Good Dog?

Lizzie is VERY motivated by food.  (Aren't we all?)  Anyway, if you present her with a treat, in this case a cracker with peanut butter, she will suddenly remember every trick we've ever taught her.

Here she is taking the treat "gently" instead of snapping.

As for how well Lizzie is getting along with her feline elder Zap...not so well mannered.  She tried to herd him by always getting behind him where he has to always turn around, and he hates that, and thus he hates her too.

Whatever Zap hissed to her in this video must mean, "Sit down, shut up and leave me alone."  We are letting Zap fight back to assert his dominance over Lizzie.  She needs to learn to respect him and let him be.  As time goes on, we hope that they can exist in the same room without the constant confrontations...but with an excitable herding dog, I don't think this will ever really happen.

We took Lizzie to the park for a while this afternoon.  She still has a hard time being around small children.  I think she only made one kid nearly cry and scared half a dozen or so.  Her bark is very big and loud, even making the sidewalk vibrate as I stood next to her.  If anyone ever attempts to break into our house and they hear that bark, they might be inclined to go away.  Her bark is frightening and freezes people in their tracks when they hear it.  Don't let that face fool you.

She is so beautiful with her smiling face and fluffy, shiny coat.  That makes everyone who sees her want to come up and pet her.  Adults have a better chance with that, but the kids, we try to tell them to be very careful.  It took a long time for Lizzie and Molly to develop a bond of friendship and co-existence.  Even so, once and again, Lizzie will get too excited and knock Molly around, inadvertently scaring her and making her cry.  I'd hate that to happen with anyone else's child while out in public.

We have taught Molly a position to stand in that will protect her the most from being hurt by Lizzie's claws or teeth.  She is supposed to cross her arms up to her chest and turn her back to Lizzie right away.  This diffuses Lizzie's excitement and tells her to back off, "game over."  It works well and is second nature to Molly by now.

Pure Joy In Simple Pleasures.

 

Just sitting on the back porch with my girl playing with a pinwheel...wearing a butterfly headband. This was just before she put on her fairy wings she wore for the rest of the day.

Don't let that sunshine fool you...it was cold, so we weren't out for long.  But spring is in the air and the trees and flowers will be blossoming soon.  

Plus, someone has a 5th birthday right around the corner.  It better warm up by then.

Fun times at school.

When you ask a group of little girls to pose for a photo, this is what you usually get.  They stand nice together and look sweet and pretty.

Then ask a bunch of boys to do the same thing and this is what you get.  All grunts and growls and showing how tough and muscle-bound they are...grrrrrr.

It only took 28 attempts to get a photo of our toddler class all looking in the same general direction with no one crying, sneezing, dancing  or twirling...or checking out the contents of the bunny baskets we'd just made.  

(Fact One:  only one child in ten will listen to directions.)

(Fact Two:  I adore them all.)

A happy little group at music time.

My girl at morning snack time...wearing her Farragut Primary School tee-shirt.  Kindergarten Round-Up time is in just a few days.

More fun at music / exercise time.

Bedtime Stories

 It's time for stories with Daddy and Zap.  Our little reading corner is the place to be just before bedtime.  It's a cozy spot for the latest book from the town library, school library or our Imagination Library book of the month.

It's one of our favorite times of the day.  We can see that she's starting to pick out words to read for herself, or she's just memorizing the stories, which either way, I think is wonderful.

Sometimes, I see kids older than Molly who seem to have no concept of reading a book or even interest browsing one to look at the pictures.  How can the bedtime story ritual not be a part of each child's day?  I'll be sad when she's too old to want to do it anymore.

After storytime, we say our prayers, wish each other good thoughts for our dreams, turn on the dream light to fill the ceiling with stars, spin the dream catcher over the bed to catch bad dreams and finally turn on our sound machine to tranquil nature sounds.  Zap has been spending the night with her in the chair too which I know is an added comfort to her.  All is well when a cat is fast asleep.