Man's best friend?

I am currently mad at Willie (our Yorkie), for reasons I won't mention here, lest you think less of the little guy. Charlie, however, LOVES Willie, and the feeling is mutual. Willie seeks every opportunity to play with Charlie, and Charlie watches out for Willie's interests as well.

Hi Mom, just eatin' my dinner.

Mmmmmm, dinner? Meat and potatoes, you say? Looks yummy.

Psst, psst. Yo, Willie, over here.

You got it?

Yup, got it. Thanks buddy.

Oh, let me give you more. Mom hasn't caught on yet.

Again

And again...

Charlie did this for a week or so with EVERY meal. It was pretty funny, because he obviously knew he wasn't supposed to be doing it. Every time we would say "Charlie, no" he would immediately stop and straighten up in his chair, looking very serious...temporarily at least. He did this for about a week, and perhaps (?) due to us telling him NOT TO FEED THE DOG OFF THE TABLE, he stopped. Poor pooch is back to dry dogfood only...

Bathtime for Jinjin

We had heard from Jinjin's progress reports when he was in Korea, and also directly from his foster mom that he loves bathtime. However, the first few times I gave him a bath, he HATED it. Probably had to do with my child hair-washing technique of just dumping water over the child's head to rinse...

So, after 2-3 episodes of traumatizing the poor child with bath time, I started just washing his hair in the sink, with him lying on the counter, head over the sink (i.e. no water in the eyes!), and then bathing his body in the sink after the hair-washing.

After about 2 weeks of that, I figured we'd give the bathtub another go. Probably due simply to the fact that he had by then adjusted to us and felt more comfortable, he LOVED it. He loves to splash, loves to grab at the water flowing out of the faucet, loves to pull the plug to hear the water start to drain.

I love my bath!

Hi Mom!

Sweet little Charlie hand...

12 Things about Jin-jin at 12 Months

I've seen this theme (12 things at 12 months, 13 things at 13 months, etc) done on other people's blogs, so yes, I'm stealing the idea. These are the sort of things one forgets as the years go by, so for posterity...

1. He has the cutest "crinkle-nose" smile when he smiles big. I remember this smile from one of the few pictures we had of him prior to meeting him. Every time I see the "crinkle-nose" smile now, I always feel grateful to have him here with us.

2. He looooooves, like freakin' LOVES Puffs. I'm not even going to tell you his record for most Puffs consumed in a single sitting.

3. He clearly got the pediatricians' "Back to Sleep" memo. I have never seen this kid sleep or even lay on his abdomen or side.

4. He loves milk, and won't drink any other liquid.

5. He says "mama" all the time. As far as we can tell, it has no specific meaning. Mama in Korean means food, but he doesn't use it in that context, nor does he use it to refer to me. Nonetheless, it's pretty funny when Sheref tries to prompt Jinjin to say "Dada:" "Say Dada, say Dada..." "Mama."

6. Charlie loves our dog Willie.

7. Charlie loves his Little People toys.

8. Unfortunately, so does Willie.

9. He purposefully drops food off the side of his high chair for Willie. It's both super cute and a little bit annoying!

10. He likes to have his neck tickled. It makes him laugh -- so cute!

11. He loves watching video and looking at pictures of his foster mom, and Sheref's meeting at Holt at which Sheref "got" Charlie. Seeing his foster mom doesn't seem to upset Charlie at all. In fact, he really enjoys it.

12. He is a super awesome kid!

Trip to the Dentist

Sheref took all the girls to the dentist this past week. Rose and Ella went last week. Lucy was slightly irked when Rose got to leave school for her dentist appointment and Lucy herself had to stay at school. Today, however, was Lucy's payback. Rose had to stay at school while Lucy got to leave for her appointment. She was super excited this morning and couldn't wait to go to the dentist (seriously -- my kids LOVE to go to the dentist)!

Little Lulu in the dentist chair, rocking a feathered headband...perfect dental attire.

Lucy in the car after being declared cavity-free! Love the glasses. They give all patients glasses like this to protect eyes from the bright lights. I don't recall being able to keep my glasses when I went to the dentist, but they let kids keep theirs. Rose wore her tiger striped ones pretty much 24/7 for several days after her dentist appointment last week, indoor and out, regardless of what she was doing. She assured us that cartoons actually look BETTER when wearing sunglasses inside the house on a dark, rainy, cloudy day. I've challenged Lucy to try and beat Rose's record of 5 days straight wearing animal print sunglasses.

Jinjin was clearly fascinated by the dentist's office...naptime happens regardless of locale

A post about Jinjin's first trip to the beach, only without any pictures of him and with the addition of an irrelevant rant

After a record "bone-chilling" (I'm quoting the local weather people, who love drama) week, today is fairly balmy here in ***.

Ok, so I started this post intending it to be all nice and sweet, about going to the beach, blah blah blah, but I'm going to digress a bit here for a moment and complain about how silly ***can be.

Last year, I was on call for our first snow in years and years. At the hospital, people kept talking about how they would close ALL the bridges if there was any snow or ice. Keep in mind that you can't get ANYWHERE in *** without crossing at least 50 bridges. We would all be stuck at the hospital the next day, since not only could the incoming shift not get to the hospital, but we wouldn't be able to get home anyways. I, being a non-native Southerner, was all "whatevs, people, that won't happen." And, last year, I was right. The bridges didn't close, I got to leave on time, and drive home on a beautiful sunny clear Saturday morning and enjoy fresh sparkly white snow.

