I'll tell you about the rest of my day tomorrow, but I wanted to run in here and tell you a couple things now.
I brought Ant with me to meet Jody at the park to exercise the dogs. Ant was excited to see Kaiden- he loves kids of any age- and wanted to push the stroller until the bumps got annoying. Hidden Valley is one of our favorite places to go to walk the dogs because we can let them run and there usually aren't too many other dogs to worry about. Jasmine can be quite obnoxious with other dogs and sometimes it goes too far. I have been the main provider for the dogs forever- even back when Ant was the pottier. He'll tell you that he did all the dog walking and that he was totally responsible for the dogs, but his memory is a little biased. A long time ago, Chris and I broke up the chores and said that Ant would do dog potty walks, I would do long walks, and he would be responsible for their exercise. This means he would take them out for runs with the bike or run Jasmine at the dog park. I usually ended up doing the long walks to the dog park and exercising them myself.
The reason I am getting so defensive is because both Ant and Chris think they are dog whisperers. If I tell Chris that something bad happened with Jasmine, he'll tell me it was the other dog's fault. It's amazing how he can tell without even being there. I was at Hidden Valley with Jody one day when some friendly dog came up to say hi and Jasmine ripped a chunk of hair out of him. The fur actually flew, and that was the last time I left her loose around other dogs. I wish more than anything that I could let her run free and socialize with all the other loose, happy dogs there. She's dominant, and an asshole to other dogs. I know this because it happens over and over again. So today at the park, when I put the leash back on to keep her away from other dogs and Ant starts telling me what I need to do with her, I'm ready to tell him to take a hike. Somewhere else, I mean. I have been practicing being calm with him and not taking the bait, but this was much harder because I was already frustrated. I can't tell you, Ant, how much I WISH it was that easy. But I've tried it. You believe she is an angel princess, and most of the time she is. But sometimes she is a flaming asshole.
Today was no exception. It was pretty nice out, and I had to put her on the leash several times and walk her away from many dogs. I kept her from chomping on them, but she bit a dog anyway. She bit Jody's dog Snoopy, the alpha of the group. These four were best friends at the old apartment- they would play together every night. With the exception of Riley, they all grew up together. Snoopy has always been the leader. Today they got in one of their arguments and Snoopy lost. When Ant was busy telling me I was wrong to restrain Jasmine, Jody told him to look at Snoopy's bleeding nose. Ant wouldn't acknowledge it. Later, when we picked Chris up and I told him about the bite, he said, "Jasmine finally shut her up, huh?" Even if Snoopy picked on Jasmine, which I haven't seen, why would that be an appropriate response? Sigh. Maybe I should call Cesar.
But Jennyway, it can be very stressful to go on those walks- or as I like to call them: potential lawsuits. It is not usually fun to have the mini critic along, either. We had to run to the science fair and Chris would have to go back to work afterwards, so I was really not looking forward to spending the evening with the child. Last night was not fun, but I knew we had to get through homework so I put on my happy smiley face and started washing dishes while he did math. He asked for help and we talked about ratios. When he was done, I told him we were going to go through math, English, and science, so he needed to be prepared to get through all three with a pleasant attitude.
"I don't know why you had to say that," he said.
Yes, well, moving right along. We scratch papered through math and I got to review simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. At last, terms I am familiar with. After that, we went through the next set of questions on the science study guide and- GASP! He found a mistake. After he finished that section, I had him read back through what we did yesterday. He knew all about fossils and paleontologists and almost remembered what uniformitarianism was. Uh-huh. That's right. I asked him what we would be doing tomorrow.
"These four questions."
"What else?"
"Studying."
Ah ha ha. Go read your book.
"Can I take a break first?"
Of course.
He went over to the drum set and started banging on the cymbals.
"Jenny, look! It sounds like a bong!"
"GONG. It sounds like a GONG."
"Oh."
Oh, indeed.
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