If she was in your shoes...

Color fun

From Duluth, with love

Every week Gale gets a new letter from grammy and Grampy in Minnesota, usually with a surprise inside. Here's a couple..

new 'do

Balamar's buddy

Some oddly serene moments between Gale and Balamar.

Still, Balah (sounds like "voila") remains one of Gale's favorite topics of conversation.

Halloween wrap-up

Before we become totally entrenched in yuletide festivities, we thought it worth noting that Gale's Halloween cupcake ensemble was a sweet success. In fact, at a costume contest she attended with her grandma she won 2nd place out of approximately 90 participants.

She enjoyed trick-or-treating, I think she felt a little more brave with new Halloween baby in hand.


Actually consuming candy will have to wait for another year, but she did celebrate by eating a real cupcake, and sporting a ridiculous chocolate bandito-style mustache.

The Curious Case of a Spinning Octopus

Not that I mind, but it is interesting that we still do not know who put this spinning octopus toy in our yard. It suddenly appeared one rainy day under the oak tree. The next outside play day Gale owned it. And poor mom's arms have been tired spinning her around endlessly ever since. Times two with little neighbor boy tacked on as seen in this picture. However maybe watching her dizzily walk off bumping into everything isn't so good for her little bustling brain. And is that little brain bustling! She indeed is honing in on phrases and understanding just about everything we say. Just today, we dropped off Mr. Balamar for grooming at Petco and Gale found a child sized grocery cart and proceeded to do some shopping. She went to the toy aisle and started putting all the christmas plush toys in the cart. I leaned over and mentioned that all these toys were for dogs so that means these toys would be for Balamar. Without hesitation, she started putting each toy back. It was hard not to laugh. The last one was quite tempting I guess, she held it for a while, staring at it, just a little too hard to let go of this little christmas tree with a face and arms and legs until I whispered, "that one also would be for Balamar." She promptly puts it back. In general, she does love her dog. She can push him around, try to sit on him, bat him with halloween masks and even pour dirt on his back but he continues to lick her. And being without him for just one afternoon while he's getting groomed, she is quite worried, chanting "Balah!!!!!" all day. As for the mysterious octopus, I suppose I should ask some neighbors soon. Or maybe I should just leave a note under the oak for our yard santa that says "Gale likes swings too."