Calming before the storm(ing)

[caption id="attachment_1975" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Snuggles for siblings[/caption]

Our current "child" is needy, high energy and relatively spastic most times.  When it is just G and I at home she calms down and is the snuggle bug we know and love.  When we have visitors? She won't settle, wants to jump and leap and lick everyone and just get all the attention from all the new people.  It is so overwhelming both for us and for those coming for a visit. We have been making such a huge effort with her lately to calm that wild spirit and get her to just relax.  We want everyone else to get to enjoy her the way we do...a snuggley, tooting, snoring, sweetheart.  Not a wild eyed, jumpy, nibbly, excited tinkler.

 I feel bad because lately she has been hearing a lot of "down, no, off, NO" from us...and yes I realize she is a dog, but she sure has the puppy dog eye look down pat to make us feel bad after we reprimand her.  We both just want her to be a good girl, and not accidentally smother/jump on the baby once that big change happens.  Everyone tells us how quickly the pup becomes second fiddle once a baby arrives, and I can definitely see that happening...I am just hoping we are able to keep working with her over the next two months and tame some of that wild puppy spirit.  I tried explaining to her this morning that she will be spending a LOT of time in the newly fenced in yard if she doesn't simmer down, at least a little.  I am sure once Gus starts eating some real food, Brooklyn will realize that the baby is her meal ticket (or snack ticket I guess?!) but until then I just sense her getting annoyed that someone else has her parent's full attention.  (I guess I should say owners?  But it's hard not to think of her as our fur baby..maybe that is the problem hahaha)

A Boy and his Dog

When we got Brooklyn I really thought she would be our dog. Loving the two of us equally with her whole puppy heart.  This has not so much been the case. She is 100% a Daddy's girl. It doesn't matter that I am the one who walks her, and 9 times out of 10 feeds her, if she has her choice between me and G...she is ALL his.  I keep having this vision of Gus and Brooklyn all snuggled up with G and me all alone on the couch. Ha (clearly I have a flair for the dramatic)

This is a picture G sent me the other weekend when he and his girl were out running some errands.  She is just chilling and supervising from her fave perch--front seat of the truck.  Poor thing, I wonder if she knows what craziness is about to be upon her...someone else who will be requiring more of her Dad's attention.  At least the baby won't be riding shot gun in the car anytime soon.

Weekend Report: The learning edition

We had a pretty ram packed weekend but all in all it was quite lovely.  Friday night G, Gus and I went to see Fast and the Furious 6...definitely an Oscar contender for this coming season.  All these movies are pretty ridiculous, but we LOVE going to watch them together, and whenever there was a lot of engine revving (which was clearly a lot in this movie) Gus would wiggle around...perhaps not a fan of loud noises like their Mumma?

Saturday we had our labour and delivery class with a really amazing nurse from Barrie.  We learned a lot, and G asked a lot of questions which made me feel good.  He said that he feels like he understands a lot more about what will be happening now so he is more comfortable with the whole thing.  We have some homework readings to do together so we can be even more prepared, but I feel that we are at least on the same page about how things are going to happen. We had friends up Saturday night for a BBQ and hang out session...they are also expecting and due a month after us so G lovingly explained all the scary stuff to the husband.  He visibly blanched when G explained about an episiotomy . haha (I am so proud he retained all that info!)

Sunday we headed to our newborn care class and again learned a lot.  I think that this made things even more real which is fun. Obviously we both know we are having a baby, but getting detailed info about how to take care of one brought us to a whole new level.  I know that a lot of it will be instinct and we will learn as we go, but I think we both feel a lot more confident now about certain things. We were both frantically taking notes in the "when baby is sick" section of the class.  We were joking about how we will obviously have our doctor on speed dial and be best friends with all the call centre workers at telehealth!    After class we headed to visit my father in law for supper and to pick up Brooklyn.  Clearly I took the cutest picture ever and posted it yesterday!  It is so nice to have her home, we missed that little bum--She has been christened "Bubble Guts" by G's dad as he was accidentally fattening her up all week...there was a slight miscommunication regarding how much food she gets, and as she indeed is a bubble guts she ate all that he set down for her...so its to weight watchers for the little miss this week.

So all in all a great weekend, we didn't get to get as much done around the house as we wanted, but we did get to see the fruits of G's lawn labour from a few weeks ago.  Our lawn wasn't looking so great after the winter, so about 3 weeks ago G put down some seed in the gross areas and we kind of prayed that the rain would do its job.  Last night we noticed that the areas are starting to fill in nicely! Hurrah...cross one thing off the list!  Our gardens have been so jungle-ish lately they are unbelievable.  Our longer term plan is to dig a few of them out because they are a lot to handle, but fortunately a gardening fairy stopped by last week and took care of two of them for us!   Our lawn has been a never ending attempt to repair project--the previous owners never  mowed it and it was full of crab grass, dandelions and the like.  For the past two summers we have invested in grass seed and fertilizer and are slowly seeing a difference, but man alive what a lot of work...astro turf for the next house!

