Are we going to Tyler & Chase’s house today? Me: No, not today. They have lots of dogs & a kitty. I like kitties. Kitties are not zombies. I did not see zombies around here. There are no zombies at our house. But spiders are zombies. Mom, are spiders zombies? Spiders eat people.

I would like to thank my neighbor, Mike, for introducing my daughter to the wonderful world of zombies. <Insert sarcasm>

And just a little more background info – Tyler & Chase are her cousins who live in Ohio (JR’s brother’s kids). When we visited them this past Christmas they were dog sitting their grandma’s dogs (JR’s brother’s wife’s mom) plus they have a couple of dogs of their own, so there WERE a house full of critters.

As for the zombies…zombies are not a scary thing for Mike (or his 3-year-old daughter, who is one of Delaney’s favorite playmates), they are more of a fascination, so Delaney’s not scared of zombies either.

Last night we had a particularly interesting conversation about The Shadow. Some of the things we talked about I already knew, others were revelations for me. It turns out, there is not 1 shadow, but 2. Here’s what I now know about The Shadows:

• Originally, the stories consisted of 1 shadow with 1 eye.
• There are now apparently 2 shadows that live in her window – well, actually they live in her blinds. (Her words, “not in the window, actually they’re in the blinds”.)
• The Shadows’ names are 1 Eye and 2 Eyes.
• 1 Eye is mean.
• The reason 1 Eye is mean is “2 Eyes ate his other eye”. (My suspicion is that she really means 1 Eye is mad, not mean, but I’m not sure she understands the difference yet.)
• The Shadows don’t sleep – they just close their eyes a little bit (emphasized by the pinching together of the thumb and forefinger along with squinting of her eyes).
• The Shadows wake her up at  night, especially if there’s thunder.
• Mostly they leave her alone. They don’t really scare her, they just “bother” her.

I find this stage of childhood development absolutely fascinating. You know they’re forming interesting thoughts and trying to figure things out but can’t quite find the right words to express themselves. When Stink doesn’t know (or forgot) the right word to express what she means she gets this quizzical look on her face, tilts her head a little and says, “What dat word again?” or “How you say dat word?” There are times I don’t have the slightest idea WHAT she’s trying to express, so I have to guess. Sometimes I guess right, sometimes I don’t. Her choice of phrases can be quite entertaining, such as, “Mommy, I very want to [insert activity - eat, watch TV, play, etc.].”

It’s lunchtime. Delaney had started eating her apple (whole). Brianna just finished slicing hers & got the last caramel dipping cup from the cabinet. Delaney started throwing a fit that she wanted Sissy’s caramel cup & refused to eat her apple. I offered to cut her apple but told her she still wouldn’t get Sissy’s “dippin’.” She refused. Then it occured to me to offer her some peanut butter for dipping her apple slices. Delaney perked up & agreed. Crisis temporarily averted.

So, I go into the garage to get something & when I return I see Delaney dipping her apple slice into Brianna’s caramel. I looked at Brianna. She says, “We’re sharing. She let me have some of her peanut butter, so I’m letting her have some of my caramel dip.” I said, “Funny how that works, hu?”

Then, I get home and fed the dogs – Delaney dropped Jackie’s dish & food spilled on the floor. I went to heat up my coffee (since it went cold because I slept late) and when I put my sugar in I forgot to wait a couple of seconds & it “boiled over” the cup & I had coffee all over my counter.

I still have to shower & get dress, but first I have to upload shopping cart product updates & website changes for a client first (HAS to be done this morning). After I’m done with that and dressed I have to load Delaney up & go pick up prescriptions for me & Brianna at the doctor’s office then run them to the pharmacy to get them filled. Oh yeah, and we need milk.

Wish me luck with the rest of my day – I hope I don’t slice an artery when I’m shaving my legs this morning. <sarcasm>

The girls, of course, adore her.  JR is thrilled to have a dog he can start teaching early (unlike Shiner, who was close to 2 by the time we got him and a little more set in his ways). I’m less than thrilled that I’ve got to deal with puppy behavior for a while, but she’s cute.

She’s not doing well at night.  Saturday night she whined almost all night. We had her in the kitchen with Shiner, but apparently having another dog in there with her didn’t help with her transition much.  She pooped in the floor twice and peed in the floor 5 times that night.  Last night I just simply could NOT stand the whining and knew I wouldn’t get a decent nights’ sleep AT ALL, so I caved and got her out of the kitchen and slept on the couch with her.  She wanted to play some, but mostly she did sleep quietly – thankfully – although most of the time it was on my head.  She also used the potty outside twice last night.  When she got restless I took her outside and she went! YAY, no cleaning up poo or pee in the morning for me!

