Life with a puppy is chaotic. We're slowly getting used to it, especially since she's getting older as we go and not peeing inside quite as often. Luna is adorable, obviously, but wow, did I forget how exhausting raising a puppy is. It's like when you have a baby after having a few years without having to deal with diapers and bottles and everything (wait, I don't actually know what's that like.. oops). Having done it all before, you know what it entails, but it's not until you're actually IN IT again that you remember how much you would long to be able to just go to the bathroom whenever you want, without making care arrangements for a small creature who may get into untold amounts of trouble if left alone.
The extra company at night is welcome, though. She mostly sleeps starting around 9pm. Her preferred sleeping position is somewhere under one of us, though, and she spends the whole evening trying to get there.
Luna is surprisingly catlike, though, which I wasn't expecting. Should I lie down on the floor with a book, she will bring over a bone and lie down on the book, as if paper and a hardcover is the ultimate in comfort for a growing dog.
She is eager to learn, though. Sometimes we'll watch videos our browse websites that go along with our lessons from the floor, and she has to be included. She especially liked learning about trade in the ancient Indus Valley cities.
The littles remain the most smitten with her, though. No matter how often she nibbles on them or jumps at them, they keep coming back for more. Don't get me wrong, the big kids love her, too, but because they spend more time walking her, feeding her, and generally supervising her, they're happy to give Luna her space. Not Niall and Fiona, though! They will literally just lie down on the floor next to her while she sleeps or chews on a bone and just watch her. Niall uses his cutesy baby voice and coos at her. So cute.
The cats are slowly forgiving us for getting a dog. They still avoid Luna for the most part, but the will occasionally come say hello to us if Luna is asleep. At night, Moxie will follow me into the bathroom when I get up, and rest in the sink until I get back into bed.
In non-animal news, I gave Fiona a haircut! It's not perfect, but better than going to the hair salon. I really should have waited until after her birthday, but she asked me to, and she's so much happier for it. She can actually brush her own hair now (her hair is super thick and hard to brush). She looks a bit more grown-up now.
Doug and I have been taking it in turns to spend one-on-one time with the kids, usually at one of the Disney parks. When we take the littles, they are more talkative than usual, and really thrive on having our undivided attention. I especially liked taking Colwyn, though - and not just because I got to ride the roller coasters for once. I haven't gotten to ride anything with Colwyn for years because I always have to sit with the littles. It was such a different experience riding even the family rides with him and hearing his jokes, rather than the littles'.
We usually get them a treat while we're out (Lachlann below with a Dole Whip), but other than that, we don't spend money there. We could conceivably not spend anything, but come on.. how can you go to Disney and not get a treat?
Doug took Colwyn and Lachlann to Star Wars Weekends one morning recently. They were home by mid-afternoon and Doug couldn't stop talking about how insane the crowds were. I think they enjoyed it, though.. they caught the parade and one of the Rebels shows.
We went again the other evening to catch the fireworks as well as the Obi Wan and Beyond show. Doug took the big kids to that while I took the littles to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. We'd never seen it before, so Fiona had no idea what to expect. It starts with puppets (like in the Finding Nemo show), but when the live-action Ariel came onstage to sing, Fiona was just awestruck. The look on her face was just priceless, and she even leaned over to whisper to me, "Should we wave?" while Ariel was singing. Such sweetness.. and I really don't ever get to see that kind of awe and delight on her face anywhere other than at Disney. That makes it sound like she's depressed or something, and that's not what I mean.. just that Disney brings it to a whole 'nother level.
We also watched the Frozen sing-along again, and it turned out to be a really good show. The audience was very enthusiastic and engaged, which obviously makes it better. But the hosts were great, as always, and Fiona laughed her little head off. Doug and I enjoyed it an awful lot, too, but we really enjoy bad jokes and puns. Then it was time for the fireworks, which were amazing. We got a great spot near 50's Prime Time - couldn't see the stage show, but we didn't care about that anyway. The timing or choreography or whatever was excellent (it's all set to Star Wars music, obviously), and there were some fireworks there that I'd never seen before.
Moving on from Disney news.. the kids have been really enjoying their lessons lately. We've been having fun with ancient world history, using the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History as our framework and bringing in other books and activities (and obviously websites) to supplement. Above is a shaduf that they made - above all, they really loved yelling "Shaduf!" in various weird voices.
Science-wise, we've been spending time on geology and earth science in general. I already had a bunch of minerals and fossils, so we identified those, then we found a mineral store at Old Town, Kissimmee and got some geodes to break open. They enjoyed that activity immensely and have been talking about careers in geology. Which, of course, will pass as soon as we go on to the next topic, but it's really sweet.
We've been getting a taste of summer heat, but it's not terrible yet. We've been spending a lot of time in the pool and sandbox. Luna really enjoys the sandbox, which is funny. Niall loves when I bring the waterproof camera in the pool, because I let him fool around with a bit - that's his first selfie above. What a funny kid.
That brings us up to the present, and thank goodness, because this weekend is Fiona's birthday and we have a LOT of fun stuff planned, so hopefully I'll manage to blog about that relatively soon after it all happens. Okay, don't hold your breath.
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