Been having a lot of fun with Mom tonight. She came home from watching the game in a way happy mood. She let me watch videos of the game highlights with her. Mom's excitement is contagious and I was happy to watch videos with her. She's been trying to explain the game to me, maybe by next season it will make more sense. I am starting to recognize some of the guys by the numbers they have on their shirts. That guy in the picture is Colin Kaepernick. He throws the ball a lot and sometimes he keeps it and doesn't share. Mom says he the quarter back and that's what he's supposed to do. I guess next week they are playing another game and it's supposed to be the second most important game of the season. She says they are playing a tough team called the Seahawks. It doesn't matter a whole lot to me who wins the game or not but I hope the 49er's do for Mom's sake. I like seeing her happy.

We all survived the cookie ordeal. It wasn't so bad this year because Mom was in too much pain to do as many orders as usual. That was the only good thing about it though. Mom ended up going back to the oral surgery place four times. Pip told me there were complications with Mom's recovery. Yeah, I'll say there were complications with her recovery, like she didn't recover! She just got worse and worse and worse. There were bad bone issues, and infections and then muscle spasms. After her last visit to the oral surgery place, they gave her new medicine. She took it, went to bed and slept for four days!! I was worried about her. I watched over as well as I could from my house. I wanted to be with her but Piper wouldn't let me. She said she was afraid Mom might rollover in her sleep and squish me. I suppose that's a valid point. I really wished Ginger was still here. She would've known exactly how to make Mom feel better and she was too big to squish. I think Mom wished Ginger was here too. She slept with Ginger's blue harness in her hand. She even talked to her a few times while she was sleeping. Man, Mom was so sick she even missed TWO 49er's games! That's serious sick right there.

So Christmas 2013 came and went. Mom said this one was a major bummer. I've only had two Christmas's to draw from, and I still don't get why we do it or why it matters. Seems to me, Humans like to fuss and hassle . Anyway Mom is finally starting to feel better. She actually got up and hung out with us on New Year's Eve. I got to see my first fireworks! That was kind of cool. Before my people found me, I was always cold and scared from the loud bangs and pops and fizzles. I had to hide really good. And the night sky blinking on and off, that's scary when you don't know what's going on. Mom and Piper and I went outside and watched the fireworks. Mom held me close and explained what was happening. I didn't feel scared in Mom's hands, and the fireworks were really pretty. Mom says she's hoping this year will be better than the way 2013 ended. I hope so too. That was pretty rough!

Yup, they are. Mom and Piper have been in the kitchen making cookie dough and frosting for Christmas cookies for a couple of days now.  That means that starting today, they'll start cutting and baking. Oh sure the house will smell good, but there will be cookies on every flat surface available! This also means they will have less time to play with me!

And, they brought that tree back in the house, the same one as last year! I don 't why they didn't just leave it here all year, would've saved them considerable time - like days. I have to admit though, that I do kind of like it. Once they get the tinsel on, it looks like leaves blowing on trees outside. It's a nice touch.

And just so you know, it wasn't my fault I haven't updated here in a month - it was Moms fault. She and Piper went away one day a few weeks ago in the morning, and when they came back, Mom was all messed up. Her face was swollen so big it was scary and she slept for days. Pip said Mom had oral surgery. I don't know what that is, but I know if I had gone with them, I wouldn't have let anyone do that to Mom. She was really hurting. Mom got really sick from it too. She was in bed for almost two weeks. She better not do that again!

Anyway, looks like it's cookie time and there's nothing I can do about it. I'll just have to wait it out.

Mom finally made it home a few days ago. She hasn't touched her illustrations yet, says she has to get caught up on things. Ya know, I think I'm glad I'm not a Human. Humans sure have a LOT of stuff to do, and if you're asking me, most of it isn't all that important - lots of extra fuss. I do have to say to her credit, she's giving me all my usual time and then some. Also she did take time to watch the 49er's game on Sunday. And no, she wasn't happy with the final outcome. Beat by one point, yeah, that's pretty tough to take.

About the new baby, Mom says everything else is in place and working fine. She says the baby's fingers and toes are almost as tiny as mine. We're going to Skype with them this weekend.

