privacy and other ramblings

Have you ever had to resort to pretending like you had to use the bathroom just to get a little bit of peace and quiet?

It's devious, I know, but I've done it. So has my husband. He denies it, but I know he's sitting in there reading a magazine way past the time he's done with his business. I know because that's what I've been doing.

Sometimes I'll flush, so it sounds like I actually used the bathroom for its intended purpose and not as an escape hatch, but more and more often lately I don't even bother. He knows what I'm doing - why be coy?

Drew is becoming increasingly independent.

It's great when he can amuse himself without too much intervention from us, it's great when he can walk by himself when my hands are full and it's really great that he can feed himself.

It's not great when he decides that, because he can walk by himself, he should walk by himself...all the time. He should never ever be carried or placed in a stroller or a grocery cart. Sure, he walks fine, but the tiniest pebble or the skinniest crack can pose problems for his as-yet not-fully-developed sense of balance.

On one hand, I want to encourage his independence, but on the other hand, I don't want to spend four and a half hours in the grocery store.

His newest phrase (yes, he's using phrases now!) is "All gone", which he uses to mean either "Give me more" or "Stop force-feeding me, I'm done eating this swill you call dinner." Obviously it's quite a trick figuring out which one he means.

This weekend, I'm heading off to Gatlinburg with my friend Nan - we're attending a greyhound festival called Mountain Hounds.

I've been trying to fatten up my greyhound Simon, who is about five pounds underweight, by feeding him more table scraps and a whole bunch of peanut butter. (Gee, I wish I had his problems.)

I think it's working, but it's hard to tell since I see him every day. All I know is, the first person who implies that I'm not taking care of him because he's so skinny is going to get a kick in the teeth.
You try fattening up a dog who won't even eat peanut butter. What kind of animal doesn't like peanut butter? It's peanutty, it's buttery...it's delicious! It's very refreshing! (bonus points if you can guess which TV show I'm paraphrasing there - no, Charles, you don't get to play.)

And a final question - anybody have any advice on how to get Drew to stop trying to use the cat as a pillow? It doesn't help that our cat is so stupid he can't figure out how to run away from Drew. We'll pull Drew off of him, and the dumb feline just sits there, yowling.

Charles and I are both like, "Run, stupid cat, run" and the cat's like..."Wha...?" and by that time, Drew has managed to escape and sit on him again.

I think the cat secretly enjoys the attention. Maybe he's a masochist.

Comments

[ebeth]

Amy - can you drop me an email? blackberry@elizabethdunne.com