Chloe, a picture taken at the animal shelter before we took her home. She's just a tad excited. 

Our New Family Member!

Yea! We finally found the perfect dog. :) She is a 3 year old, female, Brittany (Spaniel). I attached the picture they took at the shelter for the Brittany Rescue Website. I've been finding out alot about this breed, and theyre called the 'weekend hunter' because they hunt but they dont mind sitting around the house relaxing either. This dog is a pointer/retriever dog and she points at everything squirrels and birds. She's really good though and comes when I call her. I guess her original owner was a hunter and trained her but she didnt have the 'drive' so he gave her to a friend, she lived in a trailer park and couldnt keep her so she ended up at the animal shelter. She got adopted once and was actually taken to Huntington Beach for 2 weeks, but the landlord there wouldnt let her keep Chloe. So, we got her after being back at the shelter for less than 24 hours. I went by myself and just looked at her and knew she was a good dog. Her eyes are so gentle and loving, that's what drew me to her. She is turning out to be a wonderful dog, and great with the boys. She's very patient with them and just wags her stubby tail. I guess there's AKC registration papers that exist for her somewhere too, and I'm going to try and see if I can get ahold of them. I know her breed needs to stay active so I'm thinking of taking up a dog sport with her to keep her busy. Perhaps agility or flyball, which both I've heard this breed is good at. Flyball sounds kinda fun, like a relay race where they run down and have to catch a ball in the air then run back and let another dog of their team go. She's doing great and has adapted very well. Even the vet was commenting on how well mannered she was for her breed, and for being new from the shelter.

First off, Darien had his first speech therapy session last friday. It went really well and he really enjoys his new therapist. She is really nice. So, he'll be going every friday for a half an hour session.
We signed D up for T-ball. He is very excited. Mark is just a tad excited too. We went to Copeland's in SLO last weekend. We got him a cute little glove. Mark also wanted to get him a baseball shirt to go under his team shirt and the nifty little baseball pants, and the silly little socks with a stripe of course too. We're supposed to hear from his coach in a week, after teams are picked. Then we'll have practices until the season begins March 10th or thereabouts. Darien actually woke up early one morning crying, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said he had a bad dream where a teacher wouldn't let him play T-ball and he was really upset about it. He's a rather sensitive little guy, but he is very excited about being involved.
Jon has been thriving, and growing very quick and becoming more independent. He's saying a few more words, including 'dont' 'mama' 'mine' and 'owe'(as in 'ouch'). He also has now figuered out shaking his head means no, so he does that Alot. He loves to help just like his big brother and insists on carrying his dishes to the kitchen (which we've been having D do as his 'chore'.) He also refuses to drink out of sippie cups and throws them on the ground. So he drinks out of mugs and eats completely on his own.
D was having troubles taking baths. He says he doesnt like water and so on. We have been coaxing him by showing him fun boats to play with and finally he's interested. I bought him a pirate boat (and Jon a school bus) that is made for the bath and the boys now look forward to bath time. D is really scared of water, just like I was. This summer we are definetly going to get the boys in swimming classes. Jon absolutely loves water too, now when he takes a bath he likes to lay on his stomach and put his face in the water for a second, the he lifts himself up and laughs and giggles. It's adorable watching him. Not fun dressing him though, definetly not my favorite time. He squirms and runs away and kicks so much, often when I'm done I feel worn out and tired, like a played a game of football or something. He's a tough little cookie, much more agressive and rough than D ever was. But, they are very opposite and I love them both very much, especially as them being their own independent people.

D's new speech therapy

Darien has met with the speech therapist at the Elementary school twice. Last Friday Mark and I went in, along with 2 of Darien's teachers, to meet with the speech therapist and find out her evaluation.
He will then be having speech therapy once a week. His basic problems are now that he drops sounds and sometimes whole syllabus at the end and middle of words. He's getting better and trying really hard though. I have a trial game of reader rabbit phonics on the computer and he was practising saying words really well.
Last weekend was one of Darien's friends 5th Bday party at the park. It was lots of fun. Darien was hitting the pinata really good and making me proud. This thursday is sign ups for T-ball, and we're going to take D and see if he's intereseted. He has at least one friend from his school that I know of that's participating in T-ball. I think he'd really enjoy it, so we're all kind of excited about that.
Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year, so while Mark is working, the boys and I are going to do some fun crafts. Theyre both going to color and make a chinese lantern and maybe we'll make some brownie muffins are something yummy they can decorate with frosting.