Haircuts, Dentist, and Attitude

On Monday, I gave Kevin a haircut. He was not very pleased with the idea. However, as I am a lazy mother, my theory on my son's hair is this: If I have to comb it, it's time to cut it.

As you can see from the before pictures, he didn't want a haircut.

It went pretty well, though he cried the whole time. When we finished, he didn't want a bath, so I cleaned off the extra hair with a wet washrag and took him into the bathroom to show him how handsome he was.

At first, he seemed like he was going to cheer up, but then he spotted an old scrape on his forehead. Immediately, (even though it had been there for two days) he said, "It hurt me!" and he began to cry again. So, even though I assured him that this particular injury was already there and hadn't been caused by the clippers, the after pictures are just as sad as the before ones.

You can see the tiny pinpoint scab on the right side of his forehead.

It didn't take long for him to cheer up, however. I had cut everyone else's hair recently, and Kevin was happy to join the hair-cutting club.

Tuesday was Kevin's first dentist appointment. (I had one too, but it wasn't my first, thankfully.)

He did really well! It helped that I went first, and they let him watch. Then, when it was his turn, he was very obedient and held open his mouth when asked. They told us that his teeth looked great and he has really nice spacing between his baby teeth. I was really proud of how well he did. The nurses were impressed and one of them asked me if he was almost four. I told her he had just turned 3 in November, and she was surprised. She said that she didn't usually see such mature boys, mostly girls.

He wasn't scared at all, and the staff did really well with him. After we got home, he started doctoring his T-rex's teeth and repeating things the doctors had told him, like "Doesn't that taste like candy?". It was really cute. I should have gotten a picture.

Instead, here's one of him coloring on the side walk with chalk.

Siff is doing really well. She loves her kennel, and goes in there to sleep on her own. She's doing really well with potty-training and everything else. She does have a bit of an attitude though.

Now, don't get me wrong. She's not aggressive, and she isn't really disobedient. She just knows what she wants and she's not afraid to tell you about it.

For example, last night, Siff was having a bit of diarrhea. She had to go outside every hour or so. At one point, I nearly put her kennel outside and just let her stay out, but visions of her being eaten or something else terrible happening forced me to let her in a short time later. (I have a very active imagination.) So, I opened the door to let her in, and she ran right over to Arkhon's bed and laid down, as though to say, "I want to sleep here, thank you."

I laughed and told her that I would love for her to be able to sleep there, but not until she had been accident-free for a few months. She went pretty willingly into her kennel after that. She just likes you to know her opinions.

She's pretty awesome and adorable. She and Arkhon get along great, and she's so sweet to everyone.

For a random addition, on Sunday, Grig found a garter snake and brought it home.It was really pretty. Arkhon found it very interesting before Grig let it go again.

I love my family.

Events of Some Magnitude

Last week, my husband cut my hair.

It was getting obnoxiously long. When I would lay down in bed, it would get caught under my armpits, and I would be stuck.

So, after months of not getting a haircut, I finally asked my husband to cut it for me. He was a bit scared. He'd never cut hair before, but I was sure he'd do a good job. He let me learn how to cut hair on his head, so I thought it was only fair that he should learn to cut hair with me.

They watched a short youtube video, and then with my mother coaching, Grig cute my hair.

He did a great job. I am very happy with my shorter hair.

I love this guy.

The other crazy thing that has happened this week is that Grig found out this his job is closing. The plant is going to remain open until the end of October, so he has some time to look for work, but it is a little scary. 

When he told me, however, I didn't feel any worry at all. I just felt peace and a sense of excitement. We'd been praying for a while to ask if Grig should be looking for a different job. We felt like this was the answer. 

We don't know what the next few months will hold, but we know the Lord iwll take care of our family. We appreciate the prayers in our behalf, and are so grateful for those who have been willing to do so.

The other momentous thing that happened this week was that our puppy turned 1!

Happy birthday, Arkhon!

We were going to have a party with him and his brother, but Loki's (Arkhon's brother) owners ended up having company at their house and couldn't come. We were sad, but didn't let that deter us. 

I ended up walking into town to obtain the ingredients we needed. By the end of the walk, Kevin and I had traveled over five miles! That's pretty impressive for me.

Once we got home, we baked Arkhon a cake. We were watching my friend's kids, so they helped me bake it.

