Fun at the Lake

It's so hot. I love living in Texas about 85% of the time. The rest of the time, it's July and August. I watched the forecast last night and they're saying it's going to be 102 every day until Saturday. The should forgo the displaying the actual high temperature and just show a little man with his hair on fire because that's what it feels like. The only thing that's making me feel a little less cranky is the new Jason Mraz CD I got last week. Love it. I think I'm going to burn a hole in it before the end of the summer. Listening to it makes me feel like I'm on a tropical island far, far away. I bought pre-sale tickets for his October concert this morning and I'm so looking forward to that. I'm starting to think of Texas summers as a bad "fun tax" we have to pay to get to college football season and awesome weather.

We had such a good time this weekend going to Cedar Creek Lake with the Hardeman's. Stephanie did a great job of capturing the whole weekend on her blog. It was actually a lot cooler there than it was here on our urban heat island. I think all of the trees and the breeze had something to do with it . The Hardeman's son, Cooper, is 2 weeks older than Ellie, so they're pretty developmentally even. It's nice to have friends who also have a small child because they don't care if your child has a meltdown, throws food on the floor, poops in her pants, or requires a nap at an inconvenient time because it's very likely that their child is doing the same thing.

We got there right before lunch and naptime for Ellie on Saturday. After the kiddos woke up, they were full-on playing outside. Ellie doesn't really play "with" other kids yet so much as she plays next to them. I think that's a skill she's still learning. She's also learning to share... something she hasn't learned from being an only child. Poor Cooper - Ellie thought every sippy cup and toy was hers. She missed her Saturday morning swimming lesson so we took her swimming in the lake. Lee and I would throw her up in the air back and forth and catch her. She loved it. We cooked out for dinner that night and after all of the kiddos went to bed, we took the boat out on the lake. Late night, Lee and Danny played each other on the Wii. I had never seen one before, but it was quite entertaining. I really wanted to see Lee and Danny box each other, but they stuck with golf. I think Lee may want a Wii, but we talked about it on the way home, and at this point in our lives, I don't know how much we'd really use it. I can't see us virtual bowling with each other that much. Thank you, Danny and Stephanie - we had a great time!

Ellie has been fairly cranky for the past few days. I think she's getting some more teeth added to the fact that she has a cold. It's been tough to get her to go to sleep at night. Ellie has a new boyfriend at daycare (sorry, Cooper). His name is Aiden and he's very cute. Today I picked her up and after I got her out of the classroom, Ellie and Aiden stood there at the window that opens onto the hall just looking at each other. Ellie blew him kisses and he just waved. I took her hand and lead her away, but she turned around and ran back to blow more kisses. Oh brother.

I have a new time filler - Facebook. If any of you out there are members, add me to your list! I'm under the e-mail thebrightspot@yahoo.com. Lee is on there too.

Making Deals With Elmo

I want to thank everyone for all of their kind words about Trudie. I miss my little pal, but I'm sure every day will get a little easier than the last. I especially had a lot of nice notes from the east Tennessee folks and I can't wait to meet all of you when Lee, Ellie, and I visit the Erwins this fall to watch some Vol football. I picked up Trudie's remains yesterday from the vet and they came in a nice little cedar box. I may get a just keep her for now.


On Monday morning, Ellie gave me further proof that she is a genius. When she woke up, the little brown fairy had not yet made a deposit in her diaper bank, so I changed her diaper and got her dressed for school. When we were getting ready to leave, she ran to me in the kitchen and I could smell that she needed her diaper changed. I told her to hang on because I was fixing my lunch when she ran over to her diaper bag and started rummaging through it. One of her favorite games now is drag everything out of the bag/purse/cabinet/toy box. I told her to get out of the diaper bag because I didn't want to pick up everything before we left. She then grabbed a diaper out of the bag, opened it up, walked over to me, spread the diaper out on the ground, and sat there next to it waiting for me to change her. At first, I thought surely she is not asking me to change her diaper... but I'm pretty sure that's what she was doing. This almost makes up for her pooping on our bedroom floor after her bath on Sunday night.



I looked up potty training on the internet and most sites say not to start trying until 18 months which is 3-4 months away. I think I'm going to start working with her to give a name to being wet or dirty so she'll be able to tell me. If she can tell me that a cow can "mmmoooooo", she can tell me that she just "ppppoooooooo". If that doesn't work, maybe I can figure out the sign language for it. I'm also going to get her a little play potty to get her used to the idea of a toilet.


Lately, whenever Ellie sees my cell phone, she has to have it. Nothing else will do. And she loves punching all of the buttons, so if you ever get a strange call with heavy breathing, it's Ellie - not me. I decided that she needed her own cell phone, so I bought her an Elmo cell phone on Sunday and it's so cute. It has this function that allowed me to download Elmo saying her name from a website and then use a mini USB cable to put it on the phone. It's so funny. Elmo says in his squeaky little voice "Hi Ellie! Can Elmo come over and play?" or "How are you today, Ellie?". She loves it. She holds it up to her ear and then puts it to mine so I can talk to him. I usually tell him I'm busy driving or making dinner and that I'll have to call him back.



