we got a puppy

so, about a week ago, we got a puppy. his name is jude and he's a basset hound mix. he's basically the cutest, floppiest puppy you might ever meet. he's pretty gentle and snuggly and even-tempered, and crate training and potty training, while being a ton of work, have still been relatively easy (he seems to generally like the crate and going potty outside). and you know, as it turns out, raising a puppy is a lot like raising a baby. who knew. i might not make the most amount of sense, but here's a shot at some of the similarities:

• if we keep a schedule, we're saner. we feed him twice a day, so we don't have to guess whether he's hungry. and then we make sure to take him outside a half hour after he eats so he can do his business.
• we take him outside after every nap and about every half hour if he's playing (which, is similar to diaper-changing activity, in that if baby's sleeping we leave him, and then we change him when he's awake)
• we're training him to sleep through the night in the crate (kind of like training a baby to sleep through the night in a crib), and when we take him out to pee at night, we stay quiet and we don't play, which is kind of how one should change a diaper in the middle of the night for newborns. 
• if we eventually don't want him to do it, we make sure to teach him not to do it now (like chewing shoes or clothes or jumping up), which is basically how we've raised mo so far. even as a tiny baby, for example, we never ever let him touch outlets or the stove or the trash (and when he did, we slapped his hand), and now, even as a curious toddler, we haven't had any problems with him messing with those things. 
• puppies need constant supervision, at least at the beginning.
• being strong with consistency and discipline (especially while crate and potty training) is very important.

as for moses, he has been super sweet with the pup. he's gentle and seems to really enjoy petting him. he wants to go see the pup every morning, and he loves to watch him and see what he's up to. also, i've been trying to teach moses not to give his toys to the puppy (since i'm not interested in dog slobber on toys that mosey puts in his own mouth), but that part's really not been easy. it's actually kind of funny because little moses offers the toys and then gets upset if the puppy takes it. he's exercising his "mine!" skills. he also gets afraid when he's sitting on the floor and the puppy licks his face. i'm trying to teach him to say, "no, puppy" and stand up and not cry about it. we may have a little ways to go, but i think they're going to be good friends someday. :O) 

hubby's been a bit busy this weekend with studio week, which is similar to finals. i've stepped in to take care of puppy, and it's been so much work! i think if i just had the puppy, or if i just had mosey, it would be manageable, but having them both is a lot more of a challenge. thankfully, it's been a bit warmer, so i don't have to get moses all bundled up and then back unbundled every half an hour. i've also started to get the hang of holding a puppy with one hand and getting momo's crocs on his feet with the other. we grab a leash, a treat, and a poop bag, and we are out the door pretty quickly!

also, something that made me laugh inside today: i was bringing jude in from a walk and moses was across the yard in a little mulch area. he was playing, and i heard his little voice say, "night night!" as he laid down flat on his back on the mulch. i just ignored it because i didn't want to encourage him to lie down just any old place, plus, i had my hands full so i couldn't actively teach him not to do that. but, man. it was so darn cute; he is just a delight.

also, i watched him retrace his steps today looking for a hairbrush so he could put it back where it belonged. i was truly impressed at that little guy.

also, he might be allergic to melons. yikes!

also, when doggies are sleeping, their feet smell like fritos. seriously, it's a real thing!


lovelove,
me

words, stats, and a story about THE poop

another molar. and a few new words: mine (said "my"), squirrel (said "cool"), moon (which, when has he ever seen one anyway? it's a mystery how he knows what it is--thank you mysterious daycare!) and last week i forgot to write hippo (which he says "bibbo"). he's also been telling me clearly in both sign and word that he wants to eat, just before dinner. wow. i'm just blown away. we have to work on some patience there, but that's another story.

i've been meaning to write down mo's stats from his 18 month well-baby visit:

