duke

we're currently semi pet sitting for our wonderful neighbors i'm always talking about.  the husband is in the stake presidency and the guy that saved my life that one time.  the wife is so sweet and sent me home with delicious straight from the oven hot baked sweet potatoes last week when i stopped by to visit.  she also plant sitted my little mint plant for me while i was in atlanta and at the beach.  and the daughter was just called as my new beehive class president and is actually the only paid babysitter we've ever used.  

anyways, they're amazing and it's nice to be able to repay a little favor when i can.  

so it goes like this "i want duke!  i want duke!"  "okay baby girl, go put your shoes on and we can go see duke."

"i need help!  i need help!!!"  (ummm, when is that independent toddler stage supposed to happen?!)

 

"up mama.  up please mama!"  (she has a somewhat love hate relationship with highly energetic dogs)

"there he is!  that's duke!"  that's duke's ball!  he's running!" as we played fetch from the backyard bench swing.

"hi duke!  hello duke!"

(my view)

 

[bored]

 

 

"hot rocks!  that's hot rocks!"  (said loudly as she quickly dropped the rock back on the ground)

 

above her head, you can see the yellow slide to her baby pool.  parker doesn't believe in large yards so it's especially nice that we love our neighbors so much!

"i want nap!  all done duke!" 

the wife and daughter were out of town and the husband sometimes has to work long days (today was 14 hours then had church meetings later) so we went over once in the morning and once this afternoon before nap.  both times went better than yesterday because yesterday went something like this...

backing up a bit: i was supposed to all day watch a little boy in the ward for my friend who's been in the hospital lately.  but there was some miscommunication and the husband never dropped the kid off and my friend decided since he was behaving so well, she would be able to manage fine that day without my help.  so my day suddenly became completely free.  my longtime atlanta friend tarin just moved to the area and she happened to call at this exact moment.  "why hello... how are you doing?"  "WE'RE BOOOORRRREEEEDDDDD"  "okay, come over!"  so tarin and her kids came over.  we hung out, went on a walk, played at the park, and then went over to check on duke.  while we were all in the backyard i called my neighbor "i just wanted to let you know that when i got here, duke wasn't in his crate" to which she replied "oh, no big deal, i bet jim was just so busy this morning that it slipped his mind.  just play with duke and put him in his crate when you leave."  so then we left duke in the back yard to hang out some more.  i thought it strange he hadn't gone to the bathroom out there yet so i left him out for a bit while we went in the house to check the floors and rugs for stains or signs of an accident.  while we were doing that tarin said "is someone home?"  "no, the husband is working.  you probably heard the screened front door creaking or something."  "i hear someone talking" hmmm, so i listened and sure enough i was like "that's his voice!  what's the husband doing home?!"  so i called his cell and as it was ringing he came up from the basement laughing and apologizing for the inconvenience "i'm so sorry, my brother something something something and so i just cancelled my day and forgot to tell you that i'd be here to let duke out."  WHOOPS.  sorry i just broke into your home while you were here!  needless to say, even though it wasn't my fault, i felt kinda ridiculous and was insanely glad that tarin was there with me.  the moral support was very much appreciated.