We are the crazy neighbors

Yesterday afternoon Maya & I took Parker to the dog park.  We marveled at the tree limbs that came down during the hurricane (I tweeted one of these pics yesterday, so if you follow me on Twitter @UncommonBlogger it probably looks familiar):

Dave met us there after work, and after leaving the park we decided to divide and conquer---- I took Maya to the grocery store and he took Parker to go pick up a pizza (BBQ chicken, my favorite).  We met again outside of our building and clumsily loaded into the elevator---Dave, Maya, me, Parker, a few bags of groceries, a pizza, and Dave's bags from school.   We got to our floor, and in the door, and I busied myself in putting away the groceries while Dave got Maya into her seat for dinner.  Pizza & salad served, we were sitting and eating and talking . . . . and then the doorbell rang.

We exchanged puzzled glances and Dave got up to open the door . . . I was ready to hear our across-the-hall neighbors scold us (once again) for leaving our keys in the door (which I do about once a month, and I feel like an idiot every time). 

As it turned out, this time we didn't forget our keys.



We forgot our dog.



Oops.


The door opened and Parker wandered in (with his leash still on) and the neighbor had a confused conversation with Dave (who was equally confused).  In my Parker training, I taught him not to bound through doorways (which is important, since I usually walk him and the stroller together, and I don't want to get pulled around).  I guess in our confusion, neither one of us noticed that Parker was sitting and waiting for us to say "Ok, come on in, Parker".  

The neighbor told us that he was just sitting by the elevator.  She got out and he looked at her and kept waiting, and she thought maybe she should bring him to us and see what's going on.

After she left, Dave said "Seriously, what would we think if we had neighbors who regularly left their keys in the door, and then one night we came home to see their pet roaming the hallway?  We would think that they were totally nuts.  They would be 'the crazy neighbors'."

So, I guess that's us. 

Sorry, Parker.

Winners, a loser, and Twitter

Winners:  Dave, Maya & I had a great weekend :)

1.  Lots of playground time, some dog park time, general happiness and soaking-in-the-sunshine:

I love to climb so high . . . and Daddy's a great spotter. 

 I made it to the top!

Blowin' kisses to Mommy on the ground

We've taken to sitting anywhere.  Right in the middle of the action for a milk break?  No problem.  It's kind of strangely liberating to just sit right down wherever you please.

2.  We went to a birthday party today and Maya got to wear a dress!  Of course, this is not her first time ever wearing a dress, but it kind of was the first time that she really got to wear a dress.  Before, she wore dresses to events that either a) would have her in our arms/in a highchair the whole time (like out to dinner at a restaurant)  or b) would be in a safe enough place that we could tuck the dress into her diaper cover and let her crawl around like that.  But now she's walking!  And she can wear a dress to a party and walk around in it.  Pretty amazing (and pretty adorable, too).

It doesn't get any sweeter than this, does it?

Loser:  Parker did not have the best weekend.

A totally accidental dog park incident left him cut up.  And now until the skin heals he remains banished from the dog park (since I don't want any dirt to get in the wound).  Good news is that it's healing very quickly.  Poor dude.

Ouch.  Parker, by the way, is still obviously crazy about the ramp.

Twitter?

Since the whole Kristi Yamaguchi twitter thing, I've been wondering what the deal is with twitter.  Then someone asked me last week if I'm on twitter.  Truth be told, I'm not even sure if I should be capitalizing Twitter . . . I'm not twitterliterate (twitterate?).  But it got me curious about who reads here and is into Twitter----please take a moment and cast a vote in the new poll (upper left corner).  Thanks!

PS.  If you didn't see the Helen Keller video that I posted on the blog's Facebook page, you have to go check it out.  It's totally amazing and inspiring!

Show and tell

Maya wants to show you . . . . . . .that she is not to be underestimated :)

She was eating a waffle and looking at a zoo book.  I randomly started asking her to point to animals and was floored to see how many she knows.  When did she learn these things?




Ironically, her psych evaluation says that her receptive language---words she understands---  is actually less than her expressive language---words she can say.  She can only kind of say 1 word (bye bye- "ba ba") . . . so we can infer what they're implying about her receptive abilities.  Take that, psychologist-who-was-late-and-not-engaging-at-all.  (Oh, and her special instructor knows all of the names of the Little People---the only one that I know is Maggie)

Parker wants to show you . . . his new shoes.

(How embarrassing)

They're for function, not fashion. He was so psyched to have his stitches out (post-neuter) and be free to run, but quickly cut open 2 of his paw pads on ice :( So now he has rubber booties to protect his feet.

And, just for fun, here's some video of Parker running at the dog park this morning :)
(If you watch closely, at 0:05 and 0:21 you can see my boot pop into the screen as I kick the ball. I am a master high-kicker.)



(As always, if you don't see the videos, just click the play buttons and they will appear)

Park, Dog Park, and Parker the dog

Mommy & Maya wear hats:                                       This is MY DOGGIE!!!

Sometimes I get to ride Parker . . . *

But he's so slippery!

And he's learning tricks, too:

*Disclaimer: We do not actually let Maya ride Parker.  Her entire body weight was being supported by me at all times :)