Three Dogs and Easter

Starting on the 19th of March, we had Arkhon's brother here for a week. I was a bit worried about what it was going to be like having three dogs in the house, but it went much better than expected. The first day, Allopex was outside watching them play. He said that when Loki (Arkhon's brother) started to get rough with Siff, Arkhon would get between them. There was nothing aggressive about it, but he would just quietly tell his brother to back off.

 He sure is a good boy.

However, by the end of the first day, they were getting along really well. Loki enjoyed his time here, I think, though he did have a couple of accidents. The ironic thing is that he had more accidents than the puppy did. She seems to be completely house-trained. We've trained her to bark when she needs to go outside, and in the last week, she hasn't had a single accident. Instead she barks at the door and waits for us to open it.

Even though they were all really good, having three of them around did stress me out a little bit more than normal, so I was a bit relieved when Loki left after a week. It was nice to only have two dogs again. 

 We had a great Easter weekend. Somehow, the holiday came up on me unexpectedly. I wasn't nearly as prepared for it this year as much as I would have liked to have been. We're trying to start a tradition where we focus on Christ every day of Easter week and what happened that day during his final week. However, this year we weren't prepared, so we just did minimal celebrating. We tried to maintain a good focus on Christ nonetheless.

On Saturday, we did the local Bunny Chase (where they release some rabbits and the kids that catch them get to take them home) and Easter egg hunt. Kevin didn't catch a rabbit, which we were pretty grateful about since we're leaving on vacation soon and didn't want another brand new pet.

He was a little bit sad, but we weren't too upset. I tried again as well, but my feet have been injured recently, so I couldn't run as fast. 

Siff is doing so well! She gets along great with everyone and is so adorable that we attract a lot of attention when we take her out. It's a lot of fun!

Her main issue at the moment is, now that we've taught her to speak, we're teaching her to stop speaking when we ask her to. That's harder for her to learn. 

It was fun to have Loki for company, but I don't think we're ever going to have more than two dogs. +

He can come and stay anytime though. 

Family Home Evening Hilarity

Last night we were having Family Home Evening, and we were talking about Easter. We watched a short video about Palm Sunday and the last Supper. Then, I tried to tell Kevin about how Heavenly Father and Jesus loved us.

I said, "Heavenly Father and Jesus created the earth. They sent Kevin to earth..."

Kevin promptly interrupted me. "I'm not on earth," he told me adamantly.

"You're not?" I asked with amusement.

"No," he said, "earth has too much water. I don't want to walk on the earth. It's too blue! It's too watery! It's too...it's too...it's too water on the earth."

Grig and I started laughing, and he became a bit angry, "Don't laugh!" he told us.

"Sorry," I apologized. "So, Heavenly Father and Jesus sent Kevin to the ground..."

"No!" Kevin protested again. "I don't walk on the earth. To the grass. I walk in the grass."

At this, Grig and I tried to contain our mirth again, but he was just too cute!

So, evidently Heavenly Father and Jesus sent Kevin to the grass because the earth has too much water.

He recognizes pictures of the earth, but I don't think he quite understands that we're on it yet.

So this morning, I took him on a tour of google earth and showed him our home from the street view. Then we went to earth view and zoomed out until he could see the entire globe. Afterward, he said, "I DO live on the earth!"

I love our son. He's really at a fun (if sometimes frustrating) age right now.

Sometimes he's so sweet and helpful, and other times it's like he's progressed to being a teenager. He can be really moody and get angry in an instant. However, we're really beginning to learn what an incredible person Kevin is, and for that, I am very grateful. I wouldn't trade him for anything.

Not even more sleep.

Introducting Siff: The Norwegian Elhound Pup

A video I meant to upload on Saturday. Pictures of Siff are pretty cute, but they don't really compare to the real thing.

Kisses Are Gross

Sometimes when Kevin and I watch movies, and the people on the screen kiss, I'll say something like, "Ew, gross!" It's actually something I've done for years. Who knows why?

So, Kevin started mimicking that. I thought it was pretty funny, especially when sometimes Grig and I would kiss and he would say, "Gross!"

