>Zoey

Posted on May 19, 2010 by tricialc

>I remember very clearly the day that Cory and I brought Zoey home with us. We were in the Alero, Cory and I up front and little puppy Zoey in the back seat, running from window to window trying to peak out and get a look at what was going on. She was unsure, and so were we. I think we made two or three stops on the hour long trip, just in case she had to go potty.

Sitting in the car, looking from my husband in the drivers seat to our new puppy in the back I remember thinking, this is it, the beginning of our family, and the last day of just Cory and I.
We brought our puppy home to our new house that we had just moved into the day prior to her arrival.
From the beginning Zoey was mischievous, a definite alpha dog and full of energy but we loved her Shiba spirit.
Now, 6 years later, I look at Zoey and I see my first parental failure. She never got the kind of strict training that a puppy, particularly a Shiba Inu should have. She never got the socialization that would make her a dog that can be around other dogs. She was spayed too early and now has a permanent bladder control issue that requires medication. All of these things make her a challenging pet, but never the less, a member of our family.
Zoey and I have a very complicated relationship.
After Zoey bit my nephew last summer, I have not thought of her in the same way. No longer was she just another member of our family, who just doesn’t play well with other dogs, now she was a threat to the children in our lives, and a liability. Yesterday Thea touched Zoey’s tail while she was lounging on the floor and Zoey repaid her by biting her face. She bled a little bit, and the two little spots where her teeth broke the skin are now scabbed over and accompanied by a scrape.
I can’t even explain how I feel about this situation, and the turmoil it is causing in my family. It is very upsetting. The most upsetting part is that Cory and I don’t agree about what to do, and neither of us trusts the others motivation for the stance that we have taken.
No matter how you look at it, I have failed my dog, my first baby. And I have failed my child.
Just another item to add to the list of things that are troubling my heart these days.
Posted in Zoey | 4 Comments

>Bowling

Posted on May 11, 2010 by tricialc

>This weekend we fulfilled our birthday promise to Leila and we took her bowling, along with lots of our friends. In our bowling group was 8 adults 7 children and 2 fetuses, and we all had a blast. I wish I had pictures to prove it! We played two games, and each of the children had their very own distinct bowling style. There is Bryce who runs up to the lane and throws his ball with all of his strength. Bryce is a competitive and clever little guy, who mentioned to me when I had a couple of consecutive gutter balls that maybe I should bowl in the lane with bumpers next time.

Then you have Lilly, who is more of a leisurely bowler…she strolls up to the end of the lane, sits down and gives her ball a gentle backhand, sending it so slowly down the lane that when it makes contact with the pins, you don’t know who is going to be left standing…the pin or the ball.
In typical Leila fashion, she choose a ball that was way too heavy for her, but it was purple, her favorite color. Every turn she would drag that heavy purple ball up to the line and give it a good shove, taking the ball’s travel time as a perfect break to have a dance with her buddy Lilly while she was still the center of attention standing out on the wooden floor of the bowling alley.
Sawyer and Eli split a game and neither of them was so engaged in the activity to notice that their attempt to throw the ball down the lane was nearly always met with a follow up push from their grown up assistant, they were happy to see the ball go over the end of the lane and into the bowling alley black hole whether or not the pins had fallen! YeongHo and Thea did all of their bowling from their Daddy’s arms, but you could tell they had fun. YeongHo’s little face would light up in excitement as he rested his hand on the shiny red ball before Bryan heaved it down the lane.
If you can’t tell from my descriptions, we had a wonderful time. It was magical watching the kids play together, encouraging and celebrating for each other after each throw. Very little attention was paid to how many many pins fell, but a glimpse into the carefree fun of children was the focus of the evening. My friends have great kids, and so do I. I love them all dearly!
Posted in Friends, Leila | 1 Comment

>Something else that is awesome

Posted on May 10, 2010 by tricialc

>When you are having a bad day, and you reread a blog post about a special event that reminds you of how happy some other days have been. I am sure glad that I have this place to paste my thoughts about my good days.

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>Awesome

Posted on May 5, 2010 by tricialc

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I stumbled upon this blog today and I couldn’t help but smile as I skimmed through the entries, so I wanted to post it here. Though it is kind of annoying that every other post is an advertisement for the book, a lot of these “Awesome things” were really awesome things that I never given much thought to. Check this out if you need a little pick me up: http://1000awesomethings.com/

In the spirit of awesome things I will add a couple of my own…
#1 Sweet Soft Baby Skin! It doesn’t matter to me if my baby is freshly bathed or post dinner sporting the distinct smell of baked beans, there is nothing that compares to the feel of a baby’s sweet mushy skin up against mine. When I was pregnant with Leila I remember thinking about baby skin and feeling giddy at the very idea that I would soon have my own baby skin to snuggle!
I am clenching my jaw right now just thinking about the adorably mush and smooth baby body I have sleeping in the next room. I kinda wanna go pick her up and mush her cheeks. Oh sweet baby skin.
#2 The evening after a long anticipated day. I am talking a family wedding, a big birthday party, or a Holiday celebration. The awesomeness of being done with the work, the party preparations and the socializing. I do like to entertain, but I am an introvert through and through so every big event leaves me exhausted.
Bonus to the evening after a long day would be a husband provided foot rub. Double awesomeness.
#3 Getting the piece of food that was once stuck between your teeth free!
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>Bedtime

Posted on April 29, 2010 by tricialc

>Tonight I was rocking baby Thea in a failed attempt to get her to sleep. Over the course of her lifetime, the bedtime routine has been fairly consistent. I will nurse her, and sometimes that is enough to send her to dreamland but if not, Daddy would step in and take Thea down to his man room to rock her to sleep while he plays NCAA football on his Xbox. Now that we have the apartment and no second living room, I have had the duty of rocking baby girl to bed on occasion, while Cory keeps Leila occupied (and quiet) in her room.

