Walking the Dogs in the Snow

Yesterday, it snowed here for awhile pretty hard and looked awfully pretty!

So when we came home yesterday from the grocery store, we took the dogs for a walk in the snow!

You know how much the dogs enjoyed it! We went the long way - up to the Eagle Trace sign and then back home on the golf course. I asked her if she wanted a long walk or a short one, and she picked long. We were fine while we were on the sidewalk, but once we turned onto the course, the wind was blowing the snow horizontally! She was cold, but didn't complain and once we got around the turn and the wind wasn't blowing the snow directly into our faces, it was better.

When we got almost to the foot bridge, she looked up and saw the house and said, "we're here!" She was so excited to recognize the house! She screamed all the way home!

So we all had a good time walking in the snow!

Wish I had a picture of her in her oversized Rockies cap and Scarpia with snow all over his coat and Katrina bouncing along trying to chase the snowflakes!




Bursts of Language
We've had about 3 full days of just an explosion of language! Almost nonstop talking, and much of it in complete sentences. Joy obviously feels more comfortable trying to express herself and even when she hits a roadblock, I'm not getting the kicking or hitting that I did before. Between hand motions and me reading her mind, we're getting a lot discussed.

What amazes me is the complexity of what she wants to say.

Yesterday, she asked, in so many words, why does Katrina squat to pee and Scarpia lift one leg? I said that Katrina was a girl dog and Scarpia was a boy dog. Thank heavens, that seemed to suffice (for now...)!

She's also asked why the intersection of 2 roads had more lights than the other streets. Or why do I take off my seatbelt before she can when we drive up to the house (a bad habit of mine, I suppose). We've discussed how her foster mother made her go outside for timeout, and that there were 5 dogs in the building they lived in. We've learned how to work the Dish remote to make the tv FREEZE and UNFREEZE. And of course, we've learned how to take pictures on my camera phone! :)

But she's also speaking Mandarin sometimes too. She has a cd of children singing Christmas carols in Chinese. She wants to listen to that sometimes and obviously frustrated when she can't remember the words. There are times when she tell me something in Chinese and I'll ask, what does that mean in English and she can kinda tell me in general terms. We're still trying to teach Mama to count to 10 in Chinese and when she's mad, I know she's swearing at me in Chinese!

One way I know for sure she's understanding how the language works is that I would ask her, "Are you okay?" and she would say, "ok". Then it was "Joy okay." Now it's "I'm okay. Are you ok?"

When she practices on the dogs, though, it's hard not to laugh. I'll hear her say to Scarpia from the other room, "Will you help me? Yes, I'll help you." Or, "How are you today? I'm good. How are you? Thank you!" Scarpia is a patient teacher, as long as she's not screaming in his ear!

Here are some pictures from the week:



The LOOK! We answer that look with laughter and that is having the desired effect, even if it is happening slowly.

(Joy just saw me put this photo up and she said, "Oh I sorry!" I forgot to post earlier that I caught her in the mirror in her bathroom practicing her faces. The Angry One. The Scary One. The Mad One. The Pouty One. The Happy One. The Surprised One. It was so funny! She didn't see me watching her so she doesn't know that now I know she's acting most of the time!)