family photo

The other day Elian received a note from school that he needs a family photo for his Spanish class. Thank goodness for tripods and self timers. Sadly, Elian's school friends will come away thinking his Papa has only half a head. If only I knew Photoshop. I'd love to create a thought bubble for Norman in this shot. Hmmm, what would it say?

another quote of the day

A conversation after preschool.

MAMA: The board said you went for a walk today. Where did you walk?

ELIAN: I can't remember. I was talking to Andrew so I wasn't paying attention.

MAMA: Mmmm, what were you talking about?

ELIAN: Wireless internet.

quote of the day

The other day I used the phrase "sounds like a broken record." I can't remember what it was in reference to -- probably something Elian kept telling me, over and over and over and over again.

One of my favorite things is when Elian repeats a saying that he's heard with a slightly-off twist. Today Chewie was squeaking her ball over and over again and he said:

"She sounds like a broken...a broken...a broken (searching for the right word)...a broken...you know, a big DVD."

the baby playground has relocated!

Friday night Chewie! made her final destructive blow to the baby playground. There were many tears as the little dude headed out to soccer practice. While he was gone, I made an attempt to put it back together in its original form. Sadly not to his satisfaction (but I must say, somebody was a bit on the crabby side when I presented it to him).

Ed promised he'd help him make an even better baby playground upstairs. That way, Chewie! has less of a chance of knocking it over with her puppy happiness. So this morning, build a new baby playground they did. And I'm happy to report, the little man is happy. He proudly announced that this baby playground is v-shaped and really cool.

Ana Mama has her floor back. Alleluia!

pupdate

Chewie is adjusting very well to her new home. A little too well if you ask me. One of our biggest challenges has been keeping her off the couch when she sees that Norman gets to plant his furry butt there 24/7. YOU'VE GOT TO EARN IT, GIRLIE!

That and it turns out Elian doesn't like so much being bit and scratched in the face. Don't get me wrong, Chewie is doing very well with her training, but when Elian gets her riled up, there's no stopping her. The other day he screamed, "I DON'T LIKE HER!! I DON'T LIKE HER!!!" But I know he does -- he LOVES her. And so does Norman. Wait. Well, Norman's at least doing a great job tolerating her. And today when we were playing outside, I could swear Norman was making a small attempt at playing with her as she pounced around and ran circles around his achy bones. Chewie just loves Norman and she follows him around like an annoying little sister. As soon as she hears the jingle-jangle of his collar, she stops whatever she's doing and starts trotting behind Norman.

Ed is skeptical that I am getting the non-shedding dog of my dreams. AWe were told her mother was a standard poodle and her father may have been the neighbor lab who came over for a little boww-chicka-boww-woww. And if that's the case, she'd be in the labradoodle family. But according to my labradoodle research, the first generation labradoodles (half poodle, half lab) are more likely to shed. D'OH! Back to the pound you go, Chewie! I kid. We'll see. No dog could possibly shed as much as Norman.

Oh, and remember the Lego baby playground? That thing is even a bigger thorn in my side than before because now I've got a puppy who wants to gobble it all up and a little boy who screams any time the puppy goes near it. I can't tell you how many times I've fished the teeter-totter out of her mouth. Actually, our "Drop it" training has been so successful that I partly wonder how much she's taking stuff she shouldn't just so she can get a treat when she drops it. Hmmmm.

All in all she's a very good girl. Crazy smart. So smart that her first night home with us she unzipped her way out of her crate. It went a little something like this:

SOUND: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
AMY: It sounds like she's unzipping self out of the crate.
ED: Oh, she couldn't get out... SHE DID GET OUT!!!

Her antics are pretty much what I expected from a puppy. But we love her and she's a great addition to the family. And just to torture myself I keep checking petfinder to see if her siblings have been adopted. There are just two puppies remaining. Anyone?? Anyone??

introducing, chewie hernandez

In a moment of weakness, we drove two hours out to the Brainerd shelter and picked up this bundle of happy energy. We had been considering getting Elian his own dog for a while. Norman will be 11 this year and he's not a big fan of playful childish antics. He's sort of like a grumpy old man. On top of that, he suffered a pretty bad seizure while we were in Florida and his inevitable mortality sort of hit home.

Elian is a boy who love, love, loves dogs. And he love, love, loves to get his face in Norman's face all day long, grab his head and give him hugs and try to get him riled up for a game of tug-a-war. In response, Norman usually retreats to the upstairs bed as if to say, "Nice try, kid." He's also super careful around Elian; he's afraid to take the other end of the toy -- out of fear of hurting Elian I imagine. We can have an intense game of tug-a-war going, I'll hand the tug toy to Elian and Norman will just drop it. I feel bad for Norman. But mostly I feel bad for Elian. Here he is uber-dog-lover who wants to constantly play with a dog and he has a dog who doesn't even want to play with him.

