Puppies, Oh My!

When the backyard was "under construction", Riley had to do his business in the front.  So one morning before work, I was walking Riley before I had to get to work.

No sooner had Riley & I walked in the front door but I heard a thud and a screaming dog.  It was a horrible noise.  I shuffled Riley in and ran back outside.  I stood on the front walk, looked down the street and saw a car drive away.  And then I saw a tiny little dog come running towards me on the sidewalk.  I tried to call him to me but he skittered away and ran down the block. 

Then I saw my neighbours walk out onto the road with a towel and return to the boulevard with a bundle.

OH MY GOD, it was a dog.  A tiny white dog.  A tiny white dog that was also hit by the car. 

So I walk down and chat with my neighbor.  I bend down and cuddle the dog and talk to the dog.  As I'm doing this, the dog rallys and gets up and walks.  And then my neighbour picks up the towel and walks back into her house.

What the fuck?  Seriously?  You leave me with the dog?

So the dog & I walked back to the house.  I left the dog on my step and went inside.  The little dog and Riley sniffed each other through the screen door while I got the phone and figured out what to do.

I went back outside and scooped up the dog in my jacket and carried him up the block to hopefully find his owner.  No luck.

I called the city to arrange a pick-up.  But they didn't open until 7:00am so I waited.  The little dog & I waited. 

Do you know what my options were?  They couldn't pick up right away rather "they'd be there in a couple hours".  So if I didn't have a secure place to hold the dog, then I could drop him off at a vet office or I'd have to let him go.  Let him loose.  To probably get him by another car.

Do you know what I did?  I woke up Steven.  And he came down and took care of the dog so I could get to work.  Initially I had locked Riley in the bedroom while Steven came to see the little dog.  And holy smokes, Riley cried and barked and made a fuss.  So introduced the little dog to Riley.  It did not go well.  Riley tried to eat the other dog and so he was banished from the living room.

I still can't believe that there was a car that hit not one but TWO dogs and then drove off.  Fucking bastard.

A couple days later, Steven thinks that he saw the little white dog walking with his person.  Hopefully a happy ending.

Do you see the red "leash"?

It's actually a Christmas ribbon with bells.

John uses it as a leash for his stuffed Spot dog.

More PEI

Green Gables Historic Site.  Here's my last Anne tourist site.  I offered to go by myself but Steven said that they'd come with me.  My boys are such troopers.  Steven kept saying that PEI was for me.



Here's our last beach day.  I have to say, the beach was super crowded, the water was FREEZING and the surf was really powerful.  But we were on the beach.  The sun was shining and we had time to have lunch on the beach, look for shells & rocks and play in the sand.

No sand castles for us!

If John was a bit older, I totally would have formed sand "boobs" for him.

My guys.

Digging out of the hole.

As much as I like beach days, I can't say that I enjoyed Cavendish beach that much.  I think Cape Breton spoiled us.  So we packed up, went back to the cabins, showered up and went to the pool.

My little swimmer!

More Vacation

Poor Gnomes...no longer innocent.

Bye Bye Cape Breton.

Drive from Nova Scotia to the Confederation Bridge.  We decided to drive the Sunset Trail.  It was nice, it wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be.  Kind of anti-climatic, there's absolutely no sign when you leave NS for NB.  It took us awhile before we realized that yes, indeed we were in NB.

Confederation Bridge.  Only worthwhile if you are in a high vehicle.  If you're in a car, you can't see over the side at all. 

PEI cottage

I have to say that these cottages were definitely nicer than the one in Cape Breton.  However, PEI is not nearly as nice.  The scenery isn't as nice, the people aren't as friendly.  It's VERY, VERY touristy.  And I know, I went to a tourist destination but it was TACKY touristy not charming toursity.  Oh well, I got my Anne-fix, so I'm good for my lifetime.

Anne of Green Gables Museum.

PEI was my choice. 

Most of the things that we did in Cape Breton was Steven's choice so I was in charge in PEI. 

After I did laundry, I went off on my quest for Anne.

And of course, I got lost.  Well, lost may be a strong word.  How about misguided?

I missed the turn-off.  I drove all the way to Kensington.  I knew I was too far but I couldn't figure out how exactly I had missed the turn.  I'm still not sure. 

So, I turned around (after wasting about 45 minutes) and drove back in the same direction.

It rained on me but I didn't care.  I was so excited.

SO EXCITED.

I went to the museum and then the birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery.

CRAZY EYES, she's back!

Drive around Prince Edward Island National Park.

North Rustico (or maybe near North Rustico)

Charlottetown.

We walked around downtown on the Historic Walk.

