When God Goes Bowling

Sometimes you have to lie to your kids. If they're cute lies... that makes it okay, right?

Today we had a sudden thunderstorm come on just as I was putting the boys down for their naps. It's a little distracting for a 2-year-old and 4-year-old to go to sleep when they're hearing random, crackly booms come from the sky!



Tank didn't seem too bothered. I thank God that I have been given some time with a child who actually looks forward to naptime for the most part. Sometimes I'll get some complaining.. but usually.. he's sweetly telling me "nigh-nigh" as I close his door. I don't know how long this phase will last. But I'm holding onto it while I can! Because I know it's a phase... and that it will end eventually!

Sunshine was the one who kept mentioning the thunder. He's also the one who fights naptime, especially when I make it at a decent time like 12:30p or 1p instead of like.. 5p.

I should mention that thunderstorms are loud at our house. We have three skylights that really amplify any noise that comes from the sky.. like rain.. hail.. and thunder... and bird poop. I'll have to tell you about Sunshine and bird poop another time though. You get the idea though... it's loud.



Wow... check out all that hail! It looks like snow!

K. I'm back now. So, it's loud.. and I'm trying to put my loquacious and reluctant 4-year-old down for a nap. If there's a distraction to be spoken about.. he's gonna spoke about it. (Yes, I meant to type spoke. It's not a typo.) So he was saying something about the thunder.. and mentioning how he wasn't brave.

Ah great... I thought to myself.. How am I gonna get this kid to go to bed and be quiet for a few hours? I think I need my quiet time more than he does.

"You know what? You're going to be hearing that thunder during your naptime today. But don't let it scare you, okay? Because it just means that God and the angels are bowling," I blurted out.

"Bowling? Where?"

"In Heaven!"

"They have bowling in Heaven?"

Hmm... I don't know if they'll have bowling in Heaven... we'll all be busy worshiping.. won't we?
"Sure, Honey. Can't you hear it?"

BANG! rumble... rumble... rumble...

"Uh huh.. I want to go bowling with them sometime.."

"Oh you will. So you just sit here and listen to God bowling during your naptime, okay?"

"Okay!"

Well that worked. Both Tank and Sunshine took wonderful naps!

Bond would rather me tell Sunshine the real reason thunder happens... like.. something about.. hot air from the lightening.. meeting cold air? ... and... that makes it loud? How do I explain something to someone when I don't quite understand it all myself? I dunno.. I think the bowling explanation is more fun. I won't mind when Sunshine comes home from his first day in preschool and tells me that thunder is NOT really God and the angels bowling.. that it's really hot air meeting cold air blah blah blah that makes the thunder. I guess I'll need to come up with something smart to say about why I told him it was God and the angels. I probably have some time.

I learned something about Millie today too: While every other dog on the face of the planet is deathly afraid of thunder.. she could care less. And we're talking THUNDER here people. Oh she'll perk her ears up a little.. maybe look out the window if she's near one. But I think she's probably thinking someone just shot a really big gun and.. "Hey... where's the bird? Where's the bird? I'll go get it! Let me at it! I'll bring it right to ya!!"

A new rug on the other hand? Oh she'll run to the ends of the earth to get away from that... that... whatever it is! I love my dog. But she's a little confused. At least she'll let me take a nap without making me make up stories to calm her down!

My Dog Millie

"I shall call her Millie.. and she shall be mine and she shall be my Millie.." - adapted from Finding Nemo

Oh... how I love this dog. I didn't even know I could love a dog. But I love her and she is mine now.
She should probably be Bond's dog.. since he'll hunt with her this fall (yes, when I'm 9 months preggo, or maybe in labor, or.. maybe when there's a newborn in the house... I'm letting him do this.. I don't get it either.)
But I'm the one who trains with her during the day. I say "train"... we work with her. She's special. But she's a GOOD dog. And she's doing so well. I'm so proud of the progress she's made. Anyway... during our 15 minute training sessions.. she'll give me this look..



"Oh Mommy... please don't make me do this anymore! I don't want to learn any new tricks. Look, I'm sitting.. where you told me to sit. Good enough, right? Can we be done now?"

It's hilarious when she's learning something new.. and I laugh at her.. I don't think she appreciates it a whole lot.. but she's a dog.. not a cat.. so she forgives me.

I've learned a lot owning a dog. I'm going to share 2 things with you now that you may have never known about dogs...

1) They blink.. just like us.. and can end up blinking mid-capture!


The difference is that they look a lot cuter mid-blink than we do.

2) They can get camera-shy...


It's either that.. or she wasn't liking the flash.

Do you feel smarter now?

My Millie is a bird dog. She LOVES to run and fetch stuff. She didn't used to bring it back to us.. I think she might have been afraid we'd keep it.. or something. But she's since learned to bring it right to our hands (a good thing for a bird dog to know) and immediately set herself up for another run.

My favorite thing about her return run...



is the way her ears flop up and down. Those cute, adorable, fluffy ears!



Flip, flop...



Flip, flop!! I LOVE her ears! :) That's where I pet her too. She plops her little face on my leg and I sit there and rub her ears. She loves it. It's her heaven. And mine too, I think!

How can you not love that face?



Can you see the dirt and foamy slobber?



Take a break, Mills!



'Cause you know what Dawg??



You deserve it!



My sweet, sweet, adorable puppy!

Distractions!

What's this you ask? Very... technical-looking... diagram..

My goodness.. it can't be! Why, yes! It is!! It's a..

DIAPER!!! Not just any diaper.. a CLOTH diaper!!!

I'll wait while you get your "eews.." and "acks!" out.

Better now? Good.

Yes.. this is what has been eating my time. (Ha! And I'm not even using them yet!)

The world of cloth diapering has changed a lot in the last 20 years or so... even in the last 4-5 years. It's amazing! Just as easy, and almost as convenient as disposables, except you're not having to dig a new landfill for each baby's dirty diapers! Isn't that wonderful????

By the way, this is only one of many many many diapers they make these days. This is a BumGenius 3.0 one-size diaper. You can find info on them here from where I stole the diagram, and you can buy them here.

Anyway. I just thought you should know that it's the research of a carefully constructed piece of equipment which will eventually hold the waste product of my future child that has kept me from my blogging. Aren't you glad you know that now??

Speaking of Newbie...



Cute right? See the foot kinda toward the top? Almost looks like Newbie is wearing a sock!!

Sweet sweet baby. This was taken at 20 weeks plus a few days. I'll have more pictures in a few weeks because Newbie was a curled up in a ball and refusing to show us the heart. So we have to go back and hope we aren't being as obnoxious. ;) The gender is still God's little secret! :) It's fun that way!

Oh yah... and have you ever seen this sweet face?



My sweet Millie dog has been taking up lots of time too!!! We've been training her and she's quite hilarious during the trainings... she gets these amazing expressions on her face.... stoops her head all low.. and sags her ears... and gets those big brown puppy-dog eyes LOCKED in on us.. hoping they're break our hearts into a million pieces....

*pout pout pout*

I just laugh. It's funny. It's all I can do to keep from crying and rescuing her from learning to be an obedient puppy!!! I'll take some pictures sometime in the future of that. You'll love it! Or you'll hate me for allowing such a beautiful dog to be burdened with such a thing as behaving!