• weight: 25 lbs, 9.5 oz (70th percentile)
• height: 33 3/4 (90th percentile) 
• head circumference: 19 1/4 (80th percentile)

i was a bit worried for a little while (like the neurotic mom i am) that he was wasting away and had stopped growing because his percentiles had dropped so much at around 12 and 15 months. i'm glad we're back to where we were during his first year, it makes me feel less like he's about to die of starvation and blow away in the wind. i told you, i'm neurotic. anyway, i feel better. :O)

also, something else to share (watch out, this story's kind of gross)--we had the diaper blow-out of our lives this weekend. i mean, it was phenomenal; i'm still not sure what happened! when i went to get him from his crib in the morning, i smelled poop. i looked in his crib and he was trying to wipe his sheet like he does when he has spilled something. turns out, he had had a very large bout of loose stools, and he was trying to wipe away the wetness that had seeped through his pajamas onto his sheets. i picked him up and realized it was bad. then i laid him on the changing table and unzipped his PJs and found it was worse than bad! poop was literally oozing out of the top of the FRONT of his diaper because there was no room for it to go anywhere in the back. it was an incredible amount of poop, especially for a todddler! there was a thick layer pooled all the way up the back of his PJs. wow. we each had to completely bathe after that encounter. which, he seemed just fine with the whole thing until he was standing naked waiting for the water to fill tub. which is why i held that poop-covered child tight to me, poor little guy. we ended up throwing a whole entire load of things-that-had-come-into-contact-with-the-poop in the laundry. wow.

he was a tiny bit fussier that day, but it seemed to pass with no fanfare. his bowel movements have been rather unremarkable since then. so, weird.

lovelove,

smelly tak

words

i feel that i should document some of his words, since i'm thinking that his verbal skills are starting to take off. up until now, he's said:

• fish (first word!)
• car ("caah")
• plane ("main")
• dog ("dah" or "woof woof")
• cow ("moo!")
• clock ("cah")
• socks ("cah")
• frog ("gah")... you may notice many words are variation of "cah"--he's working on it :O)
• balloon ("baba")
• ball ("baaah")
• water ("waah")
• peekaboo ("booooo!")
• book ("boo")
• spoon ("booo")
• hat ("at") side note: he put his empty plate on his head this morning and said "at!" i didn't want to encourage him doing that with his plate, but it was so dang cute!  :O) 
• toothbrush ("eee")
• mail ("meee")
• baby ("beebee")
• uh-oh
• oh no!
• eye
• night-night
• byebye
• nana
• dada
• mama
• elmo (this is new, as of this week)

signing he has said:

• more
• milk
• all done
• potty
• please
• eat
• banana (his version)
• bird (this one's new as of this week--weird, because i stopped teaching him this one about a month ago, and no one's been following up with him. now, out of the blue, he can do it and does it frequently to tell me there are birds outside.)

he can blow kisses, kiss regular, wave, and high five pretty well now too. he understands a whole heck of a lot more than he can say, which totally surprises me. the other day, i told him to put something in his dirty laundry basket, and he went and did it with no trouble and came right back. what a sweetie.

lovelove,
mama!

1 1/2 years old

i'm so proud of this little boy that we call moses. he turned 1 and a half yesterday, and i just wanted to share three quick things:

1. he can pick up his cereal bowl and sip up milk without spilling (most of the time). i'm pretty sure he learned it at daycare, where they serve soup to toddlers (!). i thought it was crazy, but now i see. he is able to sip from a bowl like a champ! too bad he does it at bath time too, sipping the warm bathwater from his little bath time cups and smacking his lips, as if he's a bathwater connoisseur. 
2. he got 4 molars in the past month (!). he's had some hard days, and some fevers, too, but overall, he's been alright. i also think his appetite keeps going up and down because of his teeth. 
3. one of his favorite words is "woof" these days. he also follows it with dog-panting a little sometimes. i'm pretty sure he learned this at daycare too. either that, or he learned it from the puppy that we are in the process of adopting. what?? stay tuned.

lovelove,

puppy momma

mamama!