If you have ever done any reading about getting babies to sleep then you know that one of the rules of thumb is to avoid eye contact with your baby when you want them to sleep. Maybe that is why I am a fairly consistent failure at rocking to sleep…I can not resist those sweet little eyes and every time I look down at her, she reaches up, touches my face and giggles in delight. Rocking baby duty, even if not successful is definitely a rewarding job.
Posted in Motherhood, Sleep, Thea | 2 Comments

>The summer home

Posted on April 29, 2010 by tricialc

>We are all moved in to the apartment, and life is good. The apartment has three bedrooms that are all pretty large, along with a big deck, 2 car garage and a closet that puts the closet in our old house to shame. I am in awe of the fact that there is room for all of our clothes to be clean at the same time! Oh the simple pleasures…

The biggest drawback is that we are on the second floor, so taking Zoey out, bringing groceries in and carting kids both ways is a bit of a struggle. The benefit is that Zoey can lounge on the deck and sun herself, something she always has enjoyed about our fenced yard. She is probably having the toughest adjustment but is still doing well with everything.
As nice as it is here, we are looking forward to September and our new house. I am ready to feel settled! We met with our builder this week and were able to see a 3D rendering of our new kitchen, and I am even more excited about everything now. The next step in our process is to get an appraisal done of the plan to ensure that our lender will approve the mortgage for what we are contracted to pay. We don’t expect this to be an issue, but as soon as that is done, the contract will be signed and we can get started on construction! Once I have my camera and work gets underway, you can expect lots of progress pictures! I can tell you now that the house is 2 story, with 3 bedrooms, a large bonus room and the laundry all upstairs. Downstairs will be the huge kitchen, dining room, living room and a half bath. The back will have a big deck and our lot borders on a corn field. I know that I will have green siding, and probably a tan stone front on the front of the garage. Very exciting stuff! 🙂

Posted in House | 1 Comment

>Birthday

Posted on April 29, 2010 by tricialc

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Leila had a birthday, and she got a new set of wheels from Mommy and Daddy! I think she likes the bike, what do you think?

This year we tried something new and had a joint party for the birthday buddies Leila and Sawyer. I was thankful to have the party at Andrea’s, since we had moved into the apartment only a week before and we closed on the house the day before the party. It went really well, the kids had a great time and I can’t even describe to you how I felt seeing Leila arrive at Andrea’s for the party, in her special new outfit that she picked out. She was so excited and happy, my cup run-nth over!
All week she asked who would be at her party and she told us that she was going to invite all of her aunts and uncles, the girl loves her family.
We are planning to take her bowling as a birthday bonus with a few of her friends, but things have been pretty hectic lately so we will see when that happens.

Posted in Leila, Sawyer | 2 Comments

>Back in Business…kind of

Posted on April 24, 2010 by tricialc

>Today was the closing on our old house and it is officially sold!  We are settling into our summer home on the other side of North Liberty and we gave in and set up internet and cable TV, so in that respect…I’M BACK!  The bad news is, that in our move, we seem to have misplaced the camera.

Leila celebrated a birthday yesterday, her fourth, and we gave her a new bike with princess’s on it and pink tassels on the handlebars…she is a happy girl!

Tomorrow is her party, as well as Cory and I’s 6th wedding anniversary.

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>Hiatus

Posted on April 12, 2010 by tricialc

>This isn’t exactly a planned absence, but we shut off our internet at home a few weeks ago, and we are moving this week, so I promise I will be back as soon as we get a bit more settled into our “summer home.”

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>Thea at one year

Posted on March 26, 2010 by tricialc

>Thea had her 1 year appointment this week.  I had already made plans to visit my friend and her twin babies in the NICU so Cory had the task of taking Thea to the Doctor.  She weighed in at 26 lbs, 9 ounces, and she is 30 and 3/4 inches tall.  She is a big girl.

She isn’t walking yet, but she stands unassisted and will give you the, “look at me, aren’t I hot stuff?” face while she does it.  She has taken one step and fallen quite a few times, but she is in way too much of a hurry to try to slow down and balance herself walking, she would much prefer to turbo crawl.  This is really fine with me, she is already growing up too fast.

She is a great baby girl, she loves to eat bananas.  Her boppy pillow is a big hit, she is so cute lounging in it like it is a recliner. Blankets are a big hit with Thea too.  She has a favorite pink blanket that Grandpa Warren got for her, but she will smoosh her face in and roll around on the floor with just about any blanket she can find.  She loves toys that play music she can dance too and she has a couple of words.  She says Mama, Dada, LaLa (Leila), Dog, all done and yeah.  I haven’t heard her say no yet, but I am sure that one will come soon.

Leila and Thea still get along pretty well, but for some reason they both always want the same toy.  That gets really frustrating for all of us!

Cory and I are trying to get moving on the packing business…next week we close on our lot and then two weeks after that we get our apartment so we can move out of here and get it cleaned up before our house closing.   I am anxious to get to a slightly more settled point in this transition so I am looking forward to May!  Not only will we be settled into our new temporary home, but we will be welcoming a new baby girl into the Howard family when Andrea and Steve’s daughter arrives.  We can’t wait!

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