A friendship in pictures . . .

Today Luke said goodbye to Eli. Eli and his family are moving away in a couple of days. Luke has lots of friends for a kid his age and I'm sure he'll have lots of friends in the future, but Eli will always hold the distinction of being Luke's first best friend. Goodbye "Eli who is still yummy, but doesn't like to be called Yummy Eli anymore." We'll miss you!

Miracle on Highway 33

After a day hiking in the Hocking Hills . . .

how the garden grows

The first tomatoes.

The pole beans that just keep climbing.

The first bell pepper and a winter squash plant just starting to grow.

Oregano, leeks and hot peppers.

Corn corner--planted in rows a week apart for a staggered harvest--that is, if they mange to cross pollinate and actually produce corn.

swimming lessons

Luke is almost finished with his first round of swimming lessons. In Westerville, the kids go every day for two weeks. Luke is "guppy" level--the first class where they are without parents in the pool. He loves it and has asked to do another round of lessons in August instead of any other activity this summer. He loves his teacher, David, which isn't surprising since he reminds us a lot of Uncle Chris who also spent many a summer lifeguarding and teaching swim lessons.

The home version is smaller, but they sure do like the "water slide."

Going Away Party

I hosted a Mom's Night Out in our backyard last Thursday. My very good friend Sharleen is moving to Minnesota in a week or two and the moms threw her a going away party. It all went great except that I fell down our deck stairs (there's only two of them!!!) while setting up and twisted my ankle! Five days later and I'm only just beginning to see the bones of my foot again. Still, it was a lovely night. We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores and gave Sharleen a going away basket filled with different fabrics. Matt snapped this fabulous picture of us with Alyssa's camera. For once, she didn't have to run in and pose before the timer went off!

Happy Anniversary, Poppy and Nan!

My mom and stepdad will celebrate their 12th anniversary tomorrow. Here's a picture of the wedding. Brian has two kids now. Jason has a baby. I have two kids. The flower girl is about to start her second year at Yale and the ring-bearer just graduated from high school. Yikes, time flies!

full day

I guess Matt and I are trying to stay busy and we're dragging the kids with us. Today started with boy-yoga, followed by swim lessons, followed by COSI.




It was the "big machines" exhibit at COSI. I took a picture of Michael standing in line only because when Luke was Michael's age, a line meant a tantrum. Even today, Luke bypassed all of the cool machines that had long lines. Luke loved the new Egypt exhibit, though, because it had a real mummy and an unreal camel.

A prince on his throne

Michael tried the potty for the first time the other night. He's not all that interested yet, but we got the requisite photo to show his date on prom night.

A dog's life

We lost our beloved Gavin the Greyhound last night. He had been having a rough time lately and yesterday he stopped eating completely, even when Matt cooked him a steak, so we knew it was time. I don't think most of our friends in Columbus have heard the whole Gavin story, so I thought I'd write it here.

Matt and I saw a show about rescued greyhounds sometime around 1999, when we were engaged and living in Toronto. We heard they were good apartment dogs, so we started to investigate. We found G.L.O.H.W. , a rescue organization that brings greyhounds from the northeastern U.S. into southern Ontario. We went through a rigorous application process. They called all of our references to make sure that we would make good doggie parents and even made a home visit (complete with sample greyhound). Then they put us on a waiting list.

We finally got the call in October of 2000. They had a three-year-old male named Okie Ridge who was ready to transition out of foster care and into his permanent home. As far as they knew, "Okie," who we immediately renamed Gavin, was born in 1997 on a puppy farm in West Virginia and then spent his racing career on a track in Connecticut. He was retired when he stopped winning. G.L.O.H.W. had him neutered and then put him in foster care on a farm for a couple of weeks while they tried to place the right dogs with the right owners. We got Gavin because he showed signs of being cat-aggressive and they knew we didn't have a cat.

He was a bag of bones when we got him, although we quickly put about fifteen pounds on him. We lived in a walk-up and he had never seen stairs. We had to teach him about stairs and windows (he would bump into them). He was already housebroken because he was kept in a crate. He stayed in the crate in our apartment for maybe 4 days before we gave up and let him have the run of the place. About a week after we got him, we encouraged him to get on the couch and thus Gavin's greatest love was discovered--lying on one side of the couch. Sometime in those first weeks, we also discovered that he preferred to walk with a stuffed toy in his mouth. We went through a lot of stuffed animals. He wore a coat in the winter and even had to wear boots to protect his paws from the salt on the city streets.

He lived with us in our one-bedroom apartment for three years getting four walks a day. He didn't see his first yard until Evansville. When we moved here and Luke was born, we weren't sure how he would do with the baby, but he was always wonderfully gentle with the boys. He aged gracefully. His brindle coat turned almost completely white. As he got older, he still loved his walks and his dinner and our dinner and your dinner, but he stopped running probably about two years ago. Over the past few months he slowed down more and got pickier about what he would eat. He began declining rapidly a few weeks ago. I was hoping he would make it through June 7th, which we were told was his birthday, and he did. That means he was 12 years old, which is a good age for a big dog, especially one who didn't have good care in his youth. We will miss him terribly, but we know he is up there in doggie heaven lying on a couch and begging for treats.

