how i spent my morning...

while Quincy was at Playcentre...

I could've used those precious few hours* to clean the house. I could've prepared dinner. I could've done some major organizing in closets, the garage, and in my craft room. I could've listed some furniture on Trade Me. I could've caught up on (gasp) 5 months of Project 365.

Nope. That stuff can continue to wait. Besides there were leftover black beans in the fridge.

So instead of tackling things on my growing to-do list, I took a long overdue, relaxing, off-lead walk with the dogs. Just me and the hounds. Like old times. The dogs happily set the pace, instead of a certain curious someone who likes to make lots of pit stops. Don't get me wrong, these two noses on legs make their fair share of stops, but today everything was on their terms for a change.

It's pretty rare these days for the dogs, i.e. the dogs minus their 3-year-old human brother, to be my sole photographic subjects.

After the last post, Kai was keen for me to show off her fancy fetch moves. That girl's got some serious skills.

Did I mention the walk was windy?

Here is the ferry that travels between the North and South Islands. [Quincy is desperate to take our car on it and travel around the South Island picking apples(???).] I love the snow-capped mountains on the South Island in the background.

By 5 o'clock, with the laundry thankfully dry and folded inside, the gorgeous blue sky was replaced by a very rare thunder and lightning storm accompanied by hail. Ahhh, spring in Wellington.

Footnotes & Asides

*Actually, "precious" is an understatement as they only come around once a week.

An aside...In the car on the way to dropping the boy off this morning, he said, "You're dropping me off. And then at the end you'll come back and pick me up. That's what Playcentre is all about." I couldn't help but reply, "Amen, brother!"

an overdose of dog: a photostory

What have the resident beagles been up to this summer?

Catching up on some light reading,

and playing boardgames.

Dealing with a two-and-a-half-year-old human

and his occasional rough love.

But at the same time,

revelling in the companionship of said two-and-a-half-year-old.

Receiving some parental affection of the more predictable variety.

Lurking, stalking,

and ready to pounce at mealtimes.

Taking walks with the fam.

Lying in the sun

and then finding places to cool off,

but preferrably not in the pool.

Running on the beach

and getting wet + dirty.

Getting into trouble

and going to time out. Should the punishment be based on the human or canine clock?

And waiting.

Lots and

lots of waiting.

So, yep, they're around. They're always around.

Summer. Finally.

Nothing says summer like board shorts, a singlet, jandals, a matching pair of skinned knees, and an ice cream cone.

We all hope it'll stay a while.

And now those three are fast asleep, dreaming of their romp in the sea.

missing you already

As happy as we are to be here, we already miss these three...

sunshine

Even though spring came early this year, it couldn't have come soon enough, and now we can't seem to get enough of the sun. It has even found its way onto a layout!

Today Q's fever finally broke and we packed a picnic lunch and walked down to the beach. First time since the weather has warmed up. I was not expecting it to be warm enough for him to wind up barefoot and pantless. It almost felt like summer.

Whining seemed to be much of the day's soundtrack, Q seemed to be moving in reverse, and he wanted to bring everything and carry nothing. But he more than made up for it this evening with this heart-melting moment...He was riding his little bike in the kitchen while I sorted dinner. Suddenly he hopped off and ran to me, while calling out "Mama, mama, I love you." It was the first time he used my name and the I and it couldn't have come at a better time.

I hope I remember how I felt in that moment forever.

taking over the driver's seat

No matter where we've been, Quincy loves returning home. As soon as we pull into the garage, he is chompin' at the bit, desperate to get out of his seat and jump into the driver's seat.

He likes it best when the dogs and I are his passengers.

I'm not sure if the feeling is mutual.

At the moment, the most popular destinations are the zoo, the museum, or Staglands.

It brings back sweet memories of my dad's 1950s black Oldsmobile. I loved stealing away to the garage and pretending I had my driver's license. Or hopping in the back seat pretending I was someplace exotic and it was a taxi. Or imagining I was at the drive-in watching Footloose.

Anyway, no matter how long I let him stay in his driving fantasy land, it ends in protests, and more often than not, a few short-lived tears.

And now everytime I get in the car I have to figure out how to turn off that bloody rear windshield wiper.

mittens

Q: Kai, want to see my mittens?

Kai: sniff. sniff.

Q: Beekey, want to see my mittens?

Berkley: Lick. Lick.

meet kai, our little food hound

There is no doubt about it, Kai lives for food. And for pets under her chin, but that's beside the point.

Kai is not ashamed of her love of food. When the container comes out, she jumps with glee. Over and over again. Ga donk. Ga donk. Ga donk. Each time getting a bit higher, until she gently nips your elbow as you are pouring the kibble into her bowl.

Except when there are visitors, she gets embarrassed. She can't help but jump a bit, but she tries her best to keep it low key.

Kai is a Maori word. Translation...food.

our imperfect dogs & an unpleasant woman

Our dogs are not perfect. I am reminded of that fact when someone comes to the door. I am reminded of it when they bark at the neighbour's dog. I am reminded of it when they swipe food from Quincy.

And this morning I was reminded of it by a rather unfriendly woman at the dog park. She is a dog walker and had two large boxers with her. She yelled at my dogs for being, well, for being dogs. Then she said to them quite gruffly, as if they understand English, "Come on, let's not make this personal." Well, whenever we see these two dogs when we are out walking, they bound up to our dogs. They even come up to our open car door, which is pretty unpopular with Kai. I must say, they aren't very fond of them and they have tried to tell them off, as dogs do, on more than one occasion. So unbeknownst to her they have history, and maybe for the dogs it is personal.

This morning my dogs had been playing nicely and uncharacteristically quietly for 30 minutes with a large pack of dogs before this woman turned up. You know, not all people get along, in fact, I don't like this woman, so why should we expect all dogs to be best mates?

Maybe I should add that Kai was attacked last year by a large, brown, muscular dog. It was completely unprovoked. Jeremy was walking the dogs on the footpath and this tied up dog just lunged at her. It wasn't a boxer, but ever since she has taken a disliking to many other dogs that fit that description, including a lot of boxers. She was already slightly timid, but that incident unfortunately has made her more suspicious of certain other dogs. When she's off the lead though, she is generally fine because she is able to remove herself from the situation. But some dogs don't pick up on her signals and follow her and continue to sniff her bum. Unrelentlessly. Let's just say, she's not overly keen on that. Can you blame her?

spying & evidence

I love seeing what he is up to while he thinks I am in the shower.

And a little bit of evidence that a toddler does indeed live here:

our famous pups

Well, the show is behind us and the humans were thankfully upstaged by the cute canines. I just hope it doesn't go to their heads.

In the green room with the slightly kooky host...

And on set...

Q's reaction to seeing us on TV...

A few shots of the TV since my fam can't watch. (Because of licensing issues, it is only possible to view the segment on their site if you live in NZ.)

I swear I'm not wearing shoulder pads! I know I have broad shoulders, but...

Oh and Q did more than okay with the babysitter. Not only did he not notice when I left, but he also didn't notice when I returned.