July 6th

It's time for a non-Mom blog post.  Honestly, I'm at a point now where I don't know that I can even describe how I'm feeling.  Each day, each second is different, and I'm just getting through it.  But there are good days.  There are days like yesterday.

Yesterday, Cody turned 8 years old.  Cody-bug- my sweet, wonderful, Doodlebug.  We've always made a big deal out of Cody's birthday.  Usually we'll take him for a hike or to some fun spot.  Two years ago we held and ice cream party at the kennel.  Last year, we took 6 week old Anna out with Cody and Lollie for two long hikes and then we all had burgers and ice cream for dinner (yes, Cody and Lollie did too).   This year, we planned on going for a short evening hike, but I'll be honest.  We just couldn't.  There was so much to do at the house, and we were so far behind.  Plus, hiking with 4 dogs is much harder than hiking with two.  Instead, I picked Anna up from daycare (later than I would have liked), went to the grocery store, came home and made dinner, and then put Anna to bed.  After that, Hans and I went back to working on our projects.

Still, though, we couldn't let the day pass without doing something special.  So, we made all the dogs dinner.  The dogs, who normally only eat kibble, were fed lemon-pepper chicken with mixed veggies.  Then we made them red velvet pupcakes with yogurt icing for dessert.  Their reactions were hilarious.  Cody and Lollie, who have always been spoiled rotten, were thrilled.  Kyla and Alex, however, who were used to Mom spoiling them but who see me as the stricter parent, gave me this look as if to say, "Ha!  Like we'd fall for that."  Kyla just kept sniffing her chicken and looking at me and Hans, while Alex kept giving his chicken tentative licks to see if we'd respond.  Once we praised them for starting to eat, Alex went hog-wild.  "Woo hoo!  Chicken!!"  Poor Kyla, though, had the hardest time figuring it out.  She did eventually eat well once Cody tried to steal her food, but she really wasn't certain about it. 

When it came to dessert, the results were even better.  Cody just scarfed his down in two bites.  Lollie ran with her pupcake into the living room where she proceeded to inhale it.  Kyla also ran with hers into the living room, but she then dropped her pupcake and just licked the icing off the floor.  Poor Alex kind of struggled with his since he's so much smaller.  He ran with his into Mom's old room and simultaneously worked on breaking it apart while also trying to keep any other dog from stealing it.  It was quite amusing.

All in all, it ended up being a good day.  I'm pretty sure Cody enjoyed his day, and I know I loved making all the dogs so happy.