Crazy and Chaotic are the best words to describe our household. Just when I think I have all the tasks completed, something pops up. For example all the children are playing, not acting their age and hitting, not squabbling over whose turn, but actually playing and I hear a crash in the kitchen the dog has decided to create some excitement, by pulling in a kitchen towel, that had dishes drying on it! Or if he feels he needs some attention he’ll grab a toy or a shoe or a kitchen towel and prance by, for no other reason than to get our attention. If the dog is behaving then Theo has learned to climb the stairs, and is teetering at the top. Theo is napping, the dog is snoozing, Freddy and Stephen commence to playing a convoluted game of keep away that involves screaming, laughing uproariously, and wrestling.

Mr. Sniffer is making lots of progress, he rarely surfs the counter for food, it just drops from the table of children to him. He’s getting better at not attacking our guests, and sits for a while before sniffing them over. And he has discovered snow. The first and smaller of our snow storms, he wasn’t sure what all this cold stuff was, but refused to venture outside. We had to take him on a leash to get him outside. He’s got the idea now and actually plays in the snow, chasing snowballs, digging in the powder, and eating the white stuff.