Good morning

Gotta check email first thing in the morning. And get my cup of Oceans Coffee Roasters

Don't talk to me until I have my second cup, ok?

Christmas card FAIL

It's official, keeping two dogs and one toddler sitting still, wearing hats, and looking at the camera long enough to take a picture is not possible. I tried today. Here's are some examples of what I got.

There's more, but you'll have to wait for the final version for a bit.

And yes. I have very good dogs.

This is NOT happening to me. This is not happening to me. I am in
my happy place.

She beats me, you know. Every day.

And now we take a brief pause while the toddler throws a temper tantrum.

I DON'T WANT TO POSE FOR PICTURES!!!

Escaping!

Run away! Or she'll make me sit in that thing again!

Fine! You want me in the wagon? I'll STAND in the wagon!

Грибник

Nick is posing with a three pound bag of chanterelles that we found on our walk. Well, Nick actually was asleep at the time, but he claims that it was his quiet and good behavior that allowed mom to concentrate well enough to find so many mushrooms.
Michael Pollan would be proud. We are starting the kid on the whole "local food" thing way early.



Our haul weighed in at just under three pounds. Some of those mushrooms were LARGE.

Dinner!

Very. Large. Mushroom.

Dinner preparations:

Cleaned.

Chopped.

I had to saute them in batches, since they didn't all fit into the largest
pan I had. Half went into the fridge, the other half became the night's dinner.

Taaasty! (the final shot after the addition of sour cream was not
taken, since the time between "dinner ready" and "dinner
consumed" is about a microsecond at our house when mushrooms
are involved.

Here's Marcin's version of the same, prepared from
the mushrooms we shared with him. Notice the
sour cream and the creative addition of dill.

Chuck it

This video demonstrates at least two points from the previous post.

1. He is proficient with the Chuck-it

2. His jacket says "Labadored" on it

You may be a dog person who has a kid if...

In the spirit of this post, I came up with my own list:


You've calmly removed dog hair from your two day old baby's mouth, but freaked out when he had his first booger.

Your swaddling blankets, baby onesies and bibs all have puppies on them.

Your kid has at least one item of clothing that says "my brother/sister is a <dog breed>" or something similar.

You've told your child "Let's go to your kennel" when putting him in his crib.

Whose stuffy is this, really?

When you purchase dog toys you consider how baby-proof they are.

When you purchase baby toys, you consider how dog-proof they are.

You wonder if they make Kongs for babies. Then you realize that they do. The phrase "put some cheerios in the baby kong" is regularly heard at your house.

You've given your child a Nylabone as a teething toy.

Your diaper bag contains the usual baby accessories as well as plastic bags, a leash, dog treats, a tennis ball, a clicker, and a dumbbell.

One of these is not a crate. Or is it?

You realize that the diaper bag makes a great dog training gear bag because of all the pockets.

You've given your toddler a piece of string cheese that you were using to train the dog.

You've considered giving your toddler a piece of lamb jerky that you were using to train your dog because he ate all the string cheese.

Nick, I think a sit in the middle of this exercise is
a point deduction.

Your toddler can say "sit" "down" and "come" but cannot say "mama"

Your toddler knows how to use a Chuck-it. Before he knows how to use a spoon.

Your dogs sigh and sink into a resigned down-stay whenever they get to a child playground.

You catch your toddler playing with your set of Utility articles and think "oh great, he'll scent them nicely for me"

Over what?

You regularly tell kid to "leave it" "off"  or "get it". Sometimes you try to use hand signals.

You've accidentally  marked the compliance with the above commands with a "yes!"

You've told your kid "good boy". Then you told your dog "good boy". Then you paused a little, but decided there's nothing wrong with that.

You look up the rules on the AKC site of the minimum age for Junior Handlers.

You think this list is funny and not creepy.

Cookie?

Season's greetings

Pile of leaves. Best game ever. Especially when wearing the Santa hat.

Supervising Christmas lights installation

Pile of leaves. Best toy ever.

I can't twist my tongue sideways like that.

Christmas tree

Annual trip to Lone Tree Christmas Farm

Into the Wild!

Red Juice Milk Caps. Like to grow under Douglas
Firs. I didn't find enough to bother with salting
them, but it was nice to see these very
colorful mushrooms. (For the Russians
who are reading, these are рыжики)

K, K, and N. with our tree.

Compare with similar picture from last year here