Lisa n Tom (n James n Joseph)

Lisa writes: We were invited to a friend's barbeque party on Memorial Day and the oatmeal cookies I brought for the occasion were snarfed up by the host's blue-eyed two-year old son who followed Tom around like a puppy begging for treats. He would hold up his arms in the universal toddler signal for "more" and, when Tom would lower the cookie container, grab one cookie in each hand. Once a cookie went into his mouth and he had an empty hand, he was ready for more. The point of the story is that this little guy ate a LOT of cookies. An astonishing number of cookies. It reminded me of this story about my then-four-year-old nephew Christian: Back in 2004, Christi wrote: Earlier the home teachers were here. I had some left-over strawberry pie from Mom. I got it out to offer them some. It was sitting on the counter while we were talking on the front porch. About 10 minutes later Christian came out with white stuff all over his face and chipmunk cheeks. I asked, "Ch...

Lisa writes: They're using their tractor beam! Stop them, Dave!

Lisa writes: Let this serve as a warning to all you parents out there. Here we have the Funeral Dirge Family Singers performing a birthday song to Aunt Debbie, my little sister on a church mission in Missouri. This was Take Six, I think. And, uh, this was the best one. A couple of Snickers would have really spiced this up. (49 seconds)

Lisa writes: This was at the San Diego Wildlife Park (if you're going through San Diego, highly recommended). Niece Ava had a "Snow White and the friendly woodland creatures" moment with this deer back in February and, ever since, has been sure that if she can just offer the wild deer in the backyard the right food, they too will be eating out her hand. And perhaps offering her rides. And maybe performing choreographed musical numbers.

Lisa writes: The result? Mission accomplished. (Nephew Cameron last December.)

Lisa writes: Nephew Benjamin is getting bigger and funnier. This is his favorite hiding place.

Lisa writes: Christi's kids had crazy hair day again at school. I'm especially impressed by Christian's spikes. And, Breanna and Madison (girls in center and right)? If you were Dominican, that would just be a normal hair day.

Lisa writes: We had a leak. We got a blowtorch. We didn't burn down the house. The leak is gone.

Lisa writes: We introduced the puppy but failed to introduce the Wendy. Here she is in all her radiant loveliness. The story (everything I talk about has a story) is that Wendy knew my parents back when my dad was in dental school in St. Louis. That means I've known Wendy since I was four. She still looks the same. (I don't.) Now she lives 20 minutes away in a beautiful house with a very handy husband and a yard full of deer. She hosted our Virginia open house after our wedding and always has chocolate chip cookies waiting for us when we visit. We don't get over there nearly enough.

Lisa writes: Not sure how this turned into an all-puppy, all-the-time blog, but here we have MORE puppies to share. Meet Lulu. She is a 7 week old Lhasapoo. She isn't as embarrased about that as she probably should be. (And here's her owner, Hot Stuff Wendy. Rrrroaw!) Seven weeks and she's already fetching and retrieving. My family's dogs still didn't know their own names at seven weeks ... or ever , actually... (Wendy is talking to my mom on the cell phone. Listen carefully for her signature tag line.) And here is Lulu demonstrating how the prehistoric, ancient, feral Lhasapoo survived in the wild, through its tremendous ability to squeak and destroy.