Wilmington In The Spring

The weather got a little warmer yesterday, so we decided to go downtown and see the sights of Wilmington.  Seems like everyone had the same idea, as it was really "hopping" there.

 

It felt like the city was waking up for Spring.  Shops were decorated with Easter bunnies and eggs and even the carriage horses got into the act.  People were upbeat and enjoying the sun--how funny to see people walk by in shorts only to be followed by people in heavy sweaters and winter coats (it was around 61 degrees.)   I'm guessing the people in shorts were from the east, while the ones in winter coats were natives of Wilmington--still waiting for "warm" weather.  Either way, the city looked good. 

 

We did the river walk, stopped for a glass of wine and then just walked around the city.  Coleton did really well.  He strolled around and smiled at all of his admirers and finally fell asleep.  We stopped at the Reel Café for a snack--which turned out to be huge and then did a quick stop at the City Club to show off Coleton before heading  back home. 

 

Today is a quiet day.  Tony, Tony, Marie and Coleton went to the 8:00 a.m. mass while Dixie and I watched Dr. Phil (what can I say....isn't Dr. Phil a religion too?)    We'll be eating early so "the kids" can be on the road by 2:00.  It's been such fun to have a baby in the house and I know we will feel the emptiness that we always do when any our children leave after a nice visit.

 

Take a look at what we saw in Wilmington:

 

 

 

A man with an Easter hat making balloon animals

 

Happy Easter from our Rabbit Lord?  That's a new one.

 

That's either a horse with bunny ears and a tail or a "habbit."

 

Coleton doing his impression of "Blanket Jackson!"

 

Enjoying spring...and his toes

 

Coleton and Greg (City Club Manager)....his wife spent 56 hours in labor and broke a hospital record!!!

 

Cole and Papa chatting

 

Coast Guard ship....the Diligence against the blue sky

 

 

 

Daddy whispers in Coleton's ear..."Hey, buddy, I gave up drinking for Lent, can you order a beer and give me a sip or two?"

 

Coleton says, "No problem, Dad, but I was kind of thinking about ordering white wine."

 

 

 

When Might Doesn't Matter

Tony, Marie, Coleton and Tyson came to see us for Easter.  This is the first time that Dixie met everyone.  I was concerned that she would bite Cole, since she is into exercising her baby teeth and I was also concerned that Tyson would step on her or hurt her by accident.  Wrong!

 

While she did get in Cole's face (not biting) she made short work of telling Tyson who was in charge.  Initially, she hid behind me checking him out, while he tried to see what this little fluff ball was.  And then Tyson made the mistake of sniffing her food.  Dixie walked right up to him and barked at him.  Tyson looked at her and walked away, as if to say, "yeah, right, you're going to scare me."  And, as any married couple knows....you just don't walk away from a woman who has just barked at you.  She started to follow him, barking all the way. 

 

After she made her point, Dixie decided that chasing Tyson was a game.  Poor Tyson just kept walking around the living room, while Dixie chased him and suddenly nipped at his leg.  When she did that, he turned around and growled a little, which surprised her.  She ran under the coffee table and hid there.  Tyson was surprised by her speed and went looking for her.   Dixie ran under the coffee table, behind Tony's recliner and into her bed on the other side of the chair.  Tyson was baffled.  He just couldn't figure out how she went from being in front of him to her bed in such short order.  Dixie figured that out, so she started to run from her bed to Tyson's blanket in front of the sliding glass door.  She went from blanket to bed several times while Tyson tried to catch her.  It was fun to watch. 

 

In the end, they became friends, although I think Tyson was just putting up with her.  There were many times during the evening when he looked at Tony and Marie and clearly said with his eyes, "can someone get this bitch to leave me alone?"

 

Tomorrow is Coleton's first Easter.  We are glad to be sharing it with him.

 

 

Tyson says, "what the heck are you?"

 

Dixie barks as Tyson goes back to her food

 

Dixie stakes her claim to the house as she takes over Tyson's blanket

 

Let the games begin....from bed.....

 

...to blanket

 

Dixie looks up to her cousin

 

Dixie says to Cole...."you realize that you have taken over my room....?

 

But she decides to share.....

 

...and that was OK with Cole, until she got to his ear....

