We're on our way south. Just finished packing the car and battening down the hatches at home so we could be gone for over a week. We're headed to the grandparents' houses for the holidays. I'm happy to say that the packing situation went over fairly smoothly and without even one argument, which I wasn't so certain would happen. We had a ton of stuff to do, but at 10:30 last night, I made a 3-column list of "to bring" "to do" and "to get". Most of you may not know that we're getting a home improvement project done for our Christmas present to each other this year. The best part of it is that it will all be done by the time we get home. We're getting 10 new windows installed! I've been looking forward to this for a long time. No more condensation on the windows in the morning. As it is now, we might as well have plastic over the windows since we can never see outside anyway without looking through a layer of water. Sitting anywhere near a window feels like we've got a screen there instead of a piece of glass. Not to mention all the heat we're having to generate with the furnace turning on all the time, and the mold that is spreading to all the sills and shades. Anyway, I don't need to go on - but we're stoked to come home to our newly windowed house.
LE is peacefully sleeping in the backseat. We pushed her pretty far today - relinquishing a 9:00 nap in hopes of a good sleep for the 3-hour car ride. She's not really into extended periods of time (i.e. more than 5 minutes) in her carseat, so hopefully we've timed this one right.
We're on our way for the holidays and I don't think we have a present - not even one - in the car. Nor do we have any Christmas cards, wreaths, bows, bells - nothing. This is because Christmas snuck up on us this year. I'm taking Mondays off of work to be with LE - and that IS a day of work - and when we get home on a weeknight, we barely have 30 minutes of "free time" when we're not doing dishes, diapers, dinner, sweeping or making lunches. Speaking of sweeping, I'm sick and tired of it. Now, mind you, not as tired as I am of doing dishes - my least favorite chore - but second on the list is sweeping. This is because I'm always in the act of sweeping or sitting in dog hair. I can't get on top of it, and I found out yesterday that our nanny Olivia is also sweeping once a day. How can this possibly be? The most annoying are the times when I finish my daily task of thoroughly sweeping each room all into a nice pile (that the dogs or LE find appealing for snacking or walking through), carefully scoop it up and say "good riddance" as I toss it in the garbage, put the broom in the closet, walk to my next chore and find a huge waft of hair floating around in the hallway. WHAT? A small rage fires up inside and I'm so close to freaking out at the dogs for being so inconsiderate. So far, I've kept my composure - but I'm seriously considering what life would be like without cute fluffy animals.
Oh, and speaking of cute, cuddly animals, what do you think is our newest drama? It is not something we thought would be an issue, but the dogs have found a way to conspire against us. They are probably pissed off that we're not taking them out 3 or 5 times a week on runs, bikerides and ultimate frisbee, so I can understand that they've had to change their paradigm of what a "good week" is - but they are burning points with us, I can tell you that. The problem is poop. Baby poop. And the fact that one - or both - of them are getting into the diapers and eating it. Now, perhaps they think they're doing us a favor since we have to rinse the diapers out as one of the nightly chores I mentioned above. But this is so gross that it makes it hard to love them the same. Honestly, we were pretty sure that this was all Mocha's doing. She's into this sort of thing - eating gross stuff she finds at the park, cat poop, etc. But this week when Olivia put a full diaper in the bathtub - to keep it away from the dogs, Miguel came home to find muddy pawprints in the tub with a fairly empty diaper. Unable to decipher the size of the prints, we are perplexed as to which dog it really is. Lucy always tucks her tail and runs away when we find the diapers scattered here or there. We still can't remember to always shut the doors when we leave since we're so wrapped up in making sure we have all of LE's accoutrements. So really, it is OUR fault - but no less disgusting. So far, both dogs are innocent until proven guilty, but they're on thin ice (especially with the whole sweeping thing).
To their credit, dogs are pretty handy with the spilt milk and pureed beef stew that gets strewn across the room on a daily basis. They're still our dogs - and we have to remember they won't be around forever. Their lives have changed a lot with the new addition - so we have to give them a little credit. LE is at an age where she squeals with delight each time they lick a cheerio off her fingers. That in itself is enough to wipe their slate clean. Lucky for them.
