A beautiful weekend...

The trial is over, I have work, I love my dog, and I've got a new nephew - Magnus! Dear sister Carrie has gone and had a healthy baby boy with her fiancee Scott, and the little titan is named for great destiny. We met him this weekend, and he played the part of helpless baby VERY WELL - we suspected nothing. Carrie and Scott are in great spirits, updating the Facebook with pictures and whatnot.

It'll be fun to have yet another Boy Cousin in the family. And cousin Tiffany also had a boy this past week too (Clyde) - so Bella remains queen bee of that side of the family (the one other girl in the preteen age group, Areaya, rarely comes from Delaware so we call Bella queen bee by default)

I'm charging my batteries preparing for my trip to South Jersey this week - I expect it'll be both feet in the water right away - as it should be. I broke the news to Bella and Isaac today, and they got a little misty, but then it devolved into a wrassling match, so all is forgiven. I'll need to be VERY present when I'm here for them.

Isaac had some brainstorms this week, and has had to have a lot of timeouts: Very willful ignoring of us, headstrong marching in the opposite direction, and my favorite is on the third call for him to do something he stops, cups his ear and says "what? what did you say? WHAT?" Cute, yes, but we do want to put him in Zinsser's kennel sometimes.

Today he had a silver robot in his bed for naptime (yes, a Cylon, but the 70's model) and he did both sides of this conversation:

Isaac: Hi Mister Robot!
Robot: HI
Isaac: Say "Hello" Robot!
Robot: HELLO
Isaac: Say "Hello" Robot!
Robot: HELLO. OK ALL DONE. DON'T WANT TO DO THAT ANYMORE.
Isaac: Ok, Robot.
Robot: I AM SO HAPPY. I WANT TO GO INTO OUTER SPACE
Isaac: Ok Robot, let's go into space together!
Robot: 3-2-1 BLAST... NO WAIT. 5-4-3-2-1 BLASTOFF! HERE WE GO!

When he was doing the robot voice, it was monotone and robotic sounding.

During Isaac's naptime, Bella and I snuck off to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. It was wonderful stuff - not too heavy, very amusing. And a lot less potty humor than some Dreamworks properties. And Ginormica was fantastic.

Tonight, our neighbors (who have Wyatt, who is just a little older than Isaac) had us over: Ryan had roasted some whole chickens and whipped up some homemade BBQ sauce for sandwiches. I made tacos for the kids, and only lost 3 of them when I walked smack into a screen door. No I had not been drinking. Thank you for your support. The kids all played well, Zinsser was in the middle of it all too.

Finally, little Zinsser update: He's still adorable, and getting a bit bigger every day. He's been kinder to us at night - last night he went 7 hours without barking OR messing his kennel. Of course earlier in the day, he messed in his kennel twice, so it's a wash. We finally got a small wire pen for the yard which is his "poo and pee place", and so far it's working pretty well. We'll see tonight.

I still love that dog, and he is finally warming to the rest of the family: He's really attaching to Bella well - to the point that he will stay on her lap if I'm in the room. And it thrills Bella's heart every day to have a dog. In fact the other night as she was falling asleep, she said "it's just like a dream, having a dog... only better".