And now a few random pictures:

[caption id="attachment_1909" align="aligncenter" width="388"] A fun pic my Mum sent me on Saturday night of her and my Nanny having a wee drink on her porch![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1910" align="aligncenter" width="388"] My sister in law got us this which we finally started on the weekend. Then promptly fell over realizing how soon this is![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1911" align="aligncenter" width="388"] FOUND THEM!!!! A random Timmies Kiosk at my work has these...made my day today[/caption]

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]

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.

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.

New Blog Idea

Garret and I have been thinking we should start a new blog. We would call it "Things we have pulled out of our dog's mouth".  It is an ongoing battle lately with this one, who will disregard all toys on the floor and attempt to make off with anything else she can find.  She has also learned to jump up on our ottoman so all of that is fair game as well.

Items recently retrieved include:

* Apple TV Remote

*Hair Elastic

*Clumps of my hair...apparently there are tumbleweeds of the stuff throughout our house...I swear we vacuum

* Underwear

*Socks

*Slippers

*Any shoe possible

*Random hunks of wood (still unsure where these come from?!) Definitely blaming G for he brings the construction material into the house

*Brick particles (from the wall G is working on)

*bits of plastic

*Lowes Receipt

* A knife with peanut butter on it that I carelessly left on a plate on the ottoman

*Labels from the bottom of our kitchen chairs...she seems to take great joy in ripping them off the bottom of the seat and tearing them to shreds on the carpet

*Leafs

*ANY stick she can find outside

*A (thankfully empty) poop bag

*Egg carton

*BEER CAN

*Paint Roller

*mouthfuls of green fluff she pulls off her tennis balls

I am sure over the time we own her this list will be greatly added to. Her favourite thing to grab happens to be G's favourite shoes.  She always looks so proud of herself as she prances over to us with one hanging out of her mouth.  We have been putting them on the top shelf of the shoe tray but that girl is determined.

Dognapper

 

My mother in law is a big fan of Brooklyn (who can blame her, she is just that awesome)  She jokes all the time about stealing her and running away...well...yesterday she came and got her and brought her home to be spoiled for a few days!  This is the picture she sent me yesterday...my puppy in her car heading to her place!  I wonder what will happen when its real grandkids and not just the furry ones!

This Dog's Life

If I look at my instagram feed it would appear that all I do with my life now is take photos of my puppy.  But I can't help it she is just so crazy cute (to us at least)  Here are some recent ones that I have to share...although I don't know what tops her all snuggled up in bed with G this weekend!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Our girl at puppy class....this lady will work it for treats![/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Warming her goodies on the heat vent. She beelines here as soon as we come in from walks.[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] We let her up on the bed for a snuggle the other night and she crawled right under the covers. She made her disgruntled old man noise when we grabbed her to go in her crate...poor thing. If she wasn't such an insane snorer we would most likely consider letting her stay some nights.[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Last night we were having some family time watching a movie and she fell asleep like this. We were crying from laughing so hard. The bonus of this position is that she doesn't really snore...although we can't figure out how it could be comfortable.[/caption][caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="487"] Another view of the Zombie dog's sleep preferences.[/caption]

I wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy

I have never been one of those "spring out of bed ready to face the day" type of people.  I enjoy the snooze button and tend to dozily come up with reasons to not get up yet.  In fact most mornings I would lay there and sleep in until the last possible second--giving me just enough time to brush my teeth, get dressed, slap on some makeup and be out the door.  More accurately I would think I was giving myself enough time, but I would frequently be cursing as I was running out the door late to meet my carpool. (Apparently 7 minutes isn't enough time to get ready to leave the house in the morning...who knew?)  This, coupled with my darling husbands inability to know where ANYTHING of his migrated to from the night before, (car keys, wallet, sunglasses, etc) frequently lead to stressy mornings with terse exchanges between us. --not the ideal was to start out our mornings!  When we got Brooklyn I knew that we would have to start getting up earlier.  I was pretty good about it in the fall, but after all the time we spent together over the holidays I realized that in order to be fair to B I would have to get up even earlier.  For the past two weeks I have been getting up at 5:45am (old Julia scoffs from under the warmth of her cozy duvet) I can honestly say I am still not springing out of bed joyfully, but I am loving opening up B's crate and seeing her smooshy face all excited to see me, and us having time to play together before the reality of the working day sets in.  We go out for a pee, and I have a tea while I feed her and get myself organized for the day--it is nice not to rush.  Having an hour to play together and snuggle before I have to leave is making me feel less guilty about leaving her in her crate all day.  I really love watching her learn new things.  She recently realized that when the heat kick on she can get a nice warm tummy standing over one of the vents.  She will cease all snuggles and games of fetch as soon as she hears the furnace go!