Over the course of a few months, I've been emailing potential dogs to Ed, and ladies and gentlemen, I successfully wore the man down. Again, I hadn't been very excited about the puppy idea, but I also felt like for Elian to truly feel like the dog was his, the dog would have to be pretty young.

We made the two-hour trip to the Brainerd shelter bringing Norman along for the introduction. If it didn't go well, I was prepared to go home puppyless. We also didn't want to build Elian's expectations. He had no idea we were even considering getting him a puppy, so I wove a tale about how we would visit this "place" where we could pet puppies much like we pet the kitty cats at Petsmart and Norman could have a chance to meet a puppy too! There was no mention of the possibility of bringing said puppy home. And he bought every word of it. He never even questioned why we'd have to drive two hours to pet puppies.

We called to make sure she hadn't been adopted before we left. Since the hours were 11-2, with a two-hour drive, it didn't give us a lot of time. We arrived there 15 minutes before close. Ed and Elian waited out in the lobby with Norman while I went into the kennel area with my blinders on to the other dogs out of fear I'd want to adopt all of them (there were a lot). I walked past several cages with people standing in front of them, worried that someone was in the process of adopting her or taking her out to meet her. Luckily, no one was in front of her cage. As soon as I approached it, she pounced to the door, tail wagging like her life depended on it (and I guess in some sense it could have). And it was love at first sight.

We brought her out to the lobby and happily Norman did not want to eat her! And Elian and Ed fell in love as quickly as I did. That's it, a few papers signed, an adoption fee and bada bing bada boom she's home with us. And I wish I could show you what I see from my computer right now. I'll give you a hint, it's totally cute.

the beauty of legos

For Christmas Elian got a very large Duplo Lego set complete with balls and tubes from Ed's sister. It's perfect for him. Only problem is he gets way too attached to the things he builds.

He's been in sort of baby-playground building stage where he creates these elaborate playgrounds with tube slides, teeter-totters and climbing equipment for "babies" and wants to leave them up for weeks on end. They take up about a third of our rug in the TV room, so you can imagine my delight. I keep trying to explain to him the beauty of Legos. How you build something, take it apart, only to build something much cooler the next time. But he's not buying it.

Our current baby playground has been around for about three weeks now. Funny thing is, when his friend Solveig came over for a playdate the other date, she was immediately drawn to the baby playground. They played with it for a good 20 minutes which is like four hours in adult attention-span. A few days later, it sat and sadly no babies were playing at the playground. I asked him if I could put away and it was met with resistance to put it mildly. So there it sits. The baby playground.

my sneaky valentine

As soon as I enter the house after walking Norman, Elian says:

"Tonight Papa and I are going to Home Depot to get some birdseed and Petsmart to get puppy some food (long pause -- as long as he could contain himself). But we're NOT going to Patina."

another hernandez family music video for your enjoyment

Afton Apple Orchard from ehernandez on Vimeo.

quote of the day

Today I picked up a little tray of sushi from the co-op. When I picked the little dude up from pre-school, I told him I bought some sushi we could share. He said he wanted his own tray. I'm not one to indulge him that easily, but I thought about how much sushi I would get if we shared and I like me my sushi, so we went to the co-op to get him his own sushi. When we came home, we had this exchange:

MAMA: Buddy, I'm glad you like sushi.

ELIAN: Why?

MAMA: Well, it's nice that we can eat it together. Papa doesn't like sushi?

ELIAN: What's not to like about sushi? He's weird.

luckiest. mama. ever.

I snuck outside to sort the recycling. When I came back inside, the little man handed me this. Guess how long I'll be keeping it. That's right, forever. FOREVER!

a song in his heart

quote of the day

ELIAN: Are guests coming over, Mama?

MAMA: No. Why?

ELIAN: Why are you sweeping?

quote of the day

Actually today, there were two quotes of the day. First, I bring you the naughty quote:

ELIAN:
(In a fit of anger after an ugly game of Blokus) "Idon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapaIdon'tlikepapa"

And now for the funny one:

"I'm looking at you lovingly because I want you to get off my fish pillow."

special delivery

I'm gonna require a signature for this one.

lollipop karma

I never blogged about our annual trip to the North Shore this year for a few reasons. One being that I wrote notes about the trip on the back of some work papers. When I finished that work, they wound up in the recycler. Oops. Secondly, the resident Hernan-dos photographer never flagged his favorite photos from the trip. He's all about the movie clips these days. Photos are so yesterday. Anyway, I get overwhelmed looking at all the photos. Give me the cliff notes, baby!