However, this started to worry Grig. A couple of nights ago, he tried to give Kevin a kiss, but Kevin told him it was gross. In sadness, Grig said, "I guess that's it. No more kissing my son."

So, I then explained to Kevin that when Mommy and Daddy kiss is it okay, and it is okay for parents to kiss their children because it shows they love them.

It took about twenty minutes after we had that little talk, and then Kevin said, "I want to give you a kiss." He gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then he wanted to give his daddy a kiss on the cheek. Then, because Havelock was there, he wanted to give Havelock a kiss on the cheek too.

He's a really sweet boy. That made Grig feel a lot better.

Kevin is quite intelligent. He understands some pretty complex things. That's why I also have to be careful what I say. Obviously, we don't want him going around kissing everyone, but we also don't want him to really think that kissing is gross.

After all, sometimes I like to kiss my son (and husband) too.

Daylight Savings and Primary

For my entire life, I've loved Daylight Savings in the fall, but hated it in the spring. In the fall, it meant we got to sleep in an extra hour, but in the spring it meant I had to wake up earlier.

Weirdly, for the first time ever, I'm enjoying it today.

Kevin usually wakes up about 7:00 a.m. or earlier. That means that if I don't get right to work, I don't have any time to write or blog. However, 7:00 is now 8:00. That means that if he gets up at the regular time today, I will have a whole extra hour to get things done.

Happiness!

That doesn't mean that I like getting up an hour earlier, but I am excited for the extra hour it gives me.

In the same way, I had a hard time in fall because even though I was supposed to get an extra hour of sleep, it didn't happen because my son kept getting up at the same time anyway.

This time the transition hasn't been so bad.

Yesterday, church was kind of exciting. Currently, I am the primary chorister, which means I teach the kids music. We have a junior primary (for kids ages 3-7) and a senior primary (for ages 8-11). Yesterday, the junior primary was pretty...crazy.

Usually, I don't have hard time engaging them, and it's pretty easy to teach them music. However, yesterday, it took nearly the whole time to get them singing, and if I was talking, I didn't get any attention at all. I was very grateful for the activity that I was inspired to plan.

I drew a thermometer on the board and told them that every time they sang better, we would go up a degree, and if they sang really well, we'd blow the top off of our thermometer. I had to teach them the song first though, and that was when they were not really listening. However, after we ran through it and started singing, they really began to do their best. Even my little sunbeams (the three-year-olds) were singing their hearts out.

My son is in that group, and I'm never sure what to do. I don't know what kind of parent-teacher I am yet. I don't know if I focus on him the most, or if I ignore him, or if I treat him like every other kid. It's a hard balance to find. I don't want to ignore him, but I don't want to give him special treatment either. So, I try and call on him occasionally.

I really love my son.

Oh! The other exciting event that happened at church was during senior primary. We were learning the song, and some of the kids started shouting, "Spider! Spider!" I looked, and a small spider was descending from the ceiling toward one of the teacher's hair. I quickly moved over, grabbed the web at a higher point, and took the dangling spider over by the trash can. I tried to calm down the excited children by telling them that it was a "good spider" and they didn't need to worry about it. They did calm down pretty quickly, and soon they were singing again.

I love primary.

The puppy is doing okay with daylight savings too. She doesn't know the difference really. Things are going well with her. She's super smart and is picking things up pretty quickly. She can already sit and she's learning to speak. Once she can bark on command, I'm going to teach her how to bark when she wants to go outside. Then, hopefully, potty training will go faster. She doesn't have very many accidents, but they do happen occasionally.

The thing we're struggling with now, is trying to help her bond to us more than she bonds to Arkhon. To that end, we've been trying to have time with the puppy when Arkhon is removed from the situation. It's kind of crazy how much better she listens when he's not around. However, we want her to listen when he is around too, so I'm going to be trying some new things this week. We'll see how they go.

I love my dogs.

Kevin really likes having two dogs. Friday, when he and I were out walking, he turned to me and said, "We have two dogs, Mom!" He was pretty excited about it.

I am too.