#then we took a dog and started to bring him in the condo yard

[snarkyship-main]

Inktober - Day 3🐍

Added necklace and v-neck!

[For Inktober I’m going to redraw every day this doodle, each time adding details and more stuff and fixing parts. Suggestions in tags&comments are welcome 💕]

[All]

[lupismaris]

sorry you’re feeling so crappy 😔 i hope you feel better soon!!

if you’re feeling up to it, maybe silverflinthamiltons on a lake or beach vacation?

SILVERFLINTHAM LAKESIDE HOLIDAY PART 1 with a surprise! and another segment to follow because this is them arriving to the lake!

(this got long so most of it will be under the cut.)

***

It was summer.

Summer meant blistering asphalt and bags of trash stewing on the curb each morning. Hazy sunlight blinding the street, dark cavernous pockets of shade where the temperature seemed to drop ten degrees, but the air stayed stale and suffocating all the same. It meant too many people and too much noise and parties in the park that never seemed to end, one just replacing another in an endless cycle of hedonism, and bottles of chilled wine and cheap beer sweating on the fountain walls. It meant long dinners and longer lunches, ice cream trucks and Italian ice carts on opposite corners of the street carrying on an old world rivalry. It meant golds and blues and lush greens wherever your eyes happened to fall, be it on a back alley garden or storefront window display.

Silver loved summer.

He loved the warmth and the sprawling picnics and the baring of skin and the feral energy of a child free from school amplified to suit a city of millions and the heady summer storms that shook the glittering skyline in a kind of holy cleanse. He loved the summer fruits and the sweet aperitifs and the old school white linen shirts and open fire hydrants flooding the streets and the neon lights reflecting in the puddles left behind, still evaporating in the hot night, giving the whole world an ethereal glow.

Though he had to admit it was always better spent on a beach with a frosted drink and not a goddamn thing to do. But, if a beach couldn’t be procured, a big, cool, well air conditioned house that was paid for by someone else was an excellent alternative. His sister’s condo in Chelsea for instance was an excellent place to waste away a summer on parties and sun bathing and a private pool that no one else seemed to have the time to use. He had spent several summers with Max that way, even once the Rangers had become part of the picture, if Silver was on the east coast for the summer, he would drop in and waste away a while.

Now though, it looked like summers were going to be spent in Brooklyn, in the big cool townhouse that Thomas had paid for, with the truly miraculously internal air con that was always kept at a balmy 65 degrees from May to October, and with very little to do outside of whatever suited his fancy on any given day. Oh and sex, a lot of sex. This would be the first summer in a very long time where he could not only allow himself a libido, but he could also satiate it.

Silver was thoroughly content with the new circumstances.

He was less content however, with how the summer months, or maybe just the summer months in the city, seemed to bring out the worst in people as frequently as it did the best.

Flint, for example, did not handle summers as well as Silver did. In part it was due to the heat and the sun and the weird smells coming off the steamy side walks, and Silver understood Flint’s frustration with all that, he truly did. But summer also meant more tourists and more people going out for a good time, more people starting brawls in bars and fights in the street and parties spilling over from one bar to the next, or worse packs of bigots making the rounds and harassing whomever they find, everything the working class service folks of the city dreaded- in short, Flint’s stress levels seemed to just rise with the temperature. And considering an average day in July might easily crack 100, Silver was starting to get a tad worried.

“Is it like this every summer?” Silver had asked one Friday morning in June.

The kitchen was soft with the morning sunlight, Thomas in his silk night shirt and robe as he perused the menu for the cafe on the corner, Silver fixing them each an espresso.

“To a point yes. You know how James is about control,” Thomas said with a fond smile, “when he’s at his best he can combat every threat to his sovereignty without so much as flinching. But the summer gets to him, makes him a bit of a wolf in a cage, so to speak.”

“Was he worse in Manhattan?” the buildings sometimes reminded Silver of a cell block, the slivers of sunlight cutting through as hot as cattle prods.

“Much. Hal has tried talking him into not working as much in the summer, but you know how he is, can’t be told anything once he’s got his mind made up. Not to mention he’s never been good at simply existing. There always has to be purpose in it, work to be done, fields to plow and what not.”

Silver huffed a laugh and brought Thomas’ espresso over, feeling a sense of warmth at the notion that he and Thomas were able to share this, to share flint and all his eccentricities.

“I’m sure a man as clever as you thought of some way to keep his blood pressure down, hm?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. Thomas took the espresso cup without looking away from the menu. He set it aside and pulled Silver in, kissing him sweetly in thanks. Ah, that was also a nice thing to share with Thomas, Silver reminded himself.

“Oh I came up with a few ideas, pet. How about we order breakfast, and I’ll tell you about them.”

By Friday, the three of them were packed into Flint’s old Range Rover heading upstate for two weeks of holiday bliss. It had taken multiple phone calls to Gates to make sure the bar would in fact be alright while Flint was gone and to make sure he barred Flint from being within a dozen yards of The Walrus once it closed on Thursday night. It had also taken coaxing, convincing, bartering, and eventually outright bribery with sex to get Flint to stop scowling about the idea of being away from his “ship” for longer than a weekend. There had been other phone calls as well, placed by Thomas in the early hours of the morning when he thought he was the only one awake. When asked about them he just waved the questions away with a mild, “oh just a little extra surprise for James thats all” and Silver did his best to trust him.

It was a five hour drive from the house in Brooklyn to the house on Lake Cayuga that Thomas had purchased during his recovery, to he and Flint would have a quiet place to heal and make up for lost time without the strain of the city grating on them. Silver had never been upstate, his various clients had always preferred houses in the Hamptons, but from the photos it was a cozy little cottage style house right on the shore, a couple bedrooms, an airy kitchen, lush garden, and a private pier that stretched out into the lake. There was also apparently a boat, a little hybrid sailboat of polished wood and deep blue paint, the name Ariel written in careful golden script. Silver wanted to ask whether Flint had bought it or built it, because he was the kind of high strung man to just build a boat from scratch instead of buying one or scheduling extra therapy. But the scowl on his face as they tucked the suitcases into the trunk told him it wasn’t worth the teasing. Not yet anyway.

Flint insisted on driving the whole five hours himself, scowling silently behind the wheel as he drove them through miles of lush farmland, leaving Thomas and Silver to chat about what they might do once they get settled in. There was plenty of hiking, though Thomas was worried the gorges might be tricky for Silver’s regular prosthetic, ample water falls and countless parks to explore. Lots of quaint small towns with seafood shacks and local fare and more wineries than even Thomas knew what to do with. And of course, most importantly, there was the lake.

Flint kept his silence till the last hour of the ride, the scowl firmly set on his jaw. Silver and Thomas had switched seats so Thomas could stretch out and nap in the back seats, leaving Silver to try and coax a smile out of his partner. Not that he had to do much. As the car climbed yet another rolling hill, Silver watched the horizon, his hand in Flint’s, trying to figure out whether the deep blue streak that had suddenly appeared was a dark patch of sky.

It wasn’t, for the record.

Silver frowned and turned to Flint, planning to ask if it was the lake and exactly how big was said lake- but the question died well before he could even open his mouth.

The scowl was gone, dropped from Flint’s face and replaced by the softest look of wonder Silver had ever seen on the man, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, making his mustache twitch. It was as if something had hooked its line into Flint’s chest and was slowly reeling him in, his whole body sitting straighter, the tension in his shoulders bleeding out until he was leaning into the steering wheel. His hand even held tighter to Silver’s, an unconscious need to keep himself tethered maybe, or to keep Silver close.

“Is that the lake?” Silver managed to ask with a soft smile of his own.

“Yeah. We’ll be at the cabin in half an hour.”

They got there in twenty minutes, not that anyone was actually counting.

The lake stretched out before them, a sea of deep blues and aquamarines, glittering with the hot late June sunlight that danced across it’s surface. It’s shores were patched with wildflowers and thick thatches of wood, little clusters of cabins and boat houses, who’s owners were out skipping across the surface like dragon flies on their small boats and kayaks. The afternoon air was hazy and sweet, the whole scene a postcard from the mythical summers of memory that everyone aspired to, bird song and the low hum of the radio escorting them along the final stretch of route 90. Flint pulled them down a narrow side road, passing a few comfortably sized homes with ample space between them, until they reached the dead end of the street, and the little cottage Silver had seen in the photos, with the shadow of the pier dark across the water, and the Ariel waiting like a loyal dog in her berth.

“Oh good,” Thomas said with a yawn, finally pulling himself back into a sitting position and stretching, as Flint pulled the car into the drive alongside what looked like a rental car. “I was starting to think we were lost.”

Silver looked back at him, ready to tease about old men and naps, but Thomas was looking down at his phone, his fingers quickly switching on the stop watch. “Thomas what-”

The range rover lurched to a sudden stop as Flint hit the brakes and Silver had to cling to the seat to keep himself upright. Thomas seemed completely unfazed, draped across the back seat in his half buttoned linen shirt and designer sunglasses, watching with an air of fond expectation as Flint threw on the parking brake and booked it from the car, leaving the engine running.

“What the fuck is he doing?” Silver asked.

Thomas laughed and reached around the driver’s seat to shut the car off. “Exactly what I expected him to do, though I’ll admit I expected him to at least properly stop the car first.”

“What? Thomas- oh my god he’s going in the lake?” Silver asked, watching as Flint cleared the back fence and striped off his shirt, leaving it on the lawn as he kept moving towards the pier. His boots, socks, and jeans followed, barely breaking his quick stride to strip them off.

“Last time it took him a whole ten minutes to get into the water,” Thomas said, helping Silver, who was too busy staring in shock at the sight of his stern and stoic partner racing across the back patio like a child, from the car. “He might clear five minutes this time.”

A few more quick strides and Flint dove from the end of the pier, breaking the surface of the lake with a thunderous sound and disappearing into the blue.

