Until somebody smacks her face on the side of the crib.  This video is a few weeks old, but it shows how much the babies LOVE their cribs.  As soon as you put them both in the same one, the giggles and body slams start.  It’s pretty frickin’ cute…well, til the end anyway.

Avery LOVES it when we read books. It’s part of the wind-down routine before naps every day. She has lots of favorites now, including Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and just about anything by Sandra Boynton. The one she liked best early on is called Moo, Baa, La La La. Now she’s gotten to the point where she says the 3 singing pigs’ part almost every time she hears it. Can “La, La, La” count as a first word?

Just to keep things interesting around here, Colby and Kenna both had surgery in the last two weeks. Kenna had grown a lump on the inside of her eyelid that was irritating the eye and making it bloodshot and oozy and gross. We’d been debating having her teeth cleaned, and this tumor thing made the decision for us. Dr. W said it had to go, so on the 3rd, she went under the knife. Turns out the tumor was just a cyst, which was good, and her teeth are shiny and white again. They were beyond nasty, and she was getting gum infections that made it impossible to be in the same room where she was breathing, so things are vastly improved for her. The vet wants her to start on a supplement called Denosyne to help counteract the elevated liver panels she has due to being on Deramaxx for arthritis, and we’re trying it for a month to see if it makes a big difference for her. It kills me to see her getting older and to think she won’t be around when the kids are a little older, so I’m willing to try just about anything within to keep her feeling young.

And Colby… Remember a year ago when Colby had surgery to repair his CCL? Well something like 80% of dogs who have one leg done end up needing the other done within a year. And our boy likes to follow the crowd. He’d been limping on it for awhile, but I kept putting off actually scheduling the surgery. But he went in on the 10th and I am happy to report that he’s recovering well – far better than he did last time. Because of his record with stitches, he got staples from the start this time. The incision looks good and he’s already bearing weight on the leg. Dr. W told Don to expect a harder recovery this time because he had really totally blown the ligament, but he really seems fine. The tough thing is that he is supposed to have “strict rest and confinement” for 2 weeks and he’s just not into that. He’s managed to maneuver his way past 2 baby gates to climb the absolutely forbidden steps twice, and he whines non-stop because of being lonely in the basement while the kids and I play upstairs during the day. Swimming is supposed to be excellent for helping him to rehab the leg, so once we get the pool open, we’ll have to help him with that. I know, labs are water dogs. Colby didn’t get that message, nor did he get the ones about labs being intelligent, and medium to large (not extra jumbo sized). He sucks at swimming and it scares him. It’ll be entertaining, at least.

All in all, about $1500 later, we have healthy pets again. Which is great. I’m sure Alex and Avery won’t even want to go to college…

Every night when I finish tutoring, I call Don to see how the evening and bedtime went.  Tonight, he told me it mostly went well except that Avery flipped out about something and was the most upset he’s ever seen her.  He said she screamed and did the cry where she forgets to breathe for like 45 seconds between screams. It was worse than any head banging incident or other injury.  Worse than when she gets scared of the vacuum cleaner’s noise.   What could possibly have made her so sad?

Don took two mac and cheese noodles off her tray, which was full of them, and put them on Alex’s empty tray at the end of dinner.

This is the girl who can have a tray full of food but still reaches over to swipe peas, cantaloupe, crackers, scrambled eggs, whatever she can find, from her brother’s tray when he’s not paying attention.  Before the noodles hit the plastic on his tray, she lost it and let loose with the tantrum.  How freaking funny is that???  Mommy’s little piggy!