Breaking News - It's probably a girl

My 20 week ultrasound for baby number 2 was today and it looks like we are having a little girl.  Our new baby was not particularly accommodating so the technician told us she was relatively sure that we were having a girl, but due to a less than optimal view, she was uncertain.   She told us to keep our receipts.... I think we had better choose a boy name too, just in case.

Max falls out of his playpen for the first time

We need a new place for Max to sleep.  Fast.

Max was unusually fussy last night.  He awoke several times for extended periods.  We gave him acetaminophen (tylenol) but it didn't seem to help.  Greta and I lay awake in our bed listening to him cry over the intercom.  Finally, at about 4am, the crying was punctuated by a loud thump, followed by more ferocious crying.

Half asleep, I assumed that he was just banging his playpen against the wall again.  Half asleep, Greta did a standard vault-out-of-the-bed-in-a-mad-panic.  Turns out her panic was justified.  She found Max screaming on the floor in his room, outside his playpen.  Fortunately he was uninjured.

He wasn't injured, but he was wide awake.  We were in a bind.  We needed to put him back to bed so we could get some sleep for ourselves.  But with him so wide awake and with his new found propensity to do swan dives out of his playpen, we were out of options.

So we took him into bed with us for the rest of the night, paranoid that we'd screw up his excellent track record for sleeping through the night alone in his room.  Naturally, he passed out immediately and slept soundly until 8am, making up for lost sleep during the night and throwing off his whole schedule. (And ours.)

He successfully napped in his playpen today without diving out of it.  We'll try him in the playpen tonight, mostly because we haven't yet found the time to set up a new bed.

In other news:

• I finally got a new chain for our bike today.  I also fixed up another one of our bikes.  We're finally back up to a full compliment of bikes.
• The renovations in Heather's bedroom are now complete.  Heather's pretty busy with school and won't have the time to move back in for a while yet.
• Our renovations are mostly complete.  It remains to finish drywalling our new railing-wall and to fancy-up our stairs.  Rob will be back to help us again.
• After an exhausting battle, the fleas in our house are finally on the defensive.  Every once in a while we'll find one at a random location in the house and I can often find one on the dogs after a few minutes of careful searching.  I'm hoping that our newly reduced carpet area will allow us to eradicate them entirely with another blitz of carpet spray, flea shampoo, and internal flea treatment for the dogs.
• Sorry mother, but I still haven't gotten around to replacing the windshield wipers on the van.

That donkey behind me is crazy!

We spent last weekend up at the river for some much needed outdoor relaxation.  On Saturday morning before gramma and grampa arrived, Greta and I decided to take Max and the dogs to visit our neighbours Chris and Lisa.  These friendly neighbours have a baby of their own (six months old now?) and a hobby farm with chickens, goats, and sheep.

The visit was short lived.  Chris was busy at work in the barn and Lisa was on the phone.  We said our farewells and made our way back through their property towards our own.  Along the way we noticed that the sheep were out in the field we were crossing.  The dogs noticed them, too.

At first there was no problem, the dogs would simply pause, look, sniff, and then continue on our way home.  Perhaps they hadn't yet realized what had tickled their spidey senses.  Eventually though, they discovered that there was a whole flock of live sheep right there in the field.  The yelping and jumping turned on like a light switch.  The dogs behaved admirably, listening to our urgent commands to heel and continue on our way off our neighbour's property.

Shaky finally cracked under the temptation.  He took off toward the flock, ignoring our shouts for obedience. The sheep soon noticed that there was a carnivore barreling at them and panicked.  It was quite a sight: sixty sheep ran in unison at a speed I never thought sheep could achieve.  Shaky had absolutely no plan for the sheep, he just chased them.  It was all herding instinct.

Before long, the resident donkeys -- a pair of farm animals whose job it is to guard the sheep against wild predators -- sprung to the defense of the sheep.  The donkeys chased after Shakey, who chased after the sheep.  Donkeys are fast.  And big.  Shaky noticed the donkeys once they began to close the gap between him and the sheep.  After a moment of careful consideration, Shaky decided that he did not wish to be trampled to death by a charging donkey.  His interest in the sheep quickly waned.

I had left Greta and Max at the edge of the pasture in a pathetic attempt to fetch Shaky. (Hailey remained with Greta and Max -- a stellar display of obedience for a two-year-old border collie mutt, given that not even Shaky could resist the call of the sheep.)  It was while I was vainly trying to catch my dog that he abandoned the sheep and began heading back up the path toward me.  We headed toward each other -- Shaky, in a bit of a rush to save his hide from the donkeys; me, in a bit of a rush to grab his collar and secure him.

The donkeys, however, were not yet satisfied.  They wanted justice.  They left the sheep (who were now safe) and continued their pursuit of the interloper.

I stopped running and stood there.  Shaky casually glanced over his shoulder to see two angry donkeys charging behind him at maximum warp.  The whites of Shaky's eyes became clearly visible at that moment.  He picked up a considerable amount of speed and continued on his course down the path... directly at me.  As he neared, the expression on his face was clear as day:  "Dude," it said to me, "I don't know what's going on, but that donkey behind me is crazy!"

It dawned on me at that time that I was in the line of fire.  I took a step or two off the walking trail, hoping to stand innocently in the bushes as the chase roared past.  Shaky, however, slowed to a walk, trotted right up to me, then stood obediently at my side.  This with donkeys in pursuit.  I was in trouble.

Thankfully, the donkeys began to slow as they approached us.  They stopped altogether not ten feet from where I stood, still as a statue, with Shaky panting madly beside me.  The donkeys began to mill around in the grass, grazing, as if they weren't involved in a high-speed chase not five seconds past.

Not one to look a gift donkey in the mouth, I grabbed Shaky's collar and began a calm, measured walk back to Greta, Max, and Hailey.  The donkeys left us alone at that point, apparently satisfied that their job was done.  Shaky and I rejoined the rest of our family and continued on our merry way.

Next time we visit our neighbours, we'll bring leashes.