Saturday, March 23, 2019

More Free Stuff

I fell asleep after dinner last night, full of two bowls of vegetable soup my mother, daughter and I made yesterday.   I was sitting up with my clothes on, iPad in my lap.   And that means I forgot about writing this blog post until around three in the morning.  My daughter is outside with a friend and my son has a classmate over for a playdate, which means I might have ten minutes to catch up on last night’s post without interruptions.

I’ve been trying to take the dog places with us to get her more accustomed to different places, people, environments, situations, etc.   I decided to take her with my daughter and me to get her measured for new glasses.   She rides in the car fine and I discovered she prefers to lie on the floorboard in the back seat.   She was happily in the car for fifteen minutes while my daughter and I were in the store.   It was cool outside but the sun was out so I had the air conditioning running.

Next we went to the flea market.   The goal of this was completely to have an experience for the dog but it was nice for my daughter too.   She got to feel some things and we talked about what antiques were.   She found something that looked like a bicycle with a large basket on the back.   Then she realized there were two back wheels, one on either side of the basket.   I told her it was likely for an adult who was delivering something or going to the store and needed a place to put their groceries.  She thought we should buy it.

There were a lot of puppies for sale only the puppies had either been purchased or were up for the day (we got there late afternoon).   She wanted to come back to see the puppies even though we weren’t going to buy one.  

I saw a stall with lots of dog sculptures and nicknacks.  I walked my daughter over and started in on the, “here, feel this one.  Can you feel how the head is big and the body is small?  This one is a sculpture of a puppy.   Now let’s feel this one, see how the head is smaller and the legs are longer?  That’s an adult dog.”  

The man came over and said, “which one is your favorite?”  This happens a lot and I am guilty of the same thing.   In one sweeping motion of our head we can survey the entire table of fifty-odd sculptures.   My daughter has touched two, and only knows what they are because I told her.   But this nice man was going to (I guessed) give her one for free.  I talked quickly to her about what types of choices there were on the table and then picked up one with two dogs in a basket, one an adult and one a puppy.   He told her she could have it and she was very gracious and told him thank you.   I said we had nothing like it and we’d find a very special spot for it in our house.

As we meandered we found a pet supplies stall.   My daughter wanted to get something for Matisse and settled on a squeaky toy.   When she asked and found out it was a dollar, I said I only had a twenty dollar bill.   The lady said, “you just take it, that’s okay.”   I told her we were going to get some food and would come back with the dollar and thank you very much.

We got mini donuts and my daughter felt responsible giving the dollar to the stall owner and then we enjoyed our donuts.   We met dogs and people and somehow I managed to navigate through a very crowded flea market with a dog still in training and a daughter who needs to be in constant contact with you because she can’t see where you are.  

But we had fun.   I think if I can get the children to go with me again today I’ll take them both.   I’d like to see some puppies myself.   I can always use a dose of cuteness.

The Big Boy Update:  My son wanted to have his friend, Philip, come over.   His mother dropped him off this morning and my son and he have been having a really good time ever since.   They’re in the back yard with some of the other children from our street now.   Philip has to go at 11:45 but I told him we hoped he could come back soon.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter asked me this morning, “is ‘tizuvthee’ a real word?”  I asked her where she had heard the word.   She said, “you know, in ‘My Country Tis of Thee’”.

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