Goodbye sweet Gavin dog, until we meet again.

Lukism of the day

On Sunday evenings, we watch America's Funniest Home Videos. It's pretty much the only commercial tv that Luke watches. Here's why:

While I was washing dishes, Luke calls from the living room,"Hey mom, now we can get restaurant quality pizza at home."

birthday gift

Luke got this great "transforming" tricycle from us as his big birthday gift. It can be a large trike or a big wheel and, since Matt was out of town, I built it all by myself!

Nan was here . . .

And we really enjoyed her visit. I don't think we would have survived Daddy's trip to England without her. I'm pretty sure we wore her out! We love you, Nan! Come back soon and bring Poppy!

Buddies

Luke and Jennie played together twice last week at parks. They had such a good time together. This picture is from Blendon Woods, but the best was watching them at another park. They were both taking special care of their little friends--for Jennie it was a stuffed cat and for Luke it was Bumblebee. No, not some cute and cuddly stuffed insect, but a large transformer robot. It was hilarious to see them pushing their "babies" in the swings.

Haven't been very good . . .

at blogging lately. I think it's because there's a nagging sadness at the back of my mind that I've been avoiding blogging about. But since most folks who read this have already heard either on Facebook or on the mommy board, I guess I may as well just post it and get it over with. Our doggie is not doing well. Gavin the Greyhound turned 12 over the weekend (at least we think he did, we've never been totally sure about his birthdate). He's been in slow decline over the past few months, but he's gotten much worse over the past 2-3 weeks. We're not sure how much longer he'll be with us, but we'll love him as long as we have him.

Michael Bolton is . . .

. . . officially Michael's new nickname. Yep, he's a bolter. Sidewalks. Parks. Parking lots. You name it, he bolts across it, giggling like a madman as you shout and chase him. I used to think that Luke 'went through a bolting phase.' Nope. Not compared to this. Well, at least daddy's back now to help with the chasing!

Birthday playdate

My friend Ellen hosted a birthday playdate for Luke and her son Ethan whose birthday is a few days after Luke's. There were cupcakes and bikes to ride and cars to drive. What could be better? What the camera doesn't capture is the absolute mayhem, especially when Michael and Ethan's little sister Mya would get caught in the traffic jams! There were a couple of minor vehicle vs. pedestrian incidents (we did have to pull Mya out from under the jeep once) and lots of near misses!

Chuck E. Cheese's

On Wednesday night, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for the first time since I was a little girl myself. It was smaller than I remember, but maybe the one in Denver was bigger or maybe I was just a lot smaller then, too! We met Luke's best friend Eli and his mom Sharleen and sister Sadie there. The kids had fun. Luke and Eli played air hockey a lot. They were surprisingly good. Michael figured out how to get into the big tunnel on the ceiling by climbing up the slide and nearly gave us a heart attack before we found him. Then, Nan kept him company while he rode the Stuart Little ride about a million times. He was less excited about meeting the other mouse--Chuck E. Cheese. Michael ran straight into him and then started screaming like a banshee. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, although I probably shouldn't laugh at my child's terror. Overall, a fun night, but definitely a "once in a while" kind of place.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke is four years old today! I can't believe it. I'll have to post the pictures of last night's trip to Chuck E. Cheese and this morning's playdate later as I left my camera at the playdate! Our video camera is also out of discs--so what was I left with this evening? Luke's birthday gift from Nan--a real digital camera. It's a kid's vtech model, so the pictures are "cell phone" quality. We celebrated with our neighbors and had a great time even if we got caught in a crazy downpour as we were trying to clean up.

The really cool thing about the camera is that it shoots video. Blurry video, but video nonetheless--with sound even, which is an improvement over my real camera.

Memorial Day

Monica and Manuel, our very good friends and Michael's godparents, invited the boys and I out to Granville today. We went to the shortest Memorial Day parade ever. Then, we joined the parade and all made our way to the Granville cemetery. Turns out sober speeches and two-year-olds don't mix. Michael ran all over the place. It would have been terrible except that Monica (who teaches at Dennison) hired a student to help watch the kids! How awesome is that? She chased Michael every time he bolted! But eventually, it was just too much and we went back to the Martinez house where the student continued to chase Michael while Luke and Tomas played together. Luke and Tomas are hit or miss, but today they had a good day and Luke even got some birthday presents. We came home tired and happy and ready to see Nan tomorrow.

Prayers to St. Christopher

We said goodbye to Matt on Saturday. He'll be in England for the next two weeks teaching an intensive British History course to ODU students. Wasn't I the one that got a PhD in British History? Doesn't he study France? Hmmm. Oh well, he's escorting ten never-been-out-of-Ohio students, so he has his hands full. Before he left, he gave Luke a St. Christopher medal to match his own, so now Luke is saying prayers to St. Christopher for his daddy. Tonight Luke even remembered to ask the archangel Raphael to take the prayers up to God (Raphael is on the back of the medal). Safe travels, Matt! We miss you! And safe travels to Nan, who arrives tomorrow for her longest visit ever!! Woo-hoo!