Parenthood Lite

Random ways having our dog is training for having children, in no particular order:

1)  Whatever you are doing, there must be room for sitting in your lap and perhaps napping there, no matter how awkward it may be to continue or finish whatever activity you were doing in the first place.

2)  She has socialization therapy (aka "Puppy Playtime) twice a week.  Inevitably, one of those times is Saturday afternoon when everything else happens.  Reorganize your schedule accordingly.

3)  Once she starts co-sleeping, good luck getting her to sleep alone in her own bed.

4)  When she wants to play, she asks nicely with a tap on the leg or a nose-nuzzle to the ankle.  When you ignore her, she resorts to growling, whining, groaning, and the tantrum dance.  If you are staring at the laptop, she will make annoying noises or just smack you in the face.

5)  She is very specific about the toys she wants to play with at any given time, and how the game will be played.  She manages to communicate this fairly well without words.

6)  She never picks up her toys.

7)  She enjoys destroying her toys.

8)  We now handle poop multiple times on a daily basis.

7)  On bad days, we also handle vomit.

8)  You never again leave the house without the appropriate supplies to handle a public poop.

9)  Other parents give you compliments about how beautiful she is, although neither of you had anything to do with it.

10)  Errands and outings are structured as much as possible around nap-time.

11)  There is always a load of stinky puppy pads to be laundered.

12)  "Doggie radar" is running 24/7 in the back of your mind, making it hard to focus like you used to.  When things are very quiet, it is generally a bad sign.

13)  Six times out of ten, you need to take something out of her mouth.


                                   . . . to be continued.

In Recovery

So, the hysteroscopy went well.  At least, I think it did.  No serious complications so far.  It's hard to judge the bleeding because the sort that happens every month decided now would be a fine time to go off as well.  Hopefully I can stay out of the hospital for a while.

I feel obliged to try another pregnancy after going to all this trouble, but I'd rather not try it right away.  Probably after we move next year.  Because the last thing I want is to be a helpless invalid when it's time to move house.

They said they would probably have to do a laparoscopy, but might not.  They never told me whether they actually did it, and there isn't any information in my print-outs.  Oh, well.  Not having any pain has to be a good sign.

Summer Sweets

I have a few new favorite treats that will help get us through a hot summer without tons of guilt.  I am loving the mainstream trend of all natural.  If I can find the good stuff at Food Lion, so much the better. We live so close I could walk there, if I weren't afraid the goodies would melt on the way home.

Talenti gelato is my new preferred "ice cream."  It tastes fabulous and has an extremely short list of ingredients.  We haven't tried the mint yet; it just had the prettiest picture.  We have tried the double dark chocolate, coconut, sea salt caramel, and coffee chocolate chip.  Here's the label for the coconut.

Fabulous, no?  We will be buying more of this stuff in the future.

I thought our popsicle days were over, but these are awesome!  I was afraid they would be watery and heathy-tasting, but they aren't.  They are the best popsicles I've ever had, and only 70 calories each.  If you're too lazy to make your own (like me), these are the next best thing.

Catharsis

Everybody needs to blow off some emotional steam now and then.  My drug of choice is sad music.  We just went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier in theaters, so we're in that genre at the moment.  Here are the best sad superhero soundtracks I could find.

Ok, so apparently Captain America and Thor have the market cornered on sad soundtracks.  Here are a few extras.