What would we do without dogs?

Every day when the boys wake up from their naps, the dogs get really excited.  In fact, when Foudy realizes that one of the boys is awake and that I'm going up to his room, she runs upstairs and waits outside that boy's door.  When Zach wakes up and just comes downstairs, Foudy grabs the nearest toy and barks excitedly, wagging her tail and trying to see him.  So despite the fact that Zach definitely annoys her sometimes, she loves him.

Today after Drew woke up from his nap, I had him sitting in his crib while I put some clothes away in his room.  Foudy heard me talking to him, so she came wandering into the room.  She didn't come in right away because I had been trying to get him back to sleep, but that obviously didn't work.  Anyway, when she came in, I put the crib railing down and told Foudy to come over so she could see Drew.  We used to do this when it was Zach's crib, and the dogs would stand on their hind legs and put their front paws up on the railing.  Zach loved it.  So, I called Foudy over to do that, expecting to get a smile out of Drew, as he is starting to love the dogs as much as Zach always has.  Well, instead of jumping up, Foudy jumped in.  She thought she'd just join Drew in the crib and cozy up.  It was so cute, I had to get a picture.  Then she laid down and snuggled him, so I had to get another picture.  

If you're not a dog-lover, I'm sure you're freaking out right now that the dog was in my baby's crib.  First, let me say that the dogs are not allowed in the kids' rooms  when they're sleeping, although I frequently have to kick Maggie out from under Drew's crib when I'm trying to put him down for naps.  Second, I was about to take the sheet off to wash it, and I did just that about a minute after I took these pictures.  So Drew is sleeping peacefully right now on a clean, dog hair-free sheet.

I'm just so glad that we have dogs.  I think it's really important for kids to grow up with pets because it teaches them so much about love, compassion, and responsibility.  I can't count the number of times that Zach has played with Maggie or Foudy outside while I'm making dinner or something, and the laughs that come from him are these wonderful belly-laughs.  I look outside to see the dogs having fun, too.  As a kid I was really, really into my dogs, and already I see that in Zach.  I just can't imagine our lives without those dogs.

On a totally different note, Zach is really enjoying preschool.  Today we got to take snacks.  We decided on dried blueberries, string cheese, and some V8 Fusion Mango-Peach juice.  Zach thought it was all very good, and the teachers were happy, too.  When I picked Zach up the teacher said something about what a happy boy he is, so that was good to hear.  That was probably her nice way of saying that he talks nonstop, but that's ok.  I'd rather have him happy and talking than sad/mad and quiet.  

After picking Zach up we stopped at the jewelers to pick up my wedding ring.  For the past few weeks I've been trading off wearing my engagement and wedding rings because I've had them both resized.  For a long time they've been too big and can just fall right off my finger, so I decided I needed to get them resized.  I did the engagement ring first, and then when it was done I did the wedding ring.  Well, then I realized that by resizing the engagement ring, the engraving inside was gone, so today when I picked up the newly sized wedding ring I dropped off the engagement ring again to be re-engraved.  Charles, the manager or owner, tried to talk me into getting Mike a new watch for Christmas.  I'm sure their watches are way out of my price range.  I didn't have the guts to tell him that Mike just bought a nice, new watch on Ebay, either.  I used having the boys with me as an excuse as to why I couldn't stay and look, so I made a mental note to have the boys with me next week when I pick up my engagement ring again so I can't get suckered into looking at watches then, either.

When we got home from the jewelry store, we could hear the construction vehicles on the road a block over.  Zach got on his bike and we put Drew in the stroller and headed over to check out the action.  I'm glad we did.  We got to see a bulldozer moving a bunch of dirt around, a mini-excavator moving a huge spool of cable, a compactor flattening out dirt, and a bunch of tipper trucks that would come in with huge loads of dirt and dump them over sideways.  It was something I never would have stopped to watch a few years ago, but now that I'm a mom to little boys, I know this is just one of many times I'll stop at a construction site to watch the machines.  On the way back to our house Zach was having trouble getting up someone's driveway to get onto the sidewalk.  Sometimes his training wheels are too low so the back wheel of his bike just spins.  Anyway, I gave him a little push and told him to pedal, but it wasn't enough to really get him going, so I encouraged him on saying, "Come on, Zach!  Let's go!"  And Zach's response as he tried to pedal was, "Work with me, Mom!  Work with me!"  That cracked me up.

We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Dick, and Sadie, their dog.  Right now they're in the middle of Nebraska (poor things), and they'll be here some time tomorrow.  They'll stay overnight and then head up to meet their latest grandson, my nephew Anders.  Sadie will be staying with us.  Zach is excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, and excited to have Sadie stay for a little while.  He already has plans on what he'll play with her and how he'll brush her.  Like I said before, I love having dogs.  I'm so glad that Zach is a dog lover already.  

One last note- tonight we ran out to the mall to see if we could find rain gear for the big football game this weekend, as rain is in the forecast.  We also brought some clothes we wanted to get rid of because Younkers is having their Goodwill sale, where you get a 20% off coupon for each item of clothing you bring in to donate to Goodwill.  Well, we didn't find any rain gear, but I found some other great deals.  I got a pair of Calvin Klein jeans and a Calvin Klein knit shirt, each normally $47.99, for $9.60 apiece.  I couldn't use my 20% off coupons on those because they were on clearance, but I didn't know that when I got to the register.  I was sort of expecting to get 20% off the $47.99 prices, so I was already thinking about if I would return these items before ever taking the tags off (a problem my sisters and I have a lot).  You can imagine my surprise when the saleslady said that without using the coupon each item was just $9.60.  Woohoo!  There's nothing I love more than a good deal!