Wee Stories » Family matters

Sunshine gets a soft toy.

Jean — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:02:20 +0000

Like many golden retrievers, Sunshine just loves to mouth things. One of her favourite things to do is to explore wastepaper baskets and steal things out of them when she thinks we aren’t looking. Unfortunately for her, we have eagle eyes and always catch her at it. Over the last year that she’s been with us, she’s gotten a little better at leaving the wastepaper basket alone, but she still can’t resist checking out soft things like jackets, cushions and tissue paper.

We’ve been hesitant about buying her soft toys because we don’t want to encourage her to go after the girls’ plush toys. But she’s been rather bored of late, which manifests itself in licking and bald spots. So we decided to take a chance on her mouthiness and get her her own soft toy rabbit with long legs. She was visibly happy to receive it and last I checked, is still holding the plush in her mouth.

"Mmm. Soft."

This is also the first toy that she’s had that Bryan hasn’t snatched. He’s not into soft things and he got a Kong stuffable bone plastered with peanut butter, so everybody’s happy!

Sunday hi jinks.

Jean — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:17:13 +0000

The aforementioned hi jinks.

The girls didn’t want to go to a park yesterday, so K blew up the inflatable pool for them to have an evening dip. All was relatively peaceful until a playfight began and someone splashed water onto the deck as Bryan was passing.

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon?

Bryan got all excited and started patrolling the pool, waiting for the next splash to snap at. Eventually, he started climbing on the sides, which got the kids all screamy because they didn’t want a big furball in there with them.

Bryan contemplates going for a swim.

All about critters.

Jean — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:53:43 +0000

This evening, we realised that the mouse that Emily had spotted on our dining table a couple of days ago was hiding out under the sofa. What gave it away was its smell and movement which caught Bryan’s attention. He circled the sofa several times, poking his nose under and acting all excited. We had to move lots of furniture and odds and ends around to get at it. A lot of banging, hopping around, and wielding of broom and dustpan, squeegee and spade ensued. Finally the mouse was flushed out. It made the fatal mistake of running into the study, right under the nose of a bewildered Sunshine who was penned in the study because we didn’t think she’d be useful in the hunt. K kicked Sunshine out and he and Bryan shut themselves in there to finish the job. Before long, loud squeaks and scrabbling were heard. When the door opened, K had the injured mouse pinned by its tail with the squeegee, while Bryan was crouched before it, ready to pounce again. He’d apparently got in at least three good nips before getting a fright when the mouse tried to jump on his face.

Emily then got a wastepaper basket and trapped the mouse inside it, before scooping it up with her bare hands and dumping it unceremoniously into a plastic bag. The rest – well, let’s just say the mouse is history.

A few hours before this drama happened, I finished making a basket for the girls’ Sylvanian Families critters and whatever other small toy animals can fit inside it. I used this free pattern from Lion Brand Yarn, with off-white, beige and pink acrylic “deodorant” yarn from Daiso. Purists may scoff at using $2 yarn for crocheting, but I think it’s just perfect for small toy projects like this, which get tossed about and eventually tossed out when the kids grow out of it. Plus, if I screw up, I have no qualms about junking whatever I’ve made and starting over.

No harm in cheap yarn. Even my size 6 crochet hook is from Daiso.

This project took me perhaps 4 hours to make, over yesterday evening and this afternoon. The only thing I’m not happy about is the sloppy way I attached the handles to the basket. One side of the handle had too short a tail to sew into the basket body properly, so I had to improvise. I was also in a bit of a rush to get to ballet lessons, so I wasn’t as meticulous as I should have been. The girls couldn’t care less though – Alison brushed me off when I said I wanted to redo the handles. So I guess it’ll do. If I make another basket I’ll pay more attention to the finishing.

Alison and her Persian Cat family in the finished basket.

I’ve figured out that part of the reason I like crochet better than cross-stitching is its portability. I’ve been doing most of my crocheting on my bed, either propped up with pillows or lying down when I feel like it. I can’t do that with stitching because I can’t stitch in hand and always need good light, excellent back support, a chart holder and my K’s creations lap frame to feel comfortable. Plus, crochet lets me make things that are actually useful, whereas stitched objects are mostly decorative. That’s not to say I’ll abandon cross-stitch altogether, though. There are still projects I wanted to start and complete, and hopefully I’ll be able to do that sometime this year.

A crocheted crown for Zoe.

Jean — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:39:21 +0000

Zoe asked for a crocheted crown, so I made her one using this tutorial, which I mentioned earlier. It took me two nights to finish, mainly because I had to rework the six points several times as they were rather fiddly to make. I used $2 acrylic yarn from Daiso, and I added 20 stitches on each tie just to make sure that it would be able to fit on Zoe’s head.

Some of the points were pointier than others because I'm still getting the hang of gauge.

My little goofball prefers to wear her crown over her eyes than on her forehead.

Bryan and Sunshine’s first trip to the beach.

Jean — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:40:37 +0000

We are bad dogparents. Very bad. Bryan is nearly three years old and today marked his first time on a beach. We don’t know for sure if this is Sunshine’s first time ever since her former family could have taken her, but today was the first time we took her. From her reaction, it probably was the very first time.

Both dogs were super excited to be out, until we led them onto the sand. They were transfixed by the sound of the waves crashing on shore, and the water that seemed to be rushing in to attack them.

Sunshine gingerly checking out the backwash.

Neither dog was keen to go near the water, so K put them on the leash and led – no, dragged – them in.

No, Sunshine, sitting on Bryan will not give you more traction.

After about an hour of manhandling two unwilling dogs, he finally succeeded in getting them to swim, more or less calmly, back to shore. They also got over some of their anxiety about the waves, but it was definitely not the grand vision I had of them plunging in and emerging triumphantly from the water like Pam Anderson in Baywatch.

Wet look.

"I prefer to be dry, thankyouverymuch."

I think we might try again when they’re due for their next bath in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here’s a video of Bryan trying to bite water: