Let's start off with my husband, Patrick. He and I met online (as it had to be since he's GONE most of the week) and have been married for almost 6 years. He was born and raised in the house just 100 yards down the driveway from where we live in rural Virginia. But he's not your "typical" redneck truck driver. He has a mind that seeks knowledge the same way mine does. He has wit and humor that is twisted in the same way mine is. He's a wonderful daddy, a fantastic husband and he loves us all with a fierceness that I can not describe. He is also a "fuzzy man" ... a big teddy bear who claims his hair is leaving his head in a migration down his back. He makes me laugh and sometimes I make him laugh as well. We try to have fun when the stresses of life allow us to do so. He takes over primary care-giver duties of our son when he's home on the weekends to allow me time to rest. Sometimes this doesn't allow him to get done what he wants to get done on the weekends, especially when a certain 5 year old forces him to play a certain Wii game.
Next, I'll introduce my son. RP stands for Robert Parker. Even before Patrick and I got married we had decided on baby names. Considering that I was 36 at the time, we thought it best to "cover" both sides of the family in one fell swoop; so we decided our first son would be Robert for Patrick's dad and Parker for mine. Now on a side note, Parker is a name that has been passed down in my family for more than 4 generations. My Grandfather was Parker Tefft (another family name) Jr and you can guess what my dad's and brother's names were. My brother - known as Butch since when he was born there were three other Parker Teffts who were living - died at the age of 32 without having a son. I have two cousins who also gave their first sons the middle name of Parker so the generation after ours will continue the name. Back to RP. RP is a wonderful child. He is loving, giving, strong, healthy, gentle when he chooses to be, intelligent, sweet and into EVERYTHING. He started climbing onto the counter by the age of 18 months and started raiding the fridge on his own at about the same time. His vocabulary is astounding to me and some of the things that come out of his mouth are hilarious. Sometimes his logic is "different" but frequently he makes logical connections that would seem to be beyond his years. I suspect that much of this blog will have anecdotes about him and what he says and does.
That brings us to the magnificent puppy in the picture with my child ... Aine. She is a wonderful playmate for RP and already watches over him very carefully. She is a BIG girl already and she still has growing to do. I don't know what species she thinks she is or thinks the rest of us are. But I do know that she is just as much a member of our family as the humans. She is a goofy dog who sticks close to her human "pack members" and loves her best friend, Micah. It never fails to amuse me to see a Mastiff and fluffy kitty playing.
This naturally brings us to Micah. He is a bundle of love, energy, humor and fearlessness wrapped up in a silly poofy body. He is a glutton for both human love and Mastiff slobber. We adopted him from the animal shelter when he was about a tear old and he just fit seamlessly into a crazy household that already had three humans, a puppy and a cranky older kitty. He quickly decided that Aine was going to be his best playmate and allowed her to put his whole head in her mouth while playing.
Last, but not least in my heart, is Dylan. I adopted Dylan as an 8 week old kitten from a different animal shelter. We figured out that he is about half Bengal cat based on his markings. Because Bengals are all part Siamese, he is predominantly a one-person cat. He has not been as welcoming of Aine or Micah, but his "kitten" RP can do no wrong. He used to take turns with another kitty we had at the time in the duty of guarding the kitten from harm ... literally. He may be old and cranky, but he is still my little baby kitty.
So that's the lot of us. There are other characters who will enter this blog, but this is who lives with me day in and day out. I'll leave you with a picture of me that is admittedly out of date just so you can have an idea of who's talking to you. It's not the best picture, but it'll do.
No comments:
Post a Comment