The last post was getting long so I decided to break it apart from this post. And this one is going to be more of a picture narrative (according to Megan pictures are what people really want in a blog).
A common question these days is "How is Lacie doing?" Nobody seems to ask me how I am doing anymore. For some reason people forget about me and focus on my wife. Before I get hit, yelled at, or strung up by my neck, I better get to my point. I have concluded that pregnancy is not that bad. You get to go shopping for a new wardrobe not once but twice, you get to eat more and say that you are eating for two, you have a built in shelf to rest your water bottle or food on, and you have a solid excuse for afternoon naps. Yeah I know that weight gain comes with all of this but that is no different than the experience after a nice Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Alright, I am done ranting about nothing in particular! Lacie is doing absolutely wonderful. Her pregnancy has been very easy as compared to all of my sisters and many of my friends. I am so happy that it has been so easy. Here is a picture of my cute wife carrying around Braedon:
Kongs are great toys for dogs. (A kong is an extremely durable toy for dogs that you can stuff treats in.) The best thing to stick in a kong is peanut butter, unfortunately Peyton's system doesn't handle the little bit of heaven quite as good as our system so she gets other treats. The other day I made a discovery. Peyton's gingerbread men can partially fit inside of the kong! Fast as fast can be...that gingerbread man is going no where except into a pile of poo!
Another realization that I had recently is that we love to have dogs as pets due to their keeping us company. What we don't think about is that once we have a dog we spend a great deal of time trying to wear them out which subsequently keeps them out of trouble...hopefully. This leads me to two things: 1) frisbees and 2) dog parks. It is tough to throw a ball over and over and wear your dog out before you wear your arm out. I decided to give a rubber dog frisbee a shot. After the first embarrassing trip to the dog park which involved me throwing and fetching my own frisbee I spent some time teaching Peyton that a frisbee is just like a ball but better. She now loves that thing and I am no longer embarrassed and my shoulder lasts longer than she does. We have a local dog park that is great. There are typically quite a few dogs there for Peyton to play with (although there are a surprising number of pit bulls, rottweilers, and other mean dogs). Between the frisbee and the dog park, we have been pretty successful at wearing Peyton out and not losing any more shoe laces.
Yesterday was my niece's first birthday. I would have loved to go but I have been pretty sick for about a week and really didn't want to spend 4 hours in a car driving to and from Olympia. I presented Lacie with a plan, I would do whatever honey-dos she wanted and she had to say "I love you and won't hold you not going over your head". She liked the plan and the honey-do list quickly took shape. Lucky for me, I don't have a demanding wife and she only asked that I get and install a curtain rod in the soon to be baby room and clean up a book shelf that has been outside for quite a while. I knocked both of those projects out of the park and also spent a fair bit of time working on her bike to get it in top notch shape (she has started to ride her bike on an indoor trainer for variety and because running for an hour is starting to get uncomfortable). Although I enjoyed my relaxing day, it did sound like there were some pretty funny moments at the birthday party.
My Nalgene bottle has been hanging tough for probably 5+ years (yes it has the little number 7 on the bottom but I am not going to pay $8 for a non-scientific study). Today marked the end of the little piece of plastic that holds the lid on. The bottle may be indestructible but the lid definitely is not. This is a matter that Chad can attest to given that I don't even remember how long ago he lost the same piece of plastic.
We broke down this weekend and bought Peyton two new toys. Both of the toys came highly acclaimed as nearly indestructible which made us feel better about spending the money for them. One of them was a really tough stuffed doughnut with a few squeakers in it. She loves squeaking things (including my mother-in-laws little dog) but her stuffed animals typically lasts a matter of hours. This toy seems like it will last for quite a bit longer than previous purchases. The second is a rubber object that appears to be as durable as a kong but but much more of a mental challenge to get the treats out...plus there is a weird noise making thing in the middle to add more excitement for her. The real reason for the purchases are that she had been a good dog for a few days but before that she was bored and started to chew on the walls! Yeah, I know...weird. Hopefully she stays preoccupied and forgets what plaster tastes like.
I hope that you all enjoyed this installment of Derek's updates!
Seattle finally has a professional soccer team!! Being a huge soccer fan, I am so excited about this and so far they are doing very well. They lost their first game last weekend after having to play a player down and with their third string goal keeper, due to their starting keeper getting red carded fairly early in the first half. It would be even cooler if Seattle actually got a GOOD sports team!! I think the Sounders might pull through for them.