She’s also doing pretty well at going potty outside during the day.  We’re diligent about taking her out IMMEDIATELY after eating (and by immediately, I mean within about 30 seconds of her last bite), after she wakes up from a nap and after a good session of play.  It seems to be working.  Yesterday I only cleaned up 2 messes.  But, she’s really small and only pees about the amount of half a thimble. She does poo quite a big pile though.  But, since we’ve been taking her out often, she’s only done that in the house twice (other than Saturday night) – she’s pooed outside about 6 or 7 times.

We’re trying to teach Delaney how to properly handle her.  She’s only 5 pounds right now, so she’s small enough for Delaney to pick up (for the next couple of weeks anyway).  She keeps wanting to pick her up by the neck. I think she’s starting to get it though because she did have her under the front legs the last time she picked her up. When I was in the shower this morning I made sure to have them both in the bathroom with me. I really didn’t want to risk having the two of them alone together!  I peeked out the shower door once and Delaney had Jackie by the tail spinning around! Yes, Jackie was up off the ground! Poor puppy! I was mortified. Delaney doesn’t mean to hurt her, I just don’t think she 100% understands that it’s a real dog that feels and not a cute stuffed animal that moves.

Brianna has been pretty good at helping out with her – making sure she goes out when she needs to and keeping her from chewing on the things she shouldn’t.

Shiner is only tolerating her at the moment. He’s not thrilled that he has to share with her. He’s growled at her a couple of times when he’s chewing on a bone or eating.  We nip that behavior immediately when he starts. He’s starting to get the message. He was even “almost” playing with her this morning. He should enjoy her more when she’s bigger and they can actually run and play without her getting hurt. He LOVES playing with the other neighborhood dogs – but then again he doesn’t have to share with them. We shall see. He may only end up tolerating her like he did with Jake. But, Jake was old and couldn’t run and play like Shiner wanted to, so I’m hopeful.

Brianna got her braces fixed and adjusted last week. Literally the evening she got the loose bracket put back on, the tooth was straight! I’ll have to post the before/after pictures on that later. The quick progress on her teeth is completely blowing my mind.  She also got the palate spreader put in at her last appointment. We have to “turn the key” every night before bed, and Delaney see us put the thing in Brianna’s mouth and push it, so, of course, she thinks SHE needs to have her key turned to.  So, we have to put the key in her mouth and pretend to turn it. She thinks she’s being just like her sister. If I “forget” to do hers she starts hollering, “Me too, Mommy! Me too!”

JR took the girls outside earlier this week and Delaney FINALLY figured out how to use the pedals on her bike. She can ride it (training wheels) in the driveway TOWARD the house, but she can’t ride it toward the street yet. There is a very slight slope toward the house, so she’s not having to struggle very hard in that direction.

Oh, and Delaney is doing very well on her potty training. I don’t remember the last time she had a pee accident (it’s been a few weeks), and last weekend when we spend almost the whole day at Brianna’s school for 2 days in a row for Fall Festival stuff she pooped twice, but not in her pants! YAY! She has also pooped in the potty here at home all but once this week. So, I’m seeing huge progress in that department.  The only time I’m “prompting” her to go to the bathroom is when she wakes up, right before bed, and right before we go somewhere. The rest of the time she either just goes or she tells me she has to go so I can take her.

The current plan is to take the family to the State Fair next Wednesday after Brianna gets out of school.  That’s the only day during the fair when we don’t have SOMETHING going on in the evening.  We didn’t go last year and Brianna was devastated. I’ve already bought the tickets on-line. I also go the girls unlimited ride wristbands. I don’t care to ride the rides anymore – too old for that and my neck can’t handle the rougher rides anyway. I go for the artery-clogging-butt-widening food and the exhibits.