 

Who sniffed your ear, Cole.....oh, right....it was the dog!

 

In the end, Cole won the room!

 

 

Keeping Up With Dixie

Dixie is a puppy in every sense of the word--she is curious about everything, investigates the smallest spaces, gets so excited she runs and flips herself over and just loves to follow us around.  She will bite the bottom of our pant legs and slide along the floor as we walk and then she will jump on her dog and try to pull him through the bars of the cage by one of his ears.  She's a force to keep up with, that's for sure.

 

Dixie thinks we are hiding another dog upstairs in the bonus room.  We have a full length mirror up there and Tony took her up with him one day when I was out.  She found the mirror and discovered the "other" dog.  She played with it and then went behind the mirror to find it.

 

We just love her so much.  The other day, we gave her a bath--she looked like an alien with this big head and skinny little body.   Sometimes it's hard to find her because she's so small.  But, we have fallen into a routine and I think Tony and I have a pretty good idea of most of her hiding places so far. 

 

Here are some of her highlights:

 

Alien Puppy

 

Discovering the "other dog!"

 

Showing off for the upstairs dog

 

This hiding place really had me stumped.  She laying under the mattress in her cage.

 

 

Dixie molesting her cage puppy.

 

 

In other news, we went on the Leland River Cruise again, this time with our friends, Rhoda and Jim Chinni.  It was cold and rainy but by the time we got back to shore the rain had stopped.  We went to the City Club after that and all in all, had a very nice day.

 



Just Watching The World Go By

We've been working with Dixie since we came back from Cleveland and she's doing well.   She responds to her name and will usually back off from something if we say no.  She's been charming our neighbors and friends.  She is even starting to go into her cage by herself like Jack used to do when he wanted to get away from us.  Dixie is definitely a lap dog--if Tony and I are on the couch, she comes over and jumps up and down until we pick her up.   She likes to lay down under my chair in the office when I am on the job boards. 

 

Yesterday, Compass Pointe had new potential buyers checking out the model homes.  It's always fun to see the golf carts zipping up and down the streets and waving as people go by.  In conjunction with the new buyers being in town, the homeowners were invited to lunch in the lanai.  It was a beautiful day with deep blue skies and wind that made the palm trees look like cheerleaders waiving pom-poms  at a football game.   After that, we came home, turned on some soft music and sat out in the patio.  These are the kind of days that I just love.  It's like watching the world go by in high gear while we are quiet and calm.

 

Dixie loves the patio too.  There's always a leaf or a bug that catches her interest.  She will pounce and roll around until something else catches her eye.  She discovered the shelf under the table and of course had to explore.  The shelf is an open weave and it was funny to watch her maneuver her paws and not fall through the weave.  She found a small ashtray on the shelf and used it as a pillow.  That is one happy dog!

 

Today is another beautiful day.  We're going to go downtown and walk around later.  Not sure if Dixie will be with us as we would have to carry her all around.  Wilmington is very pet friendly so when she is bigger I'm sure she will be with us. 

 

 

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

 

Look at that face!

 

Enjoying Daddy's lap

 

 

Check out the head in the ashtray!

 

 

 

Busy Visit

What a great time we had in Cleveland!!!    We finally caught a break with taxes and won't have to pay an arm and a leg this year.  Yippee!

 

We went to a nice Italian dinner with Donna and Bob and got to see Rose, Joe, Chris, Shannon and Emma.  Emma is getting so big. 

 

There were two highlights of the visit for me--seeing Jenna, Jon and the kids and taking Tony's Amelia Earhart painting to the Women's Aviation Museum. 

 

The Women's Museum really needs some major publicity.  It's a great place to show young girls that literally, "the sky is the limit."  There are several exhibits showing women in aviation--the space program, pilots, even building an airplane from scratch.   There is an exhibit for Katherine Wright, the Wright Brothers sister, who was their aviation spokesperson.  That was cool.  The Museum  is very informal at this point, translation--they need their own building, as things are just everywhere. 

 

Tony's painting will be part of the Amelia Earhart exhibit and is on loan to the museum indefinitely.  They were thrilled to get it and I was so proud of Tony and his artistic talent. Check out the photos below. 

