Mary woke up in the morning wanting to go back for a Volcano… It’s obviously going to be a challenge to keep this a special treat.

Today has been a good day. A cold day, but good none the less.

You’ve heard of the Dog days of summer?

These are the dog days of Winter. It’s a bit different than yesterday.

It’s off to the dog park in Franklin! Jack having no clue, the kids little more… Oh, and it’s 30 fricking degrees outside.

This is MY ball. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

I want to play with everyone. Socialization is good for Dogs, and Jack is definitely working that one through. We stayed for about an hour, and during that time, Jack attacked, was attacked, and generally made a mess of everyone and everything. Needless to say, he had a blast. Until the Bath.

Look at those Paws! He’s gaining weight all the time, and it’s ALL in the paws and ankles! Oh yeah.. and the ears. Radar dishes.

William was not pleased at the decision to leave BEFORE everyone turned to ice. But leave we did. Things to do, Puppies to bathe. Oh, there will HAVE to be pictures of the puppy being bathed, but not this time. We aren’t exactly pleased at the concept of water being poured all over us when it’s freezing outside. Of course, you have to pull the dog away from the pond continuously, but that’s irrelevant to the bathing thing.

Bath over with, Puppy dried. Kids in quiet time (William asleep, Mary.. yeah, right). But the day is not over. Dad set up the studio stobe upstairs, and it was time to goof off a bit before bed.

I had to try out the new camera body with some controlled (sorta) situations. Lots of light, fast sharp lenses… And a daughter and puppy ready to go after a bit of rest. I’m pretty impressed with the resolving power. Anyone want a 40 inch picture of a Puppy where you can see individual hairs?

The remainder of the album is here:

Our first stop was El Rancho for lunch. William latched on to Ms. Dot. I think his opinion is she has the third best lap after Momma and Grandmomma. He sat with her for the whole meal.

We went strawberry picking Wednesday afternoon. It was hot and the lady in charge sent us down an aisle with a huge mud puddle. I didn’t realize how deep it was until my entire foot went under. MaryVic lost a shoe in the muck and there was no water to rinse anything off. Between that incident, the sun and the heat, it just wasn’t as fun as remembered. I think she went strawberry picking later in the year last time. Grandmomma bought a basket and we’ve been munching on them during our visit.

There’s a red one! William was unhappy the whole time considering he didn’t get his feet muddy,.

and that was enough strawberries!

At the playground on Thursday.

Running a milkshake shop. These pictures are all after the big fall.

William took a turn at management.

Being brave and making everyone nervous.

He climbed so far and then wouldn’t put his feet down. I took him off and put him back when he fussed. He wouldn’t let me set him up top with sister but wouldn’t climb either. I finally had to put him down and let him tantrum it out for a few seconds before he moved on to something else.

Lunch at El Rancho. He amused everyone by using one french fry to eat all his ketchup. He did eat his half of his cheese sandwich first.

and MaryVic ate her half.

There were no problems on Wednesday. The family had breakfast at Shoney’s before Greg headed to Bardstown, KY for work and I took the children to visit the Nicholsons. The kids loved playing all around their grandparents house. Grandmomma had new toys so they were happy. We had lunch at El Rancho and dinner at Cherokee Ridge.

Dot and Max ate with us at both places. William sat with Dot during lunch and ate up all the attention. MaryVic talked with everyone and had 2 pieces of chocolate cake. We got to see Rhonda for the first time in forever. Justin and the Brannons were there.

MaryVic had to go say hello to Ms. Lavelle at Cherokee Ridge and then insisted on asking Grandmomma repeatedly to go back to talk to Ms. Lavelle. She refused to go on her own. MaryVic then ‘entertained’ everyone by running back and forth across the front of the room. Dinner was a long time coming so it was hard to keep her sitting at the table.

I was amused by all the comments from Dot and Max about how quiet and good William was. He really was being good until we left. Momma and Grandmomma had issues with him scooting across the parking lot on his bottom in the dark. He let everyone know how unreasonable this was when Grandmomma picked him up. I guess he was feeling shy up till then as he didn’t say anything to anyone but was smiles and friendly.

He crawled, scooted, pushed his shopping cart and played hard all afternoon. Unfortunately the end result of all the activity despite a long car ride, was a fit at bedtime. He cried and fussed for a while until he fell asleep. He would semi-wake and cry out during the night. I gave him some tylenol which did help him fall asleep.

Amazingly, William was up and going the next morning. Mostly crawling but getting around. We thought it would be good to take the kids to the park before lunch. Everyone was having a good time. William wanted to try out a different playground unit. I should have known better as MaryAlice pointed out, it was painted orange and blue in Auburn colors (joke!). There was an opening between the top landing and the one with a tunnel to the slide. William fell in-between and down to the ground, about a 3 foot fall. I jumped down to grab him but he was already on the ground, screaming.

He cried for a good bit scaring Mom and Grandmomma. Grandmomma had been checking on her garden club’s plants across the park and came running back. He wouldn’t go to Grandmomma and wouldn’t let go of Momma. Gradually he calmed down and got tired of Mom moving his legs and feeling them. He started playing again, standing while holding on to the bars and crawling through the tunnels.

We went back to the El Rancho for lunch where he got sympathetic loving from Dot and ate lunch in Momma’s lap before deciding to get in his high chair. After lunch, he wanted to go see Dot again so I held his hand and we walked to the other end of the table. His effort resulted in lots of cheers and he was so pleased with himself that we walked out to the crosswalk, across the street and past the van. Once he realized he passed the van, we walked back, around the van and he climbed in himself. He can’t quite get into his car seat on his own yet.

You would have thought that was enough excitement but MaryVic didn’t have any souvenirs of the trip yet. She fell while playing on the driveway and scrapped her knee. Fortunately that was alleviated with leftover chocolate cake from Wednesday’s lunch. It wasn’t enough though. Add a busted lip to the equation. Apparently she was so busy looking at how big things are with her magnifying glass that she didn’t realize the huge countertop was so close. She bumped off of it and busted her lip on the magnifying glass.

Needless to say Grandmomma and I were more than ready for a glass of wine with dinner. Thankfully William didn’t have any problems falling asleep at bedtime. Hopefully Grandmomma’s birthday will be less exciting.

William is doing well progress wise. He will walk independently for a short distance, like 2-3 feet or less, a couple times a day. His long walk yesterday was while holding one hand of mine although he would grab it with both of his. He is scooting along on his bottom more frequently although crawling is still the quickest way to get from point a to point b. The only positive thing I can think about the fall is maybe he’ll realize he can fall and not get hurt as badly as he did when his leg broke and he’ll gain more confidence to move around. However, I think we’ll look to other confidence building activities in the future!

I was tickled and saddened to see him on the red tricycle last night scooting with his left leg. There was a smaller big wheel and he could reach the ground with both feet on it. It didn’t compare to the flash of the red tricycle. He howled the whole time MaryVic was riding on it and climbed on as soon as she stopped. Unfortunately he couldn’t reach the ground with both feet. He scooted around by leaning off slightly to the left, making the right leg look even shorter. He was happy though.

The plan for today is to have a birthday lunch at El Rancho with Grandmomma and her friends then head back home. It is Main Street Festival in Franklin this weekend so we’ll see how William does in the Children’s area.