Category Archives: milestones

Tuesday 10: Life Beyond These Early Childhood Years

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reach

I can feel the end of an era coming as my littlest gets bigger and bigger. Even the puppy is slowly turning into a regular old, gigantic, spazzy dog. In the fall my “baby” begins 4k and I’ll be finding myself with a handful of hours to myself each day. Next year, when she’s in kindergarten, that window of time will get even larger. Like “should I maybe get a job?” larger. I’ve gone back and forth in my mind about what I plan to do when the kids are both in school and the truth is, I just don’t know.

What I do know is that I really want to be there when they get off the bus each day which means “Mother’s Hours” wherever I decide to spend my time. I could volunteer in the class, find a part time job, work from home, spend my days in yoga pants at the gym or walking the dog or becoming the Domestic Goddess that I can’t seem to achieve with two kids in tow. Or something else entirely.

Because it’s Tuesday and I like making random lists, here are 10 things that I would like to when my kiddos are both School Kiddos:

  1. Write a novel or maybe a novella or maybe something else entirely. Creative writing of some kind.
  2. Read lots of other peoples’ novels and novellas and other creative writing endeavors and possibly edit them.
  3. Exercise, like every freaking day. Yoga classes, long walks, strength training, running perhaps?
  4. Go on long walks in beautiful places with my camera and not have a small child tugging on my arm while I click the shutter.
  5. Sit in a coffee shop and drink a cup of coffee and read a book instead of drinking my coffee as quickly as possible and telling my daughter to share the toys with the other kids and stop piling all the toy food on my table.
  6. Take the dog for a long walk every day or at least, much more often – explore dog parks together and enjoy some fresh air.
  7. Go grocery shopping all by myself. Nuff said.
  8. Take a shower and not be paranoid about how many minutes it’s been.
  9. Start reading a magazine and finish it in the same sitting.
  10. Do numbers 1-9 and still have ten minutes left over to meditate or watch crappy television before the kids come home.

You’ll notice that cleaning wasn’t anywhere on this list? I said things I would *like* to do, not things I’ll guilt trip myself into doing instead!

What’s on your mind today? Share your favorite things to do without kids in the comments section or just say hi and tell me something totally random! 

Top Pictures from April 2013 : now with a spiffy new format!

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top nature pics from april 2013

I had a hard time choosing my favorite pictures from the month of April – looking back over the month, it was jam packed with big events, sweet smaller moments, beautiful nature pictures and crazy puppies. Rather than try to fit that all into an arbitrary Top 10 list, I thought this would be a fun time to shake things up! This month I’m trying out a collage form of my favorite pictures from the past month, each collage with it’s own theme.

The collection of photos above are my favorite nature shots from April: spring buds beginning to bloom, beautiful sunsets, the rain on my windshield and a heart found on the tree in our backyard from where two branches had been chopped off.

best photos of BB

The Best of BB: sweetest smiles, meeting a princess aka Rebecca Loebe, baby mugging, messy spaghetti faces, washing daddy’s truck & new ballet slippers

the best photos of MM in April

MM’s Best April Pics: sweet smiles & the world’s longest eyelashes, fedora loving, Cub Scout meetings, birthday present madness, the birthday cake that he helped me make & walking with his little sister in beautiful Spring weather

miscallenous favorites from April

Everything Else: Cute pic of my newish haircut (how often do I snap a picture of myself that I don’t hate?), apple fritter bread and Dubliner cheese, lots of coffee, jelly fish at the pediatricians office, interesting ways to misspell my name, crazy puppies and my daughter’s wardrobe is developing a serious stylistic theme.

Can you believe it’s already May?

Can you believe that I got so many awesome pics last month?

What do you think of the collage format? Too many pics?

ballet lessons: on overcoming her fears & the power of shoe therapy

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ballet

When we arrived at the ballet studio of our local YMCA this morning, my brave and spirited little princess morphed into a distraught wallflower for possibly the first time in her life. I’m not sure if it was the strange room filled with new people, the glass wall that separated the mommies from the children or the fact that every other little girl there had clearly been to ballet classes before (quite the feat considering this was a pre-ballet class for kids 3-4 years old!). Little BB seemed totally thrown by their confidence and wanted nothing to do with them. She clung to my legs and sobbed when I tried to lead her into the classroom and pleaded that she didn’t want to do ballet after all and maybe she should just have a snack instead.

