Nimbo the Dog

We got our dog Nimbo as a puppy in November 2006, right after we moved into our house in Girdwood.  We're not sure exactly what Nimbo is, but we believe he's half newfoundland and half border collie.  "Nimbo" comes from the cloud formation "nimbostratus", the cloud type that produces precipitation.

Nimbo is full of character, and full of fur.  He frequently gets mats in his coat, but on the plus side he's fine in 0F temperatures and loves the snow.  Whenever we go outside in new snowfall, he rolls around like crazy on his back and makes doggy angels.  Alaska's ideal for him because he does overheat when it's above 60F.  He's in great shape and loves hard, steep hikes.  However, he has a limp when getting up after laying around for a while.

Nimbo has always had a very sweet and outgoing personality.  He loves greeting strangers, and still occasionally gets too excited and jumps on people.  The neighbors call him "smiley dog".  Unfortunately, a few people misinterpret his playfulness for aggression.  I think these people just don't know how to read dogs, and don't know that a wagging tail means a happy dog.  What really drives Nimbo crazy is when people just go by and ignore him.  He wants attention!

Nimbo certainly has some faults.  One fault is that he occasionally tries to herd cars, and will be successful at it if the car slows down enough.  But he usually realizes that they're bigger than him and eventually gives way.  However, he's pretty good around moose and bears, barking and standing ground but not necessarily provoking.  He once possibly saved my life when I stumbled upon a black bear in the backyard.  Another fault, as I mentioned before, is that he can be a bit too friendly.  His biggest fault is his lack of recall.  He'll come back just fine most times.  The big exception is when a hike or ski is just about done, he's off-leash, and we're approaching the car/house: then he'll keep away from us at all costs!  It's amazing how he knows that an adventure is coming to an end.  We don't know how he ended up like this, as we've always rewarded him for coming to us, and often release him as a reward.  I think it's just that he's super-smart and sees keep-away as a fun game.

Nimbo knows some basic tricks, though it's been tough to train him as he's not very motivated by food.  Tricks he'll do every time (treat or not) include sitting, shaking hands, and laying down.  He's also pretty good at staying and at sitting pretty.  Heeling is a bit tougher for him, but he doesn't pull the leash at all when walking.  Occasionally, we'll get lucky and he'll roll over, but generally he just lays down when you say "roll over" and maybe rolls over a quarter of the way.  One valuable trick of sorts is that he is a very private pooper.  In other words, he never just poops in the middle of the road, but rather deep in the bushes/woods.  If the neighbors ever blame Nimbo for pooping in the lawn, we know they're lying!  One downside of his pooping habits is that he needs to exercise to poop; we can't just let him out for a minute to go to the bathroom, but need to take him on a walk to "loosen things up".

We're anxious to see how Nimbo interacts with Zola.  We have no fear of aggression while he's awake.  However, we need to watch closely when Nimbo's asleep.  This is because Nimbo's a heavy sleeper, and when woken up/surprised, he jumps up suddenly and might growl.  We need to start startling him more when sleeping, and rewarding him when he doesn't act surprised.

Snowy the Cat

The only cat I haven't covered yet is sweet Snowy.  He's a beautiful, blue-eyed white cat.  We got Snowy as a kitten in Montana back in spring 2005.

He is certainly the shyest of the three cats, but he's also very sweet and mellow with a quiet purr.  He is terrified of Nimbo the dog, but he and Oreo and good pals.  One of Snowy's favorite habits is cleaning Oreo, though because of this he rarely cleans himself and sheds the most of the three cats.

Snowy loves to "perch" on me.  This involves him putting his front legs and upper body on me when I'm sleeping, with the rear of his body down on the bed.  Snowy is the only cat who really loves catnip.  The picture above is of him "drunk" on a catnip-filled toy.

Snowy's best "trick" is that he comes when called.  And not just some of the time, but every time, as long as I use a high-pitched voice to call him.  He also talks back endlessly if I use this same voice when in the same room as him.

So which of the three cats is my favorite?  I honestly can't say.  All three cats have their own distinguishing characteristics.  And it just feels wrong for me to actually pick a favorite.  I love them all equally!

Oreo the Cat

Continuing the series of posts on our pets, the picture above best embodies the personality of Oreo (on the left). She is the center of attention, the princess, the dominant cat in the household.  Jenevra acquired Oreo as a kitten in 2004 before we met, so she's the oldest cat, and also the only female animal.  She is a small, dainty cat with really fluffy, well kept fur.  One of her parents was a show cat.

