BMB: No offense intended, but dogs ARE a lot like kids.

We've had some dog issues of late with our aging, but quite lovely, pooch Maddie. It's enough to make me want to pull my hair out after I chase after not two, but three mess-making children around here! We got the good word last Saturday that her kidneys are o.k. (whew!), so all seems well on that front.


Last night we had dinner with my friend Ellie, who has just become the proud owner of a cockapoo puppy. As she followed the puppy and raced it outside to potty and cleaned up its messes, she told me she realized that it really was like having a child. Here she is going through the potty training process again, yet finding herself totally enamored with this furry little friend. You know she's crossed over into dog-lover territory when she mentioned her desire to kennel the puppy during vacation with a place that will truly love and care for her dog.

So, here I am this afternoon, racing home from work in a mad dash to get my poor, somewhat anxious dog out of the pouring rain. (Who knew it was going to rain today? Not I, and I get the weather by text message every morning! I guess it helps to read it.) I got home to find a very wet, very muddy Maddie waiting by the door. You know the drill-- I rush her into the bathroom, trying to minimze collateral damage, and give her a bath all while wearing my sexy new wedge sandals. Nice.

It's then that I realize, Maddie is truly like having a child. I know you skeptics and dog-haters out there are thinking, "Don't compare your dog to my child!" and I've heard that before. But as I'm scouring the tub and cleaning the mud off the floors and trying to salvage the new rug, I'm thinking that this is the same thing I do for the kiddos every day. I'm constantly loving on them, caring for them, washing them, keeping them warm-- all the good parts of parenting. Yet at the same time, I'm gritting my teeth and scrubbing the mud or crayon off of the bathroom tile, putting in another load of laundry, and thinking how much cleaner and easier life would be in general without all of the mess-makers.

I wouldn't offer my heart to my dog were she in need of transplant, or jump in front of a moving vehicle for her like I would my own children, but a lot of the feelings are the same. Maddie is a part of my family, take it or leave it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bad habits die hard

Kate stopped biting her fingernails (and toenails) about 2 weeks ago, thanks to help from the nasty nail paint and the purple nail polish bribe. However, all of the sudden, last night she started biting again. We were sitting at the kitchen table, and I looked over at her and she had one in her mouth and another was bleeding. Good grief. So we jumped up, washed our hands, and trimmed the rough edges, followed by nasty nail stuff. Poor thing. She said, "I won't bite my fingernails any more, Mama. Please don't use the nasty stuff!" But I told her that until the whites grow back, we'd have to wear it again.

I had just clipped and painted them pink on Sunday, so I know they weren't jagged or too long. We saw some friends last night who has a son that's a thumb-sucker, so that probably didn't help. Still, I was surprised. We were just reading books when she started into them.

I'm so disappointed! I really hoped she was done with that. Now I'm wondering if it will ever stop completely, or if it's something she'll always fight against. She seems to be aware of it afterwards, and knows not to do it, but I guess the draw is still there.

Sam, Sam, the Ladies Man

Sam has two girlfriends from preschool. The Incredible Summer of Fun has become a mini-dating experience for Sam, as evidenced by last Wednesday's trip to the movies. He had one friend on each side. It's a good life.

Afterwards, we had a couple of friends come over to play on the new swing set and have lunch. The kids all played great—there were 5 total—and we actually shared some adult conversation. More good life.

The trouble started when I put Sam to bed that night. Right before prayers he told me, "You know mom, I kissed X (names left out to protect the innocent) on the lip today."

"WHAT!!??" I calmly responded.

"Yeah. It's no big deal mom, because she won it."

"She wanted it?" I asked.

"No Mom. She WON it. We were having this test, and she answered all the question right, and she won it."

"Oh, that's nice. I think maybe we ought to save our kissing for, you know, mommy and Kate and our family and stuff," I suggested.

Sam looked at me like I was crazy and said, "But why?"

"Well, I just think you're a little young for kissing," I said. And you know, at the time, that seemed very logical, but now it does seem a little sketchy. I mean, how young is too young? And you know they don't mean anything by it. It's just to see what things are like and so on. Big deal.

"But MOM," he said, "It's romantic."

Good grief.

The next day, I notified said parents, who were equally surprised and yet not at all. The girls have been kissing Sam on the cheek for a while now, but this is definitely new territory. I thought all was settled until Friday, when we had this conversation:

We were talking about someone being in love. I'm not sure the context anymore. But I thought this was a teaching opportunity, so I said, "See Sam, you ought to wait until you're at least in love to kiss a girl."

Much to my surprise, he responded, "X and I are in love, Mom."

"Sam, you can't even narrow down the list to just one girlfriend. That's not love."

So, the saga continues. No more closed door play for Sam and his girlfriends, that's for sure. And I thought Disney was so clean with its lack of kissing and all…

The New Swingset

You know those huge, permanent-looking, wooden swing sets that are really popular now? Well, after a whole week of pricing and looking at them, Stuart and his dad purchased on on Friday for our backyard. Stu said he figured he'd worked so hard to grow grass back there that there ought to be something to play on.

I've heard horror stories about the assembly of these "building sets", as Kate started calling it. So has Stuart. But he and his dad and my dad started working on it about 10 am on Saturday with the idea of completing it, or getting close to it, by 4 p.m. so my parents could head back to central Kansas.

10 hours later, they were closing up shop for the day with a glorious, very sturdy fort built in the back yard, but quite a bit of work to do to complete the project. Arrangements were made and Stuart and Clarence continued to work all day on Sunday until, at about 3:30, it was completed. Yea! It looks to me like they really did some fancy engineering to get the thing stable and level on our very un-level yard. It's very beautiful and very sturdy.

Kate and Sam, of course, love it. I think my favorite comment during the project was when Kate first saw them digging on Saturday morning and said, "My mom is going to be so angry at you for digging a hole in the back yard!" When I got home later, she ran up to me and said, "Are you mad at the hole, mommy?"

I'm sure there will be many years of fun playtime out in the back yard thanks to Stuart, Clarence and my Dad's hard work this weekend. I'm hoping it will bring a few minutes of non-tv-induced peace to me as well!