A story for my son's wedding...

When we were potty-training our older son, Hayes, who was less than jazzed about giving up diapers, my husband decided to teach him to pee outdoors. Mostly on trees, but rocks, leaves, and stinkbugs were not left untainted. As much as I tried to steer him towards the toilet, Hayes developed an affinity for outdoor relief.

Fast-forward a couple of months to our Memorial Day BBQ. The adults are congregating on the deck, while the kids are running around the backyard and playing on the new swingset. All of a sudden, all eyes are on Hayes, who, with his back to the adults, has dropped trou and is peeing on a tree. Everyone starts to laugh, and my brain races. I'm thinking the poor kid is going to be traumatized; the potty-training thing was not easy on him, and this is going to send him over the edge. To my surprise, Hayes turns towards the adults (hands on hips, pants still down, stream still a-flowin'), cocks his head and says, "You like that guys?"

Why I'm here.

I suppose it would make sense to explain the name of my blog. It's a nod to my daughter, Isla, who at about 15 months of age grew attached to a small stuffed lion, and -- in what would turn out to be our first exposure to the random quirkiness of our three kids -- named it "puppy." To this day, the name befuddles my in-laws, who insist on calling it "Poppy." As if that makes more sense.

(Isla, Puppy, and me. Sidebar: Why is my arm a completely different color than my leg?)

At any rate, when I decided to start blogging, I asked myself, why now? Truth be told, there are many other things I could be doing (pause as I glance left to find a pile of unfolded laundry staring menacingly in my direction ...and pause again as I glance right to the pile of witness interviews that need summarizing). Yup. I'm a stay-at-home mom/ part-time criminal defense attorney/ full-time multitasker. But beyond that, I'm also pretty damn funny. And so are my kids. See Para. 1; see also the image below.

I am a pitiful photographer (as you will soon learn), but I have a vivid memory and hours worth of stories to tell. And so... I write.