When I dropped off Ellie at daycare on Monday morning, the kids were just sitting down to have breakfast and the ladies at day care asked me if I feed Ellie. Um, yes. At this point, I looked over at Ellie and they had given her a banana half. So then I turn around to talk to Miss Chelsea and she told me that every morning when Ellie gets to school she is so hungry and when they give her food, she eats like she has never seen food before. I told her I don't know why that is because on her way to school she has an entire cup of Cheerios. I turned around to look at Ellie, and the banana was GONE. My child took an banana half down in a minute flat. "See! That's what she does every morning!", Chelsea said. Then on Wednesday morning the kids were eating again when we got there. Ellie say down next to Grayson and I watched Chelsea cut a muffin in two and put half on Ellie's plate and half on Grayson's plate. Ellie reached out, grabbed both muffin halves at once and tried to put both in her mouth. I wonder if she's just going through a growth spurt? I really do feed her. I swear.

This is amazing...

I just found out that one of my pledge sisters has QUINTUPLETS 4 weeks ago. And she has a blog! I'm going to link it to my blog roll so we can keep track of all five of her kids... and most days I think ONE kiddo is a lot of work!

Goodbye, Miss Trudie

I had to make a really hard decision this weekend and that was to put my little dog Trudie to sleep. Over the past 6 months or so, I became aware of the fact that it would be a matter of when and not if I was going to have to do it. And over the last week, I realized that I was keeping her alive so I wouldn't have to be hurt by her loss, but she was suffering because of that. She and I were both used to her blindness, but about two years ago, she lost her hearing and she developed mammary cancer since whoever had her before me had not had her spayed. Years before, she could memorize a room and know exactly where she was going, but lately, she couldn't get around at all. She always had a wagging tail for me, but I could tell my friend wasn't having a good time anymore.

I guess it would be silly for every dog out there to get an obituary, but I feel like she at least deserves for me to tell everyone what a great dog she was. I found her on Tuesday, January 25, 2000 at the Brazos Valley Animal Shelter in Bryan, Texas. All of my friends had graduated and left College Station, and after my first semester in graduate school, I was lonely. I thought about buying a puppy, but I went to the pound instead. The first dog I saw was a little dachshund, and I pulled her card, but decided that I should probably give all of the dogs there a fair shake, so I kept looking.

As I was leaving, I noticed a kennel that was separate from the rest of the cages and saw a little scraggly white dog in it with cataracts. I asked the people at the pound what was wrong with her and they told me she was blind. They also said she was somewhere between 3-5, but looking back, I think she was closer to 5. I got her out of the kennel and took her outside and when I did, she jumped up on me with both paws and started wagging her tail. I could tell she wanted to go home with me. How do you say no to that? When I went back to get her the next day, the dachshund had been adopted so that was good. I remember getting in the car and she jumped in my lap. I told her we would always be together and I would always take care of her.


I took her to get fixed and then brought her home. I can remember how excited I was. I had gone to the crappy College Station mall and gotten her a dog bed, bowls, and a little Cookie Monster doll. I opened the door and literally showed her around like she was a new roommate saying, "Here's your bed! Here's the kitchen! Here's my room!". She probably thought some unstable freak had adopted her. But in no time, she was my best buddy. We took long walks together every evening and I came home at lunch every day so I could see her. I had a strict "no dogs in bed rule" for the first two weeks, but somehow she changed my mind on that. When I would go up to the lab late at night to finish my thesis, I took her with me. On the acknowledgements page of my thesis, she's listed right below my parents. I thought it was only proper since she put in so many hours too.


When we got moved to Dallas, I started volunteering as the SPCA and heard about a pet therapy program. I told Trudie she needed to get a job so she became a licensed therapy dog with the Delta Society. It was a win-win because I got to volunteer and hang out with my dog at the same time. We used to visit a retirement home and everyone loved her except for the woman who would always yell at me to get "that dirty dog" out of "her house" and the other one who thought she was a cat. But she didn't mind. She was always friendly and would let anyone pet her. Once I started working, I saved a little bit of money every month so I could get her cataracts removed, but when I finally took her in to the specialist, they told me that she had degenerative retinas and would never see. That broke my heart because I really wanted to be able to do that for her.

It was remembering all of the good times recently that factored into my decision on Saturday. She wasn't happy anymore. Since she had incontinence problems, most of the time she stayed in the bathroom or in her kennel, and that wasn't fair. I didn't want to her to go on how she was, and I wanted her to die with dignity. I kept hoping that I would wake up one morning, and she would have passed quietly, but it didn't happen that way. As I was waiting for the vet to come in the room, I thanked Trudie for being such a good dog and for always being so sweet. I thanked her for being my best friend for the year and a half when nobody else was around. I apologized for not being able to get her eyes fixed, but I told her that in doggie heaven she would finally be able to see and she would get treats every day. I also told her that there wouldn't be any cats there to drive her crazy and that her cousin, Abbey, would miss her a lot. And so would I. I clipped a little hair from neck where it was curly because I always thought that was so cute. I had her privately cremated, but haven't decided where I will spread her ashes.