Here's the cake without all the frosting on. It was shaped like a dog.

I have a recipe for homemade dog treats. We mixed all the ingredients together, and then I shaped it into a dog shape.

Then, we put a can of canned dog food on top for frosting. It made it look pretty disgusting, but the dogs liked licking the "frosting" off of my fingers.

Here's the cake with the frosting and the dog bone candle.

 Then we placed a bone on top and inserted a candle into the bone. I think it looked pretty awesome when it was done.

We also made a peanut butter bar cookie cake for the rest of us to eat, since we didn't actually want to eat the dog's cake.

Once everything was ready, we lit the candle and sang "Happy Birthday." Arkhon got to sit at the table for the first time in his life while we sang, and then Kevin blew out the candle for him.

He was very good about leaving it alone until we gave it to him.

The dogs really enjoyed the cake. Then we gave Arkhon a couple of presents, mostly from the dollar store.

Really, I decided you shouldn't buy any dogs treats from anywhere besides the dollar store. We got a whole box of treats for a dollar. That made me pretty happy. 

Arkhon had fun. It's crazy that he's a year old now. We haven't had him for a year yet, but he's turning into a great dog. He listens super well, and he has very few issues. Mostly, he still jumps when he's excited, and he will occasionally whine when we leave him behind. 

He doesn't have accidents in the house anymore either! We figured out that if we ignore him when he's excited until he calms down, and then make him lay down before we pet him, then his jumping is becoming less. I think he's figuring out finally what we want. He and Kevin are best friends. They chase each other around the living room, and he never even nips Kevin. 

Kevin's getting better at being gentle as well. 

Aside from the news about Grig's job, things are going pretty well. Please pray for us. We feel as though this is supposed to happen and that the next opportunity that Grig gets will be good for our family, but we also know the power of prayer and would be grateful for any extra faith on our behalf. 

Thank you again!

Introducing...

So, we took back our expensive purchase and returned with a much cheaper alternative.

Introducing....

Gin, our new betta Fish!

Isn't he gorgeous?

Kevin fell asleep on the way to the petsmart, so Grig and I debated different fish for a while. Ichimaru Gin, or Gin for short (pronounced with a hard g, like goat), was our compromise. Kevin woke up just in time to agree to our choice. We showed him the other fish, and he pointed to the one we'd already picked out. I guess that made it unanimous. 

He is a crowntail betta, also known as the Japanese fighting fish or, more correctly, the Siamese fighting fish. 

Gin seems to be happy in his new home. We put a few rocks on the bottom and some fake plants. Though this picture makes him look too big for the container, the curve of the vase he is in just makes him look really big. The vase is pretty large for a single fish. He seems to love it.

Kevin has had a few exciting weeks, but we're finally starting to feel settled in. He also has picked up a new sport. He is pretty good at serving ping-pong balls at his grandparents' home.

It has been warm around here lately, so the dogs have been shedding. We've been getting tired of dog hair around the house, so I gave the dogs a trim yesterday. 

Here are the dogs before:

And after:

Arkhon doesn't look all that much different, except that you can see his brown half-circle on his back better. Dakota, however, always looks a lot different after a haircut. I only trimmed their fur down to 1/2 an inch, because we're still supposed to get more snow, but they seem a lot more comfortable in the house. Less hair makes us happier too.

We are getting a new housemate this weekend. 

Grig's sister is coming to live with us. We'll have to choose a pseudonym for her too. Well, actually, we'll let her choose her own. Kevin's grandmother is driving her here and their going to stay for a little while. Kevin is going to love having his grandma and aunt around the house!

It will be fun to have company for a while! 

Moving Rooms, Haircuts, and Garter Snakes

We've been trying to make a big change in our home.

We decided that it's time for Kevin to move to his own bedroom.

Due to this, over the last couple of days we haven't gotten much sleep. The first night, I was just going to stay in there until he fell asleep, but he stood on his bed with his arms stretched toward the door grasping at the air. I finally figured out that he wanted his dad.

So, we have slept on his bedroom floor the last two nights to help him get used to sleeping in there. He's been doing pretty well. He fought it pretty hard the first night, but during his nap yesterday he went right to sleep in his own bedroom.