She has never been this girl – in the face of new adventures, she tends to be fearless and though she’s never quite been a social butterfly, she’s always been friendly and self confident. Did she not sleep well? Was she sick? Was she really terrified of trying something new? Is this a sign of things to come? My mind raced with possible reasons for her meltdown as I tried to think of a solution and also tried not to cry as my heart broke for her. My own inner struggles growing up, trying unsuccessfully sometimes to fit in when finding myself again and again the New Girl ran through my mind and the Warrior Mother within me tried to send telepathic messages of strength and resilience to her.

I insisted that she had to stay for class and sit with the other girls unless she wanted to go home. I bribed her with the promise of a cookie afterwards if she tried. I’m not proud, sometimes you just have to do what works. For a few minutes she did sit there with the other girls, arms crossed with the surliest expression the Midwest has ever seen. But when class started, she absolutely refused to join in. The teacher tried to break the ice with an extended hand and a cheerful encouragement to join the fun, but BB scowled at her, and turned to me as if to say, “I’ll sit in this room, but you can’t make me participate.” A few minutes later, having seemingly had her fill, she got up and walked out of the classroom, giving me her best pout as she coaxed her way back into my arms.

After a few minutes of quietly talking to her, I finally found the apparent source of her angst – the shoes. Those damned shoes. All the girls had them except her and BB found herself filled with envy or perhaps just a sense of not fitting in because of her lack of footwear. Isn’t she too young for this, I wondered? I’m sure as she gets older, we’ll have our battles over owning the right jeans or what length of skirt is acceptable. But at three and a half years old, it surprises me how important fashion is to my daughter. Clearly this was the source of our problem though because when I told her firmly that I wouldn’t buy her ballet slippers unless she participated in class, she nodded calmly, found her inner confidence and marched timidly back into class.

I won’t say that suddenly she morphed into a ballet savant, she continued to be somewhat hesitant in her involvement, but slowly with each passing minute, she eased into it and by the end of class she was smiling and confident again. I rewarded her participation with a trip to the adorable ballet store at the nearby shopping center where a very kind salesperson helped her pick out her first pair of ballet slippers and a new tutu to wear as well. A lot of the other girls were rocking leotards and tights also, but I decided to be somewhat frugal and start with the basics that I knew would win over my little fashionista ballerina.

It’s been an emotional day for both of us, but we came out of it with new shoes, a cute skirt and a happy girl with high hopes for next week’s class. I am very proud of her for overcoming whatever fears she found herself faced with this morning and for giving it a shot.

my girl

Is there anything that new shoes can’t fix?

on education and trying to predict which paths will lead to success

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DSC_5257

This fall two very adorable children in my home will be going to the same school. He, a seasoned second grader. She, an exuberant addition to the 4k program. Both terrifically excited about the coming school year.

They will be attending the same school that MM is currently enrolled in. If you have been following my little education dilemma / saga, then you know this means that my transfer request was denied. I have been trying to get both kids into the school that our neighborhood was originally zoned in. The zoning was changed shortly before MM began his first year of school but of course all the neighborhood kids just transferred back to their old school, with a few exceptions of course.

So it was partly about wanting him to be in the same school as the neighbors… and partly about the fact that said school got much higher test scores than our current school which did very poorly. It’s partly about all the whispers I hear about bullies and a tiny bit of just neurotic mommy wanting the very best for her kid. Okay, maybe more than a tiny bit. The truth is, I’d really like to send my kids to some swanky private school but there aren’t a lot of those here in the Midwest and the ones around are either Very Catholic or VERY EXPENSIVE or both and / or far away. So I’m not sure if that’s ever going to be feasible here and you know, maybe that’s fine. Lots of people, myself included, do pretty well for themselves with a basic public school education.

But then there are also people like my incredibly intelligent husband, who did even better with a great private education. I’m sure part of this was very caring and involved parents who nurtured his education and part was the fact that he’s probably a LOT smarter than me and applied himself harder. But at the end of the day, looking at my education and my husband’s if I could pick one for my kids, of course I’d go for my husband’s education. I want the very best for them.

I’ve thought a lot about what the best is. Is it a local Catholic school? A private online school? Homeschooling? Is it moving to a new school district with better public schools or just making the best of the public education available to us here? For the moment, we will be going with the last one, it’s simply the option that will work for right now. And I’ll be doing my best to be very involved with both kids’ educations so that I know what is working and what isn’t.