Oreo has gotten sweeter and sweeter through the years, but still one of her most distinguishing characteristics is her moodiness.  Her mood changes very quickly and for no obvious reason.  Sometimes it'll seem she's purring and growling/hissing at the same time.  She also transfers her anger onto the other animals.  If the dog is too close to her, she'll slap another cat.

Oreo demands attention from us.  Often, when I'm rubbing Jenevra's back, Oreo will get in between us and demand I rub her instead.  She gets the prime seat in bed, right next to my head, though you have to be careful or she'll puke up a hairball on you in the middle of the night or sneeze in your face.

One of the cutest things Oreo does is demand her belly be rubbed, just like a dog.  And she actually seems to enjoy it.  Another really cute thing Oreo does occasionally is emit a really high pitched squeak when picked up.

Climate the Cat

I realize the most exciting thing is the upcoming arrival of baby Zola, but in the meantime, I'd like to introduce you to some of our other family members.  We have three cats and a dog.

Let's start with our newest pet addition: Climate:

We acquired orange, fluffy Climate a little over two years ago.  He was abandoned as a newborn kitten in a shopping cart at the Wal-Mart in Wasilla, and found by someone and given to us.  Having him from kittenhood, we made an effort to teach him a few tricks and were successful!  His best trick is that he shakes without fail for treats.  His second best trick is his ability to fetch.  He will fetch his little toy mice (of which the house is littered) without fail, over and over again until you stop throwing the mice.  Eventually, he'll start breathing audibly with the mouse in his mouth.  It's really cute!  He also likes to bat the mice down the stairs and chase them, bring them back up the stairs, and bat them down again.

Climate is also the only cat who is not afraid of Nimbo (our dog).  In his couple weeks in a foster home before he came to us, he was around dogs, probably aiding in his lack of fear for them.  Occasionally, Climate and Nimbo will play with each other.  A neat quirk in Climate is that he loves to lick people's faces incessantly.  I (Todd) let him lick my face, but Jenevra doesn't like it.  I don't know if it's the taste or what, but he certainly enjoys it, as he purrs nonstop.  When he wants to lick my face, he'll start meowing nonstop is his high-pitched girly voice.  All our cats are indoor cats, but Climate tries to dart out the door whenever we open it.  He goes straight to grass blades beside the front door and starts eating them.

Climate isn't as close to the other two cats (Oreo and Snowy).  Oreo and Snowy were here first, and lick each other a lot and are close pals (usually), but Climate is more on his own.  Oreo and Snowy sleep on or near me (Todd), but Climate is usually off on his own.  One other neat trait of Climate is his love of a clean litter box.  Whenever I scoop or change the litter, Climate comes running next to the litter box and is sure to be the first to use it, even if he doesn't really have to go poop or pee!

Natural Childbirth

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I am very thankful for upcoming baby Zola.

As I said a few posts ago, we are going the route of natural childbirth, having the birth at a birth center.  I know 90% of people probably think that it's crazy to go the route of no pain medication.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that people just don't know about what goes on in the hospital and why it's not ideal.  There are some documentaries out there, such as "The Business of Being Born", that help to explain the situation.  We've also been listening to a bunch of natural childbirth podcasts on our commutes together.  One common misconception is that people think you are screwed if there is an emergency by being at home or a birthing center.  In reality, almost always the midwife can see problems coming and you can be transferred to the hospital within 30 minutes.  Also, a lot of the drugs used during pregnancy, such as pitocin for inducing labor and the epidural for pain control,  have been shown to usually be unnecessary and potential harmful.  There are a lot of extra things that a hospital does that aren't necessary and can lead to more interventions, such as IVs and continuous fetal monitoring.

Part of the problem with hospitals is that they're taking something totally natural and making it an emergency, when in reality only about 5% of births require the level of medical technology that a hospital has.  Of course, money and convenience for the doctors/nurses plays a big role.  Pitocin is convenient for the doctor because they can hurry and get the mom through labor so that the doctor can catch an afternoon round of golf.  Plus, time is money for the hospital.  Also, the use of more drugs, surgery, and intervention is money for the hospital (pitocin, epidural, C-section, IVs).  There is a lot of research out there that shows that pitocin, epidurals, and C-sections are not ideal solutions.  Of course, common sense would tell you that cutting a huge gash in your stomach is not good.

That's enough for now.  I realize a lot of the things I mentioned are totally foreign to a lot of you.  After all, why not take advantage of all the medical wizardry that a hospital offers?  Well, it's not quite that simple, and we didn't realize it wasn't that simple until we started doing a lot of research.