Anywho, there were a few little funny things that I wanted to write down before I forgot them entirely:

1. When we went to Betty's Pies, in the lobby they had a couple little boxes collecting money for various charities. They also were selling big delicious lollipops. Elian asked if he could get one of the lollipops and Ed told him he would give him a dollar. He could decide if it should go to a hungry child or if he should use it to buy a lollipop for himself. Cruel, I know. See what I have to live with? But guess what my sweet-toothed-lollipop-crazed little man picked? He chose to give his dollar to the hungry children! Talk about a proud Mama moment. IN YOUR FACE YOU PEOPLE WHO SAY ONLY CHILDREN DON'T KNOW HOW TO SHARE! As a reward, Ed bought him two lollipops.

2. Then there was the trip we took to the Portland Malt shop. Or should I say ONE of the trips we took to the Portland Malt shop. When the girl at the window asked Elian what kind of ice cream he wanted, he responded, "Chocolate with a layer of chocolate on it." When she told him they didn't have dipped cones, he asked for sprinkles. Strike two, no sprinkles. But that didn't keep him down. He was going to get extra sugar one way or another. He started panning the back of the ice cream stand. That's when he spotted some spray whipped cream and said, "I see you have some of that!"

3. And finally, when we were taking a little hike around Gooseberry Falls, we came upon this thin ledge that jutted out with trees growing out the top of it. When Elian saw it, he said, "It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book!" and it truly did.

quote of the day

MAMA: What do you want in your lunch tomorrow buddy, alphabet soup or peanut butter and honey?

ELIAN: Peanut butter and honey. And maybe some apples...(recalling the signs we saw when we went apple picking) maybe some Connel Reds...maybe some Sweet Sixteens...maybe some Do Not Picks...

quote of the day

Yesterday, Ed had the day off work (hooray, Christopher Columbus!). Elian had his Monday morning daycare, so Ed and I had a romantic shopping spree date at Target and REI followed by lunch at Good Earth. We had to sort of rush through the lunch part so we could pick up the little man in time, so there was no dessert (gasp!). Ed suggested we make up for it with a trip to Cafe Latte after picking the boy up. And who was I to argue? Just take one look here and you'll know why.

We took our mammoth-sized dessert selections (chocolate chocolate cake and some sort of berry crumble if you must know) and sat down. There was a dude sitting nearby with some funky cheetah-spots dyed in his hair. I said to Elian, "Hey, buddy, look at that guys hair, he looks like a leopard."

He looks around and looks around.

I point. "Over there, buddy!"

He looks around and looks around. I can tell he can't see what I'm talking about. And proving my point he says, "Oh yeah, he does look like a leprechaun!"

rain man

Every once in a while, the little man freaks my freak. Like the other day. We were playing this golf game (surprise, surprise), seeing who could hit the golf ball closest to a block. Sometimes there would be an argument about who was closest. That's when he would pull out his measuring tape to confirm the results. One time, after one of us hit the ball, he said right away without grabbing the measuring tape, "That's about 32 inches." I measured to see for myself. It was 32 inches. Exactly.

Then today, we were enjoying a little quiet time. He was doing his thing, I was doing mine. After about a half hour, he was done. He came over to me and looked at the remaining pages of my book and said,
"Is that what you just read?"
"No," (fanning pages) "This is what I read during our quiet time."
"So 28 pages, right?"
"I don't know, maybe it's about 28 pages."
"Let's count."
"Well, I don't really need to count, I can just look at the page number where I started and then look at the page number where I ended and subtract." (Subtracting 380 from 408.) "Yep, it's 28 pages, Rain Man."

another wii-kend

The little man and I spent the past weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Schulz's in Racine. It was a great trip filled with fun: a pool table, a pizza party with the aunts, uncles and cousins, grandma's marble run, miniature golfing and last but not least, cousin Chloe's Wii. The little man got some quality Wii time in while at Grandma and Grandpa's. He's still blathering on about Shay-Shay Lake or some such track I have no idea what he's talking about.

This morning, I drove him to preschool because it was raining and I couldn't find our second umbrella. As I was buckling him into his car seat, I reminded him that he has a cold and he needs to cover his mouth when he coughs -- especially at school. I said something like, "You should just keep practicing that so you do it automatically." Still in Mario-Kart-Wii-mode, he responded, "Not manually."