Doggy!

A lot has happened in the last week, but I must start with this story because believe it or not this is where it all began.

Ruben has been particularly fascinated with dogs lately. Last week sometime, he woke up at 4 in the morning and was dead set on finding Nova and playing with her. I think part of this fascination has to do with a routine that is becoming more routine in our house. With Ruben sleeping more soundly at night, he often wakes up before his lazy mom wants to get out of bed so he hangs out with Dad while he goes through his morning routine. This includes a walk with Nova. In fact, one morning when Ruben woke up shortly after Karl had already taken Nova on a walk, Karl was forced to take a second short walk to make the screaming stop. Ruben knows what he wants. When he's playing with Nova he's mostly tackling and hitting (don't worry I try to correct the movement into a gentle pat, but it always ends up looking like hitting and quite frankly I think Nova actually enjoys it). Although sometimes Ruben does just cuddle with Nova as well or try to ride her like a horse. This is the only picture we've managed to take of the relationship because the cuddling, tackling, and patting ramps up quickly into pulling hair, latching arms around her neck, and hitting. Nova's quick with the evasion techniques.

Now I told you that story so I could tell you this one...

Last Thursday we packed up the car to drive to Kansas for Blake and Sarah's wedding and started out on the road. By Iowa City both kids were asleep and Karl and I were actually engaged in uninterrupted conversation. I love car trips. We started seeing signs for Des Moines and Karl turns to me and says, "Wow, Nova's really quiet back there." I glance in the back seat and say, "Nova's not in the back seat" (with much less panic in my voice than I would have anticipated). A few phone calls later and we had a wonderful dog sitter lined up and the guilt attack was lessening. Seriously, how could we forget our dog! What kind of horrible parents are we! Needless to say, since we've been back in Davenport, Nova has received a little more attention than usual and I've tried to keep Ruben from hitting her so much. It is amazing how guilt can motivate.