Excepting Lorien, my kids loooooove animals. Wyatt asks frequently "Can we have a dog?" Clare jumps out of her skin with joy when she sees a cat, dog, bird or squirrel cross her path. Both Wyatt and Clare are never shy around animals, walking up to any four-legged creature to say "Hi!", pat it and if possible, give it some loves. I am more on Lorien's level when it comes to the other inhabitants of the planet. Lorien freezes in her tracks and starts to cry if a dog comes into view. To calm her down once I told her that she was very brave around dogs. When I was a kid, if I saw a dog I would climb up on top of some one's head to get away. (True stuff, ask my brothers, sisters and friends whose necks I nearly snapped in my dog-induced freak-outs). I know a lot of people who derive deep satisfaction from a special relationship with their pets. And I am happy for them, really I think its great. I, however, have never had the desire to befriend any creature other than humans (and even those can be pretty unpleasant at times). While these days those standing around me are fairly safe from the possibility of me jumping up on their shoulders and clawing my way up to their head if a dog comes around, I am no where near trotting off to the pet store to pick out the next brown-eyed, furry member of our family. Sorry kids!
Today was another day of rain, rain, rain. Lorien really loves the rain. Even if it is freezing cold she cannot wait to jump in the puddles. Our house is at the bottom of a hill so our yard is always full of puddles. This afternoon the rain was coming down in heavy sheets but the sun was shining. We could look up in the sky and see parts of the sky covered in heavy clouds and parts where the sky was clear, it was neat.
Grab yourself a bottle of warm milk, some Teletubbies on TV, plenty of pillows to support a lounging toddler and you've got about 25 minutes of peace and quite to get some thing done.
Growing up in Maine winters were freezing cold and snowy. By spring the snow had stopped falling and what was left on the ground turned into a giant block of ice. Slowly the sun would warm the ice, breaking it up with small streams running to big puddles at the end of the yard. My brothers and sisters and I would make boats out of Cool whip lids and sticks and sail them down the streams.
Winters in California are a little different. For months on end the sky opens up and rain pelts down day and night. This winter has been fantastically rainy, Lorien and Wyatt have loved every minute of it. A few days ago we decided to go sailing. I cut up empty milk jugs and the kids made sails with blue paper. Lorien and Wyatt had a great time running down the side walk (through shin deep puddles) after their sail boats. It was freezing and raining cats and dogs but it was great!
