The Packs and Max

This is pretty much how the week went. all of the adults sitting around chatting and generally watching the baby







and baby Isabelle looking cute, entertaining the crowd and having a generally good time.

Karen and Joey visit

We were lucky in the first week of May to have my college roommate Karen and her hubby over for a visit from California for a few days.

we generally hung around and just got to visit with each other. Karen came to one of my yoga classes and on the second night we had a seafood boil with katie and shannon. unfortunately i didn't take any pictures, but luckily karen took a few and sent them to me.

the first is me holding the bread that we bought in honor of our friend Kiki from college, her dad used to bring up this bread from richmond and it was the best thing in the world. cinnamon swirl bread from montana gold bakery in carytown. then next karen and i are toasting together with bread.

it was great to visit with them, we just wished they lived closer. but hey, maybe once the pregnancy thing is over we could visit in California. i hear wine country is not a bad place to be.

Making the Transition

I'm thinking that this blog will slowly transition out of total spotlight on Tyco into something more of a family moments and photo blog. Tyco hasn't been up to much these days and we've got big events in the works. and i also figure the pregnancy blog won't last forever. (i mean hopefully one day in October this Babe will be born and therefore i'll no longer be pregnant, hence no more pregnancy blog).

Tyco's recent antics have included chasing lots of animals on our walks lately. he seems particularly interested in squirrels and max said he almost caught one two nights ago. Last week he was on a walk and went into some bushes. when he came out he had a black cat In His Mouth but max got him to let it go before tyco shook it. a few days later max saw the cat again and all seems well. So, in a nutshell that's Tyco's life these days. chase animals, go on walks, and sleep as much as possible. he's generally happy as long as we're around and he'll keep close by if he knows one or the other of us isn't in town.

Since we've been pregnant people have been asking Max if Tyco knows... and how he'll be. we figure Tyco knows something's up. but we don't think he has any clue what is coming. and as far as Tyco and kids go, it's not a pretty sight. Tyco generally despises and is terrified of children. any time someone small comes towards him he starts to growl and step back and forth unable to decide whether to run away or charge. on sunday we walked by a yard full of children and one girl came over and i could have kissed her parents, she said " can i pet your dog?" and we had to explain that he's pretty 'grumpy' and then he took over by growling ferociously at her. she was not particularly fazed but did keep a good distance.

The big moment for Tyco with a child came over the winter when Max's sister and her husband came to visit over night and they brought their one year old. Adrian LOVES dogs. and Adrian LOVES Tyco. obviously, Tyco cannot be trusted with a child, so he was locked in his gate for most of the visit. but it became a game of mutual terror when Adrian would crawl into the kitchen and start to crawl towards Tyco's room giggling and laughing. Tyco would loudly bark or growl at Adrian. Adrian would get scared and back up whimpering. but he couldn't resist for long and a few minutes later would crawl back towards tyco to repeat the whole thing again. it probably would have gone on like that for hours without adult intervention.

So who knows how he'll be when it's his very own baby. hopefully he'll adjust quickly and easily, but he might not and we'll just have to be ready for that. he's got another baby coming to visit soon, maybe he'll do better with her. until then he has us to himself for a few more months. and we'll have to give him lots of walks and loves until Babe arrives (and after).

Tyco's Getting up there

Tyco is aging. maybe that's not very nice to point out but i KNOWit is happening because, well his behavior is changing.

when Maddie and Akira started aging they just got more and more demanding in a little old lady sort of way. they didn't want to wait around for treats (akira) or to have the door opened for them (maddie) they wanted what they wanted and they wanted it NOW! emphasis with LOTS of BARKS

tyco is a bit more subtle but he's just taking more and more liberties around here. the first sign was that when he wasn't getting the treats off of our plates, despite putting his nose in our laps and walking rings around the coffee table he finally put both front paws ON the coffee table and stole max's fake bacon right off of his plate. the nerve!!! we scolded him but apparently he liked the outcome of getting food for that because he's tried it more than once since. ugh!

next.... yesterday it was wet and rainy, a good day for a nice hot yoga practice with deep poses. so i'm in the room sitting to practice bridge pose when wet old tyco comes in for rubs. so he collapses by my side and i pet him as long as i can from the slightly upside down position i am in. then it's time for me to go full into shoulderstand. so now my elbows are on the floor, my lowback is in my hands and my hips and feet are in the air above my shoulders , i can't reach around to pet him OR to stop him from his next move. he runs out of the room and the next thing i hear is a little squeak of my bed as he's making his wet self comfortable on our covers. (at least he chose max's side) and of course i know part of this is my fault because i didn't actually come out of the pose to get him out of bed. but again, the Nerve of this friend, especially now that he has his own little puppy bed in our room.

i think it's the age making him feel like he gets whatever he wants. the world is his for the taking.

Stanley goes 6 Feet Under

Recently I was thinking that since Tyco is pretty much an older dog, we don't have much to write about in the blog. so, i don't update too much. so is the dog blog boring? he just doesn't do anything besides sleep on his lounger or under the magnolia all day. ... maybe i thought too soon.

Tuesday is my day off. (except for that drive to Maryland in the evening) but it's the day when i don't practice in the morning and have nothing i'm "supposed" to do until i go to class at 6:15. So i was ready to just chill out all day. last night i was exhausted after teaching two classes in a row to small groups (those require infinitely more energy from me) and i crawled in bed around 930. when i got in bed i rooted around for Stanley (the seal) and didn't find him so i just let myself fall asleep. i hadn't slept well the night before and i was feeling tired, sometimes if i miss the sleep window, that's it, i'm up for the night. so i cozied in and didn't think much about it.