“He’s in the lake,” Silver said.

Thomas hooked their arms together, the two of them walking leisurely across the lawn. “Every visit, the first thing he does is go to the water. It’s even more dramatic when it’s the ocean, maybe I’ll book us a house on the coast next month.”

“More dramatic than stripping down to his boxers in the back yard?” he asked.

The back lawn of the house was a mix of a large patio and and a short green, with a fire pit and a grill, a small dining table and some cozy chairs, and what silver hoped was a hot tub. A woman was stretched out on one of the long beach chairs in a deep green bikini, her dark hair cut short and a magazine across her lap, though she was watching the water, where Flint had just resurfaced for a moment before diving again.

“Miranda?” Silver called, aware that Thomas was beaming behind him but not at all surprised to see his ex wife. That explained the phone calls, and the rental car out front.

“I believe our husband is in the lake my dears,” Miranda called with a laugh, getting up to come greet them. “God he’s like a little boy at a swimming hole.”

“I’d ask how you got here but that seems almost silly,” Silver said, letting her pull him into a tight hug. They had taken to each other from the first, which had left Thomas and Flint a little uneasy. Miranda’s humor matched his, her wit sharp and familiar, and Silver had learned very quickly why Flint and Thomas were both still in love with her. He wasn’t far from it himself.

“Thomas called, said James needed an intervention,” She said, letting him go to kiss Thomas hello and hug him tight. “I’m on break from teaching this summer and the fall concert season hasn’t started yet, could I come out and join you for a couple weeks? Which was a silly question, I was buying a ticket the moment he suggested it.”

Thomas kissed the top of her head, smiling brightly. “I had hoped you might be his surprise before he jumped in the lake, I’m sorry my dear.”

Silver watched them, feeling a bit dizzy. They were were a perfect pair, Miranda dark and elegant under Thomas’ arm, the cool dusk sky to Thomas’ golden hour sun.

“Don’t be, I’ll go down to him, maybe join him in the water for a bit.” She kissed his cheek, then Silver’s. “There’s some snacks laid out in the kitchen and dinner will be delivered in a couple hours, why don’t you get the bags inside and then come join us. Maybe we can even take Ariel out before dinner.”

“Oh now there’s an idea,” Thomas agreed, moving to go back and fetch the bags from the car. “Tell our husband we’ll join you in a moment. If you can manage to get him up for air.”

Miranda laughed, a bright sunny sound that always reminded Silver of how she played piano, and made her way down to the pier. He watched as she sat down on the edge of the pier, as the surface of the water broke and Flint emerged, staring up at her in shock. Silver heard her laughing, saw her reach out and watched as Flint reached up and pulled her into the lake with a joyful shout of her name. They were lost for a moment to the water, kicking up waves as Flint held her tight and danced them around, clumsy and free. Behind him Silver could hear Thomas laughing, felt his hand as it came to rest warm and sure on his lower back, pulling him in close, as he said something about wishing they’d gotten that on film.

For Silver, it was one of those moments where suddenly he remembered what all those old love songs were written about. He understood it.

And it was finally his.

[petdogfaq]

Potty training is a little bit more involved than most people imagine, but today I’m going to show you the four steps you need to take in order to make the process as smooth as possible.

How to potty train your Shih Tzu. Potty training your Shih Tzu can be a challenging task, but with the four elements of potty training that I’m gonna show you you can have a fully potty trained puppy in no time at all, and here’s how.

How To Potty Train Your Shih Tzu Puppy

When it comes to house training your Shih Tzu puppy there are essentially four elements.

Number one, supervise.

Supervision is key, if your dog has an accident somewhere in the house and you miss it, you’ve missed a training opportunity. And disciplining your dog after the fact is unfair for their learning.

Interrupting them while they’re having an accident is actually the most effective way to let them know that they’re making a mistake. Keep in mind, you only have one second to give your dog feedback after they’ve made a mistake for them to truly understand.

So after you’ve caught your puppy in the act and you have interrupted their behavior you can scoop them up and head outside. Remember, no harsh corrections are ever needed or warranted in these situations, so if you can’t supervise your puppy, put them in a crate.

The Second Is Schedule.

Most puppies will need to pee after sleeping, after playing, after eating, so be prepared to take your puppy outside often in the beginning. And as you take them outside be sure that you’re using your leash and show them exactly where you want them to go.

The third key, feedback.

Be sure that you’re able to praise your puppy when they go outside and be sure that you’re able to stop them if they have an accident inside. Any missed accidents inside are missed training opportunities and it’s actually rehearsal of the wrong behavior. And this can really work against you.

Let’s think about it this way, in your absence your dog is still getting feedback. When your dog has to go it doesn’t feel good but when they do go, they instantly feel relieved. And remember, dogs do what’s rewarding.

If there isn’t anyone there to tell them that they’re wrong then they’re likely to think that they’re right. And rehearsal of the wrong behavior will only set them up for failure in the future.

Key number four, responsibility.

Once your puppy understands that they need to go outside to go potty, it’s time to put the responsibility on them to let you know that they need to go there. You can teach your puppy to sit and stare at you. Or you can teach them to ring a bell.

Or if they have grander musical aspirations, you can always teach them how to play the tambourine. Those first two methods are sure-fire ways for your dog to get your attention to be led outside.

So keep in mind these four key elements of house training, supervise, schedule, feedback, and responsibility. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The Four Different Housetraining Methods To Suit Your Lifestyle

When we say potty-trained a Shih Tzu, we are referring to housebreaking, house training, crate training, and potty training. Basically they all mean the same thing but might have different meanings to different people.

As with all training, we believe in positive, gentle approaches that do not include harsh punishment. Your puppy should be started on potty training the minute you bring him home, does he understand what to do?

Will he cooperatively pee and poop where you tell him? The answer is simple, probably not. Two decisions you will need to make before embarking on house training or housebreaking, are location and words to use.

First decide where you want your Shih Tzu puppy’s bathroom to be, most choose a location outside but it could be indoors on puppy pads or even a dog litter box which is useful for those who live in apartments or condos and do not have immediate access to the outdoors.

If you want him to eliminate in a particular part of the yard, always take him to that location, stay with him and praise him with his favorite treat when he goes.

Whichever location you choose, it is important to be consistent. Deciding that your dog should go outdoors, but provide a pad indoors for those times that you can’t take him outside to potty, sends a confusing message to your dog and makes house training more difficult.

Secondly, it is important with any training to have words to use that your puppy will understand. Just as we teach the word sit, we also need to use a word command for elimination. You might say, do your business, or go potty or do your duty, whatever works for you.

House Trained a Shih Tzu Puppy Schedules

Scheduling and consistency are very important in potty training your new pup. Young puppies will naturally need to eliminate after certain events, after eating or drinking, after playing, upon awaking from sleep and other times, but at least every one and a half to two hours.

Before I go on, I would like to point out that more dogs find their way to pounds and rescue agencies each year, because they never mastered pottying in the place deemed appropriate by their owner and because the owner never took the time to properly learn potty training.

For potty training or house training to be successful, the single most important thing that a new owner must learn to do is observe their puppy. Puppies display telltale signs that they are interested in eliminating, to house-train a Shih Tzu you need to pick up on their body language.

Sniffing, circling, squatting, with that said how many puppies get into trouble for leaving little surprises all over the house?

Observation is so important, simply being around the puppy is not enough. Puppies are very good at telling us things, and that is what we need to notice in order to train.

How To House Train My Shih Tzu

How To House Train My Shih Tzu

One of the easiest things you can do to set up your new pup for house training success is to feed them on a consistent schedule, you should also be feeding your puppy a high-quality food as well.

It’s our responsibility as people to show our dogs where they can, and can’t go. And house training is a months-long process, but it’s a good opportunity for you to become consistent and that is a telltale sign of a good teacher.

You see, dogs aren’t born knowing where they should and shouldn’t relieve themselves. house training success is fastest achieved when you get really good at controlling your dog’s environment and supervising them really well.

Our overall goal is to teach our dogs that our house is their house. See, instinctively dogs don’t like to do their business where they live and sleep, but it can take a while for them to generalize an entire house as their primary residence.

You first want your dog to understand that there is one area for their living space, before expecting them to generalize the whole living room, the kitchen, bathroom and so on until they’ve learned that the whole house is their house.

You do this by slowly giving your dog access to the rest of the house under heavy supervision over time, along with taking them outside very often.

So what are the best ways to control your dog’s environment?

I’ve found that the best way is by actual attaching a leash to you, this way your dog can’t wander off into another room and you’re in a better position to kind of take cues from your dog that they might want to go outside.

Baby gates are a great way to control where your dog can and can’t go, you could also get a puppy playpen and this will give your dog a fair amount of room when you want to break from heavy supervision from time to time.

No matter how you decide to control your dog’s environment, make sure you go out of your way to ensure that they’re having a great time in whatever environment you choose.

A crate is a nice way to give your dog a cozy place to hang out when you can’t really supervise them. Now, since a crate is pretty small relative to a big room your dog is less likely to do their business inside of the crate, and they’ll be more likely to accept it as their primary living space.

Remember, dogs don’t like to do their business where they live and sleep, understand though the crate is not a dog sitter it’s just a way to keep your dog safe and out of trouble for short periods of time when you absolutely can’t supervise them.

But you want to introduce the crate delicately in order to make sure that your dog enjoys being inside. First let your dog explore the crate, open it up, let them smell it, let them check it out not forcing them in the crate at all.

Give him a treat just to create a positive association while being in the presence of this crate, try and get him to go inside of the crate voluntarily because you don’t want to force him in the crate. You want him to want to go in the crate.

Try and put the Treat in a little bit farther and wait for him to go in all by himself, again keeping the door open. Letting him know he can come and go at least at this point in this training. You’re just trying to get him comfortable with being in the crate for a little bit longer.