The important thing to me, right now, is that both of my kids are very excited about their schooling this fall. MM literally hugged me with glee when I told him he’d be returning to his current school. I don’t blame him. For all my complaints about the school at large, he has a truly fantastic teacher, a good group of friends and his grades are stellar. BB is ecstatic about going to the same school as her brother so I’m glad that if one kid was denied the transfer that both were. It will be easier and I think they’ll love being in the same school. So I am super happy for them. But momma bear also continues to be cautious and plans to be paying close attention.

At the end of the day, there is no way to predict the outcome of all the options or to know which path could be the best. All I can do is follow my gut, do what I can and make the best of the roads laid before me – and be absolutely thrilled that I have two kids who love learning and are so excited about going to school. If I can be encouraging and positive about their educations, it can only improve their chances for success.

7th Birthday Recap (plus a recipe for French Yogurt Cake (gâteau au yaourt) from Bringing Up Bébé)

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cake

Yesterday was my little boy’s 7th birthday and also his birthday party. How often do we manage to actually hold a party on the actual birthday? I was pretty thrilled for MM that it worked out that way and he was majorly excited. His request this year was for a Little Big Planet birthday party, based off the PS3 game that he and hubby are hooked on.

This was not a super easy theme to work with, but I took notes from last year on how little the kids really noticed  all my efforts in the Star Wars party I threw and decided to just make a loose interpretation and focus on the party being fun and easy. For party favors I focused on little things and big things and school supply-ish drawing & coloring things. I put the favors in brown paper sacks (partly because it was easy and partly because it made me think of sackboy from the game). I printed off a bunch of Make Your Own Sackboy printables that kept the kids entertained throughout the event though I’m not sure anyone successfully assembled theirs. I went with plates and napkins in blues & greens to sort of resemble planet Earth and we decorated the cake to look like Earth (sort of).

Our cake recipe this year came straight out of the book I’m reading right now, Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman. It’s a French Yogurt Cake or gâteau au yaourt that is apparently one of the first recipes that kids in France learn to make. I was inspired to try it out with MM who always expresses an interest in cooking with me but rarely gets to do so in the hustle and bustle of our days and also because mommy is a neurotic control freak. But I’m working on that. And this recipe looked perfect. It all starts with two 6 ounce containers of plain yogurt – after you throw in the yogurt, you use those two containers to do almost all of the measuring for the cake which uses very simple ingredients that you probably already have on hand. And it’s a very forgiving recipe that can be adapted to suit your preferences. We threw it in a bundt pan because I’m obsessed with bundt cakes but you could make it in pretty much any pan and just adjust your bake time accordingly.

French Yogurt Cake (gâteau au yaourt)

adapted from Bringing Up Bébé

Ingredients

  • 2 (6oz) containers of plain yogurt (keep containers for measuring the other ingredients)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 containers sugar (adjust for desired sweetness)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • just under 1 container of vegetable oil
  • 4 containers flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 or 2 containers of mix-ins like chocolate chips, dried fruit, frozen berries, etc.
  • Crème fraîche (optional)
  • powdered sugar (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 F
  2. Coat a loaf pan or 9″ round cake pan with cooking spray or oil.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and oil.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
  5. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stir until just combined. You can now add the chocolate chips or berries if using them.
  6. Scopp it all into your baking pan, bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden and the cake springs up when touched (or when a toothpick inserted is pulled out clean). Let it cool on a rack.
  7. Dust with powdered sugar (optional) and serve with the Crème fraîche (optional).

Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

Cooking time: 40 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 8

We threw in some chocolate chips and dried cherries and it came out delicious. MM was a tiny bit hesitant about the measuring and pouring but that’s probably because he hasn’t had much practice. I definitely plan to make this again and try to encourage the kids to help me in the kitchen more. Frosting the cake was an adventure because, well, for starters – the shape of the cake was a bit self sabotaging but I decided we weren’t going for perfect, just fun. I let MM do a lot of it himself but my efforts to help weren’t much better than his. I am definitely not a cake decorating kinda gal, but it tasted delicious!

presents

The party itself ran very smoothly. The kids played a lot of video games and ate lots of pizza, cake, ice cream and popcorn (and a fruit platter and some jelly beans). The printouts I put out definitely got used and the kids seemed excited about everything. MM got a ton of awesome gifts – I tried taking pictures but the crowd of kids “helping” made it difficult and to be honest, I somehow barely saw it all get opened. His thank you cards will likely be a tad on the generic side (side note : remind me to help him write thank you notes soon!)

