Charlie's Been Shopping

Haven't seen Barney for a while. I don't know if he wandered off and got lost, Charlie's hiding him or if he died. I think I would know about the latter since there would be Barney bits all over, but I guess only if Charlie killed him and he didn't die of whatever makes dinosaurs die.

Anyhooo, Charlie has a brand new bunch of friends. Last week, I got some toys out of Jessie's room to take to a friends house and left the detritus on the bed. There were 6 small stuffed animals left: Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, 2 Simbas and 1 Nala (both the latter from the movie 'Lion King'). The other day I saw that Big Bird had somehow learned to fly and had landed on the entry carpet. Cool.

I became suspicious when Oscar the Grouch was in the family room just lounging on a couch - in his garbage can. I can't even find Cookie Monster although I have not checked the pantry....

Charlie decided to come clean today and bring Oscar downstairs. So she has been shopping in Jessie's room. Again. A great sport of hers. She usually stays away from the stuffed animals though - maybe Barney was enough.

The really weird thing is she is tight with the Sesame Street gang, but left all the Lion King animals alone:
Maybe because they are cats ... ?

Jessie's Sunday Visit

Ryan and I went to pick Jessie up for her weekly Sunday visit. I saw two women on the way in and they asked who I was. When I told them "Jessie's mom" they each said "Jessie is my friend" which felt wonderful. When we got inside to get her, she was with 'grandma' an adorable older woman. The first time I laid eyes on her was when Gary and I were touring the facility and she was in a game room. As we walked in, she raised her arms out in front of her as if imploring us to do something and belted out a pretty good rendition of the song: "The Old Rugged Cross" - it was great. She is quite high functioning and has told Gary before that she takes care of Jessie and looks out for her. She is about 4'9" tall, is always smiling (until today), has a beautiful twinkle in her eyes and a face that reminds me of my jolly Norwegian Mrs Santa Clause.

I told her Jessie was coming home for a while and she started to cry. She said she would miss Jessie so much, she did not want her to go. I was feeling bad and assured her that it would only be for a few hours and she started sobbing. I gave her a hug and said she would be back in no time and left her being consoled by three aides. I guess Jessie has some friends!

The first thing Jessie wanted to do when she got here was call her real grandma - so we left a message when we could not reach her. By the way - if you want to talk to Jessie and feel uncomfortable calling RSS, we generally have her from about 2:30 - 5:30 (central time) every Sunday so feel free to give us a call and you can talk to her - if you are local - you are welcome to stop by.

Gary had fixed dinner and had it ready by the time we had made the round trip - it was Stake Conference today, so no stopping by and picking her up after church. To our amazement, Jessie did not want to eat! She said she was not hungry. This is definitely a new situation for us. Maybe they are giving her something - I want some! So we ate while she watched TV ... quietly - also a new situation for us.

She then said she wanted to feed the ducks - where she got the idea we are not sure - maybe they do it at RSS - so we headed out: Jessie with a bag of bread and me with my camera.

Jessie was too nervous to walk down the grassy slope to the lake, so she watched while Gary fed the ducks:

This next photo I call "Afro Duck". I have no idea what is going on with its head! It is a lovely 'do, just have not seen one on a duck before"

A shot of 'fro duck with his friends:

Then to obligatory Frisbee session with Charlie. One of many she gets a day (when Gary is in town):



Then we got the inevitable "I want to go back" statement. We are used to it now and it does not phase us. She says she does not want to go back to RSS generally on the ride back a couple of times, but seems to be more to make us feel good, or to be polite than for real - her heart is just not in it.

Jessie not being at home has become quite normal for us now. I thought it would take much longer. I thought the panic and fear would be around for, well I was afraid forever - but they have eased to a manageable level. Now I am just basking in the 'weirdness' of a house without a very large 3 year old in charge.

Life is good.

Charlie's Friends

Meet Bob, The Cat:

This was a Christmas present to Charlie a few years ago. Don't know why his name is Bob, it just is. He is an outside cat. Charlie always tries to sneak him in the house and no matter how many times I tell her that Bob is an outside cat, Bob is not house trained, Bob will scratch the furniture, Bob has that crazy look on his face and I don't know what he is capable of - she always tries. One of my favorite games is 'Kitty Chucking'. I throw Bob and Charlie jumps in the air to catch him. In an over enthusiastic throw Bob landed on the roof - months ago. It took Hurricane Ike to convince Bob to come down. Charlie is thrilled that Bob has come back since she has only one other friend:

Meet Barney the Dinosaur:

Barney, on the other hand is an indoor pet. I get a perverse satisfaction of watching Charlie chew on him. I blame the media and PBS. Charlie has had Barney since I wrapped him up two years ago at Christmas for Ryan as a joke - I had found it unpacking. As soon as he opened it, Charlie ran over, grabbed it out of Ryan's hands and ran off with it to cuddle somewhere. I often find her on Ryan's bed spooning with Barney - she is the weirdest dog we have had ... Ryan blames me.

The funny part of Charlies relationship with Barney is that she is so gentle with him. She chews on him, but very gently. The rest of her toys (except Bob) have been ripped apart and stuffing strewn about the house - it is kind of creepy. The only 'injury' Barney has is a hole in the knee where he was hit with an arrow.

Yeah, an arrow - before moving to Norway, Gary Ryan and his friend Jordan were playing target practice in the backyard with the crossbow Gary had made (just so you know, there was a field behind our house - so they were not going to kill anyone with a stray arrow). They were looking for a good target to use and Barney seemed a perfect choice to all of us. They strapped Barney up by his arms and legs and went to town (obviously very bad shots) until Jessie came outside and screamed, horrified that they were killing Barney (with that huge mouth he has - it looked less like a friendly smile strapped up there - rather like a scream of horror - or he was smiling and enjoying it, and that is just icky). We took him down and gave him back to her. I packed it up when we moved to Norway and there it stayed until I unpacked after moving into this house.

Oddly, Jessie didn't care about Charlie adopting Barney - I guess she was over him.

Flowers & Charlie

Last week I was not feeling well, and Gary did the grocery shopping. He showed up with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I asked him what they were for (i.e. what had he done?...) and he said that it seemed to be a 'flowers for Lori' sort of day.

He knows I love taking photos of flowers and I had just got a polarizing lens for my camera the day before, so I played.

And since none of you care about my flowers ... here is a photo of Charlie trying to get her frisbee out of the tree.