Chia Muesli

Today for breakfast we made chia muesli. This is a delicious raw food breakfast that is packed with super-foods, nutrients and antioxidants. We first tried this at a local restaurant, Jack Sprat, and I loved it so much I was inspired to make it at home.

Recipe Per Bowl:
Almond or Soy Milk (approximately 1.5 cups)
Gogi Berries (small handful)
Apples diced (half apple any type)
Bananas sliced (1)
Walnuts chopped (small handful)
Chia Seeds (3 Tbsp)
Enjoy!

We are in an interesting place here when it comes to food. We have been watching a lot of documentaries recently that will just make your head spin and also hopefully get you thinking and questioning. Some of the documentaries that we have viewed would include "Food Inc," "The Botany of Desire," "Food Matters," "Food Fight," "Food Beware," and the "Future of Food" to name a few. There is a lot of great information out there, it is just deciding from there where you can start chipping away at this issue. Unfortunately, it requires funds but there are those out there that insist you can do this on a budget. Some of the small things we started with included shopping our  local farmers markets this season and definitely being more conscious of the food that we are taking in. Some things I want to do in the upcoming seasons include: do a raised bed garden, get a greenhouse going and I want to get what meat we do eat, which is not much, from our local butchery that sells wild game. Next season we will be fishing for salmon and possibly halibut. I also try and tell everyone I know about these shows to hopefully add to the common consciousness about the food crisis that we are currently in.

This all becomes so much more important for us now that we have a baby on the way. Mom wants to be eating the best foods possible to provide the baby the nutrients she needs as she is growing. We plan on breastfeeding for as long as possible, making our own local organic produce/fruit based baby food and instilling healthy eating choices/habits from an early age. This continues to mean a major shift in what we are/were used to as a couple, considering we pretty much sustained ourselves on eating out every meal for the first two years we were married.  We are slowly getting there, but now have that added motivation that comes from becoming parents.

Baby Dream

Last night I (Todd) had an interesting baby dream.  For some reason we took the baby out of Jenevra's body a few months early to see how she was doing.  Well, first off there was the issue that it was a baby kitten, not a baby human, but apparently that seemed normal in the dream.  She couldn't stay asleep for more than a few seconds at a time and constantly wanted milk and had a poopy diaper.  Also, tons of people were huddled around the crib, which couldn't have helped the sleeping situation.  The last thing I remember is taking this several month premature baby (kitty) on a hike.  I'm sure there are more dreams to come.

Thoughts on Parenting

We've obviously been thinking a lot about how we're going to raise our daughter.  A couple things:

• Little or no TV.  If any TV at all, we'll watch with her and make it a learning experience.  I've come to the conclusion that TV really makes it difficult for someone to entertain themselves without TV.  We really want her to be able to find things to do and appreciate the beauty in little things.  We don't want to hear her say "I'm bored!". 
• Lots of time spent with mommy and daddy.  We want to do lots of activities with her, both indoors and outdoors.  We want to teach her to ski as soon as she can walk.  Of course, we want it to be fun and won't force it on her.
• We want her to be super nice to others.  We are going to really emphasize sharing, and treating others like you would want to be treated.  Our daughter will not be a bully!
• We plan to talk a lot to her right from the start, and not necessarily in a baby voice.  We will talk to her describing what we are doing at the moment.  We also plan to use some sign language so that she can express what she wants before she can talk.
• We want her to be fairly good at playing an instrument.

Ultrasound!

Footsies




Side View



So apparently there is a baby in there.  A couple weeks ago we had an ultrasound, and I (Todd) have to admit I was petrified.  The guy giving the ultrasound was just so darn quiet, and I kept thinking those moments of silence meant something was wrong with our little girl.  But so far so good.  She was extremely mobile during the ultrasound, so there weren't a lot of good pics.  They did some color pics during the ultrasound using some more advanced technology, but I didn't post them on here since the baby looks more like an alien or a pig and not a little girl.  She just wouldn't stay still!

We're going the natural birth/homebirth route, using midwives at Geneva Woods Birthing Center.  We've done a lot of research on the whole thing, and Jenevra has kind of an inside view having worked at the NICU.  Let's suffice to say that the ways things are done at the hospital are not ideal.  The NICU itself is fine, but the whole process of giving birth in the hospital has a lot of problems.  One documentary you can watch is "Pregnant in America" if you're curious about natural birth.  We'll post more about this in the future.

Introduction

Finally joining the blogosphere, with this blog being about our baby girl, to be born in March.  Announcement on her name coming soon!  It seems like the pregnancy has been going on forever.  I wish the baby would just come already!