I never did get my pictures, but I laid out Gwyneth's 1st year scrapbook and made all the borders so the weekend was not a total loss. I also got to spend lots of time with friends and even slept in! A big thanks for Chrissy for organizing the weekend for us. I just need to slap the pictures down and Gwyneth's album will be as good as done.
Saturday I took a little break to meet Sarah, Mary Ann, and Stephanie for lunch. Steph was
visiting for the weekend and it was great to see her. I even snuck in a nap in the afternoon! That evening a highschool friend of mine from Ohio hooked me up with tickets to the Comedy Works. B got a babysitter for the girls and we met downtown for the show. Abe and Alicia joined us too which was a great reunion since we haven't seen them literally in years. They just moved back to Colorado and bought a house about 10 minutes from us! We're looking forward to meeting up with them a lot more often in the near future. The opener for the evening was Ari Shaffer and the headliner was Joe Rogan, both were hilarious! So very very wrong, but so very very funny! A big thanks to Brian for hooking us up with the tickets. Sunday I packed up my gear and headed home to see B and the girls. I was only gone one day, but I sure did miss them. I had a quick turn around time, as I was only home for about a half an hour and then we headed over to the Carlson's house. We had dinner, best meatball pizza EVER, and the kids played and played. Keith even snapped some photos of the girls in their Halloween costumes. It's hard to keep them standing still for long, but Keith always manages to get good shots.
The girls cracked themselves up playing with the door at the Carlsons
Annabelle and Jack played Wii bowling
Jack and Ben's Grandma was visiting too. I was amazed at how much Ben can eat - he polished off 2 1/2 jars of baby food. Go baby Ben!
The girls have so much fun with the Carlson boys. We always have a great time with them! Again, so much laughing!
The Carlsons have two very large dogs and my girls still freak out whenever they see them. They love puppies in movies, books, or at a distance. They are just terrified when they are up close and personal. It's not the Carlson's dogs - it's all dogs! These are not little cries or hiding behind mom or dad's leg - these are blood curdling screams of terror. I have been reading a lot about helping them overcome this fear and believe they have a true phobia regarding dogs - its called cynophobia and it's a real and fairly common fear. It's irrational but an extremely strong fear and I can relate because I am not very comfortable around dogs either. Living in Colorado everyone seems to have a dog so I know I have to work with them to get past this. Everything I read says continue to expose your children to dogs regularly and the best solution is to adopt a dog of your own. This is never going to happen! I still freak out around dogs and I really don't want one but I know my fear is surely what fuels theirs. (side note - if they were afraid of clowns would I make them hang out with clowns all the time???) I hate to see them scared - it breaks my heart. It's the absolute worst feeling to see your children terrified! The latest suggestion I read is to take them to visit puppies 6 - 8 weeks old before they become yappy and mostly sleep so I'm off to search for a place to meet newborn puppies. I'd appreciate any other suggestions too (except get a puppy!) if you've got 'em....
Sometimes you can find Therapy Dogs who make apperarances to 'read' with kids at a local library. I found that the kids in my classroom who were afraid of dogs would sit next to a calm (read: almost comatose) therapy dog for a story. The first few times they were more focused on watching the dog, but after they realized the pup was just going to sit there, they became more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, even knowing that a specific dog has the 'job' of being calm and friendly can be a help! :-)
(By the way-- I love following your blog, Cathleen raves so much about your parenting and your girls are lovely!)