The Eight Legged Parade

Squirrel watching out the bedroom window...a true bonding experience.

We'll behave for treats.

All's well when everyone has their own space.

Trying to snap a family photo...not everyone wants to cooperate.

We all know that I am a bit of a procrastinator. I can be distracted by many things...SoapNet (watching the days soaps or reliving the glory of 90210 is a great way to pass the time), giving myself a pedicure, playing Free Cell, DVRing Dawson's Creek, reading People magazine online. I'm easily amused. As I started taking classes again, I often found myself drifting away from my required reading and paper writing through some of these highly engaging activities. But, I can always count on a little help from my friends. My friend Karen sent me her blog address. I was immediately hooked. It quickly landed in my "favorites" list (as did the other blogs that had been sent to me--The Casares, The Arvins) because 1)it's hilarious, 2)it's real, and 3) it's updated often. For those of you who don't know Karen, we lived on the same floor our freshman year at Butler, pledged Alpha Phi, and lived together for quite a while. I couldn't begin to list the days and nights of fun we've shared. Karen and her husband, Matt, are the parents of four children under the age of four. Yes, you heard that right. Karen shares all kinds of fun tidbits--crafts the kids are doing, trips around town, kid driven Nativity scenes, and lots of video and pictures of her cute, crazy crew. After we got Lainey, I realized that Karen and I had something new in common--an eight legged parade: two 4-legged dogs=8 legs; four 2-legged children=8 legs. Clearly, caring for our doghters is no where near the magnitude of parenthood, but I continue finding myself drawing some parallels (often less intense than the "real" thing) to Karen's adventures. Here's a Top Ten List of thoughts and deeds that might occur in any house with little legs...furry or otherwise.

1. Pooh is a hot topic of conversation around our house. Who's been, who needs to go, who's turn it is to deal with the pooh.

2. The Scoop--Kids and dogs notoriously put whatever they can find in their mouths and then a responsible parent has to wrestle the offender to the ground, pry open their mouth, and use the two finger scoop to fling whatever was nearly ingested right on out. If your lucky, you can identify the object...other times you just pray whatever it was wasn't toxic.

3. "No, NO"--the number one phrase in my vocabulary.

4. I've also learned the importance of a schedule through the gruesome twosome. When Lainey first arrived, we were on a strict one hour potty schedule to prevent accidents on our very light colored carpet. We're up to a three hour schedule these days! It's no breast feeding routine, but we do watch the clock closely.

5. Sweet angels v. master manipulators? I've heard that parents hate to hear their children cry. Don't be fooled by fur covered beauties, they know the same tricks. While they can't cry, they can whine in such a way that you'll do anything to make whatever is causing that heart wrenching sound to stop. A Pupperoni treat? Sure! Need to go out? No problem. Ready for dinner? Okay. Need me to move over and make room for you on the couch? Absolutely! Oh you'd like to sleep in the middle of the bed AND use my pillow? That's so sweet!

Who could say "no" to those precious faces and their demands? I CAN! I played along with all of the whining until I started getting wake-up calls at 4:30 a.m. Then I realized I was just getting played...by dogs! No more Mrs. Nice Guy. They turned straight to Dad...such a sucker!

6. It seems siblings of the two legged variety and the four legged variety follow the same basic patterns of life. The younger one just wants whatever the older one has, even if she's got the EXACT same thing. The older one just wants a little peace and quiet.

7. You pray that every ones behaves when guests come over or when you're in public.

8. A sleeping baby is the best kind!

9. The doctor/vet is on speed dial and you really try to make a good impression on the office staff in hopes that if an emergency were to arise, you'd have dibs on one of those elusive floating appointments.

10. You worry about their growth and development. I've heard parents talk about how many words their child has. Nick and I worry about that too. We often try to count how many words Abby and Lainey know--their names, mom, dad, breakfast, dinner, mailbox, outside, sit, down, stay, shake, kisses, ride, pa-pa, pooh-pooh. Oh, and when you don't want them to know what your talking about, you S-P-E-L-L it!