Guess Who's Playing Fetch?

Livy chases balls like a champ, but she doesn't bring them back, but, after a year of finding the idea completely incomprehensible, our Finny has finally grasped the concept of "fetching." And I am So excited! He's like... a real retriever! Both yesterday And today he chased down his tennis ball and brought it back. Multiples times!

It is just possible that I have the Tent Revivalists at the park-across-the-street to thank for Finn's intellectual leap, too! I'd like to give them credit for it, anyway, because in other ways I've found their six days of revivaling to be a major inconvenience and, to be honest, annoyance. Their revival is being held on top of My walking trail. Theoretically I could walk there anyway, but I don't want to distract anyone from being revived, and, coward that I am, I don't want to risk the chance of being invited to join in. They appear to be having a fine old time, but it's not my sort of thing. So, anyway, Finn and I have been deprived of our walks for almost a week now. I think it's just possible that Finn's pent-up need for exercise triggered a certain shift in his little brain, allowing him to make the mental leap of recognizing that when I throw a tennis ball across the yard, an object he previously would watch, and occasionally would sniff or even pick up, that my deepest desire is for him to chase after the ball, pick it up, and bring it back to me. This is so great, because a tired Finn is, generally, a less destructive Finn.

(Here, caught in the act of eating a box he should Not have been eating. I think Livy was egging him on.)

(And here he has stopped eating the box, but I don't think he looks penitent. I took the box out of reach.)

Other things.
Katie has now finished another week of school! She still is enthusiastic, but today she came home feeling under the weather and went straight to bed. I suppose that with school comes more germ exposure, and we'll want to get our flu shots asap. But I hope she's better soon.

(These are from yesterday, when she was feeling better than she is tonight. Finn is very excited when she gets home from school.)

And, did I mention my pumpkin pie? I can't remember. Anyway, I made a pumpkin pie in the pressure cooker, with an almond flour crust and lactose-free milk. It makes me very happy. As does the sweet little cake box I found! 8" across -- just right to hold a 7" cake or pie!