 

And then we got to see the kids!   Wow, talk about growing.  Ben is chest high to me and even looks older.  He is not paying attention when I tell him not to grow!  Zach is walking and doing very well.  He was kind of luke warm to us and that hurts, since he doesn't see us that often, but I am determined that he will know us. 

 

Sammy is a hoot and Ellie was a doll.  She is speaking so much better. As always, they had a great time being with Papa while I took pictures--by the way, I only took 439 pictures this trip, so while I thank all of you who allowed me to flash in your face, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of "cutting back!!!!"   OK, maybe I need to keep working on it. 

 

One of the highlights of the visit was when Ben and Sam showed Papa their magnifying glasses.  They got behind Papa and ran the glasses over his head....all of a sudden, Ben said, "Papa!!!  You have a big red spot on the back of your head!!!!"   Tony laughed out loud and told Ben that was called a "bald spot." 

 

We did this visit a bit differently than our others.  Rather than just play and run around with the kids, Papa sat down and read them a story before they went to bed.  That was nice. 

 

We are going back to Cleveland next month for Emma's baptism, so hopefully we will get to see the kids again and Zach will recognize us more.  I hope so.

 

We picked up Dixie on Monday evening--she was a bit under the weather, so we are questioning having her boarded with the breeder.  We love the breeder, but there are so many things Dixie could pick up with some many dogs around. 

 

So, here is our visit in pictures.

 

 

 

Little Miss Emma

 

Godfather Tony and Emma

 

Rose and Emma Rose

 

The "Swegle" Kids!

 

 

 

 

 

Suzy Dill, Museum Director,  taking possession of Tony's painting

 

Harriet Quimby, the first female to earn her pilot's license

 

The Amelia Exhibit

 

The dress Katherine Wright wore to meet President Taft

 

 

 

 

And now the fun begins!   Papa with Ellie and Sam

 

Zach says, "sit in your lap????  I don't think so!"

 

But hanging out with Mommy was good

 

"Papa, you have a big red spot on the back of your head!!"

 

 

Sam took this picture of Daddy and Zach

 

 

My big boy just continues to grow...

 

 

 

...And so does his little brother!

 

 

Ellie gets a lift and a kiss

 

 

And a hug from MoMo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On The Road Again

Well, here we go again...back to Cleveland.  We're having our taxes done, dropping off Tony's painting at the Aviation museum and seeing the kids.   I can't wait to see Zach walking and hear Ellie talking more. 

 

The down side is leaving Dixie.  We're boarding her with her breeder while we're gone.  I just hope she doesn't forget her training so far.    She's been really good about  not having accidents and she knows that she has two "naps" in her cage during the course of the day.  I'm sure she won't be napping with 11 dogs in the breeder's  house, but she learns quickly, so if we do have to start over when we bring her back home, it shouldn't be very difficult to get her back in the swing of things. 

 

It's getting warmer down here and she enjoys being in the yard.   She like to stretch her boundaries and wanders over to the empty lot next door.  It's funny to see her run away from Tony when he tries to bring her back to our property.  The more he tells her to come back, the farther into the lot she runs.  The really funny thing is watching Tony pick her up, take her to the property line and explain to her that she can't go past our grass.   I'm sure she totally understands what he is saying!

Dixie is totally dominating the stuffed dog that Rose got for her and is entertaining herself with whatever she can find.  My office is now her "playroom."   I don't mind, she let's me be in here too.

 

We took her to Petco today and boy was she a conversation starter.  Everyone just loved her and she loved them back.  We did have a few tense moments on the way there.  She just would not sit in my lap so we put her in her carrier and seat belted it in.  She kept whining and crying and barking and I kept telling her to be quiet (the carrier was behind me so I couldn't see her).  All of a sudden, I looked back and she was on the back seat of the car, completely out of her carrier.  Little Dixie managed to get the zippered top open just enough to squeeze out.   Can you imagine her on the top of the carrier, jumping down on the seat while the car was going 45 mph?  

  

In other news,  I am enjoying my volunteer work at the hospital and have applied for a position there. Of course, I don't think there is a job in Wilmington that I haven't applied for, but I am hopeful that something will happen soon.

We can't wait to see everyone in Cleveland and will take these memories with us: