The Fighting Three's

The terrible two's have dissolved away for my cousin Riley into a new stage of life. I don't know how else to describe it but, the fighting three's. Being raised predominatley by a single father she is surrounded by quite a lot of testosterone, and innudated by a lot of boxing and wrestling type television programs. It is no wonder that in the middle of playing something like 'shopping cart' she will turn to me and say, "let's get down on the carpet and fight."

"I don't feel like fighting right now. Why don't you go see what Rusty is doing?" Armed with a pillow Riley is now on the hunt for my brother Rusty to play a fighting game.

Sometimes when Riley is totally relaxed, just about to go to sleep she makes a face. It is her baby face, still chubby and round with her mouth closed and her eyes concentrated. I miss this face, as it is the one I spent months looking at and taking care of. She never talked back or squealed at me, never invited me to fight with her on the carpet. She was just a little bundle of wiggling joy who I was the boss of and got to feed canned baby food and graham crackers to daily. I miss that face.

Riley has now resurfaced with Rusty behind her, her pink sundress flouncing around her as she prepares her battle stances. She smacks him with a pillow. They roll to the ground locked together in a serious wrestling move.

Riley goes in for the next round with the bucket that the blocks are housed in on her head. It is her helmet. I am cheering out "go bucket head!" as she charges Rusty, but the 'bucket head' comment was too hilarious for her and she collapses in his arms in a fit of giggles. "Nanny, come fight with us", she laughs. As she removes the bucket from her head she stands up and SLAMS Rusty with a pillow. I refuse to fight with them on this day.

My name is ART.

Oscar at the Beach

Last weekend Oscar and I went to Bear Lake. We went with Tyson and Katy and their dog Lilly. For those who know Oscar he is unfriendly and at times like a cranky old man who feels it unnecessary to make new friends. Lilly who is pictured above is a young puppy who just likes to play and tried very hard all weekend to get on Oscar's good side. It was to no avail.

On both Friday and Saturday we spent lovely afternoon's on the beach swimming. In Oscar's younger day's he wasn't very keen on spending time in the water, but on this trip trotted happily into the oncoming waves. He splashed about and played fetch. As long as his feet touched bottom he remained calm. As soon as he reached deeper waters though he began to thrash wildly like drowning rat and immediately looked to me for rescue.

An enjoyable time was had by all and I am very proud of Oscar's new swimming expertise.