Four-legged Alarm Systems

Can you see what the dogs protected us from last night?



After midnight...
with really loud barking...
Like it was a chupacabra or Jason Voorhees...
Look closer to see the horror...

Sorta-daily Random Photo

The food critic:

Lounging Poolside

Just like all good things seem to, his babyhood and summer are going by too fast.

His Toy Sucks

Everyone has heard the anecdote, give a kid a new toy and they will be more fascinated with the box it came in. Well Isaac's box is the vacuum.

He has toys bursting with rainbows of colors, toys that play music, toys that jingle and jangle, but none hold his attention for more than a few minutes at a time.

Tonight he happily played on the kitchen floor for almost an hour with the vacuum. He shook the cord, pulled on the hose, pushed the wand around the floor and up the wall and finally he conquered the entire machine by pulling himself up on it.




He was so intense. Like the fate of the world depended on figuring out how this contraption worked.

While this may not be the safest toy, do know how much I got done? This vacuum helped me do two loads of laundry, load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen and take out the garbage. The only thing I didn't get done was the vacuuming.

I can't tell if this means he has a future in engineering or janitorial services.

On a another toy side note: earlier today, after pulling the DVDs off the shelf for the hundredth time, I offered Isaac his entire toy box in the hope of entertaining him. After pulling out a few toys he closed the lid and climbed on top to reach even higher on the shelf.

Sorta-daily random photo

Random daily photo

I am already breaking my only rule. This was not taken in the last 24 hours. But still in the last week. Pineview Reservoir, Aug. 1, 2009

Wild kingdom

When we first brought Isaac home, well actually way before that when we were just thinking about having a baby, we worried about how the dogs would react. At the worst, they would think Isaac was a small wiggly ham, begin foaming at the mouth and stop at nothing to devour him. At the least, their hair would some how land on his sterilized bottle and infect him with Parvo and I would be labeled the worst mom ever. Also baby toys and dog toys look a lot alike. I thought Isaac would never be able to play on the floor because the dogs would take all his toys.

Well here we are nine months later and it turns out it is not the baby who is in danger.

Here is Isaac stealing both Leo's ball and rope, which he prefers to his own toys. Leo is patiently waiting for him to release.

It is the baby who wants to eat the dogs. There is nothing he likes more than grabbing a big old clump of dog hair to munch on.

We do our best to project the dogs, but it really is survival of the fittest. It's not all bad for them. They have already learned the benefits of standing around the high chair at feeding times.

Planned randomness

I thought I would start a daily photo post to motivate me to post more often. But I know me and if I make it an obligation it will feel like work and not fun so I will start a surprise/ random daily photo. There could be one a week or two in a day. This way I can get away with being inconsistent and it seems like I planned it that way. The only rule is that the photo must have been taken in the last 24 hours. (And, yes most of them will probably be of Isaac.)

Today's random daily photo:

Baby talk

"Quit bouncing in your poop, please!"

"Don't eat the dog!"

"I don't want your finger in my nose!"


All things that I have said in the last week that would be really weird if I still worked in an office

Good thing this is my co-worker

My time at County General

Tomorrow is the last episode of ER. When I heard that ER was going to be cancelled I was not that upset. There had been rumors for years. No show can last forever (maybe the Simpsons) and it is just a TV show after all.
But as I have watched this season I found myself savoring each episode. Then as the promos started say "Only three episodes left" and the such, I started to get a sentimental as I tend to do.
I can't remember why I started watching, and I know it wasn't from the beginning. I think it caught my attention in the middle of the second season.

I don't know how many times after watching an episode I was convinced that I should go to medical school. But after a good night's sleep that usually went away.

The show was therapeutic. It made me cry countless times, either for one of the characters, a patient or sometimes myself.

In some ways it's good the show is ending. As I began to become attached to the characters on the show I soon realized they could never be happy there (Sometimes I thought the writers were a tad sadistic). Mostly it was in relationships. Whether it was Nurse Hathaway and Dr. Ross, who had to move to Seattle and recently we learned are still happy together. Or Abby and Luka who also moved for a fresh start. If the show is over then I can imagine everyone is living happily every after (Archy and cop lady; Sam and Tony; Neela and Ray).

Some complain that they changed characters too much on the show, but I grew to like this. Just like a real ER. It would take me a while to like new characters, but then I really felt invested in their lives.

Dr. Green I will miss you most of all

While I don't have lines from the show memorized or posters of doctors on my walls, friends knew not to call on Thursday nights and I have not missed a show since I started watching. By my rough calculations I have spent more than 200 hours in the ER. I know the first thing to do in an emergency is order a CBC and get the patient started on a saline drip. There is a part of me that thinks I deserve at least a few credits towards a medical degree.

Every Thursday night for almost half my life I spent an hour at County General, and yea, I think I'm going to miss it.