Our New Mail Man

Our child's latest accomplishment. . . . . well, OK, that might be stretching it a little, but it's just too cute. Neither sleet, not hail, nor rain, nor dark of night can keep this trusty paper-chewer-upper from destroying our junk mail for us! David let Sandy carry in our "mail" yesterday and today he did it again so I could get a picture or two. He is so proud of himself for bringing the mail in. This serves a training purpose, keeping him from running off down the block smelling of something new. He loves paper anyway and this is right up his alley. Of course, gettin the mail away from him once he's in the house is a different story! He's so smart. Tomorrow I'll post photos of him on the computer!!!

Talking to Lauryn on the Phone

I had talked to all of the San Antonio granddaughters recently except for Lauryn, so today was her day. Her daddy answered the phone and I asked if Lauryn was available. Kelly asked her if she wanted to talk to Granny and I heard this sound like something falling. She was coming to the phone. The last time I talked to Lauryn (3 yrs & 5 mo) on the phone, it was a pretty short conversation with lots of uh-huhs and yes's on her end. But not this time! We talked for at least 10 minutes and most of that time, SHE was doing the talking. It was an educational conversation so I thought I would share some of the things I learned from Lauryn:

1. Health: Bugars are yucky. I didn't even ask how she knows this.

2. Anatomy: Kora hurt her ANKLE, not her leg.

3. Math: Because Kora hurt her ANKLE, she has TWO 'kutches' that she walks with.

4. Health: Tooting (windying) is stinky. Big sister Kora with the bum ANKLE was eavesdropping on our conversation and died giggling at that one. Big Daddy toned in on that one in the background.

5. Social studies: It's more fun to be funny when you have an audience. People are social creatures. When Kora was there giggling at her, Lauryn got funnier and sillier.

6. Health: Lauryn's mommy only has GIRL babies, not boys.

7. Time management: Lots of precious time can be spent just telling a giggling little girl that she is silly.

8. Finance: Bank away those memories for days to come when the little girl becomes a grown woman and isn't so silly any longer.

Two Soccer Games & the River

We spent the weekend at Kyle, leaving Friday morning. It was Sandy's first big travelling adventure. It started out funny at the house. We surmised that he would have more room in the back of the Durango, so David packed everything in the middle seat. Everything is packed, David puts Big Red in reverse and look back and Sandy is in the middle seat on top of everything. So we park in the driveway, rearrange everything to put it all in the back and put him in the middle seat. Had to put a blanket over my leather seats and then David used one bungee cord to secure it around the headrests and we put him there and were ready to go. Right as we're about to get on I-30, Sandy decides he wants to ride in the back! I go back there and get him in the middle seat again and put his leash on his collar. As soon as he had the leash on, he settled down.

Sandy slept most of the way there. We stopped several times to take a tee-tee break, sure takes more time when there are new smells, sounds, people everywhere. But he did good.

We got to Tony & Elena's house about 5 p.m. Nikita and Ana had been calling to see where we were and how much longer it would be until we got to their house. It really threw Nikita when I told him that we stopped in Italy to eat at a Sonic.

Here are the grandkids in their soccer outfits. We were headed out to their games and just had to take a picture while everyone was still fresh and happy :-) We ate lunch at Whataburger and then headed to the river.

Kowboy & Sandy were real friends after the initial meeting was over. We went to a river close to Tony & Elena's house to let the dogs play on Saturday after Nikita's and Ana's soccer games. Tony let Kowboy off of his leash and he runs full speed into the water. David let Sandy off of his leash and he does the same thing----not realizing what he was doing! He went right in the water and came up with this panic look on his face, but he was dog-paddling as fast as he could. Tony would throw a stick for Kowboy to retrieve out of the chilly water and at first Sandy tried to go get it, too. Then he decided it was better to just stand on the rocks at shore and wait for Kowboy to nearly get back to the shore and THEN he would jump in to help him get the stick! They both had so much fun. Here they are just soaking up the water and looking like drowned rats.

Freedom at the Park

There were so many good smells at the park Saturday. We just sat in the shade and let him hunt. Ever so often he would realize he was a long way from his people and would come rushing back with that puppy-galloping kind of run. Nothing like what Kowboy did. Sandy loves it out in the open where he can just run and smell as much as he wants.

Playing in the Bathtub

Whether there's water in it or not, one of Sandy's favorite places is in the tub. This morning again, he shared the garden tub with me. Just sat right down and let me bathe him. Then after breakfast while I'm brushing my teeth, he jumps into the downstairs tub and looks wishfully for more water!

He can now: sit, shake hands with his right hand (at first he only used his left hand so we have probably ruined his life by making him be right-handed), lay down, come here, be still and the big one---go tee-tee. It's just like having a baby again!

King of the Hill

Tonight we were both on our computers and the boy was entertaining himself. We can hear him by the jingle of the 3 tags he wears on his collar. We're on the computers and I hear this sound like a deer gracefully jumping a fence. I get up to see what it was. Sandy is at the top of the stairs lying down. The "gate" is still up at the bottom of the stairs. He has officially managed to jump over the gate, so it is in the closet. He is thrilled with himself. Right now he is sitting at the top of the stairs barking at us, because neither one are looking at him.

David showed me today that Sandy can jump into the bathtub in one leap today also. This was before the gate jumping, so being able to get into the bathtub probably helped with the gate.

We saw Dr. Laidley, my breast surgeon, this morning. She approved of the work that Dr. Hodges has done. See her again in 3 months. She was impressed with how much hair I have.

It Just Didn't Work

We went to the followup appointment with Dr. Hodges, my plastic surgeon today. It went about like I thought it would. The new nipple on the right breast that he made during surgery on 3-7-08, just never did right. It never got soft and just kept getting more like a scab, instead of new skin. So all he had to do was snip 2 sutures that were left and the 'nipple' came right out. He was disappointed that it didn't work. Said to keep anti-biotic ointment on it 2X a day and it's OK to use the Bio-Oil on the incisions. The left breast is still swollen and red, so he sent me for a sonogram to check for fluid.

Went to get the sonogram at 1 p.m., but nothing bad there. It was at Presbyterian where Dr. Hodges is, so I walked back over to let him know the results. They stuck me between his next patient and he said to keep ice on the left breast to help reduce the swelling. I go back to see him on April 15 to see how the right nipple area is healing and we'll go from there.