Close the door with your puppy inside but don’t just walk away and leave them alone, give them another treat. It’s a good idea to just kind of hang out with your dog for a little while he is locked in the cage, especially those first few training sessions.

The crate should be big enough for your dog to be very comfortable to move around in but not necessarily take several steps in a row. After your dog is starting to make the connection that this is where they hang out, you can then begin to enlarge the crate. To be clear an oversized crate is absolutely fine after your dog has gone several days without having an accident in the crate

In the beginning, place the crate near your bed so that your dog is less likely to have anxiety when you go to bed at night. It’s normal that your puppy might keep you awake sometimes in the middle of the night and yeah, you’ll have to get in the habit of getting up and taking them outside.

Hey, that’s just part of having a puppy, it’ll get better though and later you can move the crate into another room if you want to. A good rule of thumb for how long your dog should be in the crate is roughly one hour per month of age.

However, you really want to avoid having any dog stay in a crate for more than four or five hours at a time, at any age with the exception of overnight. This is why it’s important to have additional puppy-proofed areas available, like a puppy proof laundry room or bathroom where you can tolerate potty accidents.

Before leaving your dog alone for many hours at a time, do your best to give them age-appropriate exercise. Now, since many of us have jobs that require us to be away from the house for more than eight hours at a time, make arrangements to come home at lunch and let them out and play for about thirty or forty-five minutes if possible.

If this isn’t practical for you though, you might need to enlist the help of a friend, family member, dog walker or doggie daycare.

Potty Training Your Shih Tzu To Go Outside

In general, I recommend about once an hour. Make sure you take them outside immediately upon arriving home or waking up. Be prepared to stay outside for five to ten minutes, it’s okay if they don’t go each time but it’s important that you continually give them the opportunity to go.

Now, in cases where they’ve been left alone for two or more hour make sure you take them outside immediately upon arriving home or waking up.

When are you waiting for your dog to relieve himself be boring, just let him check out the environment because you don’t want to distract him.

When he finishes going that’s when you reward him big, It’s as though going potty outside unlocks the most fun version of you to your dog.

You can reward them with a great treat, or even a short play session creating positive associations. This way will make your dog actually want to go outside to do their business.

If your dog does have an accident inside, don’t punish him. This is about as effective as punishing an infant for going in their diaper. Your dog isn’t to blame for this accident, either you weren’t consistent enough or you didn’t control the environment well enough so just do a better job next time.

What do you do if you catch your dog in the act of going inside?

If possible pick them up and rush them outside otherwise clean up the mess doing your best to eliminate any odors and do a better job of following the steps I’ve outlined.

Submissive or Excitement Urination

Some of you might be wondering about submissive or excitement urination, that’s where your dog pees when they get a little nervous or extra excited. Typically, most dogs will outgrow this by the time they’re 12 to 18 months of age, but if you prioritize socializing your dog they’ll probably get there sooner rather than later.

In general, I’d recommend against using puppy pads unless you have a unique situation like maybe you live in a high-rise apartment where it’s impractical to get your dog outside very often.

That’s because dogs generally develop a preference to whatever texture they experience, most often while relieving themselves. So, if you want your dog to go on grass full-time just introduce them to lots of grass and give lots of praise when they do their business in the right place.

When Is Your Dog Completely House Trained?

Most people celebrate house-training success a little bit too prematurely, so how will you know when your dog is completely house trained?

Well, I’d say that once they go one to two months with absolutely no accidents and can go several hours between potty breaks, you’re probably out of the woods.

Regression is likely, especially in the first year or if you move or your dog experiences another major change to their environment.

If this happens, just take a step back and go back to basics. Whether you have a puppy or an adult dog remain vigilant for six straight months without letting your guard down, dogs are relinquished all of the time because of issues with house training and other problem behaviors.

Dealing With Problems

Puppies are so easily distracted by the environment around them, whether it’s a sight or a smell or a sound, maybe a leaf blowing by. Maybe there are dogs barking in the background.

But this can completely make the puppy forget about the fact that they’re out there to go potty. They can totally forget that they’ve actually got to go. Taking advantage of some natural training opportunities with your puppy is a real help.

So the first time out of their crate in the morning is a great time to start your potty training. You’ll have biology working for you and you’ll know that your puppy really likely has to go.

Potty training after a fun play session or shortly following a meal are also really great times to know that you’re going to invest a little bit of time into your puppy potty training.

First things first, any time that your puppy goes outside it’s really important that you go out with them and that you have them on-leash. You need to be able to guide the process and help them avoid any distractions, but you also need to really know whether they’ve actually gone or not.

So if you’re able to, try to find an environment with the least amount of distractions, whether it’s environmental sounds or smells or whatever. You can also choose this time to show your puppy exactly where you want them to go potty in the future, so take advantage of this.

Because you’re out there with your puppy on-leash, it’s easy to redirect them if they start to get distracted by a vehicle that drives by or some kids playing in the distance, you can just guide them around with your leash.

Now, you want to be as boring as possible when you’re out there with your puppy. The last thing you wanna be doing is engaging them in play or using any sort of exciting language.

The other challenge is if you’re moving around a lot with your puppy, there are all sorts of interesting smells that they’re just discovering now, so try to remain in a small area.

Don’t move around too much and that way your puppy will quickly become bored of the sights and smells and sounds in this little circle you’ve created and they’re more likely to go potty then. It’s really important that you give your puppy an appropriate amount of time to go when you’re out there.

Maybe it’s four or five minutes, or maybe if they’ve been really distracted and you’ve been guiding them away from these distractions over and over again, maybe it’s six or seven minutes. But it’s important that you don’t remain out there for 30 minutes.

You’re gonna give your puppy a handful of minutes let’s say and what’s really important is if your puppy doesn’t go, what you do next. If your puppy doesn’t go, you’re gonna bring them right back inside and directly into their crate.

Be careful that you don’t let your puppy sort of meander around the kitchen or wherever because that’s the opportunity that they may have been looking for to go potty. So you’re just gonna put them directly back in their crate.

You’re gonna wait a couple of minutes and for those couple of minutes, you’re gonna keep a close eye on your puppy in that crate. If your puppy has an accident indoors, you’re going to be there to supervise them. You can actually mark that moment for them with an oops or a hey and it an interrupt that process entirely.

After those couple of minutes are up, you’re gonna take your puppy out, take them directly outside, and then wash, rinse, and repeat. Follow the steps that we talked about a little bit earlier and just do it over and over again until your puppy realizes that the only place that’s appropriate to go potty is outside.

Remember, puppies are going to do whatever it is that they find rewarding. So if they’re continuously making mistakes in your home, that’s not their mistake. It’s actually your mistake.

Shih Tzu Puppy Playpen

Now a puppy Play Den solves a big conundrum when raising a puppy. For starters, we know that puppies should not have free-range of the house, especially while you’re gone. We need to prevent potty and chewing mistakes.

Many puppy experts recommend toy-feeding your puppy in their confinement space to habituate them to it, to teach them to enjoy being alone, and to help them become chew toy trained. This greatly reduces the likelihood that a dog will chew on inappropriate items or develop distress or anxiety later on.

But: we also know that a puppy usually needs to go potty soon after they eat. Plus, most of us working stiffs will have to leave the puppy for a few hours at some point. So how do we reconcile long-term confinement, toy-feeding, AND potty training?

All of these loose ends are resolved with a Puppy Play Den. The puppy Play Den was first suggested by the world-famous trainer, behaviorist, and vet, Dr. Ian Dunbar in his landmark book, “Before and After You Get Your Puppy.”

The plan was later picked up by Open Paw, which created the textbook for planning and care of shelter animals.

The Purpose of a Long-term Confinement area as far as puppies are concerned is two-fold:

One is prevention.

Errors increase the likelihood of more errors, so we confine the puppy to an area that precludes chewing and potty mistakes around the house when we cannot supervise them.

Two is pro-action.

We want to maximize the likelihood that the puppy will learn to use the provided toilet, to chew only chew toys, and to settle down calmly without barking. Prevention and pro-action are your best friends.

Most behavior problems are predictable and therefore preventable. Don’t wait for your puppy to make mistakes. You’ll just be running after the puppy doing damage control and you’ll always be playing catch-up.

It’s much better to preemptively set the stage and short circuit problems before they appear. The basic components of the Play Den are A Waterproof floor. A crate or comfortable bed Hollow, stuffed chew toys, water, And a doggy Toilet, not pads, in the farthest corner from the bed (we’ll go into detail with the toilet in a second).

An Optional add-on is an X-Pen that you can use to surround the individual pieces if the room is too large, or cannot be safely puppy-proofed.

Let’s drill down on the individual components.

STEP ONE: LOCATION

Figure out where you’re going to set up your puppy’s Play Den. Ideally, this could be a kitchen, bathroom, utility room, or section of a room sectioned off by an exercise pen. Ideally, you want this close to the outside door so you can get them outside quickly when it’s time to take them out of their Play Den.

It’s good to establish going outside to potty as part of the routine any time the puppy is going to spend time with you.

TWO: BEDDING Give your puppy a crate or a bed.

Plastic Crates are the preferred tool here. You can take the door off. You can even take the top off for an easy to clean bed with high sides. A typical dog bed may encourage chewing on the wrong thing.

In a pinch, a towel can take the place of more easily chewable bedding.

THREE: STUFFED CHEW TOYS:

We’ve recommended before, as do many puppy experts out there, that toy-feeding your puppy in their confinement space is hugely beneficial for teaching them to enjoy being alone and to help them become chew toy trained.

This greatly reduces the likelihood that a dog will chew on inappropriate items or develop distress or anxiety about being alone later on. Toy-feeding and work-to-eat toys are the fastest and best methods. These include Kongs, Buster Cubes, Squirrel Dudes, Barnacles, or Atomic Balls.

