Super Bowl Sunday

We had an interesting weekend. First, we "babysat" our new "grandchild", my daughter's new puppy, Lola, a darling Shih Tzu pup. Shana and Ryan had longstanding plans to go play snowshoe volleyball in Priest Lake. It would be an overnight, adults only (lots of drinking going on) event, meaning the kids would be staying with friends while Mom and Dad went off for some grown up fun. On Wednesday, my daughter purchased a Shih Tzu puppy from the daughter of one of my coworkers. The puppy is absolutely adorable. I am whining and begging Tom to let me buy one of her brothers, but he's having none of it. We agreed to watch Lola overnight on Saturday. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity for Tom to fall in love with her and realize just how much happier his life would be with a puppy in it. Shortly before Lola's impending arrival, we received a phone call telling us we would also have Tyler for the night. Turns out he had decided it would be more fun to hang out with Poppy and Grammy than his sister and her friends. Tyler is almost 5, and as one might expect from a 5-year-old, is a bundle of pent up energy, waiting to be released. Additionally, Tommy and his family, including 3-year-old Alyssa and 11-year-old Sydney, would be arriving at about 6:30 PM, and Jonathan would be coming with them. It promised to be a noisy, exhausting night.

Lola and Tyler arrived at about 1:00 PM, along with detailed instructions for both. Lola is just 8 weeks old and is being housebroken, meaning she would have to be watched intently and taken outside at the slightest hint that she was going to piddle. My sister, the dog trainer extraordinaire, has trained her Shih Tzu to ring a bell when she wants to go outside. Shana is training her dog to do likewise. So, every time I took the dog outside, we stopped first at the door, put her paw on the bell sitting there and rang it, then headed out saying "let's go potty" or something along those lines, in a cheery, enthusiastic tone of voice. When the dog accomplished the task, she was to be enthusiastically applauded and praised, and then brought back inside. I never realized how often puppies have to piddle. Lola had a couple of accidents, which really means I didn't watch her, or anticipate her needs, as closely as I should have. All in all, though, we did quite well, Lola and I. Sometimes, when we went outside in the snow flurries, rain, and cold, Lola would chase leaves, play with the tufts of grass, try to dig to China, and bark at the rocks, before finally getting down to business. Other times she sat, shivering in the cold, looking forlornly at me as I encouraged her to "go potty, Lola! Go potty!" We wouldn't come inside until she at least looked as though she had gone potty. She really is an adorable little fluff ball, though. I didn't really mind one bit tending to her. She is a pup, though, and she loves to chew - on fingers, on shoe laces, on Duplo blocks, on candles, on hair especially, on pretty much everything. I'd forgotten that about puppies in the 19 years since I've had one.

Meanwhile, Tyler is getting bored and really wants to go in the hot tub. There is no way we can go in the hot tub and watch Lola too, so we put Tyler off, explaining that later, when his cousins get here, he can go in the hot tub. He agrees to wait. I put on every cartoon I could think of, hooked up his video games, fed him his favorite foods, and played blocks with him. By 3:00 he was roaming around, obviously bored. Tom and I had to get the bedrooms ready for the kids, so we set about doing that, asking Tyler to help us keep an eye on Lola. There is one rule Tyler has to follow - do NOT pick the dog up and carry her about. He can sit and have her in his lap, but he is not allowed to hold her while standing up. A fall could seriously injure her. Tyler was playing with Lola on the living room floor while we were making up the spare room bed, when suddenly we heard a thud and a yelp. I ran out of the spare room to see Lola limping and crying away and Tyler standing in the hallway, mouth open. Clearly, he had been carrying Lola and had dropped her. I ran to the dog to make sure she was okay, admonishing Tyler about holding Lola while standing, trying to get out of him exactly what had happened, what had hit the ground (her head, her feet, her back?), and getting nothing out of him but tears. The dog seemed to be fine. Tyler was bawling. I was yelling at him for not minding. It was chaos. Fortunately, a very short time later, we all sat on the sofa and I hugged Tyler, explaining why I'd gotten so upset with him, telling him we knew he would be very sad if he hurt Lola and that is why he is not to carry her, and reassuring him that she was okay and that we loved him. He sat with her on his lap for a long time after that.

Everyone arrived later that evening. I had to watch Lola even more closely to make sure she didn't get overrun by one of the kids, or have an accident due to all the excitement. Finally, we all went to bed. I knew I would have to get up with Lola multiple times during the night to take her outside, so set my alarm for three hours (1:30 am). I awoke at 1:15 am. I checked on her and she was sound asleep, so I went back to bed and shut off the alarm. Ryan had said she would whine if she needed to go out, so I just decided to wait for her to alert me. Suddenly, Tom's cell phone started ringing. I jumped out of bed to answer it. The caller ID showed "restricted"... I answered, heard a muffled "grrmmppphhh" and then it went dead. Some drunk with the wrong number, apparently. I climbed back into bed and tossed and turned for a bit before finally falling asleep. At 6:15 I awakened and realized the dog hadn't whined all night. I checked her to be sure she was okay. She was sound asleep. She had slept all night. I got her up and took her outside to do her business, and then went back to bed until everyone else got up - about 45 minutes later. I hadn't slept well, an ear cocked all night for Lola's cries, but I would be able to take a short nap later if I needed one.

Shana and Ryan arrived with a very tired Olivia at about 10:30 a.m. Olivia had been up until 1:00 a.m. with all her little friends, and had gotten up at 6:00 a.m. She was going to be cranky. The house was filled with the noise of running kids, the blare of the NFL pre-game shows from the TV, people talking at once, and food making. Little arguments broke out between the kids, one tattling on the other for something pretty much all day long. Someone was always hungry or thirsty. The dog needed to go pee. Chaos reigned. We set out all sorts of food - shrimp cocktail, chips, dips, fresh veggies, scones, muffins, beer, soda pop, juice, pizza, sub sandwiches, pretty much every snack you could think of - and kids and adults alike snacked non-stop all day long. I wasn't very hungry, limiting my noshing to a few tortilla chips, some celery and carrot sticks and ranch dressing, some shrimp, and a few mozzarella sticks. The kitchen was a disaster. The spare room was a disaster. The living room was a disaster. But we were all together and having a great time.

The game started. We were all rooting for Seattle. It was not to be. A few bad calls, some huge mistakes by the Seahawks, dropped passes, unconverted opportunities, and the game slipped away. The Seahawks lost, 21-10.

Then, almost as quickly as they came, everyone gathered up their things, and off they went. Shana and Ryan, as they always do, helped clean up the kitchen before they left. We discovered right after they left, that Tyler had rearranged some things in our bedroom, things he should not have gone near, and we couldn't find Tom's wallet, gas card for his work van, and a few other important things. A phone call to Shana didn't help, as Tyler claimed he didn't touch anything. Finally, we found the missing items stuck on top of some books on a bookshelf, where Tyler had put them. He is now banned from our room unless we're in there with him. He has gotten into a weird habit of taking things out of drawers, rearranging things, hiding things, even at his house. We thought he'd stopped doing that, but apparently that's not the case. Anyway, we finally fell into bed at 9:30 p.m., exhausted by all the noise and chaos. Family get-togethers are fun, but draining, especially on Sundays when you have to get up for work the next day. I think future gatherings should be at Shana's or Tommy's where they have better facilities for the kids. Our house is just too small and there isn't enough to entertain the kids here. We have the big screen TV though, so gatherings that involve watching sporting events on TV are usually better here. It's a dilemma.

Now... off to start another week of work.