If it's not one thing, it's the dog.

Dave says, "If it's not one thing, it's the dog," because whenever we all get settled into something, she needs to play/potty/vomit/bark in the middle of the night; you get the idea.

Jewel E. Cat's half dollar-sized wound is now only nickel-sized with no help from me. As hard as it is to stand back and do nothing, sometimes that's the best way.

On the other hand, Georgia Brown starting hacking up a lung this morning. I can't wait and do nothing for her because she caught the upper respiratory infection from my mom's dogs, which they caught from the neigbor dog, etc. She has already had a dose of Children's Triaminic (incidentally, children under 4 are no longer supposed to take the Children's Triaminic but dogs can) and an antibiotic. The vet was already aware that she was exposed, so I didn't have to take her in to get the medicine. Thank goodness. That place is a zoo. Now I just hope the cats don't get it. I'm sure they will actually have to go to the vet if they do, because unlike dogs, upper respiratory infections can be life threatening for cats. Gah. At least the skin kid is well and this illness isn't contagious across species.

Ella is now saying, "Babababa" and "Mamama," and she is generally a Chatty Cathy these days. She's actually starting to consistently say, "Bababa" when waving bye-bye so that might actually translate to "bye-bye." Else, she thinks that's Uncle Rob's name because that's who she always says it to (and he's always leaving for class). She is developing an interesting pattern of behavior where she learns something from me, but demonstrates it for everyone else. For instance, when she goes to the bathroom with me, I always hold her up while flushing the toilet so she can see (because she's become very interested in the flushing). While we watch the water go down, I wave and say, "Bye-bye." Apparently, she has started doing this at Grandma's house when Grandma lets her watch the flush. Also, when Grandma tells her she needs to wipe her hands, she holds them out for her. I've never seen her do either of these things. I haven't been teaching her to hold her hands out for cleaning, but I have a habit of using the same words during our daily routines (thanks to raising a dog), and she is soaking it up and applying it. It's pretty cool.

While she's not crawling in the traditional sense, she gets where she needs to go. This week, she needs to get the dog food bowl. I think dog food actually enticed her to crawl a very short distance. Monday night she ate the dog food before I could get it out of her hands. Yesterday, she was trying to get the dog food that Georgia dropped while Georgia was trying to get a noodle out of Ella's hand. Georgia has already learned to hover around the high chair, and she tries putting her snout up there. That is a behavior I cannot stand and don't allow (she can sit beside me at the table, but I don't want her nose in my lap or near the table), but Ella thinks it's funny to see a dog snout sticking over the edge of her tray. I foresee the two of them ganging up on me in the near future. Add Jewel E.'s handy kitten paws, and there will be no hope for me. I have no doubt that Jewel will be in the thick of things because I've turned around a couple of times to find her nose to nose with Ella and loving on her like she does the dog. Ella, of course, loves them all.

Georgia is so very good with Ella. She's still a little jealous sometimes, but now she's beginning to understand the benefits of having a baby in the house because Ella always wants to pet and scratch her. This is allowed, especially if it's the back end she's scratching. Previously, Georgia wouldn't let Ella get too close, but now she's allowed to pet her and play with her feet. Before I could stop her, she stuck her hand in Georgia's mouth the other day. The giant, pink tongue was hanging out and it was just too much for her. George never flinched. I'm so proud of her.