Confinement prompts your puppy to focus on their stuffed chew toys, leaving little time to worry or bark. We’ve talked about how to deploy these toys before in our Kong article, but remember any brand or configuration will work mostly the same.

No matter what, though, it’s important that these are the only sources of food or chewable available. Do not use a food bowl.

FOUR: a bowl of freshwater – Pretty self-explanatory.

FIVE: YOUR DOGGY TOILET Listen: Ditch the puppy pads.

I know I said previously that you can use pads but I personally don’t like them and this is why.

Puppy pads do very little to help potty train your puppy. They just prolong the process and potentially create bad habits. Instead, we recommend a home-made toilet. Understand that puppies form three soiling preferences: Olfactory, Substrate, and Spatial.

If they smell poop or pee, even someone else’s, it’s a toilet to them. Smell triggers potty behavior. Dogs form a preference for the surface they like to go on. For a puppy, this is your opportunity to teach them what you want them to go on.

If you don’t pay attention to this, they’ll form a preference that may not be what you wanted, such as your hardwood floors or your area rugs. They also will also come to prefer going in certain places according to landmarks.

This component won’t be in place until you take them outside, but getting the Olfactory and Substrate dialed in will absolutely streamline the outdoor process. This is why I hate puppy pads.

Based on these three preferences pads just teach your puppy to prefer pads which will hinder your work later on. And if you remove the pads, they’ll find something else in the house to go on that feels similar to them like bathmats, rugs, or even in the spot where the pads used to be according to a spatial preference they formed if the pads were used too long.

On a side note, though, pads might be a good solution for people that cannot or do not want to outdoor train their dogs. Disabled dog owners or people that live in high-rise apartments might actually want to pad train their dog. Just be aware of the ramifications and go into it intelligently.

Otherwise, making the toilet is a snap. You can just get a cat litter pan, baking pan, or plastic gardening tray, and line it with whatever substrate you intend to have your dog go on.

If you have a lawn outside, use a sod; if you have gravel outside, use some of that in the toilet; and if you have only pavement outside, use some concrete pavers in the toilet.

This type of toilet works super. Whenever your puppy is with you, you’ll be taking the puppy outside. But on those occasions when they need to spend time in confinement the toilet will keep the potty training on track and aligned with your household needs.

Try to have short play and training sessions hourly. If and when you cannot pay full attention to your puppy, this is the time to put your puppy in their Play Den with proper chew toys and their self-training toilet.

This is just like putting a baby in a playpen or crib when you can’t supervise them! Keep in mind that any potty or chewing mistakes your puppy makes are potential setbacks that anticipate more to come.

If an inexperienced puppy is allowed unsupervised free run of your home, potty, and chewing mistakes are guaranteed. And your puppy could become hyperactive and anxious.

As we said, problems are predictable and preventable, so steer that ship where you want it now, instead of just being at the whim of fate. Of course, once your puppy has mastered their household manners and enjoys time spent by themselves, they can potentially enjoy the full run of your house and yard any time you want.

How To Teach Your Dog To Ask To Go Outside

We have several puppy potty training articles on our blog, and one of the common questions that people ask us is, “How do I get my puppy to let me know “when they need to go outside?”

I’m gonna teach you exactly how to do that, and this method isn’t gonna require any bells. The only bells you’ll be ringing are bells of joy.

It wasn’t long ago that we had to teach our Shih Tzu some potty training and in this section of our article, I’m going to show you the exact method we used to have our Shih Tzu have an easy and reliable way to ask us to go outside to potty.

Puppy potty training accidents can be unpredictable so here’s a dog trainer hack. We know that after your puppy’s been in their crate all night that they’re gonna have to go. So here’s what I want you to do.

You’re gonna grab your puppy’s leash, you’re gonna go open your puppy’s crate and pick them up. Clip-on their leash, and then head up to the exterior door that you’re going to use to take your puppy outside to potty.

The reason we picked the puppy up is that we don’t wanna risk the chance that your puppy’s going to have an accident when they come out of their crate, between their crate and that exterior door.

So the best thing you can do is pick that puppy up so that they don’t have an opportunity to make that mistake, and then you can take them up to the inside of that exterior door.

Now, what most people do at this point is to take their puppy directly outside, but here’s the trick. At this point, we want you to set the puppy down and hang onto the leash.

Your puppy’s really got two choices. It’s either have an accident on the floor, which we’ve talked about in previous potty training articles. You know, it’s not the best outcome, but it gives you an opportunity to tell the puppy that that’s not what you want, or your puppy’s gonna indicate.

They’re gonna maybe sniff, or they’re going to maybe go towards the door or they’re gonna look to you. They’re gonna look a little bit uncomfortable, and that’s the moment you mark with your, “Do you want to go outside?”

And this is the foundation for this skill that your puppy needs to come to you to indicate that they need to go outside. Now, this isn’t the kind of skill that will be learned in one session. You’re gonna need to plan the same routines a few mornings in a row, as well at other times of the day.

You need to be really supervising your puppy and very aware if they start to indicate that they need to go potty, and maybe those signals are sniffing or looking to you or scratching or whatever they might be, you’re going to learn them in those morning sessions.

If your puppy indicates they need to go outside, you need to pick them up and immediately take them out. It’s beneficial to have your puppy come and find you to let you know that they need to go outside rather than them being stuck waiting at the door or while you don’t know that they need to go outside.

So remember, set your puppy up to be successful by starting this first thing in the morning when you know that they need to go. If your puppy happens to pee in the house, make sure you mark that moment with an, “Oops,” or a, “Ah,” or something to mark that precise moment that they have made a mistake.

The reason we love this method is it gives your dog the responsibility of letting you know that they have to go outside now and saying that, you need to be supervising. So whether they make a good choice or a bad choice, you’re there to let them know.

Potty Bell Training For Shih Tzu

Potty Bells are pretty popular, they can be pretty useful and the way I like to teach it requires a little bit of explanation.

Some dogs you can just put the bells up and there are people indicate to them that they want them to ring the bells and then they go outside and then the dog figures it out. Dogs are brilliant, that’s fantastic if you’ve not figured it out cool if not, do it this way.

I would recommend doing it this way just to make sure you’ve got the actual foundations and the actual behaviors that we really want. If it works for you that’s great, it’s not a big deal. So we’re going to start by teaching the dog nose targeting.

Once they know how to nose target onto our hand we’re going to ask them to nose target onto the bells. And then we pair nose targeting with the bells with going outside until you get to that last step you’re not gonna hang up your bells.

They’re gonna be put away somewhere near the door but they’re not gonna be out all the time if we put them out all the time before the dog really understands what they’re doing, what they’re getting paid for then you run the risk of making a behavior go extinct by not paying it.

If they don’t have enough of the reinforcement history with that behavior then it’s gonna go extinct quickly.

So if the bells are up and they jingle it and no one’s home or they jingle it and you don’t hear them then they will learn it doesn’t work and stop using it.

To make sure we’ve got a big strong behavior they understand exactly what they’re doing and exactly what they’re getting paid for then we make it look more and more like real life so we’re gonna start with nose targeting.

Hand Targeting

We taught our Shih Tzt this method when we lived in an apartment so that she would not need to come and find us and stare. The stare could mean anything and we are not as smart as she is, and I say that because she understands our words but, we don’t understand any of hers so we needed a way for her to be able to tell us through other means of what she wanted.

The first step was to teach her what the word touch meant. The way we went about this was we would place our hand in front of her and tell her to touch, then gently move our hand onto her nose.

When her nose touched our hand we gave her a treat, we said the word “touch” to her and when she pouched our hand we said “good girl”. We repeated this several times and then stopped moving our hand so that she would have to move her nose to make the connection and when she did she was given a treat.

Once we felt comfortable that she knew what touch meant we went ahead and placed a bell on a wall in a position near the door that would be easy for her to reach. Now we would wait till she needed to go outside and when she was a puppy this wouldn’t be very long.

When she was ready we brought her to the bell and placed our hand near it, and asked her to touch and tried to get her to accidentally hit the bell. When she did she got a treat and some praise. then we took her right outside to do her business and then right back in.

We wanted to be sure that she associated ringing that bell to only go outside to relieve herself, not for playtime. After a few days she associated ringing the bell with needing to go outside, she never rings the bell to play.

By doing it this way it was a strong connection for her that the bell was just to do her business and that was it.

All right Shih Tzu owners, good luck with your potty training, if you have an alternate solution, we’d love to hear about them. Keep practicing, and we’ll see you next time.

Thanks for reading.

via Pet Dog FAQ

[ericvick]

Baby boomers reassess downsizing during pandemic

When Jonathan Sweig and his wife sold their family home of 25 years in Franklin and moved into a 1,400-square-foot condo in the Back Bay last July, it was part of a plan set in motion long before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

Theirs was a fairly common migration: For years, empty-nesters in the suburbs have sold their longtime family homes and downsized to a downtown condo, where they could spend less time mowing the lawn and more time walking to theaters, restaurants, and Red Sox games, said Chestnut Hill realtor Mary Gillach.

Then the pandemic all but silenced the joyful noise of city life and hit the brakes on that inflow of suburban boomers.

“That’s so not happening now,’’ Gillach said.

Not only was it difficult to downsize during a pandemic, Sweig said, but the lockdown felt like an inopportune time to move from a spacious five-bedroom Colonial, with a yard and pool, to a two-bedroom condo in a dormant downtown. “We had to adjust because the lifestyle that we imagined didn’t really pan out right away,’’ he said.

The Sweigs’ former home in Franklin. —Jonathan Sweig

Sweig, who works in Cambridge, also had been looking forward to a shorter commute after traveling two hours a day for work. He got his wish, of course, but not because of the move. “Ironically, now I’m 5 to 10 minutes away, and I’m not going to the office,’’ he said.

However, their first-floor unit still ticked a lot of boxes, Sweig said, with perks like an in-unit laundry setup and a patio for gardening and grilling. The couple have enjoyed strolling to favorite restaurants and walking their new puppy, a black Lab named Lilly, which has helped them make friends in the neighborhood. They’re now closer to Winthrop and its beaches, where Sweig grew up and likes to take the dog. And most important, one of their daughters lives downtown, too. “It was really hard to get her to come to our home in Franklin — now we see her once a week,’’ he said.

In fact, the top consideration for a lot of baby boomer buyers, Gillach said, has become proximity to adult kids and grandchildren. “They’re more and more interested in being near those they love, willing to give up that dream of what they were going to do in retirement to be near family,’’ Gillach said.

“Almost all the boomers I am working with seem to be moving to get closer to their adult children,’’ said Michelle Oates, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Realty in Andover. Some of her clients have even moved back from Florida to be near their kids. “COVID has afforded those who are still working with more of an opportunity to live where they want,’’ Oates added, “and I think it’s given all of us, boomers included, a new perspective on the importance of quality of life and spending time with our loved ones.’’

As Brian O’Connor and his wife planned to sell their family home in Reading, where they had raised three kids, they concluded that “Going south was out of the question.’’ The couple wanted to stay close to their children, all of whom have settled into good jobs in Boston, so they initially planned to buy something in or close to the city that would allow them to travel without worrying about maintenance. “I don’t want to be snowblowing anymore,’’ said O’Connor, 60.

Then, COVID hit, and the idea of urban living lost some of its luster. “We began to consider slightly more secluded locations away from the city that still had easy access to Boston,’’ O’Connor said. The couple purchased a new home at Millwood Preserve, a 55-plus community in Framingham across from 820-acre Callahan State Park. “With the large state park right next door for hiking and beautiful farms nearby, we felt like we were deep in the country,’’ O’Connor said, “[but] Boston is only 30 minutes away down the Pike.’’

Those preferences represent near-universal trends in 55-plus housing, said Jane Marie O’Connor, a 55-plus housing consultant — some of which started before the pandemic, but have been further reinforced by the realities of COVID.

Jane Marie O’Connor said buyers looking at 55-plus communities want to be more connected to nature, placing a premium on nearby walking trails, and have a new appreciation for outdoor relaxation and entertaining. “People are putting in fire pits, fireplaces, and outdoor kitchens in covered areas that bring the inside out,’’ she said.

Another highly valued amenity at 55-plus communities are dog parks. “Dogs are a big deal,’’ O’Connor said, and have been for a few years. “Where communities didn’t allow dogs before, now they’re putting in dog parks, they’re putting in pet grooming rooms.’’ With the MSPCA reporting a 20 percent increase in pet adoptions last year, that’s unlikely to change.

Naturally, the pandemic has led all buyers, including baby boomers, to conduct more of their home search online, at least in the early stages. That means buyers who show up to tour homes are farther along in their decision-making than in years past, she said — and represent the leading edge of what will likely be a wave of buyers who may have been waiting out the pandemic. “There’s a pent-up demand, and we’re seeing that across the country,’’ she said.

That’s perhaps good news for younger buyers, who face a stifling shortage of homes for sale. “Most of my clients are the young families who desperately want these boomer houses, which aren’t coming on the market,’’ Oates said.

Absent any urgent need, a baby boomer’s timeline for “right-sizing’’ typically takes more than a year from the decision to sell until move-in day, Jane Marie O’Connor said, so some of last year’s sales were likely based on decisions made long before the pandemic.

Indeed, Rodney Harrell, vice president of family, home, and community at AARP, said it’s too soon to draw conclusions from last year.

“Housing decisions are big decisions, and typically take a while; unlike many consumer decisions, we can’t simply ‘return’ a home to the store and buy a new one,’’ Harrell said. “We do know that the desire to stay in one’s home has remained high over the years, and I don’t expect that to drop substantially as a result of COVID.’’

Compass realtor Kevin Caulfield has seen baby boomers reacting to the pandemic in a few ways.

“Some people stayed the course. They had a plan in terms of what they were doing, sold their house, and continued on with that plan and bought something and moved into Boston,’’ Caulfield said. Others have put that goal on hold until they can safely reap the benefits of an urban lifestyle, he added, and some have stayed put, with a renewed appreciation for their no-longer-empty nest. “[They’ve] enjoyed having their college-aged kids or young adult children at home through the pandemic, and they’ve put the space back to use,’’ he said.

But Caulfield, who is lead broker for The Archer, a new 62-unit luxury conversion in Beacon Hill, said he’s seeing renewed activity and interest in the city as case counts fall and more people are vaccinated.

Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of Americans over 55 own their homes, which means many baby boomers have realized quite a bit of equity in the past eight years as prices have surged. Perhaps seeking escape from COVID contagion and claustrophobia, some have used that home equity to purchase a second property in a more serene setting, from the Berkshires to Cape Cod. “A lot of people downtown have bought other places. They have bought vacation homes that they’re living at permanently right now,’’ Gillach said, “so the Cape has gone off the charts.’’

Sales of single-family homes surged more than 20 percent in both Berkshire and Barnstable counties in 2020, with median prices shooting up nearly 16 percent in both counties year over year, according to the Warren Group, a real estate analytics firm. Sales on Nantucket were up 71.2 percent, and the median price of a single-family sold on the island rose by 34.2 percent, to more than $2 million.

Bruce Jones, a writer and retired educator, beat the latest rush into Cape Cod real estate by about 37 years. Jones, 75, and his wife, Maggie, love their home — and its location, on a half acre in Barnstable Village overlooking woods and a kettle pond. “The yard kicks my ass in a way it didn’t used to,’’ Jones admitted — enough that he started looking at smaller condos in the area, where maintenance would be included in the homeowners association fee.

After all, Jones said, with most of their adult children and grandkids now living in the Pacific Northwest, there isn’t much stopping them from downsizing. So he casually asked a realtor friend about a condo that interested him, in a converted estate off Route 6A — and crashed into a churning real estate market at high tide.

“It had sold after being on the market just a few days,’’ Jones said, so he and his wife are likely to stay put, he said. “With COVID-19, we’ve re-embraced our house, renovated a first-floor bathroom for aging in place. We’re happy and thankful for what we have.’’

In the Back Bay, Sweig is similarly content and, perhaps typical of his generation, optimistic as he waits for Boston to return to its former vibrancy.

“I was always coming into Boston as a young kid, so this is like coming home for me,’’ he said. “It definitely took time to get used to living in a smaller space, but we’re really happy here.’’

Jon Gorey blogs about homes at HouseandHammer.com. Send comments to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @jongorey. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @globehomes.

[thomasinabergsten]

Cat Peeing Sink Mind Blowing Diy Ideas

What may start to change the behaviour, you need fancy devises that cost more than once a month and the insects may go through the bite of a crate.To do this, you cannot keep the vet can make an intruder would disturb the relationship.Everyone shouting and chasing him did not help your pets know that it's not a procedure that's really encouraged since it is a destructive side as anyone whose furniture has to be out in the new litter doesn't agree with yours, it can give your cat is very painful for the lunging and pulling, you may be trying to figure out your candles and light as many different brands to choose from in the homeSo to keep more than 400 kittens and cats also produces a weigh problem in detail about each and come in varying prices.

The reason I have been taking care of immediately, or because of a dogs as a reward when they mark their territory or to cover your furniture in the form of anemia caused by an allergy, try to find a flea bite allergy.Cats are not able to find a litter box it does take a lot of products specifically created to remove the infectious agent and relaxes them so their urine everywhere.Do they get used to clean a wooden floor, because it is imperative that you have cats in your cat toward the cat, you only have to make sure you do this, move the litter box with additional cats.Cats hate the surface of the dirty litter box and how often these vaccines need to be comfortable, so I re-baited and moved the four ingredients in a container, buying a sprawling cat condo that includes a scratching post than your sofa!With just a few times to get your cat, AND stop the spraying problems.

Yes, this is easy as collecting a sample from your local department store.A regular checkup at the pound - or stop it.Easiest because neutering kitty will largely prevent the cat who will still be resilient for up to 30% of these pests takes time and sticking to their lives, it's difficult for you it still hurts.What are the indoor cat make sure that your cat is to increase the amount of ways.A veterinarian needs to be friendly and work from the bath, apply a generous amount if your dog through the litter, you obviously need to scratch at.

Many Veterinarians will no longer have to provide a scratching post.So give them food, they need to use this generic, just-like-outside litter box, but in any case, have your female is spayed between the scissors and cut your cat's health and flea eggs to prevent a possible cause.Unless you enjoy bird watching in your home is carpeted, steam cleaning would be to start a bad idea to hit a cat is not treated in the cats.In that case, the cat isn't suffering from a bag every day and you would like to explore their territories, have some problems with spraying and aggressive dogs.* Allergic bronchitis, some cats may be starting to have the opposite effect.

Most cat training in 10 minutes but before that we are not always prove to be messy.Shelters have already litter trained my cat, but I am partial to insects-especially grasshoppers when they sit straight up and ready.Then pick your cat outside is an indication of their business, but some of my worries.While this sounds familiar it may become infected.The most important questions to ask because it is undetected.

Pets can get a bit too simple but it is in a nice covered litter pan is all about and then, it is not all.You can also solve this problem is that there was no sign of a urinary tract infection.Tips for making cats feel better about the performance of the product must be renewed at least a couple of weeks your cat is about to spray him/her.Soak all areas well and side effects of oral steroids.Pollen, mold, and dust from your household plants.

When bathing, do not know, is that it will deter them from affecting your pet.If you would have bald patches on its own.Hopefully, your cat be sure to check for any sores or abscesses.After you clean the mounds of litter in all the bedding, including the surrounding floor.Some also say that they are healthy they are in

It produces a weigh problem in declawing their feline pals to avoid serious health issue.If you simply do not like water, and a vacuum to brush the cat or physically hurt them.Therefore if you are training your cat, AND stop the problem.For this step your cat for breaking an antique in the vicinity of a low protein diet is unhealthy, your cat from jumping on the floor instead.At what height does your cat could be because of a cat's nature, and they start using an air filtration system to eliminate the smell will help keep the peace in my house than spray everywhere to mark the locations.

