Today...

Today was a fun day. Slept well, cleaned up a bit, then headed to the dog park. I tried to get Hunter to take a short nap. It didn't happen. I'm about 93.6% sure that he didn't get a nap today before he came over at 3. He was excited to say 'Hi' to me when he showed up, but once he walked inside and put his new backpack down. He was apparently out of energy, and uninterested in much of anything. So we laid down. Well I laid down. Hunter decided it was time to play. After a few minutes though, he realized I was trying to to calm him down. He rebelled against my intentions. I should have known an attempt at a nap that late would be pointless. Then G was at the dog park. So at the mention of the dogpark, he was ready to go. The weather wasn't too bad, atleast it was warmer today. I've been nagging G to get Chango out there, he did really well for his first time. Booch picked on him at first, which bothered me, but by time we left they were buddies, playing nice, and they wouldn't leave each other alone.

Cleaning and Parenting

I had a fun day today. Thursday's I pick up Hunter at 715 in the morn, and we get to spend the whole day together. Then I drop him off in the morning before work. Today we started off with some good breakfast, supplemental for him. His mom gives him poptarts or cold cereal or oatmeal, with not much deviation. So even though hes had something, he always wants some breakfast burrito that Dada makes. After some grub and puppy hijinx, a trike ride was in order. Hunter is very adamant about his bike rides. I know he rides his bike a lot at mommys, and he doesnt go more than two hours without desiring a bike ride at my place. We went a ways this morning, and even though we went so far that he started asking to go back to the house, once we got there, he sat on the trike for a minute and wanted to ride more. I reminded him that he was tired, and we went inside. Not too long after we laid down for a nap. I love naps, and taking a nap with a toddler is the best. They'll cry if you tell them they have to take a nap and make them lay down. If you lay down with them, they think its fun. If Dada is tired, Hunter is tired. Waking up is probly the best part, I always tend to wake up before him and just lay there til he wakes up. When he does wake up though, he's ready to go, no laying around. Once he's up, all I hear is 'git up Dada' until my derby weary bag of bones gets up to play. After some lunch and an attempt at watching Dr.Doolittle, I started overhauling my fish tanks. Hunter helped, he was in charge of the gravel. That is making sure the dog stayed away from it, for some reason my dog was taking mouthfuls of it out of the bucket it was in. The tank venture took a few hours, much longer than it would have without a toddler assistant. A trip to the dogpark was our last activity of the day. Booch was his typical rowdy puppy self, he had a couple good rasslin' buddies tonite. The one that stood out though was a 8 month old english bulldog. The bull dog growled at first(they tend to have attitudes), but then decided it would be fun to play. I don't know what it was that triggered Booch, but he started getting vocal like I havnt heard before. He was playing a little rougher than normal, but growling at the same time. For the mostpart his roughhousing has been with bigger dogs and he doesn't growl and is easily submitted. I think he felt dominance with a dog more similiar to him in age and size(not heighth), hence the growling. They were both doing some growling, but more from Booch and it almost made me wanna break them up, which I've never had to do with any other dog, but I felt almost like he was being mean. The Bulldogs owner and I were talking though, and we were both in agreeance that they were both having fun and maybe just practicing being grownup dogs.

Today...

Today was a good day. Dad showed around 12 to hang out. Hunter and I were waking up from a good nap. We played for a while and I did some laundry. We went for a trike ride and to the dog park. Grandpa tried to get out the video camera for the trike ride and ended up missing most of it due to his notorious disposition of being unprepared with the damn thing. Everytime he goes for it the battery is dead, or the tape is finished, or he can't get it to work right. I've told him several times he has to be one of the last people in the country still using one of those things and that a digital camera with a decent video option would be his best bet. Whatever though. He got the dinosaur up and running and got some good tape of the ride. Then he took it to our dog park adventure. His cat lady wife, bless her soul, stayed in the car while we went to the park. I know she had a surgery recently on an ankle so I'm sure that's why she stayed. So grandpa walked out to the field, video camera secured to his neck via lanyard. There wasnt too many dogs out today. We did come across a lady and her lab and two young children. Hunter kinda went up to them and watched for a few minutes. I watched and it made me reflect, I wondered if H would be better off with a sibling. I had two younger brothers growing up, and I know it was beneficial. My heart sunk a little as he watched them, not going up and socializing immediately, but standing back and waiting for the older of the two to come up to him and then an almost awkward toddler style greeting. It made me want him to be in a typical daycare situation if anything. He needs the social atmosphere. He doesn't get enough of it from kids close to his age. He does great around adults, and I know he'll do great once he's in school, but for the next three years I honestly think he needs more than he gets now. The visit with grandpa ended with a trip to Walmart. They wanted to buy me a lamp for the living room, I expressed a need for one last time he was here and it must have stuck. When leaving Walmart to drop him off with his mom, he gave hugs goodbye and blew kisses as we left. He's so awesome.
I went to class tonite, and pleasantly discovered my teacher had basically cancelled both classes for the nite. That means dinner and some time before derby practice tonite. Practice was awesome, I got kneepads and new wheels beforehand. I think with the new accessories I lost some inhibition about falling and definately improved some skills. My new derby/messenger buddy let me borrow her tool to put on my new wheels. If she doesn't read this it would surprise me, seeing as how I'm a new follower to her blog. Aside, she's expressed her fondness for me which is both flattering and welcomed. At the same time she's apprehensive, with good reason. Derby practice for me is still very new to me and I hold it as self improvement/stress relief, so despite our enjoyable text-versations, I havn't asserted a decent conversation. I do owe her some face to face at this point though, and by Grace she'll be a new friend at the least.