Monday, September 22, 2008

Empty House


We are leaving for Italy tomorrow. Marathon week has finally arrived (the actual race is Sunday). The butterflies are fluttering in my stomach, but my overall feeling is one of excitement rather than dread. I really think this is going to be fun, and as I told one of my friends, we are going to NEED a marathon to burn off a week's worth of Italian dining!

In preparation for our voyage, I took Casper to the kennel tonight (makes for a smooth departure in the morning). It is so strange not to have his happy nervous little self around. It is shocking to realize that he has been in my life for over 8 years now... his absence is definitely noticed. No-one to quiver at the door when loud noises happen, or to happily clean up Marion's "droppings", or to groan loudly as he settles into bed. Sigh. Luckily he is at a nice kennel with Zephy and Tilly (two of his doggy friends), so he probably won't miss me at all.

Above is a picture of Marion enjoying her finger painting. She is becoming such a little character. She did three amazing things today. First, as we were preparing to leave for the kennel, she went to my purse and put her sippy cup in it for me to bring with us. Amazing planning on her part!
Then, as we were riding in the car, she was singing her version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which goes like this: "Twinko Twinko it-tle stoooor, HOW ooo ARE, Upppa BaaBaa HIGH, Ika HIGH". (New words are added every few days.) She manages to carry the tune very well through the whole thing. At any rate, she was singing and I started to sing with her, and she stops and says to me "NOOOOoooo". Apparently I am no longer allowed to butt in on her solos. Fortunately she says "No" in a very adorable way which involves shaping her lips into a very exaggerated O that looks almost like fish lips. I say fortunately because she is becoming quite the little tyrant who is bent on discovering her limits and every one else's! Luckily she is still basically sweet so it is more cute than anything (although I would never tell her that... she takes these things very seriously!).
Her final miracle of the day was that she had her post-dinner poo poo diaper, and as soon as she did it she promptly walked over to her diaper bag (in an exaggerated sailor's swagger thanks to her "hot seat"), pulled out a clean diaper, and presented it to me for changing. Pretty soon she's going to be running the household!

1 comment:

The Gutsy Mom said...

If I recall correctly, being told not to sing along with a solo was one of the first commands I received from a certain little someone when she was singing "Teekle, Teekle" (as opposed to "Twinko, Twinko"). It's all down hill from there!