Rain! Glorious Rain!

Ahhh, it is so nice to have you back. Enough of this its to hot to go outside crap. I have missed you old friend! And so has my lawn. Welcome back.

One flew the coop!

Or jumped out of the nest. Daddy found one of the baby birds that had been up in the carport nest on the ground today. We are not sure if he jumped or was pushed. They are getting pretty big and that nest is looking pretty crowded. I think momma bird was out looking for food when it happened, because I heard the commotion that ensued when she returned. I will interpret the million chirps that I heard from the remaining 3 babies.

"Momma, momma! Junior jumped out of the nest!"

"I told him not to, but he didn't listen momma!"

"Na-huh, she pushed him!"

"Did not, he jumped."

"Is he gonna get in biiiiiiig trouble?"

"I have been watching him momma, and doesn't feel sorry for what he did, he is having so much fun down there!"

"If Junior gets to, I want to go down there too! It's not fair!"

"Stop looking out my side of the nest!"

"Momma, she is ruffling her feathers right in my ear! Can you make her stop?"

"You love Junior most because he isn't getting in trouble for what he did."

Can you tell that I come from a big family? Now see, an only child would of thought that all that chirping was the baby birds excited to see thier momma, but those of you with brothers and sisters, know what was really going on behind all that noise.

Dukes legal!

We went to the vet yesterday and Dukie got the rest of his shots, so now we can be out in public and not worry about getting doggie diseases! So to celebrate, Tela, Duke, Bear and I all went to the park and met some other doggie friends. Among them were Dukes long lost brother Louie that he has not seen since he was 4 weeks old. Everyone played very nicely and got out of hand at times, but Mama Tela was there to mediate. She was so funny, she would stick her big head down into the skiff and start separating dogs. She was also very protective of Duke. I was surprised at that, since she can't stand the dog at home. I let Bear out of the back pack for awhile and he ran around with the dogs having a grand old time. I am just so glad to have him vaccinated now so that I can take him to the dog park and get some of that energy out. These are some pics that my friend T took.
This is Tela and Casper:

This is Duker and his brother Louie:

And of course my babies(actually being nice to each other):

I was looking for that!

I am sure you have heard how ball pits at places like McDonalds and Chuckie Cheese are not the most sanitary place for your children to play. Things such as crack needles, dirty diapers, feces and anything else you can imagine has been found in them. Well now you can lump our ball pit in there with the rest of them. Bear has a big colorful playpin that my Aunt V. gave him and I thought it would be fun to fill it with balls. Little did I know that it would be a spot for Bear to hide things. This morning he was playing in it and I noticed something shiny in there with him. I pulled out a spoon. Upon further investigation I found a spool of pink thread, one of my books, a CD with no cover, a sippy cup and some clean diapers. So now I add the ball pit to my list of places to go through each day to make sure there is nothing out of place. And just so you know, no crack needles were found in the process.

Is it 8 O' Clock yet?

Oh my soul! From about 6:30 until 8:00 in the evening is the longest hour and a half of my life. We have finished dinner and walks and everyone just sort of loses thier minds. Me included. All I do is run around playing interferance. Duke is into everything, and Bear is going from temper tantrum mode to being fine, but giving Duke everything he shouldn't have. Here Duke, chew on mommies shoe! Okay kid, I think I will! Thanks!
And then Tela becomes my shadow. I am not talking about following me to another room. I move 2 feet to the left, she moves 2 feet to the left. I turn around, there she is, 2 inches behind me. And when I walk into another room, she leads. But she stops every 3 feet or so to see if I am coming which usually results in me smacking right into her butt and almost falling on her.
I think I even get a little cranky too.
What the heck in the world! Tela breathing in my face, Duke chewing on her tail and Bear crying because I won't let him touch the key board. Surely it is bedtime by now...
What did you say? It is only 7:08? Holy cow, its gonna be another long one.

We've got a climber!

About a week ago Bear started to climb up on his piano. He gets to the top and doesn't know what to do. He hasn't figured out how to climb back down, so he whines until I come and rescue him. I have been taking longer and longer to get him, thinking maybe he will get the clue that this is not the smartest thing to climb on. I even keep the lid off the thing, but he still climbs up and stands on the little edges of it. Today I took a picture:

Insert Hallelujah chorus here:

I have really been working hard with Bear on putting away toys before he pulls more out, and helping mommy at the end of play time to clean up. He did FABULOUS all day long. I was getting so tired of always being one mess behind him, as I was cleaning up one, he was in the next room making a new one. I have better things to do with my day for crying out loud. So we have been learning that when you take something off the shelf, you put it back. You don't just drop it and run off for the next item. Tonight right before bed, we did our reading time and I was sitting on the couch and asked him to get me a book. He said "boot" and went and got one. When we were done, I said, "go put it away." Now normally I would have to walk with him while we held the book together, but tonight he grabbed the book, ran to he basket, dropped it in, grabbed another one, said "mow," and ran back. He did it 4 more times too! And of course would clap for himself when he put one away. He is so cute. And when I told him that it was the last one and it was time for bed, he looked at the books and said "bye-bye."
Tonight we were talking to my momma(who by the way has eaten at In-n-Out twice now) and was about to hang up when he said, "bye-bye na-na!" It was so sweet. He hasn't really put words together like that before. He is not just copying us anymore, he is recognizing things and saying them on his own. We were looking at the fridge that is covered in pictures of him and he said "bay-bay!" (baby) And he loves Belle. He will sit and look at that cat and smile even though he can't get close to her and say "Belle." It comes out more of a "w" instead of a "ll" but hey, he is only 13 months. We went to Wal-mart today and saw some rubber duckies and I gave him one to play with. So for the rest of the time, every person we saw he held up his duckie and told them "dut." He can't say his k's yet, so everything that ends with a k comes out sounding like a t. Doot(Duke), dut(duck), and tat(cat). Also in his vocabulary are water(wada), sit, stay(tay), down, no-no, and cheeeeeeessssse. That is how he says it. With a big smile on his face. The kid loves cheese!
He now tells me thank you when he hands me something he shouldn't have. Today he found some dog food and I asked him to hand it to me, and as he was handing it over he said "dank-doo" I guess because I normally thank you when he hands me something. He just cracks me up.