If it ain't one thing it's anotha

Have you heard the "some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield" analogy? Well yesterday it  felt like I was having a bug kind of day. Nothing that a good nights sleep last night didn't fix, but STILL....bad days on Mondays just really suck.
The beginning of my spiral technically started on Saturday when we took Brooklyn into the vet for a check up. What I thought was going to be something really quick and low keyish turned into the vet explaining to me how our sweet babe needs dental work. Now...once upon a time Garret needed dental work and we pretty much made him suck it up for 6 months until we had benefits, but for some reason neither of us feel this is a viable option for our girl. I was explaining the issue to our friend Emma who reminded me of a Simpson's episode complete with a photo:

This is pretty much exactly how the vet explained it.  The downhill spiral kicked into effect yesterday afternoon when the quote for the dental work came through. And so Miss Brooklyn inherits a new nickname to add to the list "Money Pit" Good thing she is so flipping cute

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Well...at least I don't need orthodontics![/caption]

A Fetus By Any Other Name Would Be As Fetusy

    Garret and I decided that we will not be finding out the sex of Baby W. Well to be honest I have waffled a little since our original discussion on the matter but G will not budge. My mostly fake argument of "my body my choice" was met with an "our baby our choice" reply. And thus we are waiting!

One of the downsides of this is that we now get to have "discussions" on both boy and girl names. Apparently I lean towards the hippy choices, and Garret leans towards more boring ones. Somehow he has known (and hated) someone with most of the names I suggest. He also comes up with the most ridiculous nicknames and worries our kids will get teased...I try to explain that kids would not be as creative but he doesnt agree.

Since we won't have a personal pronoun with which to address said fetus, we have been auditioning nicknames over the past few weeks. (I HATE saying "it" when referring to our soon-to-be-newest family member) G vetoed any variation of fruit or veggie nick names and so we have settled on Gus. Short for Gus Gus
As in this Guy:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="614"] I think I can fit one more in here[/caption]

Gus is making me chubby, a bit brain dead and a huge fan of all things food. Plus G and I have a soft place in our hearts for mice. See here. and Here.

Daddy's gal

[caption id="attachment_1819" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Oh hey...whatcha makin' up there?[/caption]

She is so funny, our furry girl.  Definitely a Daddy's girl, we notice wherever G goes, she is close behind.  Our morning routine has been swapped up a little bit as of late and missy isn't liking that she and I are down stairs having breakfast while G is getting ready upstairs.  Yesterday she just decided brave our steep slippery stairs and G had the surprise of his life hopping out of the shower, to find someone waiting for him.  (We still can't get her to go down the stairs, and so we carry her like the princess she is)  She will still snuggle indiscriminately...whomever is in snuggle range will receive a lump of fur on their lap. But if "Dad" is doing something of interest no cajoling on my part can get her to come see me (well maybe if I tried cheese dipped in peanut butter, I bet that would get her attention)  I just found it adorable  yesterday, G was making dinner and when I peeked my head around the corner I saw her lurking.  Desperately hoping that Dad is as clumsy as Mum and will end up dropping a delicious treat.  I just picture our life together in a few years, the dog on one side and Baby W on the other, both vying for G's attention as my lap remains empty....hummmm I think the treat bribing shall commence immediately!

7 months down

7 months down and we are:

• Preparing to launch a full scale attack on the outside of our house


• Remembering why it is a good idea to rake up ALL the leaves in the fall (our lawn has a few squishy piles left from the fall)


• Enjoying our time just the two of us, after having one of our friends living with us for 2 months


• Choosing paint colours for the downstairs bathroom (one small project we decided to undertake)


• Researching strollers, play pens, breast pumps and the like.  Garret is over the moon with excitement. Obviously.


• Craving: popsicles, oranges, cheese, avocados and burgers


• Gathering supplies for the mother of all spring cleaning sessions


• Realizing that naming a human being is 500 times harder than naming our dog


• Hopeful that spring really is just around the corner


• Making a billion lists of things to do, to buy, to make before the fall

Holdin on to one another's hand

...because we were definitely running just as fast as we can (could).  We have been taking advantage of how light it is in the evenings lately to get out and run around with Brooklyn.  She absolutely loves getting to whip around and chase after us.  We hit up a school playground on our way home from visiting friends the other night. Even though we kept her on her leash we flew around that field and she loved life.  I am so glad we have decided to finish fencing in our backyard this spring.  It will be nice to have more room for her to fly around off leash, chasing balls, squirrels and anything else that tickles her fancy.  I kept trying to take photos but the low light/iPhone combo didn't work out so well, resulting in a blurry pic.  I wish it illustrated the sheer joy in that pups face as she lead Garret, tearing towards me and leaping into my waiting lap.

Contest #17- handmade jewelry from 2 sisters

There are 5 winners...one each week for the next 5 weeks!  You can win a gorgeous fingerprint jewelry kit from 2sistershandcrafted.

