I love peonies. Our light pink blossoms opened last weekend and I’m enjoying freshly cut flowers indoors right now. I’m slightly entranced by the layers and layers of petals; they remind of extravagant princess/ballerina costumes with a bit of sweetened scent thrown in for good measure.

In St. Louis, Jeremy and I were leaving a friend’s home when I stopped at the front stoop and exclaimed to her, “Are those your peonies I smell?!!” Jeremy, not knowing I was referring to flowers misinterpreted things a bit and thought I was inquiring about underwear. He about dropped dead in shock. I still laugh about it today.

Peonies, peonies, peonies. If they held their heads upright instead of dragging on the ground, I just might think of them as the perfect flower.

The garden produced a radish. I was pretty excited and then surprised myself by how much I enjoyed photographing the sole veggie the garden has produced (so far). Jeremy and I split the radish. It was spicy.

Shiloh visited the vet’s office for some vaccinations. During some sort of fecal, er, retrieval, I was reminded why I didn’t want to be a veterinarian: Shiloh’s pathetic puppy cries from the backroom were hard for me to hear.

Mom took Liv for the afternoon and gave me some delightful rest.

While Mom had Liv, Jeremy had a kidney stone. Still has it, as far as we know. A visited to LincCare confirmed the little bugger and at the moment, Jeremy is managing the pain. We appreciate prayers for the stone to pass quickly.

We’re moving on to watch a little Deadliest Catch now that Livia is asleep. ‘Night, y’all.

Our little pup is doing great. He’s seriously the cutest thing ever and adds a new dimension of fun to our home. Recently a friend asked how we’re doing with the dog—and I told her that the dog is far easier than the child! He doesn’t talk back. We can put him in his kennel when he has a potty accident or the when the chaos is getting to me. We don’t have to worry about whether he gets enough fruits and vegetables each day. Etc, etc.

I don’t know if all Cotons are like Shiloh—surely some in his breed aren’t as delightful as he is—but overall, this little pooch is remarkably easy-going. He is quick to learn and is doing really well with potty-training. He likes to be part of the “pack” and will either sleep or work on a chew toy right by our feet. He’s not a lap dog, but being close to our legs satisfies him. He loves people, so much so that I have to keep him away from joggers and school kids so he doesn’t go home with them. Still in the puppy stage, Shiloh definitely nips with us a lot. But even then, we find that he responds well to a sharp “No!” The hardest thing is training Livia to understand that a playing puppy means a biting puppy. Liv moves quickly from playing hard with him (wrestling, she calls it) to shrieking in pain from a particularly sharp chomp. It seems like we have to separate them like a parent would any two children. “You, on the couch! You, in the kennel!” Okay, so it’s not really like two children.

At a doctor’s appointment yesterday, Liv was asked if she had any brothers or sisters. (My not-so-favorite line of questioning, as I recently shared.) She said, “I have a baby dog. A baby BROTHER dog!” I had to smile.

Wow. So apparently that mommy robin picked a decent spot for her eggs. Look at these kinda-ugly-but-still-precious baby birds! I love how one’s wing is tucked over the other one. Is he keeping the other warm? Or is it a brotherly headlock at a young age? Whatever it is, I’m loving the peeks into their nest and the photo opp it affords me each time. Our own back porch nest has two babies as well. God bless spring. And God bless mothers everywhere today.

Happy birthday, dear Livia! Happy birthday to you! May you always love small creatures, chocolate, your parents and Jesus (not in that order). We love you dearly, big five year old.

Hard to believe you were this small at one time. I’ve been getting teary today thinking of how blessed I am to be your mom. God gave us a huge task when he called us to be a family—He is good and has sustained us through the last five years of you!

We’ll love you forever and ever, Livia Raine. Happy birthday.

Love,
Mommy

Aren’t these eggs beautiful? They may remain eggs forever as their mother picked a very public spot for her nest and is forever flying away to avoid dogs and people and loud cars. I appreciate this location, however, because I can easily snap photos of these sweet robin eggs.

Now if only our neighborhood robins would quit singing loudly at 4:00am we might enjoy their presence a bit more…

Getting a puppy feels similar to adding a baby to our home. The dishes have piled up on the counter (even though my mom has washed them several times for me), the beds are unmade, toys are left all over the floor. But as with human babies, dog babies are freakishly adorable. And our pup is no exception. Shiloh’s sweet puppy face and silly puppy antics make up for the discomfort of disrupted routines and lack of housekeeping. He’s just so darn cute.

Liv is the kind of kid who chooses to play with pets over other kids. We’ll go to someone’s house to play and if she spies a cat or dog, forget her little buddies! It’s all about the furry creatures. Needless to say, she’s been asking to be a “pet owner” for a l-o-n-g time.

So we decided to get her a small critter for her birthday.

And after rotating through everything from Madagascar hissing cockroaches to rats, we settled on… a dog. We had two specifications in mind. 1) The dog had to be kid-friendly because s/he was going to get a lot of loving from an almost-five year old. 2) The dog needed to be as hypoallergenic as possible since several family members are allergic to pet dander.

Details of our plan fell together quickly this last week and it all culminated in a roadtrip yesterday to pick up our 10 week old Coton de Tulear named Shiloh. We told Livia that Daddy had the day off and we were planning to have a picnic and a few adventures. Halfway through our drive we handed her an early birthday gift. Here is her response:

Now taking it all in…

Sheer delight.

And finally, a Mommy-induced pose.