Province House

The birthplace of Confederation and the seat of Prince Edward Island's provincial legislature since 1847, Province House National Historic Site stands as a landmark in Charlottetown.

Yes, John is taking a picture of himself.

And here's John's pic.

After Charlottetown.

John wanted to go to the pool.  It was cold.

Ice Cream from the Boardwalk.

Avonlea Village.

Whoop!  More ANNE!

Raspberry Cordial, not what I expected at all.

Steven & John, troopers.  I don't think they liked the village as much as me.

We bought some Cows ice cream.  Not that great.  John picked the blue one, mama.  The blue one.

And then he ended up eating my strawberry sorbet.   You know, the non-dairy treat.  Yeh, mine.

Hay ride

I really regret not going to see the Anne performance. 

I'm kicking myself for not driving to Summerside.

I am surprised that I didn't break into song & dance here. 

I might have if there weren't so many other people there.

Steven wanted to have All You Can Eat Mussels.  So we treked to North Rustico to this ridiculous buffet.

You take pictures on my camera?

Really?

Me.  The one with the public blog.

Rookie mistake, man.  Rookie mistake.

First Day of Playschool

First day of playschool!  First day!

Okay, so I registered John for playschool waaayyyy back in May.  Remember that day that I stood in line for something like 4 hours?  Yeh, that day.  Well, actually, I registered John for school last year but they have this rule that the kids need to be fully toilet trained.  I had to withdraw John before the semester even started last fall so we were super excited this year.

John has been asking about school ever since we returned from summer holidays.  And every day we've had to tell him "not yet, you've got to wait".

And finally, we started!

Yesterday, we packed his knapsack with extra clothes, planned his snack, had him practise opening and closing his lunch box, set his alarm clock and relaxed.

This morning, I heard John wake up and run to the bathroom.  Then I heard him play with the coins on his shelf.  I'm pretty sure that he was standing in front of his alarm clock waiting for the alarm.  He's so funny.  Then his alarm went off and John came running into my room with his hands over his ears.  Sadly, I hit the buzzer mode not the Mater sounds mode.  Oops.

John usually helps me make coffee in the morning.  Last night I prepared the coffee so I'd have more time this morning.  I suppose that was probably not a good idea.  Do I know why?  See the next two pictures.

This is his mad face.

Here's his sad, disappointed face.

Trust me, you don't want to see this face.

This face breaks your heart.

Getting ready to go. 

Can you even believe how fast he's growing up. 

I'm going to blink and he's going to be in grade 1. 

Then middle school .  Then high school.

OH MY GOD!!!!! 

Such a poser.

A boy and his dog.

(a boy who probably smells like food and definitely has treats in his pocket)

Rainy day.

School, rainboots and umbrella.

A perfect John day.

I know, can you believe it took this long to take a picture of me & John?

I am probably more excited about school than John.

I'm not sure about how Steven feels.

I'm thinking sad because he didn't want to talk about it.

Seriously, if I had to stop and think about it this morning, I probably would have cried.

We dropped him off and went for breakfast.  As we were driving away, it was a bit of a let-down.  I'm not sure, almost anti-climactic.  And very, very sad.  I'm so happy that he's growing up and he's going to be making friends and learning everything.  But at the same time, he's growing up.  He's not my baby.

Oh, haha.  Speaking of baby.  John spilled his drink 3 times today.  THREE times.  So I threatened him with a revert back to sippy cups if he didn't start paying more attention. (did I mention that one of those drinks was a glass of milk, some of which dumped into my purse?  and did I mention that when I brought my cell phone out later that it was covered in milk)  Anyway, when I told him about the sippy cups he yelled at me, "I NO BABY"  "I NO NEED SIPPY CUPS".

He had a good day at school.  He's a helper.  He helped the other kids at bathroom break.  He helps the teacher.  He played with other kids.  He has a little friend that he knows from last class.  Noah.  "Noah no share"  "Noah no play nice".  So Steven was talking with him and it turns out he played with Noah because he knows Noah.  He didn't play alot with the other kids because he didn't know their names.  We're encouraging him to play with other kids.

Steven was coaching him about introducing himself to other kids.  "hello, my name is John, what's your name".  And then he tells John to shake their hand.  I told Steven that was kind of weird.  I'm not sure if he believes me.  Not the intro part, that's not weird.  I mean the shaking hands part.  I think that's a bit weird.  I don't want John to be that weird, odd kid in class.

Tonight at bedtime, I was telling him about playing with other kids. 

John: there's girls there too

John: I play with the girls too

John: I will have a girlfriend.  I will have 3 girlfriends.

John: hahaha.  that's alot.

He's funny.