bed.  This is definitely a fun piece of technology that is going to be really neat to have to spy on the baby..oh wait I mean keep an eye on the baby.

The Walshs

I love these 1.5 people more than anything in the world