Girl's Best Friend: Puppy Love

Julia and Preston. "Pres." "My puppy." "My good boy!" Nothing can come between a girl and her dog.

This is so true for you and your pup, Julia. Preston is your best friend, aside from maybe your brother. You have little chats with him, cuddle him, pet him, tuck him in with blankets, bring him sleep toys, kiss him, worry about him, say goodnight to him, read to him, and just love, love, love your special boy.

He's dirty and smells more often than not. He's pretty gross. Sometimes he spits stuff up on the floor. But this matters not to you. Love is unconditional between you and your dog. And it is a delight to witness.

In fact, your love for this stinky fur-ball is inspirational to me. You've taught me a thing or two about unconditional love. You are so sweet, and so concerned about your best friend's well-being. You've made me reconsider my own treatment and perceptions of Preston. 

Everyone loves a puppy, but it takes a very special young lady to love a smelly old dog with very odd and disgusting habits. 

But you are good person, and a big person. You don't even see (or smell) anything wrong here. You only see the love. And boy does he love you. It's not just about the occasional snack you may intentionally or inadvertently donate to this poor starving soul. He loves you and lets you hug on him, pet him, lay on him, dress him up, paint his claws, kiss him, chase him, and sleep with him.

And you and he have basically been this way since before you could crawl.

As much as he is your best friend, I'm convinced that you are his best friend (or maybe second best friend, after Toby). The two of you are so sweet together, and it is a wonder to behold.

Day after day, your love and affection for each other never wanes. May we all be so lucky to find such a friend in life.

The Many, Many Sides of Aidan

Aidan,

Your Mom and I love how complicated you are. You are into bugs and getting dirty and muddy, but you hate for your clothes to be wet (one drop of water may make you want to strip nekked, rather than be slightly wet). You love to be rough and tumbly, but are also super sensitive and love beautiful things like nail polish, girls, beautiful walking, and flowers...always flowers.

You stop to smell the roses, literally, and can be very introspective; but you are also very very silly.

Two recent memorable conversations really help illuminate some of the many sides of you.

The other day you and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: Aidan, how was your day at school?

Aidan: Poo-poo.

Me: Come on! How was school?

Aidan: Poo-poo.

Me: Okay okay...with NO poo-poos, how was school.

You stopped to think. A long-ish thoughtful silence. A cheeky grin emerged.

 Aidan: Pee-pee!

See? Silly, clever, and hilarious! (though your mother has trained me not to laugh too hard at such 'potty humor'...but it was a very nice loophole you found, and that deserved and got a huge laugh.)

This situation quickly turned into a crazy tickle-and-laugh festival.

But, this morning you were much more thoughtful.

I recently found this long-lost magnet under the oven and plopped it up on the dishwasher. 

It's a Picasso painting called "The Old Guitarist"...and we have it in Magnet form!

I was getting ready to leave for work for the day when you took me by the hand and said "Dad, come here! I have to show you something!" We walked hand-in-hand to the dishwasher, where you sat down and I crouched down next to you.

You pointed at the magnet and tried to collect your thoughts, which were clearly very big, as it took you a few moments to say what you wanted to say.

Aidan: "Dad, see? When you get older and older and you will play the guitar like this. You have a beard, and you look like a grandpa. And you'll play the guitar."

Pretty deep right? You weren't necessarily concerned about me being old and playing guitar, but you were definitely very pensive about it; you'd been studying this magnet for a while and wanted to show me. Even your sister's interjection (Julia: "When I get older, I'll be a skeleton!") just further complicated your thoughts... 

Aidan: "Mom will you be a skeleton too?"

But then, the deep thoughts quickly evaporated and turned into what you both wanted to be for Halloween (there was talk of ghosts, skeletons, princesses and snow monsters).

But the depth of your thoughts just amazed me.

I love how multi-faceted and darn right human you are. There are many sides to you, and I never want you to shy away from showing us any of them. You can always share your silliness and pensiveness, fragility and strength with us my son. 

But, judging from the photos I found on my phone after your 'session' with it, I don't think we have to worry about you not revealing your many, many sides any time soon.

I love your happy side, and your sad side; your silly side and your sad side. Even when I'm an old white-bearded skeleton man, I'll always be happy to sit with you- with or without guitar- and just listen to your thoughts.

I love you, my son.

Day Camping



One recent, beautiful day, we decided to try our luck with camping by testing out all of the elements of camping- tent, nature, fire, eating, fun - without the one notriously more challenging elements- darkness and sleeping out in nature. In order to do this, we went Day Camping.

 Aunt Elise (of course, that Elsie- your Godmother, Julia) and Uncle Charlie were camping and did what we thought was all the hard work: tent-assembly, fire-making. We did what they thought was all the hard work: have kids, get kids dressed, bring kids to campsite.

And so, on the hills of the hosre of Lake Lavon, we all converged for a beautiful day of Day Camping!

Aidan, you were immediately fearful of the campfire- noting how you didn't want to go near it, because it could hurt you. But, then you were also immediately enamored with the tent, and decided that that  was the coolest place to be:

Julia, you too were weary of the campfire, and of course followed your bro into tent life, but note before you made yourself at home at the snack/picnic table!

As the day warmed up, so did you guys!

Uncle Charlie 'taught' you how to juggle oranges, Aidan. And Julia, you decied to venture out into nature.

We even were able to teach you both an important lesson about the campfire: there are safe fires, and ways to interact safely with fire. So...you both eventually warmed up to the fire!

Roasted marshmallows certainly helped a lot with that task.

Verdict: "You eat it, Daddy!"




So, campfire was good now. Roasted marshmallows weren't so much... But unroasted marshmallows made everything a lot more mellow.

Over the course of the afternoon, we went on adventures hiking through the park looking for bathrooms, playgrounds, cool views, and nature! Picking and smelling flowers, beeping walkie-talkies, dancing on table tops, and giving kisses were popular camp-site activities.



We also had fun poking ant piles and posing in the bluebonnet fields.

All in all, I think we succeeded in communing with nature. Day camping was a success! Next up... we'll have to try day + night camping...but with air conditioning: "glamping!"

The end!

The end!