Dog Days of Summer

There are just a few more days before Charlie moves.  Charlie is the building dog and he will be missed.  Cora looked forward to going to the bus stop so she could see Charlie.  He's an old gentle dog who will be missed.  Cora especially likes Charlie.  It won't be the same around here without him. 

In addition to spending time with Charlie, we've been busy with a lot of other things.  Nyla had princess camp last week and Bohdin had piano camp.  I have video of Nyla's recital which I still need to download.  I didn't take video of Bohdin's recital.  They both enjoyed their camps.  Nyla has drama this week and Bohdin has nothing.

Last Tuesday night we went to C-'s house for dinner.  Cora was under the table at one point pretending to be Charlie.  She doesn't often get to be in his house although once last week I heard the back door slam and asked Bohdin where Cora was.  She was in Charlie's house.  She just went inside and went up the stairs.  C-'s mom was surprised to walk into her kitchen and see Cora there with Charlie.  I had Bohdin go get her immediately.  We were told to just come up whenever and Cora took them up on it. 

On Thursday I took Bohdin and Nyla to see a performance of Peter Pan in the park.  Bohdin had played flickerball earlier with Buddy and his flickerball group and was feeling pretty tired by the time we arrived.  The show didn't start until bedtime.  He eventually perked up and enjoyed the show.  It was a community theater production with a lot of kids and they did pretty good.  They used dancers from a local school for the Indians and they did a good job with the dancing.  Nyla was impressed and said they must have practiced a lot.  

We can't remember exactly but perhaps on Friday Bohdin had an itchy arm from what appeared to be bug bites.  Over the weekend it spread tremendously into a rash that covered his face, chest, and upper legs.  On Monday the nurse was convinced it was poison ivy but the doctor wouldn't commit to what exactly caused it.  Two weeks ago Bohdin was collecting leaves for a leaf collection and he may have touched something he shouldn't have.  If that's the case then it took many days for it to show up.  Ironically he asked me about poison ivy last week.  I'm not allergic to it but I think Buddy may be.  If it is poison ivy then he most likely came in contact with it the prior Saturday when we were walking back from the garden.  The doctor gave him a boatload of medicine and it seems to be working.  He isn't as itchy although he was never very itchy.  Certain spots bothered him at different times of the day but he was never excessively itchy.  It has also stopped spreading but has yet to begin receding. 

Cora has been practicing her bike riding since this spring and she can ride Nyla's old pink bike pretty well.  She rode the bike to the library once and she rode it to the flickerball picnic last week.  I need to adjust the training wheels of Bohdin's old bike for Nyla.  Only one touches at a time which scares her.  Bohdin tried to learn to ride without training wheels but it didn't end well.  His bike is a little big and he can't figure out how to jump off.  His legs aren't really long enough yet to hold the bike upright while he straddles it.  He gave it a good effort and came home covered in bruises.  I think if his legs were a bit longer he would be riding around no problem.  He was doing fine with the balancing and riding part.  He just did horribly with the stopping and getting off part. 

We went to dinner at Mr-'s house on Saturday along with C- and her family.  Nyla doesn't play with Mo- much but Bohdin does play with Mr- quite a bit especially after his legos were taken away for the summer.  I don't think a day goes by anymore that they don't play together.  At his house they play the Wii a lot.  Here they play Playmobil mostly. 





Some Latvian girls moved into the building across from us.  They don't speak English yet but that didn't stop Nyla from befriending them.  They spend a lot of time in our yard now doing various things.  They played in the water one day and did art another.  Last night everybody played with water balloons.  They've also had pretend picnics.  I don't like Cora outside unsupervised at her age and she wants to join in the fun so Buddy and I spend a lot of our time outside watching her. 



Nyla and Cora will have their early birthday party on Thursday so C- can come.  She's leaving for good on Sunday.  Nyla is expecting a big special party.  It's what she would do for us if she could so I have to do my best to give it her.  Only C- and Ch- will come so it will be small but hopefully meet Nyla's expectations.  She's been fretting over the decorations for weeks.  I'm not a party planner so this is tough but I'm going to do my best to not let her down.  We stopped at the dollar store for balloons yesterday and the girls each picked out two.  Just before Bohdin walked in the door he somehow let go of them and they quickly flew away.  There were a lot of tears but most of them came from Bohidn.  He felt so horrible.  I hope we have time to get new balloons today.  Nyla has drama camp this morning and then an old friend is coming to visit right after.  I need to go to the commissary and probably the library. I have a package for P's birthday that I need to send.   Mr- will probably come over looking for Bohdin and Nyla will want to play with anybody in the back yard.  We were supposed to have dinner at C-'s house again but it was postponed.  I don't know if we'll get to it tonight instead.  Our lives have never been busier.  I think life will slow down in August once public school starts and camps and birthdays are over.