So I was right last year. This year, however, yeah, not so much.

Once again, I was on call last Sunday. Once again, we kept hearing rumors about the bridges closing, blah blah blah. "Yeah," thought I, "whatevs." So I, after a busy 24 hours on-call with not one minute of sleep, take off for home. And yes, it's raining a little and the temperature is right around freezing, but the roads were fine. I get to the base of the first of 2 major interstate bridges I have to cross to get to our home on ***l Island (yes, Island, so without bridges, I CAN'T.GET.HOME). And the traffic is at a standstill. Not slow, but a standstill. The radio says the bridge is closed. So I think, fine, I'll turn around and go over the *** bridge, through ***, thus circumventing the morons who think you have to close an interstate bridge for a little ice.

That plan didn't work out so well.

I get just on the beginning of the *** bridge, and...yep, standstill. Yes, says the radio traffic girl, who is positively giddy at the opportunity to report on this "state of emergency" weather (the main DJ guy mentions no less than 5 times that she has gone above and beyond the call of duty, staying late at work to give us the latest traffic updates), ALL the bridges in *** are closed.

So, dear readers, let me ask you. Do YOU understand why one has to CLOSE a bridge (I'm talking major bridges -- 3 lanes of traffic each direction) for ice? Where I come from, one drives slooooowly when there is ice. I'm not talking about sheets of ice, either. I'm talking about a little freezing rain. I think the SCDOT may be confusing this with hurricanes...

Fast forward to TWO HOURS later, when I am over the bridge (the police were letting cars drive over a 4 lane bridge ONE.AT.A.TIME...I'm not even kidding). I drive through Mt. Pleasant, and get on the highway leading me home. Only there are cops not letting people through because once again, ALL THE BRIDGES ARE CLOSED. So I parked my little car at a shopping center, and let my tired little self sleep for a few hours in my car. Finally, at 1:30pm, after 5 hours trying to get home, I arrive at home. And I'm not ashamed to say, I had a bath, a glass of wine, and went to bed, furious at the SCDOT.

Oh, and on Wednesday, when it was sunny and beautiful, they closed an entire MAJOR exit ramp because someone spotted a patch of ice on it. I'm not even kidding.

Ok, so back to today, when it is beautiful and 60 degrees. The girls are loving the beach, I have forgiven the SCDOT, and we remember why it is nice to live in ***n after all. Just not when there is ice.

I'm not a vet, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night

Well, it was a Country Inn & Suites, but close enough. Our dog, Willie, was nearly 2 years old and still not, well, you know -- fixed. Now, he was never outside off his leash, so it was not like he was going to impregnate some expensive little show Lhasa Apso or anything. He was a good dog, but peed on EVERY.SINGLE.THING. he encountered during our walks. He also barked at EVERY.SINGLE.DOG. he saw during our walks. Really annoying. Embarassing too, when your 5lb wussy Yorkie goes ballistic barking and pulling on his leash, trying to attack your neighbor's gigantic Rottweiler.

So I thought, "I'm a surgeon. Certainly I can make a tiny incision, clamp, cut and ligate the spermatic cord and suture up the incision. How hard can it be?" I still think I could have done it. The issue of anesthesia, however, was the sticking point. Local anesthetic, no problem. Systemic sedation however, not so great. I have no idea how to dose sedation for a 5lb dog, or even what to give, and I'd feel awfully bad if I killed the family pet. I could just imagine my kids telling their friends about the time Mommy killed the dog...

So we almost had to PAY a real vet to neuter Willie (gasp). Enter Sheref's dad, who happens to be a REAL veterinarian. We happened to all be meeting in Tennessee at my sister's house for Christmas. Perfect time to perform a surgical castration. Right?

We dropped Willie off at their hotel on Thursday late afternoon. By early evening, the deed had been done.

This little guy...

...was now this little guy.

I just wonder what happened to the surgical specimen. Hope the maid didn't sift through the trash can...

Star Watch

You read about my adventure walks, right? So sometimes, at night, when I don't want to go for a walk, we switch up our adventures a bit. Instead of a Star Walk, we do a Star Watch. Which means we sit on the porch and look at the stars, while remaining stationary. This generally involves some of this:

With this on top:

Both of these mugs I have had since I was a kid.

Ella loves her hot chocolate.

Rose & Lucy love theirs as well, though in their case the hot chocolate consumption is a bit messier. Lucy ended up having to change her PJs because she had marshmallow cementing her nightgown to her chest. Nice.

Ella showing Rose the Little Dipper. Sheref makes fun of me for having ZERO interest in several things, among them space (if you were wondering, dinosaurs is the other thing I have zero interest in). Apparently Pluto is no longer a planet? I learned this last year from my 4 year old nephew, who informed me that Pluto "is not a planet. It is a dark, icy world." Okay. Anyways, so I assume Ella knows what she is talking about. I myself cannot point out the Little Dipper.

Mama is not a big fan of hot chocolate. She does, however, enjoy Chardonnay.