yay! after a long LONG wait, our son has started calling me mama. my heart is so full. he has also continued to give voluntary kisses through this past week. there is nothing like sitting on the ground and having a toddler put his little toddler hands on each of your shoulders and leaning in for a tender little toddler kiss. wow. i'm lovesick for this little kid!

he's also had a lingering fever since wednesday of last week. we decided to take him to see the pediatrician on monday, just in case it was because of an ear infection (that's what it was last time), and we need him to be fever-free so we can finally take him back to daycare and get back to normal life. BUT doctor said the fever is probably because of the flu and could last all week. could even bring about vomiting and diarrhea. sheesh--terrible news, doctor!! shane, superhero dad, kept mosey with him for the last two days, even taking him to class. tomorrow nana will be here, and we have our friend kristy lined up for thursday. stupid fever. otherwise, little bobo is just everything i want him to be.

love, with little cartoon hearts coming out of my eyes.
helen

putting away the groceries

last weekend, mosey and i went to walmart. i unloaded the car and set all the grocery bags on the kitchen floor. moses, of course, started to go through them, but he was really systematic. he took out the creamer and the juice and cans, and set each one neatly on the floor, and when he accidentally knocked one over, he'd say, "uh oh!" and set it back upright. i put one can away in the cupboard, closed it, and started on something else. then he went over to the cupboard, opened it, picked up one of his cans and placed it next to the can i put in there, then he shut the door. WHAT? our child is a GENIUS. he put away groceries without me even asking! then he put the juice away. then he got distracted and started to look for snacks in the cupboard. ha.

also, i don't know who taught him this skill, but he can step out of his pants when i'm getting him ready for the bath. i mean, he holds on to the bathtub and steps out of his pants like a little adult. i don't know. i'm just not ready for this kid to grow up. oh, and he got his first molar last week. wow.

along with these things however, he is starting to throw mini temper tantrums. he throws his head back, kicks, screams, and cries real tears if things don't go his way. it's making me slightly crazy, to be honest with you. sometimes i have to leave the room because it is so irritating. any advice is welcome here, because i just know that i don't want this to continue, but i'm not sure i can think of any way to stop it... usually we let him cry until he calms down himself and then we pick him up and talk to him. however, they've been getting longer and more... dramatic... so i'm not sure what to do.

i still love the snot out of that kid though. this person on the show Ben and Kate said it well when she was describing her daughter, "it's like my heart is just walking out there in the world, outside of my body!"

oh, and also today he gave me his first real intentional kiss on the lips, with the smack of the lips and everything. i loved it!

lovelove,
smelly tak

speed learning

i guess because i don't get to spend all his waking hours with him anymore, i feel like he's growing up like five times faster (and it was already way fast before)! he's learning all these new things at daycare, and i just can't believe it. the first week, i think, he learned to say "ball" and the second week, he learned the word "eye." this, after learning to say just "dada" up until 14 months, i think. i might be remembering incorrectly, but you know what i mean.

last week, i found out he knows how to blow kisses. and this week, we found out he knew how to pinch his cheeks. this was because i asked him if he was trying to pinch the cheeks of some animal in his book, and he responded by reaching up and grabbing his own cheek.  it was unbelievable.  my hypothesis is either that daycare folks pinch his cheeks a lot, or they were talking a lot about his cheeks.  his cheeks were super red last week because of, we think, an allergy to amoxicillin. he had to be on it on christmas eve because of an ear infection, and on the 10th day of the treatment he threw up the medicine each time we gave it and broke out into a terrible rash/hives. a couple days later, he started four days of diarrhea too.  man.  if it's not fever, runny nose, viral rash & ear infection, it's all these other things! i will be so glad when we start to have some health around this house. we actually all three were on antibiotics on christmas eve. what a family! now, i think we need to all three be on probiotics (which CVS is having a rad sale on right now).  (rad? who says rad these days?)

lovelove,
funny bunny