Still, Alex has wanted a dog for the last few years and Luc has been eager for any kind of pet. Jared and I had discussed getting a dog at some unspecified point in the future and determined to get a poodle or a poodle cross. We wanted an intelligent dog that didn’t shed. Purebred poodles can be quite expensive, as are the popular poodle crosses like the labradoodle and the golden-doodle. We figured it would be several years before we could afford one.

Last week I got a phone call from my MIL and she told us that some friends knew a breeder who was giving away the last pup from a pair of labradoodle litters. We expressed our interest but didn’t hear back from the breeder until Friday. That afternoon we went and picked up “Rudy” – Alex named him after a character from Ice Age 2, I think. He is about 11 weeks old, calm and agreeable, and very cute. Since he’s very black it has been difficult to get a good picture of him. We haven’t had nice sunny weather to pose him in, but here are a few shots anyway:

They are learning to identify letters, numbers, colors, and shapes; practicing their paintbrush, marker, and crayon handling skills; listening to longer stories; and memorizing the Westminster Shorter Catechism. We’ve played with beads and pipe cleaners, cornstarch slime, and modeling clay.

The three of them have very different strengths and it has been interesting to see them interact with each other and the materials. I’m afraid that I find teaching little people somewhat less stimulating than teaching bigger people, but fortunately I love these little people a lot! If any of my readers have experience teaching small ones, I would  be very open to suggestions. We are on a pretty tight budget so inexpensive materials are a must. Anyone know good websites with ideas? A good book or twelve (we will spend money on books!)?

Ideas?

I did read. Quite a little bit. And that was lovely. I started and finished Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers which was quite good. Since he published 62 novels, I feel confident that I shan’t run out of good books soon. I also read all of Will Bagley’s academic treatment of the Mountain Meadow’s Massacre; Blood of the Prophets and found it fascinating and informative. And finally I picked up a little paperback of Eats Shoots & Leaves and fell happily in love with it’s very English author, who’s name escapes me (she won’t be offended right?).

It felt like 2008 with so many good books lined up and waiting and such concentration on reading. I didn’t get Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy started or Kipling’s Poems finished but will be done soon.

Now here are some photos mostly from the few times the sun was out.

A few weeks ago, I decided to pick up Typee which I own in a nice slipcase edition. It is a fictionalized account of Melville’s own experiences among the Typee people and I find it fascinating that his own life contained such interesting, risky, and exciting adventures. The book was thoroughly enjoyable, easy to read and full of interesting anthropological sidelights. Highly recommended!

The following picture illustrates what happens when the mom is a bookish sort who likes to get away of an evening for a little quiet reading and writing and dad makes and serves dinner…

Yep. Naked babies. Eating spaghetti. From the pot. On the patio. Sigh…

For those of you who read here and don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I just wanted to let you know that Alex’s eye surgery went well yesterday. It was a long and difficult day but already today Alex is feeling just fine and seems to be out of pain. We won’t know about the effectiveness of the surgery for awhile but things look good.

Going all morning without food or drink was difficult for him (and us) and coming out of the anesthesia was pretty rough. Surprisingly, one of the hardest things was separating him from Luc. We dropped Luc off at a friends house and when Alex realized he wasn’t with us he flipped out. We managed to calm him down but I felt really badly for not explaining it to him beforehand. Sometimes I forget how much he can understand! Yesterday evening he alternated between being awake and fussy and sleeping deeply on my lap. Around eight last night a dear friend brought Alex his first toy backhoe (one of his favorite things in the world!) and that was a real turning point. He got distracted and played happily until he fell asleep around nine. He slept all night (what a blessing) and woke up in a good mood and seeming pain-free. We have to stay inside all day to help keep his eyes uninfected but he and Luc are just happy to be playing together again.

Jared was out of town for seven days and six nights. It was awful. That’s the longest we’ve ever been apart and aside from missing his help with our boys, I just flat out missed him so much. We’re not planning on letting that happen again anytime soon. Even though he’s been home for two days, I’m still just barely recovering from being apart for so long.

While he was gone, I sent him lots of photos of our boys, which I will now share with you. Here is Alex helping me make scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Here is Luc just saying “hi” and me looking a little scrawny and with wrinkly-old-lady eyes (it was late at night…).

And here is another of Alex sporting a big grin.

Speaking of Alex…his eye surgery is scheduled for May 4th. All thoughts and prayers would be much appreciated. It looks like it is going to cost us around $8,000 for them to uncross his eyes. I’m so grateful to live in a day and an age when the technology and the knowledge is available to do this but am also (understandably) nervous about my sweet little two-year-old going under general anesthesia and the knife. And not to be crass and greedy or anything but this might be a good time to remind you that if you make your Amazon purchases (of anything) through my store then I get a few bucks which helps us out (and doesn’t cost you any extra).

Yes. Those are my babies. In their pajamas. Eating a tub of leftover brownies for breakfast. They are homemade if that helps.

Alex turned two on Thursday (I almost forgot) and we had a fun little birthday party for him on Saturday. The whole Luc birthday – Christmas – New Year’s – Alex birthday thing might get crazy some years but it really just makes me happy that we have so many reasons to celebrate.

In home and family news, we have Lucius Colby Patchin growing and changing every day. He is so cute…and I don’t just say that because he looks like me. He now loves to turn light switches on and off, push the empty laundry basket around, ask for jelly beans and do anything his big brother is doing. And Alex is becoming more and more articulate. He still doesn’t speak much but I’m still eagerly awaiting the day he does.

I’ve been trying different strategies for getting some writing done. I take ten minute breaks during the normal day routine and do freewriting excercises to get the juices flowing. Then, when the boys are napping or in bed I can take those ideas and shape them into something more. At least that’s the theory, I don’t have much of a track record yet.

I finished P.G. Wodehouse’s Joy in the Morning last night and, naturally, enjoyed it completely. Jeeves was at his inimitable best and dear Bertram got to pose as a burglar and a policeman. The perilous engagment was deftly avoided and all is well again. My only complaint with the book (and it is true of all of the Jeeves and Wooster stories) is that while the world the characters inhabit is definitley Edwardian, the contemporary references are not. This is occasionally jarring but still a minor quibble.

Alex now says “Daddy” “Owie” and, every toddler’s favorite, “No”. He is also a big fan of “Bee” and “Lion”. I’m still eagerly awaiting fluency.

I’ve gotten a decent reading list together over on the “2009″ page. I will keep adding to it as I stumble across things I want to read but I don’t intend to add anything without seriously meaning to read it this year so at some point I’ll have to stop adding titles. Please feel free to add suggestions in the comments over there.

Does anyone think it is possible to write 2000 (coherent) words a day?

Also, my bookclub will be reading Winifred Watson’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and meeting Thursday January 29th. Let me know if you would like to join us. My email is akpatchin (at) gmail.com