I think MM is getting to the age and stage where party themes are less and less important. I put the emphasis on him having fun with his friends and providing some good food and I think that paid off for sure. We had a great time and went with a relaxed schedule of following their lead. When they all wanted to go outside and throw a football around? We said sure thing and took the dog out, too, for some outdoor time! Doc the Dog did so well at the party btw – he was very well behaved in his crate during the party and loved all the attention from the kids. I’m glad we chose to keep the crate downstairs so he could meet all the kids safely and that he got to run around a little bit outdoors with everyone.

All in all, it was a perfect day! I’m so grateful for all our friends that were able to come and share his special day with us!

Seven.

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MM in April

Today my little boy is seven years old. It really does seem like just yesterday. Just yesterday he was born. Just yesterday he was rolling over, learning to read, losing his first tooth, mumbling all of his words incoherently and adorably, drinking from a sippy cup, using plastic utensils, riding in a stroller at stores…

Just yesterday he was at home with me every day, watching shows on PBS and doing arts and crafts projects with me. Today he is nearly a second grader who can count well over 100, is learning contractions and a bit of multiplication in school. He is almost as obsessed with Doctor Who as his parents. He loves Star Wars, building and drawing, Wild Kratts on PBS, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He is a perfect blend of little and big right now. I constantly have to remind myself how young he is and at the same turn am amazed by how big he is getting.

He likes books with pictures but can handle basic chapter books. When I read to him outloud, he says, “Mommy, when there is a picture on the page, stop so that I can look at it.” He wants to soak in every detail. He likes nonfiction picture books with facts about bugs or dogs or nature. He loves poetry and science fiction and is fascinated by healthy foods but still loves a great dessert. He’s a builder and planner and dreamer – a leader but a gentle soul who wants to please the people he loves.

MM could do anything – he could become anyone. He is amazingly intelligent and kind and caring. He is fascinated by the world around him and the people around him. He wants to know everything and meet everyone and experience all the world has to offer him. And of course, as his amazingly proud mommy, I want to give him all of those things. I want to show him the world and can’t wait to teach him new things, while also wanting to pause every moment and make them last forever.

Happy Birthday, MM! Mommy loves you so, so much!

On sunsets, shin splints and acknowledging my age.

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We recently joined a new gym that is open, I kid you not, 24 hours. They also have free child care, free drop in classes and personal tvs on every exercise bike. Basically, my excuses for not working out just got pretty sparse.

Hubby has been working out every morning before work. I am super proud of his dedication. Me on the other hand? I’ve gone three times now in the past two weeks with big plans to go tomorrow. I suppose that’s three (soon to be four) more times than I’ve gone to a gym in the past year or more, but still. The baby steps seem pathetic in comparison to Dan the Man.

What isn’t helping? Is that every time I’ve gone, I’ve been dealing with killer shin splints. Just walking the track around the perimeter of the gym is painful after a few minutes. Trying to run is a no go. The machines and I are not getting along at the moment because I am not good at pacing my workouts on an exercise bike and I’m wondering if that first day on the machines is the cause of my trouble or if I’m just pathetic.

Add this to the knee injury which is just starting to go away but that kept me from kicking up my exercise habits for the past year or so. And all the times I hurt myself trying different workout games on the wii. Basically, it seems like every time I exercise, I hurt myself. When did I become an old falling aparty person?

Yesterday I was working on the photo calendar for next year because I’m Uber Planny Mom and like to worry about things months in advance of them being relevant. I picked out a cute picture of MM to put in the square for his birthday and then typed the words “[MM]‘s 8th birthday.” Then I’m pretty sure I had the world’s tiniest panic attack. Not really a panic attack so much as a staring at my computer screen all mouth gapey and trying to work out how the math was a lie. Because I don’t think this should be humanly possible.

I’m pretty sure that a few months ago I was an irresponsible college kid who sometimes skipped class to watch Dawson’s Creek marathons on tv. A few months before that I was obsessively reading every Babysitters Club book I could get my hands on instead of playing outside like a normal child and minutes before that I was wearing a super pretty red and black striped dress and getting ready for my first day of school. So having an eight year old next year is clearly mathematically impossible.

Next fall my baby will start kindergarten. I don’t tend to get teary eyed about these milestones. I like to think I allow myself to age gracefully. To acknowledge my gray hairs with pride and to do a mental happy dance when considering the lack of babies in my life. But eight years old? Both children at school? I think 2014 might just rock me to my core.

I’m not sure how all of that is about my inability to exercise without hurting myself except to say that it appears I might be getting old and I’m not sure when it happened. I know that I left my twenties behind a few months ago but it’s all just starting to kick in lately.

