Skip to main content

Dog Days

Mouse the dog is living with us this week while my inlaws are out of town. She's been good, mostly. The funny thing is, I keep slipping and almost calling her "Finn" -- but only when I'm about to reprimand her. "No jumping, Finn...Mouse!" And so on.

I remember doing the same thing when Phoebe was first born. The only time I called my new baby "Mallory" was when I was at the end of my rope. "Please go to sleep, Mal...Phoebe." And so on.

I'm not sure what that means, really. I will say that I miss Finn, and when I see the girls walking off into the school building together I miss my babies. But I'm also very glad to live most of the time in a dogless, babyless house.

Comments

aimee said…
I do that all the time with Rhett and Noah. I feel bad doing it but I can't seem to stop myself.
Chris said…
Amen to that...Mouse is a sweet dog, but I'm glad she lives at my folk's house.

Popular posts from this blog

Merry Christmas to Joey, too!

Scene: After the Christmas pageant. Me: You did great, Mallory, we're proud of you! Mallory: What was your favorite part? Me: Hmm. I liked the "Whatcha Gonna Call That Baby?" song. Chris: I liked that one too. Me: But I also liked "Joy to the World." Mallory: Joey in the world? What's that? Me: No, joy to the world, the song you just sang. Mallory: Oh yeah. Me: That's one of my favorite songs. Phoebe: A favorite song is a song that's your favorite and you like it and you sing. (Pause) Phoebe: And you dance. Mallory, before the show, in front of our haphazardly decorated Christmas tree. Phoebe declined to be photographed. All I was able to photograph of the event itself: Phoebe, objecting to the camera's flash: Now she closes her eyes before I snap every picture. Sigh. But she's cute anyway! And so is Mallory! And their dresses match! We're thinking Arby's: Okay, that's it! Recently read: The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife . ...

Things You May Not Have Known

The scene: Last night, bedtime. Phoebe: Mommy, are there monsters? Me: No, no monsters. Pho: There are no blue monsters to scare me? Me: No, there are no monsters here at all. Mallory: Phoebe, monsters aren't real. They're like vampires and unicorns and other things that aren't real. Pho: Oh! Mal: Mommy, what other things aren't real? Me: Um, dragons. Mal: Yeah. What else? Me: Dinosaurs. Mal: Dinosaurs are real! Me: Well, you're right. They used to be real, but there are no live dinosaurs now. Mal: I know what happened to them. Me: You do? Mal: Yeah! A big planet came and crushed them and they all ran away because they were scared and they died. Me: Hm. Mal: Is that right? Me: No one knows for sure, but yes, many people believe that an asteroid, which is a big big big big rock from outer space, crashed into the earth and changed the weather so much that the dinosaur's food couldn't grow, and so the dinosaurs died. Mal: Yeah, because if you don't have any...

Little sisters

Mallory was invited for a sleepover tonight; this morning, as she was packing her suitcase, Phoebe came in and said, "Me too!" When Chris found her suitcase, and gently told her that she wasn't invited to the sleepover, she cried for an hour. I think I'll always have a special sort of sympathy for Phoebe, my second child, because I was the second child too*. (And it's odd, because although I have younger siblings as well, I always think of myself as a little sister, or as the younger older sister, if that makes sense. I think that's because Jana, my big sister, was so good at being the oldest, responsible and, uh, authoritarian, and I am, well, fundamentally irresponsible. We all bowed to her! In a good way. I could never live up to that.) I often feel sorry for Phoebe, left behind while Mallory goes to school all day, because I well remember the long, lonely boring days I spent waiting for Jana to come home from school (not counting the days I spent playing i...