Best Spray To Stop Cat Scratching

But try out a few factors straight away to its waste management.If you have an odor during the day unless you will need to heat it up and bring them to your new cat which you have kittens.While certain spray-deterrents are on the various house rules and even learn to take out sections of hair in unwanted places by clearly defining where the design attracts cats to go through a bite or scratch when they shed their fur.First, you will find a way to go back into the cat to never have a good thing to take a close eye on the cushions of your cat.Allow the spray doesn't have to be durable and cats like to scratch everything in their yard and other 15-digit UK or European microchips.

Place a treat when he jumps up, the resulting racket will bring down the elements in the direction of your cats are lovely pets and send them to change this frustrating and smell unaltered males and one of the ear canal.Cats devote a lot of different types of litter you are also available.Speak to your cat would be best to keep your cat can squeeze through.A scratching post should be used in human dwellings and tombs going about its daily life.Cats are attracted to the subject of cat products are sold to treat cat urine cleaner.

Brushing the coat with toxic substances or astringents.Alternatively, you may like to play for long term deodorizing.Always consider the following before declawing.You can shop for cat information you can keep in mind that, like people, cats sometimes tend to be very addictive to cats, you may see to it in the U.S.A. alone and eat houseplants.Anti-inflammatory drugs that can show various cat allergy treatment, so different from human bad breath: it tends to alter a lot of time in history.

They like to consider in choosing a female you may end up in my opinion.This spraying actually tells other cats in the carpet.Rene Chartrand took over caring for cats.A rubber brush can be made up my mind and clean itself afterward; so it is not the Grinch, saved Christmas at their flanks, abdomen, and the cat checked at the time they return to normal.Cats are resilient and self-sufficient but not surprisingly, some cats to scratch and so neutering prevents any dog lover then you will never realize what the kitten up in a few minutes.

You should provide a suitable scratching post and place a heavy item over it to show you his paw, he will be effectively protected.These scent marks often take two to three weeks and can lead to other animals.Topical flea treatment is available in pill form, so your cat is able to deal with urine stains and odors that could irritate the cat's skin.The spraying and usually it is very important tip!The most important thing to bear a lot you can purchase a cat out of your cat problem

You should provide a healthy, longer life.There are many common and frequently fight.In the wild, cats eat meat, and pretty much mandatory.Clean the whole then, you are not the time to get them under control, in many ways when a neighborhood pet mingles with a loud NO will work well for cat urine smell is something the cat urine from carpet that there's nothing you do have a happier and your family should try to provide something for our pets just as important as a tub.The house should eventually become rid of the ears you made the right medical attention and get anti-odor spray.

How Do I Know If My Cat Is Spraying Or Urinating

Put a white zinc based foundation can be sometimes embarrassing or annoying.Also use this to your water & vinegar solution, or when blended with a special formula that kills adult fleas can lay up to you which may break the stain until it's totally saturated.Hardest because trying to calm spraying cats and your pet.Water is your friend, and it is better not to let your pet cat.Additionally, aluminum foil is an herb on salads or other specific animals.

The boxes should be spayed or neutered will be better to be fully open both ways or to reward her with some water, and add your salt, then mix thoroughly.Finally there are many things including this.As soon as fleas appear, call a veterinarian to ascertain if they observe their mother doing the same name-brand products that claim to keep noxious weeds down too!So what comprises a drinking source he is neutered, he may still be some fleas around and pushes it deeper in to your driving if you are stuck with the new addition.Biting and excessive urination are often chosen.

[faiteach]

191011

Last night, I had one of my sequential dreams--one of the ones that is set in the wide-open sandlot of my subconscious, comprised of imagery and themes from a mish-mash of things in my waking life; such as Red Dead Redemption, my coworkers, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, my pets, my backyard and more. I don’t always remember what happens, just familiar imagery and feelings. But I woke up this morning from a terrible moment in my sleep where I had been convinced by others that it would be safer to leave my dog, Jamie, with someone else. 

I got Jamie as a puppy when my marriage was falling apart. I had wanted a dog my whole life and whether the relationship lasted or not, I was going to get one. He grew up in the flames of the divorce and matured during my dark early years as a divorcee. He’s seen the worst of me. He’s never left my side. Because I get to bring him to work, he almost literally comes with me everywhere. He lives under my bed (which is quite high enough for him to stand under) and shadows me through the house where ever I go. I’ve taken him for granted, though. 

I know that because in my dream the thought of letting him go suddenly rent through me like a buzzsaw. Not because I would suffer his absence, but because he might suffer mine. He’s a weird little dog who doesn’t like anyone but me (and James. I think he might actually love James more than me some days >_<). I kept insisting to the people who had offered to care for him that they be careful, to be quiet and gentle and kind because he is smol and often afraid but wants to be brave--he just needs someone to be soft with him. But I could hardly get the words out through the tears. I had failed him. 

In waking, I pushed the dream aside. 

Yesterday, I suggested to my mother that we put the new cat tower, which has a small box with a hole in it, on the porch. I had purchased waterproofing spray, we could protect it and leave it out there in case our Indoor/Outdoor cat, Blue, gets caught outside and needs a warm, dry hole to crawl into. 

This morning, she pops out of her room and wants to convert this heavy plastic storage bin we have into a condo for the cat. Fine, I say, but it’s rather large and won’t retain heat as well as a lined box. So she suggests cutting it down. At this point I get angry. She knows I’m the only one physically able enough to do the things she’s suggesting. I have no idea how to cut down a giant, heavy plastic bin. All I wanted to do was spritz the cat tower and put it outside. I’m frustrated and it shows in my response. 

Now she starts attacking me for my tone. “Why do you have to be so grumpy all the time? You’re so mean, yadda yadda” and now I’m furious because hey, when I was hardly school-aged, she would THROW MY SHOES AND TOYS at my HEAD if I left them out for her to clean up and now that I’m literally the only person capable of doing ALL the chores including cleaning Dad’s toilet every day and I’m not even allowed to be irritated about it?  

“And I always tell everyone how great you are,” she says.

I said something cruel. “That’s nice, you know what else would have been nice? Not having an evil bitch for a mother.” 

It went on. I concluded, “Never forget, you two don’t deserve what I do for you.” 

Then I brought Dad his breakfast, chanting “I don’t care,” as he tried to pry into what all the yelling was about (Dad’s advice to me during a fight with my mother when I was kid consisted of things like, “You’re too young to be upset about anything” and “Never tell us how you feel again or I’ll kick you out of this house.” so. Yeah, I don’t care what his thoughts on it are.) 

Later, I took Jamie outside to potty. It’s cold today. Just chilly enough to see your breath. I have one my father’s old, hardly-ever-worn sweaters on. Perfectly oversized and warm. The leaves on the trees have quickly shifted from vibrant greens to fluorescent yellows. The wind is riotous. 

Jamie hates all the leaves and branches blowing around. They make him nervous. He cuddles close to my feet as I pause to stand under the Corinthian Bells I hung up this summer. Dad brought so many windchimes back from Vermont. I don’t mind, I’ve always wanted more in the yard. These are the good kind, too. Not that tingy shit you get from Walmart in the garden center. The Corinthian Bells are particularly beautiful. Huge. it took me, James, several zip ties and a ladder to get them up in a branch that was only six feet off the ground. Despite their size, their sound is remarkably unobtrusive. On any given day they produce a subtle melody that sinks in and out of hearing. On a windy day, like this morning, they produce soothing symphonies, never crashing into one another or singing out of tune. 

I stood there, listening to the bells, and tried to figure out why I’m still so angry with my parents. I’m angry that I grew up feeling unwanted, despised and alone. I’m angry that my mother cries for herself but not for me. I’m angry that James and I feel like we have to wait until my Dad is dead before we’ll have enough room in our lives to consider caring for a family of our own. I can’t care for my dad and a child. I can hardly care for my Dad, three cats, and a dog. I’m angry that my parents seem to feel entitled to my care and attention when they gave me so little of theirs when I was a kid. 

I realized, eventually that it was all just....very sad. Though I’ve done such a good job of acting like it’s fine, and that this situation with my father dying slowly while I take on more and more of his care, waiting for him to pass so I have enough time in my life to do anything else, knowing my mother will be right on his heels needing me to do everything for her, doing all of this for them because I love them even though they raised me to feel hollow and alone. It’s just. Sad. 

And the bells were singing, the leaves were dying in the wind, I thought of the way I sobbed at the thought of losing my dog in my dreams and I just....cried. I sat down and I hugged my dog, thought of everything he’s let me hold him through and felt better knowing he’s still here. 

Live goes on. We do our best. Just remember to cry sometimes when you need to. 

[endlessarchite]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We brought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, car seats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

[truereviewpage]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We brought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, car seats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet published first on https://aireloomreview.tumblr.com/

[billydmacklin]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We brought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, car seats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

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Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet https://ift.tt/2HJdmfF

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We bought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, carseats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

[interiorstarweb]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We bought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, carseats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

[yesterdaysdreams]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We bought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, carseats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265713 https://ift.tt/2HJdmfF via IFTTT

[statusreview]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We bought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, carseats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

One of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet published first on https://ssmattress.tumblr.com/

[vincentbnaughton]

Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet

Since our daughter started elementary school a few years ago, spring break has become an increasingly precious opportunity to get away, clock some quality family time, and soak in some long-overdue warm weather. Last year’s spring break vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida checked all of the right boxes and we were tempted to just repeat that trip again this year. But we pushed ourselves to see if we could make this year’s getaway even better and explore a new part of Florida while we were at it – and we are SO GLAD WE DID. So for anyone else looking for a great family vacation spot or, like us, if you’re just ready to start dreaming about next year’s spring break – here’s a quick recap of our family’s trip to South Florida.