When nighttime came, he wasn't too sure about it again, but as soon as our pseudo-bed was made on the floor he settled down and went to sleep. He slept most of the night on his own, but at about 3:30 a.m., he put himself between the two of us. It was pretty cold, so I didn't make him go back in his own bed. It's hard to find a happy medium with the temperature in our house.

We don't have air-conditioning, so at night we leave all the windows open and use a window fan. However, this can make it pretty cold in the bedroom. It's hard to want to turn it off though, because then it's too warm during the daytime.

Grig and I are okay, but Kevin hates blankets and always kicks them off.

It's a work-in-progress.

Yesterday, I also gave Grig and Kevin haircuts. I had been intending to cut their hair before our trip to Virginia, but then I realized his grandma would want to see his curly hair. She was grateful I waited to cut it.

Here's Kevin's before and after pictures:

It turned out quite well.

Here's the back:

He has a lot of hair.

For family home evening, we went swimming in the river last night. Well, swimming is perhaps the wrong term. Wading is probably more like it. At one point, we were walking upstream and it was getting thigh-high. It was pretty hard going for a while, but a lot of fun.

It was also pretty cold. It was fairly warm outside, so the water felt pretty good.

Grig also managed to catch a garter snake, so that was awesome! We were climbing over a tree, and Grig spotted it. He quickly jumped over the fallen trunk, and snagged the end of it. It was a pretty good sized one. We hadn't brought the camera with us, but it looked a lot like this one, with big spots on its body.

Its head seemed flatter than the ones in Idaho, but maybe that's because it was sleeping under a log.

Who knows?

We're finally getting back to the normal schedule. It's nice to be home.

Shaving Our Dog

Dakota lately has been panting a lot. She breathes very hard and fast, and when she does that usually we assume that she needs to go outside to use the bathroom. However, we've had an unusually warm winter this year. Several times over the last couple of weeks I have been able to wear shorts and t-shirts outside.

So, the thought occurred to me that maybe the reason that Dakota seemed so stressed lately is because she was too hot. So, Friday night, I decided to clip her fur.

I do the hair-cutting at our house. A friend asked me what I wanted for my wedding, and I told her I wanted hair clippers. She gave them to me, and it has been one of the best presents that I received. I cut Grig, Havelock, and Kevin's hair with them. When I was in high school, I also bought a pair of dog hair trimmers so that I could clip my dog's hair as well. When we moved here, my dog clipper blades were very dull, but we found a man just out of town that sharpens clipper blades for a really good price. He did a great job on them, and I've clipped the dog 3 or 4 times since she came to live with us.

I was clipping her fur to an inch long. For winter, this seemed logical. I wanted her to have some protection from the cold when she went outside. Lately though, it's been getting warmer in our upstairs apartment; much too warm for a long-haired dog.

Before picture

So, this time I clipped her fur to 1/2 an inch long. She's always been really good while I clipped her, and she was pretty patient as she and I sat in the bathroom and took off most of her hair. You can see from the picture below how much really came off of her.

During the process

I decided to leave the fur long on her tail and ears, though I did trim the top of her tail so that it would be more uniform with her fur. Here are the after images:

These pictures were taken right after her bath, so she's a little wet still.

Back view

Side view

It's taken a little bit of getting used to, but I really like the way she looks now. On Saturday, when we were going on a walk, a lady stopped us and had to tell us how beautiful our dog was! She asked us if she was part husky, and we told her that she was a border collie/Australian shepherd cross. She really liked her fur color. 

Dakota has been much happier since we trimmed her. She's more relaxed and doesn't pant nearly as often. It's been nice to know that she likes her new haircut.

There's been another advantage to trimming her fur, and that is that Kevin doesn't have as many hand-holds to grab. It is harder for him to pull her fur now, and she seems to like that much better. 

She's a very good dog. She and Kevin are little co-conspirators. He sneaks her food off his plate and she's happy to let him. They're pretty good friends now, even though he is a little rough occasionally. She tolerates his mistakes and moves away when he gets to be too much for her. Sometimes I have to intervene, but usually he is very sweet to her. He likes to pat her back and give her hugs. She is an amazing kid-dog, and I'm so grateful that we don't have to worry about her hurting him. 

This is important, because if it came to a choice between the two of them, we'd always pick Kevin. 

We're just grateful we don't have to make that choice.