Tuesday morning i got up and decided to take Tyco for his morning walk around the neighborhood. so he's got the leash on and i start leading him up nottoway on his new favorite route. as we're walking by the fence i glance over towards the magnolia where he's been making his nest most nights lately. i think the leaves keep him warm. from the corner of my eye i can just make out a familiar shape. is that??? my memory goes all foggy here but it's like a scene from a movie where the characters a looking for someone and they just see a leg sticking out from a hillside or something. but you know it's not good.

STANLEY!!! stanley is OUTSIDE... partially buried under leaves and so entirely covered in soft dirt flakes that he looks brown.
OH MY GOD!!! when stanley went missing i NEVER suspected Tyco. Akira was known for destroying stuffed animals, but Tyco??

here's Akira having her taste of a stuffed duck.



but Tyco???no way. i rush back into the fence and pull stanley up out of the suspicious nest. quick inspection... whew! only surface dirt (a LOT of surface dirt) no internal or external damage. whew! i set him on the counter and take tyco for his walk while i try to think out my next steps.

Obviously, Stanley now needs a bath. he's had a bath twice that i can remember and the second time his stuffing got all rearranged and he never felt the same again, but now i'm used to this stuffing arrangement, i'm worried about the bath idea. so having never given a stuffed animal a bath before i decided to call in reinforcements. (of course i could have called my mom, she gave stanley his other baths, but these guys know where i'm coming from)
Reinforcements arrived in the form of Sealy, Wally, and Wally 2. Hooray! the rest of the tale is told with photo enhancement in the next installment.

Stanley's Bath

Here is the nest where stanley spent the night outside (in a little bit of rain, i might add)

and Here is Tyco looking sheepish, he knows this one was much more naughty than just carrying milk cartons outside.







The gang inspects the mess. notice the dirt even caked in stanley's eyes. and i have to say it looked much worse in person than in the photo. the flash really took away the extent of the dirtiness.


Research!! the guys check the internet for the best suggestions for how to wash stuffed animals. Even the spirit of Akira gets involved.




We opt first to try shaking as much dirt off as possible. my white kitchen sink (i mean, really, who thinks of a white kitchen sink as a good idea??) is completely caked in dirt but this is the result.


Next we opt for the washing machine. spot cleaning isn't going to do it this time. so we add some mild detergent and a towel so he's not alone. we opt for no pillow case since he isn't too fragile and because he is REALLY dirty. Stanley says his good-byes (just in case)



Getting covered with water. luckily he's a baby seal so he likes to swim.



The gang waits for him to be done in the washer.


All Clean! ready for gentle drying



The gang waits for the dryer



Finally all done! The whole gang back together again.




(and still a Mama's Boy)

[and, yes, i do know how ridiculous this whole thing is, especially the fact that i took pictures of it, but, Max was away i was bored.]

Stanley Biographical Information

Stanley Pack (white stuffed baby seal)

came to me when i was maybe 7 or 8 from my dad's parents, Grammie and Paw. he was from sea world. i remember standing in their kitchen and i had a choice between an alice in wonderland tea set and Stanley. i chose stanley. (incidentally, i was given the tea set at the next christmas holiday so i ended up with both. and i really loved tea sets, i have no idea while i chose stanley and i almost regretted it at first). so there is this great photo of me and my cousin mary beth sitting on Paw's lap and resting on his chest and stomach and stanley is there with us. if i had that photo here i'd scan it for the blog, but it's at my parents house.

Stanley kind of hung out for a while. then when i was in 10th grade he came to camp with me when the other girl who was a counselor-in-training with me brought her stuffed animal. sometime in that few weeks i came up with the name 'stanley' while i was resting on my cot. i think it may be a throwback to the stuffed bear in 'the hunt for the red october' which i was slightly obsessed with at that point. (?)

and ever since camp, stanley has been the go to guy. he went to college. he survived flying across the room whenever my boyfriend saw fit (mean right?) he also survived attack by one roommate's cat who took his mouth apart. and he got to be friends with bear (my college roommate, karen's, stuffed lion). probably in college i discovered stanley is good for kissing goodnight right on his nose AND he sleeps perfectly in the crook of my arm right by my heart. he also makes a nice neck pillow while reading.

so when max and i met stanley was my constant bed companion, putting me to sleep every night. and it wasn't so bad to have max come over just that stanley had to sleep on the bedside table. but max and i knew we were meant for each other when among the many many similarities we found ... .. we discovered the sealy stanley connection. max grew up loving stuffed animals and baby harp seals. so he had his very own stuffed white baby seal: Sealy. i got to meet sealy (and wally and the others) when i went to visit his parents house the first summer after we started dating. VERY CUTE.

now that we're married, stanley lives in the closet with the baby afghan Grammie crochetted for me and only comes out when max is away. but he definitely comes out and keeps me company. that's probably why he has some peanut butter on his forehead.

stanley is also a world traveller. along with going to college in fredericksburg, stanley also went to graduate school in philadelphia. more recently he saw hawaii in summer 2004 and bali in summer 2007. (he was not invited to rome however) i'm sure he's got plenty more trips in him....

Here's Stanley in the Lei after arrival from Hawaii


Lounging on the beach at Wimea Bay in Hawaii


In the bed in Bali. he didn't see much of the countryside, but he did make an appearance going through security in the Denpasar, Indonesia and Guam Airports (did he smuggle drugs???)