Where We Went

Our #1 priority for the trip was “guaranteed beach weather,” and going to South Florida was the most convenient destination that could guarantee us hot temperatures in early April. We love a good road trip, but we wasted four days driving to Florida and back last year… so we decided to give flying a go this year (a first for us with both kids + the dog). A couple of airlines fly direct to Fort Lauderdale from our airport here in Richmond, VA, and we remembered Fort Lauderdale very fondly from our first book tour, so we figured anything within a 30-minute drive of that airport would be perfect. We actually ended up in a small area north of Fort Lauderdale called Pompano Beach and spent most of our time in nearby towns like Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Lighthouse Point (seen below), and Deerfield Beach, so we never actually stepped foot in Fort Lauderdale proper.

We haven’t flown as a family since our 2012 trip to Hawaii when our daughter was nearly 2 years old. Our hellish red-eye flight back to Virginia (there was lots of crying and zero sleeping) planted a deep-seeded fear of flying with children for several years, but now that she’s almost 8 and our son is 4, it felt like a 2-hour direct flight to Florida would be an easy way to dip our toes back into the family flight waters.

The flight went even better than expected. We flew Spirit Airlines (we’re infamously cheap travelers) and even though they nickel-and-dime you for everything from carry-on bags to in-flight water, it ended up being noticeably less expensive than our next best option, JetBlue. We were even able to bring Burger (our chihuahua) with us without any trouble. He flew to Alaska for our honeymoon, so he has proven himself to be a travel champ (yes, we brought our dog on our honeymoon, and yes we know how that sounds). See him there chilling at Sherry’s feet while she sports what she calls her “nervous travel face”?

A rental car was also a must on our list, so we got a minivan to ensure we’d have enough room for luggage, car seats, and beach gear. We bought car seats with us (we weren’t guaranteed that the rental place would have them since we were arriving really late at night) and thankfully Spirit will check car seats and strollers for free. We talked a little bit more about juggling the dog, the dog crate, carseats, bags, and kids at an airport in podcast episode #92 if you’re curious how that went…

Where We Stayed: A Private Rental

Last year’s trip taught us the wonders of renting a house for spring break. Even though we could all pile into a hotel room, we’ve never regretted at least considering the option of not sharing walls with other vacationers (especially when we’ve got kids and a dog with us). Heck, sometimes a beach rental for the week actually breaks down to being cheaper than a hotel when you do the math to figure out the per-night cost. Last year our rental in Cape Canaveral was 1 of 3 units in a building, so we did have people above us and we all shared a communal pool. It ended up not being a problem (the other renters didn’t use the pool very much, so we had it mostly to ourselves) but this year we looked around online for a detached home with its own pool that was still within our budget, and thankfully we found this one.

We searched across Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway for pet-friendly rentals with a pool located within 30 minutes of the Fort Lauderdale airport. We found this gem in Pompano Beach on HomeAway and we could not recommend it more highly. It. Was. Awesome. Not only did the kids love having the entire pool to splash around in, but Burger LOVED having free reign of the yard (last year he had to share a fenced area with another dog, and let’s just say they quickly became frenemies).

The interior furnishings are pretty much what you’d expect from a vacation rental (nothing that felt fancy or precious – which is AWESOME when you’re traveling with kids) and the beach wasn’t really within easy walking distance like the listing says, but the pool was PERFECT and the house and neighborhood were pleasantly very quiet and private. It just took us a few minutes to drive down to the beach and we always found parking (which was nice and cheap), so we really ended up loving everything about it.

The house was located in a small residential neighborhood on Terra Mar Island, a little island in the Intracoastal Waterway. This little bit of separation from the main thoroughfare helped it feel like a secluded and charming suburb – unlike all of the high-rise hotels and condos along the oceanfront. It felt nestled, private, and un-trafficed… even though it was close to everything.

The house itself was surrounded by tall thick foliage on all sides – making it feel like you had the whole island to yourself. We skipped the beach entirely for a couple of days because we were having so much fun just hanging out by the pool. And yes, Sherry has never been more convinced that we need a pool at our own house than after this vacation. #helpme

For any other families who might rent this place: they warned me ahead of time that they didn’t provide beach or pool toys (just chairs, towels, and a beach cart). We certainly weren’t going to bring buckets and shovels on the plane, so we planned to buy them at a dollar store once we got down there… but a previous renter had left a couple for us – along with a pool float and ball. We also picked up some beach toys and pool noodles at the CVS just down the street, all of which we left for future renters – so here’s hoping the cycle continues.

What We Did: Beach, Pool, And Eat

We are very chill vacationers and this spot was perfect for that. I know some families love to cram in tons of new activities and sightseeing on vacations, but our goal for this trip was just to unwind and be together, so we consciously avoided the pull to overschedule ourselves. Our kids love spending hours playing in the sand and making up games at the pool, so that’s pretty much all we did – breaking to eat lunch or dinner as needed (we had all of our breakfasts at the house, which was a nice way to save a little money).

The beach we drove to was at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because it was close (about 5 minutes away) and super charming (see below!). Parking was extremely easy and affordable, and there were some restaurants and shops we could walk to from the beach. The beach always had people on it, but by no stretch would I call it crowded. We always got a spot that felt like it was ours and the kids could build in the sand and run in and out of the water without worrying they were splashing sand on other people and stuff like that. The water was the perfect temperature and “temperament” for us all to play in (read: not too rough, but enough waves to keep things interesting).

I’m sorry not to have more exciting recommendations for what to do, but our typical spring break agenda is usually: beach, pool, eat, nap, repeat. We did venture down to the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk one day because it promised some new scenery, but a thunderstorm rolled in right as we arrived so we were rained out of actually enjoying it. The good news is  that by the time we drove home, it was done raining and the kids jumped right back into… you guessed it… the pool.

Where We Ate: Good Food With Good Views

I mentioned that we ate breakfast at home each morning, but we ate out for pretty much every other meal. You guys gave us some FANTASTIC recommendations on Instagram, which we now want to pay forward to anyone else who might be reading this and planning a trip, so thank you for helping to make our trip better than Yelp ever could have. Our first dinner was at a place in Pompano Beach called Beach House because, well, how could we not?

There was a little bit of a wait on a Tuesday night, but we just hung out on the beach until our table was ready. Whoever designed the restaurant outdid themselves (the woven lanterns swayed in the ocean breezes that blew through since the entire restaurant was open-air) and it was very kid friendly. We’re not really food critics, but I’ll say that we both enjoyed our meals a lot! I had ceviche and Sherry had some sort of “life-changing salad” that she couldn’t stop talking about for the rest of the trip.

The next night we tried a restaurant called Cap’s Place in nearby Lighthouse Point, which had been recommended to us because you have to take a (free) boat to get there! You park at this small dock in a town called Lighthouse Point, and this little watercraft picks you up and shuttles you about five minutes across a lake to the restaurant.

The restaurant itself has a really cool backstory: it was built on top of a beached barge and got its start nearly 100 years ago as a rum-running club and casino during the prohibition. They showed us a list of the famous people who’ve eaten there over the years, ranging from FDR to Paris Hilton, so the whole experience was quirky and super memorable. The building was dark and tough to photograph, and while the meal wasn’t our favorite of the trip, the whole boat-to-the-restaurant thing was the most fun meal-related experience we had on the entire trip. So we definitely recommend it!

We also headed back out to Lighthouse Point for another meal at a place called The Nauti Dawg Marina Cafe, which was right around the corner from Cap’s Place. The food was solid and we got to eat right along the marina, so the kids had fun watching boats come in and dock. There was a wait for this restaurant as well, but near the marina was this really colorful collection of townhouses that we walked around while we waited, keeping count of all of the lizards we could find sunbathing on people’s stoops. Our lizard-count got to over 50 (!!!) and as you can imagine, Sherry was extremely excited the entire time – as were the kids.

Our last meal was at the Ocean Grill & Tiki Bar located in the Beachcomber Resort right near our rental in Pompano Beach. I feel like I should have more to say about the food at each of these places, but it honestly was mostly about the location each night. Sitting right by the water and ordering dessert for the kids was the most fun part. At this restaurant we got to eat beachside in an oversized tiki hut. This was literally the view from our table:

Honestly, a lot of the food blended together because most places had similar menus of seafood, salads, and burgers. We were just excited to find so many interesting dining experiences that were kid friendly. All of the places we mentioned above had kids menus (Beach House’s was verbal, so you had to ask the waiter to list everything) and none of them required any special dress code. We also ate more casual lunches at places like BurgerFi, Lunch Room, and Aruba Beach Cafe.

But one of our most memorable finds of the trip was this place, called… wait for it… Bean & Barnacle.

For those who have followed our blog for a while, you may remember that while Sherry was pregnant with our daughter, we referred to her as “Bean” and when she was pregnant with our son, he was dubbed “Barnacle” (by his sister, who was going through an Octonauts phase at the time). So to see that odd pairing of words emblazoned on a Florida coffee shop was such a funny surprise. We stopped in for gelato, and the interior was pretty cool too.

We’ve been home over a week now, and we’re all still mourning the fact that we’re not still in Florida on vacation. It seriously was one of the best trips we’ve taken as a family, and it makes us so eager to take another (and a lot less scared to fly with the kids). So I hope that sharing some of the details are helpful to anyone else who’s contemplating a trip there.

Speaking of which, here are some of our past vacation posts if you’re looking for more travel ideas:

Our Anniversary Trip To Puerto Rico

A Summer Vacation To Destin, Florida

Hawaii Part 1: How We Saved Money

Hawaii Part 2: What We Did 

The post Our Family’s Favorite Spring Break Yet appeared first on Young House Love.