See here

Ways in which Brooklyn is preparing us for parenthood

1.  Has selective hearing
2.  Doesn't know when it is a weekend and sleeping in past 6 would be appropriate
3.  We have spent the past few months cleaning up her bodily fluids
4.  We have been in full on worry mode for the past week after her spaying. Everything from her eating, bathroom times, sleeping, and incision site has been thoroughly discussed, worried over, googled etc
5.  She has more toys than she knows what to do with but her fave items are Garret's shoes and anything we have left within reach (See here)
6. Everything we own is covered in a fine layer of dog hair (I hear with babies it's drool, regurgitated food and unknown sticky substances)
7.  Whines occasionally for no discernible reason
8.  Both our iPhones are full of photos of her
9.  When one of us is away we call to check in on how the fur baby is doing
10.  We think everything (well mostly) she does is cute and noteworthy (and should be shared/blogged about)
11.  We talk to her in a cute voice
12.  We unsuccessfully attempt to reason with her
13.  We have discussed co sleeping
14.  She makes noises and keeps us up all night
15.  We will lay still on the couch when she is napping on us even if we are dying to get up to pee/eat/answer the phone
16.  She has been my facebook profile pic for the past 4 months
17.  She toots and we still think it is cute
18. The grandparents no longer ask how we are doing.  First question is always "How is Brooklyn"
19. We make playdates for Brooklyn with our friend's dogs
20. We hesitate when making plans to ensure B isn't home alone too long
21. We miss her when we are away from her for too long
22. 15 seconds after we want to strangle her for doing something turdy we crazy love her again
23. We can't imagine our lives without her!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="650"] Urgh how can you not love this smushy little face![/caption]

The Fam

We attempted to keep Miss. Brooklyn on the chill side this weekend but that is nearly impossible as she is all like "yay run, jump, play, leap about" and not so much "let's just chill out and watch a movie"  So just to keep a further eye on her, G took her to work again today.  G made her a fort in the back of the truck and she is chilling out back there and when he goes on job sites he takes her out for a pee and a snuggle.  There is WAY less snuggling happening at my work today. boo.  I whined about not getting mid day family time so G sent me a pic:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] my handsome hubs and our sweet furry girl[/caption]

It's almost as good as all being together!

On the mend

[gallery type="circle" ids="1760,1761,1762,1763"]

Our sweet babe made it through her spaying fine and dandy. She is a bit off but on the whole back to her normal self.  Being the paranoid worrisome people that we are, we didn't really want to leave her home alone. So we did what any normal dog owner would do...we packed her up and sent her to work with her Dad.  G and I are both pretty lucky that we work with a lot of dog lovers and both our jobs would be  understanding (understanding of us being insane pet owners I guess...)  So he has her sitting under his desk today and I am jealous as anything.  While she is clearly fine and good to be on her own, we are just liking snuggling her extra close and spending some time with her while she heals.  Tonight we have big plans for a couch cuddlefest  and finally watching The Hobbit.  It is our plan to make the dog a big of a nerd as me...next up? A Harry Potter Marathon.  She looks a bit like Dobby so I think she will enjoy.  Hey...remember when my blog was about our house? And now it's just about our dog? Be forewarned soon it will just be about our baby.

Expressing Ourselves

When we first found out we were pregnant we had lofty plans for how we would tell our families that we were having a baby.  But then we were way too excited and told them in a pretty straight up "guess who is having a baby"? type of way.  Our Mums lucked out and each got a framed pic of a pregnancy test with the words "Baby Walsh" on the bottom....classy right?  I think our excitement trumped our creativity there.

We tried to make plans  to put a little more effort into it when we told some of our friends...but my graciously turning down wine at Garret's birthday weekend was enough of a tell for all the guests there.  As we started telling more people we made time to make a few fun things.  Two of our friends are REALLY into the Grumpy Cat Meme so we made this to send:

My friend Harrison texted me immediately after laughing saying "I thought you were telling me you are pregnant"  then two seconds later another text "THAT IS YOUR WEDDING RING"  Definitely some good laughs there.

I had been bugging Garret for a few weeks to make something cute we could send to his family to tell them.  I was thinking something along the lines of a picture with one of our favourite Iphone Aps to snazz it up.  He spent some time goofing around with his phone and when he sent me what he made I had to laugh.  Not quite what I had in mind

[caption id="attachment_1755" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Ice Cube is obviously delighted for us[/caption]

Granted I found this hilarious and so did several of our other friends, but I am pretty sure none of his family listens to Ice Cube so the novelty would have been lost.

 

All fixed up

Tomorrow D.L Snoogley (another nick name I forgot on the list last week) is going in to get spayed.  So please send fast painless healing thoughts to her lady bits.  I am sure she will be back to her regularly scheduled crazy self ASAP, but I can't wait until it is over and she is back home with us.  And now two cute photos of the Snoogs:

[caption id="attachment_1739" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Taking a break after a long visit with Grandpa[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1740" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Observing my Dad's progress with brick wall building[/caption]

Runaway Bunny

One of the blogs I read did a retelling of "The Runaway Bunny" using Peeps for illustration. I got quite a chuckle out of this and remember loving this as a child.  Check it out here