Our “local” Chili’s is normally excellent – great service & food. Tonight was definitely the exception to that. The server was nice enough, but she had to be reminded to bring out drinks (about 10 minutes after we ordered them) and it took a long time to get our appetizer. When they brought our food they got both my order and JR’s orders wrong. Mine was easy to fix, JR had to wait extra time for his meal. Drink refills were VERY slow (we were only drinking water, so it’s not like they had to be mixed or anything). The floor manager ended up coming to check on us and we were quite honest and told them what was going on. They offered to give us a free dessert, but since I was getting a free dessert anyway (my birthday dessert), they offered to remove the cost of JR’s meal also. When the check finally came they had indeed deducted my birthday dessert and JR’s meal, however they charged us for 2 drinks – we were only drinking water. So, they had to go fix that also. If that had been our first visit (or one of the first) to that particular Chili’s we probably would not be inclined to go back. However, since it normally is excellent I can’t imagine we wouldn’t go again…especially since we love the molten lava cake and I ALWAYS get the country fried chicken crispers w/ black pepper gravy – YUM.

The girls are now in bed – Delaney fell asleep on the couch waiting for Brianna to get out of the shower. I think I’m about to head to bed myself. I keep catching myself yawning while I type this!

Delaney has fully entered the phase where she copies everything Brianna does and says immediately after she does it. Sometimes it’s cute and adorable and Brianna thinks it’s funny so she makes a game of it. Other times it’s just downright annoying and it ticks Brie off. I just have to keep telling her that’s the kind of stuff that goes along with being a big sister and she has to deal with it. Delaney can also reach all the light switches now.

Brianna’s doing well in school and she loves earning “class cash” and shopping in the classroom every week. She got Delaney a toy this week. I thought that was sweet.

One of the neighbors made a comment the other day that Shiner had lost a lot of weight. I knew he had been loosing some since I’d put him on the diet and been trying to exercise him a little more. I guess I didn’t realize how much he had been loosing since I see him day in and day out. So, JR and I weighed him the other day – JR weighed himself, then held Shiner while he weighed himself again. Shiner’s lost about 20 pounds (in our non-scientific process). I need to take him down to the vet’s office sometime this week to get a quick weight on their scales there.

I’m keeping busy with client work and PTA stuff. The Fall Festival & Silent Auction is coming up next month and we’ve got a lot of stuff going on with that. A meeting each week for the Fall Festival Committee plus our regular monthly PTA meeting and all the work that goes along with that, I also have a client meeting once a week with two different clients and I’m on the planning committee and marketing sub-committee for the 2010 IVAA Live Summit in Phoenix, so I’ve got meetings for each of those at least once a month. I’m just glad Brianna’s back in school now so I can get some stuff done during the day instead of refereeing for the girls all day and then having to catch up on my work in the evenings.

Speaking of evenings, it’s almost 10 PM and I’m going to pack it up and head to bed early tonight. I was up until 3:30 AM working on a problem with a client’s web site and then, of course, the girls didn’t sleep in all that late, so I was up with them. So, tonight I’m going to enjoy my last night (for a few months) of having the bed all to myself.

Delaney said her first “I love you” a couple of weeks ago. She didn’t say it to me or to JR, she said it to Brianna. No big surprise since she loves her sissy so much. Brianna missed the bus one morning, so we had to take her to school. As she was getting out of the truck, I said “Be good today. I love you.” So, Delaney said, “Love you.” She said it a couple of days later to. She has only ever said it to Brianna…not me or JR yet.

She’s also doing pretty well at potty training. Most days she stays dry all day. The past two nights she’s had an accident, but prior to that she was dry for a couple of weeks. She’s even gone #2 by herself a time or two. She’s only had two pee accidents during the day in the past few weeks.

Brianna’s been back to school for 2 weeks. Her classroom job is “book critic”. She has to do a book review every week. Every kid in the class has a job and they get paid for it in class cash. They also get class cash for bringing back their reading log signed and homework, etc. They get to go shopping once a week in the class store with their class cash, but only if their “check register” is balanced. They get to change jobs every 9 week period. She put her application in for computer technician also. She’s hoping to get that one next. She’s also got her eye on the librarian job.

Soccer practice started this past week. So, I get to schlep her back and forth to Camden 1-2 times per week for the next few months.

JR’s due back from Ohio tomorrow. He’s been up there this week. His dad got out of the hospital this week after his heart valve replacement surgery several weeks ago.

I’ve been keeping super busy with client work and PTA stuff. With the new school year, switching from a PTO to a PTA, Fall Festival Committee and the fall fundraiser, I’ve got my hands full!

I spent all afternoon today cleaning the shower and stripping out old caulk. I even took the doors off and took them outside to use the high pressure hose to get down into the nooks and crannies of everything. I’m not looking forward to doing that again anytime soon.