Meet Loki

I finally caved.  Nick has been sending me KSL puppy ads for the past two months trying to convince me that we need another dog.  And I've wanted another dog, but my time frame was more like late fall/early winter. But last night Nick caught me at a weak moment and showed me a pic of this little guy below.  He's exactly what we want in a corgi this time around: tri-coat and male.  And the price was crazy good - almost too good to pass up.  However, even with all these little enticements, I still wasn't totally on board. When I looked at the pic, all I saw was puppy accidents all over my carpet and my favorite sandals ripped to shreds. I just didn't feel ready to make the commitment. Plus, another clause in my puppy deal was that Nick would need to get rid of the chickens.  Even though somehow I have a little soft spot for them now, I am tired of feeding them OR nagging Nick to feed them.  Not to mention that their food actually costs more than a dozen eggs at the store (my argument since day 1 with the chickens). A few days ago, we put the chicken coop and chickens up for sale and had no bites.  I assumed we'd just try again in month or two.  Now back to the puppy: Nick kind of jumped the gun and decided to just "talk" to the seller of the puppy to get some information.  As soon as he got off the phone, he said there were two other people semi-interested so we had to act fast (I felt like a sucker at a car lot: "this deal is only good today!")  I very hesitantly gave my OK.  Nick immediately called back the owner and made arrangements to meet up with her in Salt Lake.   He brought the puppy home around 7 this morning - right when the kids woke up. Toby flipped!  He was ecstatic to have a dog again. Aspen just gave a lot of happy shrieks.  And as soon as I held him, I was in love and realized the crazy puppy phase would pass.  Soon enough he would become my little buddy, just like Kaya was. 

Nick and I finally settled on Loki for his name - A) because we decided to stick with an Alaskan name (just like Kaya) and B) it's the name of the arch-nemesis in Thor. 

Yeah, we are slightly nerdy like that. 

 

 My favorite pic with chickens...  :)

And guess what? Not long after Loki's arrival, I lowered the price a bit for the chickens and ended up selling them just a few hours ago!  Crazy huh?  So in the end, we all got what we wanted (except I really wish Loki was housebroken already!). I will keep you posted on all the chaos and fun that is sure to follow... :)

A Toby post

Just thought I'd record some of the cuteness/quirkiness of my Toby-man for entertainment and sentimental purposes:

We often get a slushie from the little shack down the road from us. As Toby was slurping up the last bits in his cup he exclaimed, "Mom, this slushie is rockin' my body!" 

Toby is absolutely obsessed with Transformers.  Not sure if you are all aware but there are about 4 different Transformers cartoons. With the modern cartoons obviously having better graphics and snazzier looking robots, I find it curious (but secretly love) that 90 percent of the time he insists on watching the original 80's episodes (and to be honest I actually like watching them too because the cheesy dialogue makes me laugh). But what I love is how Toby requests to watch it:  "Mommy, can I watch Transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye? Me: "You mean you want to watch Transformers?" Toby: "No! I want to watch Transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye!" Translation: "Transfomers"  means the newer cartoons and "Transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye" is the 80's version.  Funny guy.

Nick and I are trying to break Toby of the habit of peeing outside.  If he is in the privacy of our backyard and needs to go, we kind of don't really care.  But when our home teacher said he drove by our home the other day and nearly died laughing because he saw Toby suddenly jump off his bike, pull his pants down, and then jump right back on his bike, I about died from embarrassment. 

Toby is on this anti-girl kick lately.  Quite often when he wants to play with a friend, I'll go through a list of all his little buddies.  Colin and Canton are always are at the top of his list but when I get to Oaklee or Anna, he'll suddenly scrunch his nose and say, "Are they GIRLS?! (even though he knows they are) I don't like girls! Girls are boring!" Later he will play with said girls and have a blast. 

Since Toby is my first and Aspen is still fairly young, quite often I forget that his type of non-stop energy is more the exception in kids his age.  He's not ADHD or anything, he can focus on one activity at a time.  He just craves any kind of outlet for physical activity.  Between his sensitive nature and constant need for stimulation, he can be exhausting to parent.  One day we ran errands in the morning, he played with a friend for 4 hours straight in the afternoon and then just before dinner we went to Thanksgiving Point gardens where he ran around and played for an additional two hours.  I was certain as we were leaving he would be good and tired and ready for bed. But as we got into the car, he asked sincerely, "What are we going to do now, mommy? Can I play with a friend when we get home?"  Like I said, I forget most kids his age aren't wired that way, so it makes me smile when his friends are even asking for a break.  Several times this summer I have overheard a couple of them say things like, "Toby, I'm tired. Can we just sit down for a while?" Or sometimes they will start watching a program on TV and Toby will get mad and say things like, "Why aren't you playing with me?!"  It gives me a good chuckle and validates that my Toby-man is truly one-of-a kind.  :)