Our roofer was here bright and early - a little past 8 a.m. - to drop off tools and give me a quick update. He was going to wait to drop off the shingles until it's more clear which direction the weather is headed. It was really dark and cloudy this morning with just a few sprinkles. There's a chance of storms all day, and it's really hot and humid. Hopefully the rest of this week will be excellent roofing weather.

I'm so, so proud of Lucy. We bought a crate for her a month or so ago. I've had my doubts that she'll ever take to it since she's 5 and never crate trained. We've taken the approach that trainers using positive reinforcement and clicker training recommend so that the dog actually likes the crate and doesn't see it as punishment. So we haven't been pushing the crate on Lucy, but whenever she shows any interest - sniffing at it, even just looking inside it - we reward her with treats, praise, whatever is extra special to Lucy. The reasoning behind this is that Lucy will associate the crate with treats or something she likes and will continue to want to do more with it in order to get more treats. So, it's basically a form of conditioning (Pavlov and his dogs, for example).

Well, except for a few times when I've had to put Lucy in the crate because someone was at the door, Lucy hasn't been in the crate or interested in just hanging out in it until today. I led Lucy into the crate this morning when our roofer stopped and heaped tons of praise and treats onto her after he was gone. After that, she started going in and out of the crate and has just been lying in it today. And I've given her treats and praise every time I see her in there. Perhaps it's just clicked finally that the crate is her safe place to be. But what I think has really made a difference is putting something out to keep the door propped open. We've always kept the door to the crate open, but I think Lucy has seen how the door can swing open and closed and that has really scared her.

Well, that news was probably extremely boring for all of you non-dog people - or those who just don't care about Lucy's training - but it's a huge moment for her!

Accalia's had a Winnie-the-Pooh sing-a-long video since her second birthday, I think, and it's always been one of her favorites. Today she wanted to watch it while Cole was napping, and she sang along to it the entire time. Very cute :)