3 months old today

Happy 3 month birthday to our sweet Brooklyn/Turd Ferguson.  Even when you are peeing on the floor or trying to eat our shoes we still love you and wouldn't trade you in..  Thanks for becoming part of the Walsh family and for teaching us (mostly your Dad) patience, floor cleanliness and the general joy of snorty grunty snuggles. Love you fuzz bum!

And now photos of our sweet fur baby

[caption id="attachment_1165" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Being Ghetto fabulous in your winter jacket[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Navigating through the streets of Meaford[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1167" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Helping me write wedding thank yous. Signing her approval with a nose print[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1169" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Napping...this is when we can relax[/caption]

Neither of us have really had a dog before so this is a wee bit of a learning curve, but we are really enjoying it.  We have turned into those people who take 5000 iPhone photos of her doing cute things, laugh at her when she snores and makes funny noises and fight over who gets to snuggle with her when she is calm and wanting to cuddle up.  We are loving that she always wants to be near one of us, but we are wondering how cute it will be when she is double her size and still insisting on eating her toys in our lap.

 

 

Couch chilling

While G is away his girls get craaaazy...
ie. couch snuggles while watching Netflicks. I had hear the crazy wind outside and feel blessed to be toasty and cuddled up inside!



Big to do list for the next two days but for now all I wana do is spoon with my fur baby! Garret and I were talking today and are both so happy about our new addition. I don't think we knew how much we would love her or how she would make us feel even more like a family!

The One Where This Becomes A Puppy Blog

So it has become apparent that the biggest news in our life this week has to do with the dog. It's funny how quickly we have become attached and its all we talk/blog about.  It took a day but we already have a nickname for her when she is being naughty.  Turd Ferguson (from an old SNL skit with Norm MacDonald and Will Ferrell) Turd was out and about a bit this morning as she turned down the chance to go to the bathroom outside to come inside and poop on the floor...definitely something to keep working on!

I downloaded a new fun ap the other week for my iPhone called "Half Tone" which lets me add fun comic book style titles to photos. I'm thinking that we will need to make up a little comic book series about what our little Turd gets up to during the day while we are at work...yesterday would have included an image of her chewing on the cord for my Cuisinart.  Naughty Monkey.

[caption id="attachment_1089" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Season 1: volume 1[/caption]

Brooklyn

So we have been dog owners for over 24 hours now and we love it. No idea what we are doing, but loving it. She absolutely adores G which is super sweet. She loves snuggles, her chew toy and food! We are going to a puppy training class tomorrow after work so we can learn how to start training her properly. So far we are working on no biting, and using the outside for the bathroom. It seems that she isn't a big fan of the cold (big shock for her in the coming months). We have her outside and she doesn't she doesn't seem interested in peeing, but then as soon as she comes back inside she goes on the kitchen floor. It will definitely be a lot of work, but she is already so worth it. Right now the three of us are snuggled up on the couch watching movie and its so nice. Being a good snuggler makes her the perfect addition to our family!

And the heart grows bigger

Introducing Brooklyn Springsteen Walsh. Aka schmoo bear aka princess snuffles aka cuddle puppy aka fur baby.
She snores louder than Garret does and she has already become a fixture in our hearts. We are in love.

The Walsh family has started to grow

Last night we made the decision to add to our family...And tomorrow morning we are picking up our sweet new puppy.  NO IDEA what is in store for us since we have never had a puppy before, but we are both really excited.  She is a 9 week old Boston Terrier name TBD (to be determined)  We have a list a mile and a half long and I think we mostly love boy names, so we shall see...it needs to be something we love because we will be calling her that for many years to come.  And without further preamble let me present our lil muffin:

[caption id="attachment_1074" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Hey....Pretty sure you wana take me home with ya....[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1075" align="aligncenter" width="388"] She came with a Christmas sweater.....[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1076" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Heats melted the more we snuggled. She LOVES Garret[/caption]

So dear online world be prepared to be spammed with pictures of our puppy cause I know I am that kind of person.  We pick her up tomorrow morning and I already can't wait to have her home with us.