My name is Jennifer and apparently I’m an adult. I have a bad knee and appear to be prone to shin splints. I have no babies unless you count the puppy. Strollers have become almost useless in my life. My gray hair has started to make friends. I have a hard time staying up past 10pm and my favorite indulgence is having a second latte. I started wearing cardigans this year and my closet contains pretty much only sensible shoes. For my birthday, I would like a station wagon (but accept that I can’t afford one). You see, the writing is on the wall. Now excuse me while I go get  something to clean that wall!

Top Pictures From March 2013

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April has arrived and it’s finally starting to look more like Spring outside. The snow in my yard is beginning to melt (knock on wood) and the weather is getting gradually warmer. Last month was not a great month for me photographically. Partly due to weather and partly to the adjustment period of having a new puppy at home, I honestly just didn’t have the energy to take a lot of pictures. But I did get some great pictures on Easter Sunday, so those along with a few others are the ones I’m show casing here as my top pictures of the month.

I love this picture of BB from early March. The weather has been so haphazard that we’ve had rain boots and snow boots out all month. Fringe benefit – I love photographing her in these boots.

I love the coloring and shadows of this picture. Even more, I love the lack of snow on my driveway.

I noticed the beautiful lighting shining down on BB during some cuddle time and quickly grabbed my cell phone to take some pictures. This one was my favorite.

MM in his Easter Best, a new shirt and fedora from my MIL. She always sends such great stuff!

And BB in her Easter dress. She was a bundle of energy on Easter and not easy to photograph, but I did sneak in a few great shots.

A sibling shot for the win! This one came out really cute, luckily, because I didn’t get many others.

A quick snapshot of BB during our little egg hunt. It was kind of an accidental shot, but I love it.

That’s it for this month! Check out my top pictures from January and February.

Celebrating 5 Years of Blogging Fun!

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blogiversary2013

I’d like to take a minute to wish myself and my blog a happy blogiversary. It’s been an amazing 5 years together with a lot of ups and downs and backspaces and image inserting. Blog, you have been through all the trials and tribulations of the last five years of my life as a mother and wife. You witnessed the birth of my second child, a move halfway across the country, the purchasing of our first house and much more. This past year you were there for the world’s best April Fool’s Prank, MM joining cub scouts and most recently our adventures in adopting our first dog.

You are my venting place, my family photo album, my soap box and the source of many lovely bloggy friends (thanks to all my pals reading this right now, you mean the world to me!). I cannot believe it has been 5 years already! Most of my hobbies don’t last nearly this long so consider yourself a well loved pastime indeed!

blogiversary2-2013

Maybe it’s just my new diet talking, but I am totally hoping for cake tonight but trying to convince myself cake isn’t necessary. But come on, your blog only turns 5 years old once, right??

blogiversary3-2013

Of course I should give thanks to the source of most of my blog fodder, my adorable children and my amazing husband (hi honey!!) – I truly would have nothing interesting to blog about if it wasn’t for them.

blogiversary4-2013

So here’s to 5 years of bloggy goodness and the hope of many more years to come!

(ps: ecards above were made using someecards.com’s create your own card feature – I had way too much fun making them!)

The Puppy Diaries: My First Week As a New Dog Mom.

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My first week as a New Dog Mom has been an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. You should know that I have never owned a dog, nor ever considered myself a “Dog Person.” I grew up in a home with cats and love me some kitties something fierce, but I’m also majorly allergic to them which is kind of a bummer. That said, I have always loved my in-law’s dog and my husband looooooves dogs and has been anxious to have a dog for awhile now. I have tried to get on the Puppy Bandwagon and was finally ready to go for it after meeting Jingle, now known as The Doctor or Doc for short.

Adopting Doc was basically breaking every rule in the How To Keep Jen Sane book. He is a three month old puppy who is almost starting to kind of get the hang of house training. He is part Black Lab, part Saint Bernard and part Border Collie (read: big, high energy dog). I am not high energy and I’m a petite momma so I may be in for a major shock when he reaches his full size. But he is so darn cute and so well behaved for a puppy. His foster mother worked some kind of amazing magic with him and he has a really sweet temperament. After a few days at home with him though, the cracks started to show.

My first day alone with him, his border collie herding tendencies started to show through when I had friends over for coffee. He started frantically mauling poor little BB who was not amused and momma was not pleased. I ended up crating him and later realized that he totally thought he was protecting BB from my Big Mean Girly Friends. Poor BB. I realize now I should have crated him from the beginning, being in a new home and having all those strange people milling about – what did I expect, really? But, like I said, new dog mom. I have no idea what I’m doing.