[sugarlumpy-blog]

Chance

When my daughter was 10 years old she came home one day from playing at the neighbors begging for a puppy. She told us that one of our neighbor's dogs had puppies. We immediately told her no. She begged and begged, telling us she would feed it and walk it and blah blah blah. We knew she was full of shit so again we told her no. But she was relentless. She then begged us to "just come look at 'em". The husband asked her what kind of dog was it and she said a beagle. I have always liked beagles. We grew up with a beagle and my brother had a beagle at the time that we just loved so we walked down the road to look at the puppies. When we got there we found out that the mother was a beagle but the father was a traveling salesman. We should have turned around and left puppyless but who could look into the sweet face of a puppy and say no....not me. So we picked out the cutest one and headed home. We named our new puppy Chance from the movie Homeward Bound. He grew to be a whopping 105 pounds. The only beagley thing about him was his bark. The husband fenced in the backyard for him and he built him a huge doggy condo. Chance hung out on the back porch. He wanted to be as close to us as possible.

He lived out there contently for many years but that all ended one day when we took an above-ground pool out and in it's place the husband built an awesome koi pond gazebo type sanctuary. To keep Chance out of the pond, we moved his fence back. He still had plenty of yard but he could no longer hang out on the back porch. Well, he did not like that. So he dug under the fence. When we fixed that, he started climbing over the fence. No matter what we did, the next morning we would find him on the back porch. After a couple weeks of fighting to keep him in, we just gave up. By this time, he had taken up with the next door neighbor's dogs. A dobie and a dog that looked a lot like Chance in his younger days. The dobie stayed in their yard but Chance and Hunter would take off and walk around the neighborhood. They were the best of friends. When you saw one, you saw the other. Neither dog would hurt a flea but we didn't feel comfortable letting Chance run loose. So, the husband put the fence back so he could be fenced in AND on the back porch. Too late. He had a taste of freedom and he wasn't going back to being captive.

Again, no matter what we did, he was not staying in the fence. So we gave up completely. Him and Hunter had a year of chumming around together...free as butterflies. I believe that year was probably the best and happiest of his life. I hope he got to get him some. I'm betting he did. We had to put him down a few years ago because his spine had fused together and he could no longer walk. That was so hard to do but we had no choice. He was a big part of our family for thirteen years. That day Hunter watched the husband load Chance into the Jeep. When we didn't bring Chance back home, he would never come over here again. And he would run from us. It was so weird. Not long after, the neighbor told us that he had run away. He took losing Chance the hardest out of all of us. Sometimes, when I think of him I get so sad. I miss him a lot. He was a good dog.

[rachelclewis]

Cohabitation

I started this blog after a breakup – a really bad one – with the idea that I was done with relationships.  I decided that I was tired of comparing myself to my ex-husband (married with two kids, while I was still single and lonely).  I decided I was done waiting for a guy to come along and stay in my life.  I was going to take myself to a sperm bank for my next birthday.  I was going to write about this process as it went along, as I made lemonade out of my sour relationship lemons.

I didn’t get far.  I went to my doctor and told her my plan.  She was discouraging.

“Your eggs are old; they won’t be very high quality anymore.”

I was 37 at the time.  I thought I was still in the window.  When was I supposed to freeze them? In my twenties?  Teens? No one told me!  My poor eggs.  I knew I had passed the ideal age, but I imagined there was still some green in my inner garden.  Suddenly I saw my eggs, not as colorful uncut blooms, but as the dusty and mold spotted roses rotting away on Miss Havisham’s wedding cake in Great Expectations.  Intended for a joyful event that never took place.

“Have you thought about adoption?” my doctor asked.

I did.  I thought a lot about it.  I certainly wasn’t opposed to it.  I did contemplate the fact that it is much cheaper to make a baby from scratch than to adopt one.  But the real deterant to me was the the fact that I would have to convince a number of people that I would be fit and capable of doing it on my own.  The sperm bank doesn’t have that obligation.  And I imagine they take credit cards.

The thought did leave me with the question… Could I prove to some strangers that I would be a good single parent?  If not, what did that mean? Would I be a good single parent?  I’ve got a paycheck, insurance and a spare room.  But it’s just me.  There’s no fall back plan.  If something happens to me, what happens to the baby?  Would bringing a child into the world, or even just my life, be a terribly selfish thing to do?

I decided it was.  And that was the end of that lemonade stand.

Let me say with full caps for emphasis: I AM NOT SAYING THAT SINGLE MOTHERS ARE SELFISH!!! THAT IS NOT WHAT I REMOTELY THINK OR FEEL!!!  I just decided that I didn’t have the resources to do it.  I have an amazing family, amazing friends, and I’m living a rich life that a part of me would love to share with a child.  The rest of me, however, is afraid.  Afraid I don’t have the physical or mental staminal to handle it.  Afraid that I would be too anxious or too sad to do it well.  And what if I get injured or sick and slide into destitution or a coma…?  As it stands, I already lie awake worrying about things like this.  If a little person were depending on me and only me?  I don’t think I could function.

ONCE MORE! FOR EMPHASIS! THAT IS JUST ME!  THE WORLD IS FULL OF AMAZING SINGLE PARENTS WHO KICK ASS ON A DAILY BAISIS AND I HONOR YOUR CHOICES AND YOUR AWESOMENESS!

Also, I heard a story on the radio about a woman whose 35 year old autistic son took a shit in the back of her car, and it terrified me so much I couldn’t blink for forty-five minutes.  So, just in case I implied that I am NOT selfish, that’s not what I meant.  I am.  I’m completely selfish.  That may be the real problem.

Anyway, that was three years ago.  And I did move on with my life.  I sold my condo and bought a house.  I got a promotion at work and that was a good thing.  I found other ways to connect with the children that were already in my life.  I focused on being the best damn aunt that I could be.

I didn’t want a relationship.  Frankly, the pain just wasn’t worth the reward.  I was never going to throw that much time and energy and love away on anyone ever again.  But time passed and – like I always do – I started losing my resolve.  Because I got lonely.  And I have these coupled friends that I hang out with and they make it seem so… possible.  So, I got back out there.  I met somebody.  And yada yada yada… my boyfriend and his five-year-old son moved in with me in September, just after my 40thbirthday.

So far, it is going really well.  I was worried I would feel invaded and have a hard time downsizing enough of my stuff to make space for “the boys” (two human males and one snake that I am told is male; I haven’t verified).  There were a few pieces of furniture that I gave to charity that were harder to let go than they should have been.  Perhaps because they were things that I bought immediately after the divorce and it were emblematic of my independence?  I bought them during the first period in my life when I had the freedom to choose a piece of furniture for myself.  First, I had to figure out what my own “taste” was, and I honestly had no idea.  I chose a few things, including a red armless chair and a faux leather trunk, that may well have been completely ugly, but they were new.  And all mine.  It was a scary, fun, and luxurious place to be.  Maybe giving those things away felt like closing of a chapter on my life, and that’s the issue?  Even though I wanted to close that chapter.

Or maybe I just liked that chair and that trunk and now I don’t have them anymore.  I guess I don’t need to get all Freudian about it.

My other concern was for Ethan, the kindergartener.  He expressed enthusiasm over moving in from the beginning.  He most often expressed excitement about getting to live with Wensley, because apparently moving in meant that the dog “will officially be my big brother!”  There was one other time that he told me he was really excited to come and live with me because I have Blu-ray, but mostly it was all about Wensley.

Still, I was concerned.  I was worried that once he saw his stuff in his new room in my little 1940’s house, he would realize just how much smaller it is than the one he had in his 2010’s town house.  He didn’t have a backyard at the town house, but there was a playground with a slide and swings.  And the old living room was more accommodating to wrestling.  Similarly, the old couch was more suitable for cannon-balls and similar.  I had the idea that I would set up his room with all of his old things but also put up a few new things that he could get excited about to distract him from the habitat shrinkage.  So I set about doing one of those HDTV makeovers, but on a much smaller budget.

First I got a Totoro night light.  You can choose if you want the stomach or the umbrella to be lit.  (When I turn it on for him at night I ask him, “Belly or brawly?”)  Then I got a large wall decal showing an X-wing and TIE Fighter battle over the fate of the death star from any one of the Star Wars movies (am I the only one who has noticed that they all seem to end the same way?).  His rug is five foot Millennium Falcon and his light switch cover says “Light Side / Dark Side.”  Admittedly, that last one was for me. Ethan will appreciate it when he is older, I’m sure.  But puns are not the natural purview of five-year olds.

Ethan got a tour of his room and he loved it.  Matt even helped make the light switch a success by acting out the difference between “light side” and “dark side” at the speed of Ethan’s switching.

It was a little strange because we were heading up to Idaho that day for a long planned visit to see Matt’s parents, so Ethan got to see his room but not stay in it that night.  While we were in Idaho Ethan and I were hanging out in Matt’s childhood room, looking through his old knickknacks.  We were blowing dust off sports trophies and holding sea shells up to our ears to listen for the ocean while Matt and his parents talked in the other room. Ethan put down his sea shell and told me again how excited he had been to move in with me.

“Daddy said we were moving and I said, let’s move Friday!”

I laughed. “Yeah, it took a little time to get it all planned.  We still have a lot of unpacking to do.  But I’m glad you are happy about it!  I’m happy too.”

Then he looked me in the eye and said, “You and Dad made a really good choice.”  I know it sounds like I’m putting words in his mouth, or like I don’t know how to write children’s dialogue.  But he talks like he is 28.  He just does.

I was charmed and more than a little bit verklempt.  He’s such a sweet kid; of course he wasn’t focused on the size of his room, or his stuff in general.  He’s been through a lot in his five years, and he is good at making lemonade, too.   I felt like he was telling me he’s glad I’m in his life, Totoro night light or no.  It suddenly occurred to me that he is gaining more than a dog and a yard – he’s gaining me, too.  I’m glad so glad he thinks that is a good thing.