Why buy toys?

This week, for several reasons, I have been wondering why we buy our kids toys. The first reason, every time I look at where a toy is made it says "Made in China." So am I letting my baby chew on a toy made with lead based paint or filled with antifreeze? What happen to regulations and protecting our children? It seems each day I hear about another recall on some toy or another. Just try and go through Target and find toys that say"Made in the USA."

Second, Brady prefers not to play with toys. Lately it has been the pots and pans, any shoe he can find (of course they are dirty), the plants, a spatula or wooden spoon and the phone. Oh yes, and the TV remote which we just got dried out after he thought it needed a good washing in the dog water dish. Maybe we have outsmarted him by giving him his own, not the lead filled kids version, but rather a remote from an old TV and a phone that no longer works. I am sure he will figure out pretty soon that these do not work and want the real version again.

Thank goodness Brady has no desire to watch TV, that is unless a commercial with music comes on. He pretty much drops what he is doing turns to the TV and does his little dance. It is so comical and cute. Then it is back to playing when it is over.

We are suppose to be starting the rainy season here in the pacific northwest. So if you have any sunshine pictures send them our way.

Hope all are well and until next time.....

Brady continues to amaze me.

It seems as though most of my posts are about Brady, I guess since I am home with him all of the time now that it just makes sense. He amazes me more and more each day. I have decided though that he has his Father's temper and stubbornness. When he wants something, he wants it now, there is not a patient bone in the little guys body. He also loves to play really rough, gentle has not yet entered into his vocabulary, I am sure that is from wrestling with his Dad. He is now called "Bam Bam" by the other mommies in my mommy group. If there is something he wants he goes straight to it, who cares what or who is in the way, he will crawl right over it.

The other day I was watching him play, he dropped the sippy cup in to his toy bucket. He could not quite reach it as it is pretty deep. I wanted to see if he would figure out how to get it or just move onto another toy. He was determined to get it, he rolled his dump truck over to the bucket turned it on its side and stood up on it to reach into the bucket to get the cup. He then got down, sat on the truck and took a drink. These are the times I wish I had the video camera rolling.

Life for us is slowly getting back to normal after losing Happy. I still expect to see her coming around a corner or getting me up to go out in the morning. She was such a special dog to us and we miss her greatly.

Hope all is well with everyone and until next time...

Losing Happy

So as most of you know, we love our animals in our house. Sadly, this week we had to put Happy to sleep so we are dealing with the loss. Happy was our 7 year old black lab who, if you knew her, you would wonder is there a better behaved dog? Never once did we have to worry about Happy running away or hurting anyone. She was always eager to please and willing to do anything. She was great with Brady and my walking buddy. She would often come into the bathroom on cold winter mornings while I was drying my hair to have hers warmed up too. She loved to play ball, Jamie could throw the ball forever and she would always go and get it and want to play more. If there was a ball in the pool, she would be in after it. She loved to ride in the car, her spot was the front seat next to me while I was driving, on cold days she would even have the seat heater turned on for her. Her tail was always going.

Happy started feeling poorly in early July, she was diagnosed with diabetes at that time. She endured daily insulin injections, she would come to me right after eating sit and wait for her injection, never flinching and wagging her tail the whole time. About 2 weeks ago, she really started feeling bad, lethergic and not wanting to eat at all. We took her to the vet and had multiple tests done and had her hospitalized to keep her hydrated while we tried to figure out what was wrong. Tuesday during an ultrasound it was determined that she had pancreatic cancer that had most likely spread to her liver and lungs and was infecting her lymphnodes. She was also starting to bleed internally. So as every pet owner hates to do, we had to make the decision to put her to sleep.

We are trying to adjust to living without Happy, Dexter often looks around for her and I know he misses her too. We miss our little girl, but know she is no longer in pain and running after a ball somewhere!

If you have a pet, love them and give them a hug.