Day two went okay – I had to leave the house a few times and I think those breaks from puppy kept me sane. House training was going well for the most part and my biggest concern was worrying I was leaving him crated too much.

So on day three I let him hang out with us at home and only crated when absolutely necessary. That was a huge mistake. He really needed to be crated longer for my sanity and also for my carpet’s sake. There were SO MANY accidents and some of them seemed downright deliberate. I lost my cool and broke every rule in the book just trying to stay sane and still failed miserably.

By noon I was starting to seriously lose it – I wasn’t eating or drinking enough, trying to keep up with him and my temper was showing. By the afternoon I wanted to send him back and never have a dog again. By evening I was a sobbing wreck. But Dan and I had a loooooong talk and he helped me realize the many flaws in my actions. We also noted that the calendar would indicate that I am hormonal and that probably wasn’t helping, along with my probably also being dehydrated and malnourished.

I was worried though that my hormones were not the problem and that I was simply an awful Dog Mommy. Watching Doc play with the kids that night made me sob with guilt. DH calmly tried to remind me of the first months with MM when he was a baby, assuring me I felt the same way then and look at us now. I tried to hear him, but it was hard and I went to sleep early and exhausted.

Day Four I was kind of a mess initially. Despite going to sleep really early the night before and having a great plan to get through the day, I was terrified and pessimistic, but by the time I finished waking up and got on with my day, doing all the things Hubby Recommended, things went SO MUCH BETTER. It was an amazing day in comparison.

Lessons learned: I need to start seriously crate training and take better care of myself. Happy and Healthy Dog Mommy = Happy and Healthy Dog. Duh. It’s amazing how all the lessons I learned with my kids I have to relearn with poor Doc.

So now it’s Day Five and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve kept up with my good habits learned from Dan and though we’ve had a few missteps and momma’s had a few mild temper tantrums, things are going well. I no longer want to send the dog back at all. If anything, he’s totally starting to grow on me and I can see how much Dan and the kids love him and there’s no guilt. I am a work in progress, but he is a very good dog. And even better? It’s FRIDAY and I’ll have two days at home with the hubby to pick up more good habits and get a little bit of a break.

Tomorrow Doc has his first vet appointment under our care (obviously he’s been already with his foster parents) and I’m going to get signed up for a puppy training class ASAP so that Doc and I can learn all the best tricks in the book from a professional and also get him a chance to get some social time with other dogs. And on Sunday? Momma is totally going to yoga with a friend because I think I’ve earned some social time, too!

In closing, here are some things I LOVE about our new dog (because isn’t it always a great thing to look on the brightest side sometimes?):

  1. He is not much of a barker. He whines in his crate of course and occasionally gives the kids a good bark to try and initiate play, but when he hears or sees another dog, he does not bark at it. He stands at attention and observes carefully, but he doesn’t bark at all. I hope he stays that way because I love it.
  2. He seems to pick up training pretty quickly. The spray bottle works wonderfully to help emphasize bad habits that he needs to drop. Crating has gotten easier and easier as the week goes on and he really does quiet down pretty quickly once he’s in there.
  3. He is adorable. This cannot be said enough – I love that he resembles Dan’s parents’ dog so much right now. I’m sure that will change as he gets older but right now the resemblance is rather uncanny and I think that is helping us to bond with him quickly because everyone loves Nana Rose.
  4. I love that when he does settle down, it tends to be at the foot of whatever chair I’m sitting in. I had to stop using the easy chair’s little built in foot rest because he would sleep directly under it and was very hard to coax out of said spot when I wanted to get up. Dan and I agreed that we couldn’t risk hurting him and started using our ottoman’s instead – hardly a big sacrifice. Those first couple of days he really did think that his world orbited around Dan The Man but he seems to have warmed up to me a lot and that makes me feel better. Despite my mistakes and my need to occasionally be Firm Mean Mom when he is misbehaving, he still thinks I’m the bees knees.
  5. He is really good with the kids overall. It’s a learning curve for all of us but his biggest fault with the kids might be that he sometimes loves them too much. But all I have to do right now is pick up the spray bottle and he remembers to be gentle. This will be an important lesson to learn as he gets older and much, much bigger. The kids are also really good with him and you can tell how much they all love each other. And really, that is kind of the whole reason we are doing this thing.