We have always taken our dogs out to the park daily, or almost daily. Hot, cold, rain, snow, whatever, we’re there. I am not kidding. You weimaraner owners know what I mean. Weather is no obstacle; your dogs need exercise. So, yesterday, all four of us humans and all two of the four paws went out to the park. At first the kids were scared, but the dogs stay pretty far from us at the park so that they can just run and run. The kids discovered how fun it is to call the dogs back to them. “Niiiiiiiiiina! Caaaaash! Niiiiiina! Niiiiina!” Ilya can tell them apart already, which I need to tell the next person who asks me “how do you tell them apart?” Quite easily, thanks.

Ilya is still scared of them, but he doesn’t want them to go too far either. He would yell in Russian, “Nina, come over here!” Of course, Nina’s Russian is not that good, so she just ignored him. He would also try to follow them. When we got in the car, Aaron turned to Ilya and said “was that fun?” And Ilya said, “Fun! Fun! Dogs fun! Dogs fun!” He is still totally freaked out by them and started crying today when Nina walked into view from the next room. So totally loving them one minute and terrified the next. He really likes them if the baby gate is between himself and the dogs, but for the most part, the dogs ignore him then and won’t come over to him. They really ignore both kids 95% of the time with or without the baby gate, but Ilya feels more secure with it there.

Life is good. Life is hard. We can only expect so much of them and we can also only expect so much of ourselves. It is a tremendous adjustment for them, but it is also an adjustment for us. While it does not compare to theirs, it is still huge. Trying to keep that in mind right now.

I’m tired, so that’s all for now.