A lot going on here lately. Mom's spending as much time as she can doing illustrations for her book. That's me in the picture.  I'm helping. She's frustrated things are going so slowly. She'd hoped to have all 27 illustrations done by now, but is still working on the first seven. It seems to me if she'd stop driving Piper to school and work, stop running errands, stop doing laundry, stop talking to her children on the phone, doing work on the computer, and stop cooking meals then she'd have a lot more time for this project. I still think worms and crickets are the way to go. Always know what you're going to have, always available and noooooo prep time. She even had company over today. I wanted to tell him to go away, but Mom let him in and she's been smiling ever since. Still, she's getting so frustrated, I'm beginning to worry. I've seen "THAT" look flash in her eyes lately, you know, the "is this even worth it" look. She's really good at what she does and I don't want her to give up on this. I'd like to see her do more! She's very funny to watch. She has serious faces and happy faces, sometimes a grimace, sometimes determination, but my favorites faces are the happy ones, the smiles. Sometimes she even laughs out loud. She says she can't wait to start painting pictures of me. Says she wants to turn me into a character for children's books. Slow down Mom, let's get you through this one first!!

Oh, and apparently there's a new person in the family. Will and his wife had their new little baby a few days ago - again, MORE time on the phone! And she's going to be gone for ten days! Says she has to go and inspect the new baby. Mom says they forgot to give the baby hair, she wants to make sure everything else is there and where it belongs. Hair's not that big a deal, I don't have any and I'm beautiful!!

Guess I was a bit hard on Mom last night. She really does love me a lot. And she did hurt her back like I thought. She iced it a couple times and I got to help. I didn't get stories last night but she stayed up extra late just to spend time with me. She gave me a massage and talked to me a lot. She told me about the book she's writing for her grand daughter and about the pictures she will paint. She says she's scared and excited all at the same time. I don't know why she would be scared, we've had a bit of company lately and all have looked at Moms paintings so far and have loved them. I think they're great too, just like the pictures in the books she reads to me. She also told me Piper cracked the bumper on the car. I don't know what a bumper is, but Piper cracked it and Mom wasn't too happy about it. Apparently she ran into a wall while she was driving the car. I don't get that either, whenever I see walls I go around them.

I swear, sometimes my humans make no sense. Mom spent three and a half hours on the patio tonight cleaning it. First she raised hell with the spiders, moving big heavy stuff, knocking webs down and sweeping them away. That part didn’t take her vary long but she didn’t enjoy it much. Especially when one of the spiders she was trying to get rid of landed on her shirt. She jumped around and swatted at it while saying some bad words. Obviously humans don’t feel the same way about spiders as toads do. Then when se was done with the spiders, she started untwisting the vines on her Jasmine plants – who does that??? It took her forever! I was at the window where I could see her, I let her know I was missing my family time, but nooooo, she just kept right on untwisting until they were laid out long all over the patio. Then she twisted them back around some tall new spikes! I don’t get it, why undo them just to redo them? And why do that when she could have been cuddling and playing with me?! We won’t have enough time for stories tonight! I am very disappointed. Oh here she comes. Greeaat, she’s holding her back like she hurt it, silly Mom, she knows she shouldn’t be shoving and pulling those giant heavy pots around, now she’s going to have to ice it and we won’t get ANY cuddle time!

Mom has been such a weirdo lately. She and Pip have been gone A LOT, and when they get home, Mom heads right into her room and stays there. She lays down on her bed muttering and hugs a big squishy pillow. Once her eyes stop spinning then she reads. The only time she comes out is when Piper isn’t home.

She’s also dragged out paint brushes and watercolors this week.  She says’ she’s making a book. Whatever it is she’s doing doesn’t look like a book to me, and I know books. So far it just looks like mess. She’s been making one heck of a mess in the dining room! And she looks so serious when she’s doing it. OK, to be fair, she makes all kinds of faces. You should’ve seen her the other day when she spilled water all over her painting. Crash, splash and water all over the place, all over her painting, all over the floor, all over her. I thought it was kind of pretty on the paper, all the colors running down the paper making pretty swirls and mixing altogether, but Mom didn’t like it so much. She said a whooooole bunch of really bad words and hopped and scrambled about. She had to start over and she didn’t like that much. She let me sit on the art table once while she was working. I liked that. I marched right over to the center of her painting and sat right down, great vantage point but she finally decided I should watch from a distance and put me in my house. She says she loves all MY colors and shades and wants to paint ME! Well, I like my colors and shades too and I know I wouldn’t like being different colors. Her hands are so many different colors by the time she’s done, it looks ridiculous. If she tries to paint me I will run and hide!