Tiller Scoocum Furber, Orcas and Shots

Tilly, five months old and fifty-two pounds.  We thought she'd be a medium dog.  Our vet, considered quite a dog expert, believes Tilly to hardly be a lab at all.  Looking over her bone structure, teeth, fur, tail and head, it appears Tilly is mostly Black Lab & Harlequin Great Dane. Luke hopes she has the ability to be both a bird dog and a sailor dog.  Danes were used to hunt wild boar.  Sounds to me like the geese out here are in for it.  I was convinced she had some Pointer in her and she still may.  That's the funny thing about rescued mutt pups. Everyone likes to have a say in her breed.  Whatever she is, she loves standing on top of the picnic table, cheese, ear rubs, little girls, tennis balls, and her new crate. Slinky loves Tilly's new house, too.  

We took the ferry over to Orcas for Lucy's one year check-up with her new pediatrician.  I passed the time by knitting some Easter eggs with yarn scraps.

Although she may not have a great sense of humor (really, how many baby docs are hilarious, sing in a sea shanty band and have your whole philosophy down pat like our old one?)  she helped me decide on vaccinations and supported our choice of goat products before dairy. Her office is worth the trip. Lucy is 20 pounds, has seven teeth, is in the 115th% for height and 35th% for weight.  So, looks like she's model status already.  And, she got some ouchies.  Vaccinations are so intense and all the literature surrounding them swirls around me like a food processor full of tacks and band-aids. We sat for so long trying to decide what to get and how we didn't want the nine she required at once.   Then I took out Betty's record and did the same.  She received three boosters that day and in three months, I'll go back for two.  I guess we're on more of a European schedule, feeling like it is all a lot for her little body and some she just isn't at risk for until she's near school age. I 've read so many books on the subject, both for and against, that I think it'll be interesting to see how I feel about it twenty years from now.  Betty said her favorite part of the day was holding Lucy's hand while she got the shots, telling her it was o.k. and singing her to happiness. Lucky for her Mama and Dada were there to hold her other hand.  My favorite part of the day was at the peak of Mt. Constitution, 2,222 ft, standing in the falling snow looking at all the islands from here to the Canadian mainland.  

Whidbey Island Birthday Party

  

We traveled off island for a special party. Two years ago (is that possible?) I attended Alex's birth and it proved to be one of my most life changing moments. (Thank you again, Don and Erika, for giving me that opportunity. ) I realized I wanted to be a professional doula and have another baby all in the moment he took his first breath. I hope to share balloons and cake.


I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones and used frosting and sprinkles (jimmies) to make them look like the real deal. I substituted a lot of cake flour in the recipe so the cake wouldn't be dense inside the cone. They were a big hit, especially with Betty who ate four without us knowing. Well, Don and Erika knew, but Luke and I caught her sticky-handed and wild half way through the fourth. It made for a long ferry ride that night.
The kids had a great time playing with one another, and Lucy loved hanging with the big ones. Alex had a hard time deciding between our gals, clearly fascinated with both. Betty seems to be cut from the same wild and vibrant cloth and regularly gives Alex a run for it.
Betty and her best friend enjoyed their time, behind a bedroom door giggling for close to an hour. They look like little girls together, so big, and in Paige's words, "It's because [we're] growing." I wish they could see each


other every day. But I guess that's why they're called childhood friends - they're formed in the first years and will even write notes to one another when they become great grandmothers. Luckily, we only live a ferry ride away.
Lucy enjoyed her first taste of organic, unbleached refined sugar. I think the cream cheese frosting mesmerized her enough to forget about her love of strawberries, goat yogurt and blueberries. And Alex just liked watching someone else in his high chair, blowing out fire and nibbling on goodies.
I love birthday parties that are all about the homemade cake, silly party hats and balloons. Watching children try something that started out only hours earlier in my KitchenAid mixer makes me smile.  In another life, I'd like to own a bagel and bread bakery that makes birthday cakes for children.  Maybe it would also have a corner that showcases knitted items.  And vintage Pez dispensers.  And, well, I guess I'd need a pretty large space.  
It is funny how crafts evolve.  I had seen so many knitted cupcake patterns that I thought I could make the wrapper from a sweater sleeve and knit the top, embellishing it with buttons.  I had an old green college sweater I just loved and couldn't part with, even though I hadn't worn it in years. So, I felted it in my washing machine. When I was done, it looked more like a head and a body than anything else.  So, project phase two was born.  I turned it into a crazy broccoli doll for Lucy. The hair took forever. Since Lucy loves stringy things, just like the yellow and white blankie my Aunt Helen made for me when I was a babe that she's adopted, it was worth it.

Sweet Betty Rose

I think this is the greatest photo I ever taken.

Sunken Park, 6:00 PM

Who is this girl?  She recognizes letters, reads stories from memory, builds words with tiny colored letters, sings hip hop songs and 80s hits like "Maniac" to dance routines, tells me she's thankful I stay home and work with her, claps with amazement when Lucy makes the tiniest gain, hums hymns to house plants, loves dresses herself in zany outfits (primarily pink ones), and...

she is such an unbelievable, 

captivating

actress.

Sand, Forts and Skipping Rocks

Our little Nature observer, L May May.  

Betty is really into training Tilly, 

currently working on Fetch, Stay and Come.

Our baby standing at the top of the beach.

Betty the drift wood fort dweller.

What is this lovely squishy thing?

The beaches on this island are varied, expansive, rural and inhabited by fox, eagles and strange jellyfish parts.  We've yet to find a favorite; each is new, closer to Canada and sunnier than the next.  Betty loves to play in the forts, Tilly loves to play on them and Lucy, generally, sleeps in the sling the entire visit.  

Spring

I can't believe I actually dress my ladies in the same thing, I can't believe it's Spring and, when I turn around to see two girls giggling aimlessly along the carpet, I can't quite believe that sight either.  They are already such good buddies who talk in their own language of signs, shrieks and silliness.  We feel lucky when we watch Betty take her role of big sister so whole heatedly with patience to teach and, from somewhere, desire to share and show.  Betty can't wait for "her" room to be "their" room.  "Then I won't be alone,"  she says and immediately makes me feel bad she no longer co-sleeps.  Unless we are on the sailboat, camping, traveling, or if Luke and I have watched a scary movie like Gone Baby Gone and we wake her up and carry her into our bed.  I do think Betty will do a great job of tucking in Lucy at night and retrieving her pacifier if she wakes up.  Cuties.  All this, we're sure, is the calm before the teenage storm of door slamming, screams and defiance.  

So, what's new with the girls?  Betty is a proud bird mama to three lovely birdies.  After eating, she pretends to "chirp-up" her food and feed her little ones.  She's made a nest for them above her bed and has even taken to carrying them in the sling when we leave the house.  She brings her play binoculars in the car so she can hunt for birds out the car window.  Lucy is a quiet one and is increasingly independent.  She loves to play her tiny piano and hit her little bongos.  She'd rock for hours on her little horse and look at books with Betty for ever, as long as the books have pictures of animals.