Trudie leaves behind her mom, dad, and little girl, Ellie, two sisters, Morgan and Lucy, two dog grandparents, and dog cousin Abbey.

I found this poem on a blind dog website a few years ago and saved it. I'm not sure who wrote it, but I've always liked it.

The Blind Dog Poem

I cannot see you Mommy, when you cuddle me so near.
And yet I know you love me, it's in the words I hear.
I cannot see you Daddy, when you hold me by your side
But still I know you love me when you tell me so with pride.
I cannot see to run and play out in the sun so bright
For here inside my tiny head it's always dark as night.
I cannot see the treats you give when I am extra good
But I can wag my tail in Thanks just like a good dog should.
"She cannot see. The dogs no good" is what some folks might say
"She can't be trained, she'll never learn She must be put away."
But not you, Mom and Daddy You know that it's alright
Because I love you just as much as any dog with sight.
You took me in, you gave me love and we will never part
Because I'm blind with just my eyes, I see you in my heart.

Goodbye, sweet Trudie. I love you. You're a good dog. I hope we meet again one day.

Tuesdays at The Little Gym

My mom has been taking care of Ellie on Tuesdays this summer so Ellie only goes to day care 4 days a week. She calls it "Tuesdays With Connie" as a play on "Tuesdays With Maurie". Do you see where I get my keen sense of humor?

I signed Ellie up for classes at the Little Gym so Mom takes her there in the mornings. I met them today to see what the Little Gym was all about (it helps that my boss is out of town). Ellie had so much fun... they all sit in a circle and sing a few songs and then they run all over the place and play on the equipment. Ellie liked walking on the balance beam.

She also liked playing in the parachute...

And doing backflips...


And playing basketball...


And then helping clean up.

Keep in mind this is a 45 minute class. No wonder she gets a good nap on Tuesdays! Afterwards, we had a girls lunch together. Very fun!

Eee. Mo!

Lee told me that I absolutely have to blog tonight. Well, he didn't actually say that, but the mere fact that he reminded me three times this weekend that I hadn't blogged in two weeks spoke volumes. He made me feel a little guilty with all of the "I've seen a decline in the number of people looking at your blog" and "you know... having a blog isn't any good if you only write once every two weeks". Sheez! He suggested that I write shorter blogs with more pictures. Apparently he thinks my readers have the attention span of a fruit fly (or maybe it's just him). So I will try... but no promises.

Last weekend was the Fourth and we took Ellie to the Park Cities Fourth of July Parade. I can't believe she was such a little thing when we took her last year and this year she was running around picking up the candy and other things thrown off the floats with the rest of the kids. Maybe soon she'll be one of the kids in the parade. We didn't know if all of the sirens at the beginning of the parade would scare her, but she didn't seem to mind. She really like seeing the horses and bands and as I said... loved running about to pick up the candy. She's never eaten candy so I have no clue how she know what it was. That afternoon we went to one of Lee's friends parties where Ellie tried to jump in the pool fully clothed. I think she's been missing the water. Every night when I give her a bath, she plunks her head into the water and starts blowing bubbles. I was encouraging this until she did it in the dog's water bowl last week. So we're starting up the swimming lessons again next weekend. On Saturday, we went to Tyler to visit Lee's parents. They have a pool and Ellie loved splashing around in it.

Ellie has added two new words to her vocabulary. We've been working on "more", but it comes out "mo". If she wants something like goldfish or milk, now she'll point at it and say "mo". Today she also mimicked me after I asked her if she wanted to eat. She got very excited and said "eee!". I imagine it will only be a matter of time before she puts the two together and wants to "eeee mo". I've come to the realization that we are getting to the point that she is starting to repeat so I'm going to need to do a better job of censoring myself.

I always feel like I have to do twice the work after a holiday weekend because I get off on my routine. We had a pretty uneventful weekend this weekend and just stayed around here. There's not a whole lot that you can do when it's 102 outside. We got out the pool for Ellie to splash around in and she liked it. We got a babysitter Saturday night and had a date night. We went to Perry's and then for drinks at Trece. The girl from next door sat for Ellie and called me "ma'am". There's nothing that will make you feel older than a 15 year old calling you "ma'am". She might as well have called me grandma. I tried to play cool by talking about the Jonas Brothers and High School Musical, but I'm sure it didn't fly.

One last picture... when we dry Ellie off after her baths, we still use those baby towels with the hood on them. When I open the bathroom door, she bolts down the hall with the towel still attached to her head flowing behind her like a superhero cape. We call her "Super B".

And last but not least... congrats to Debbie and Justin who are expecting on February 14. So excited for them. AND they're moving back to Dallas!!! I was very happy to hear both bits of information this weekend.

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Happy fourth!

Ellie's Year One Photos

The photos are in and they're awesome! We are getting an 8X10 of this picture...

And then we're going to frame a collage of the following four photos:

How cute is this kiddo?

One more for good measure.

All photos by Stacy Bratton.