BIRTHDAY DOG SASHA AND IJ THE POTTY BOY

Tuesday was Sasha's first birthday. She is no longer a puppy, but a DOG. She doesn't seem to notice, though, since she's still acting like a crazy puppy. She's loopy. I can't even count the number of times in a day I say "Sasha, no!" or "Sasha, go on!" or "Sasha! Don't poop in the neighbor's yard!".

In a year, she's gone from this:

To this:

From getting into "trouble" like this (such a cute little muddy puppy she was):

To being this troublemaker (that's a dog toy stolen from the neighbor's yard in her mouth):

Yes, in a year Sasha has gone from this cute little puppy lump that was too scared to climb the stairs so I had to carry her, that would cuddle up and sleep in my lap and give cute little kisses, to a crazy dog that chews up my underwear and socks (and no one else's), who constantly tries to get to the neighbor's yard to poop, and just drives me relatively insane with how obnoxious she can be.

But I guess she's still cute. She sure can smile:

***

The past few days have been really good in potty training land. IJ has been relatively trained for a while now, ever since the day when he was a little over a year old that he asked to go potty after seeing C do it so many times. I put him up on the big potty not expecting much, but as soon as he was on there he pooped! He's used the big potty since then, cause I wasn't going to mess with one of those little potties if he understood what the big one was for. Since then I have gotten him mostly poop trained, but he was still doing most of his peeing in his training pants. I've been putting off putting IJ in underwear for a while, since that's what worked for C. But the puddles everywhere! But the past few days we've gone for it, and he's been wearing underwear for most of the day, and I've been giving him a few M&M's every time he goes in the potty. We've had a couple days where he's kept one pair of underwear dry the entire day! I can't believe how well it's been going already. The next step we have to work on is IJ recognizing that he has to pee on his own instead of me asking him around the time I know he should have to pee. Right now it goes about like this:

"IJ, do you have to go potty?"

IJ: "Nooooo."

"You're sure you don't have to go potty?"

IJ: "Nooooo."

"Okay, but remember, if you go potty like a big boy and keep your underwear dry, you get M&M's."

IJ thinks about this for a minute, and then "Mommy, I have to go potty and get M&M's!"

The only bad thing about the M&M thing is that C thinks that he should get some every time he goes potty too. So I'll probably have to wean off the M&M's soon and find some other potty reward. I saw a Dora potty chart with stickers on the Nick Jr. website that I'll probably print out. IJ likes stickers, so maybe that will work. I'm hoping IJ gets the hang of it faster than C did. C had the habit then, and still does now, of waiting until the very last moment to go potty. Pee had to be coming out of him before he would go, so a lot of the time he wouldn't make it. He's better now, but he'll still get the occasional wet spot in his underwear from waiting too long. I hope that IJ realizes that he can go potty before the pee is coming out. :)

Here's hoping he's totally trained by, like, next week. That would be awesome. :) At least I'd like him totally trained before his sister is born. It will be nice to only have one kid in diapers this time. :)

THE DOGS STOLE R'S PIZZA...FROM THE REFRIGERATOR

That's right. Our lovely dogs, Cheyenne and Sasha, have learned how to open up our fridge. They could not ignore the tantalizing smell of R's leftover Papa Murphy's pizza.

Now, before you give them too much credit, our fridge door hasn't been catching right lately. If you don't close it just so, it hangs open just the tiniest little bit. But still, they would have had to nudge at it pretty good with their noses to get the door to open enough.

When I first caught them with the pizza out of the fridge yesterday, they had only managed to eat one slice. I figured one of the kids had went in the fridge and left the door open (which has happened before, resulting in the whole top of R's birthday cheesecake being licked off by Sasha, which then resulted in an emergency run to the store by nana and papa who found the whole situation so very hilarious...). So the dogs got yelled at and ran off with their tails between their legs, and then I reminded the boys to close the fridge after they open it (when I asked who was the one that was in the fridge, they looked at me like they had no freaking clue what I was talking about and then blamed each other, which is funny now that I know they didn't do it).

I spent the next half hour to forty five minutes with both boys on the couch, reading them stories. I then got up to head to the kitchen to make their lunches. I could not believe my eyes. There in the middle of the kitchen floor was the empty cardboard platter that used to hold the leftover pizza. Not a crumb of pizza was left. I never even heard a thing. We have sneaky, sneaky dogs...

When R came home, the first thing out of C's mouth was "Daddy! The dogs ate your pizza!". R sat on the couch and pouted for a while since he was really looking forward to eating that pizza. I felt for him, but you have to admit it's kind of funny. Guess he should have put his pizza in a container...

And maybe now R will fix the fridge door. :)

ONE LOOOONG WEEK...CONTINUED

Last Thursday I made the third trip in a week to a certain medical center, but this time it wasn't for me. Wednesday night C started complaining of a sore throat, which wouldn't have been a huge deal if nana hadn't contracted strep a few days prior. So C missed school Thursday so we could head off to the medical center, again, since they have a walk-in clinic. Now normally I would take the boys to their pediatrician, and I called the office first thing Thursday morning. But they didn't have any openings until Monday. Monday! Freaking hell, the whole town must be sick. Obviously if C had strep I couldn't wait until Monday, so off to the medical center we went...

All of the medical center offices I was in Monday and Tuesday had toys in the waiting room. I knew it would be a long wait to be seen in the walk-in clinic, but I figured that office would also have toys, so I didn't bring anything with me. I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this: not a single toy in sight in that waiting room. And the boys were not in any mood to sit nicely in a chair. They wanted to run around and play. They traded chairs every two seconds. They tickled each other. Then they tried biting each other's fingers on purpose. Finally a lady pointed out to me that there was a very small box of kids books behind a chair in a corner. The books kept them occupied, although they seemed to think they needed a new book every two seconds. And for some reason, IJ seemed to think that the guy sitting next to the box was the Keeper of the Books. The guy didn't seem to mind, even though he was reading his own book, and played along. So when IJ was done with a book, he would hand it to the guy, then the guy would rifle through the box and give him a new one. It was pretty cute, and I'm glad the guy was nice about it.

Forever and a day later, we were finally called in. The verdict: no strep throat. But the boys have been sick with colds for a while (seems like ever since C started preschool), so the doctor diagnosed sinusitis. So C and IJ are both on antibiotics (which will also take care of any strep germs that maybe weren't presenting themselves), so now hopefully they'll finally kick their stuffy noses. Cause the snot has been flying here.

On Friday we got our first significant snowfall, a couple of inches that have since melted. I think that usually by this time we should have a lot more snow, but that doesn't bother me any. I don't really enjoy the snow and cold. Particularly the cold. I was born in Arizona, in the nice hot desert. My father was in the Air Force and they closed the base where we lived, and he actually picked to be sent to the base up here when I was in first grade (the base here eventually closed and my father took early retirement). So it's my father's fault that I live in the land of snow and cold. But there are a lot of good things about living in the U.P. that cancel out the cold part, so Yoopers we will stay. :)

C is a different story, though. He has been asking me for weeks when it would snow and when winter would come. I do not know how I produced this snow loving child. He obviously gets that from his daddy. :) So when he looked out the window Friday morning he was thrilled. "We can make snowmen and snowballs and have a snowball fight and build an igloo!" I hated telling him that he couldn't go out and play in it yet, first of all since he was still sick, and second of all since I haven't been able to get out shopping and get him new boots, snowpants, and gloves (IJ is all set with hand-me-downs). So R brought both boys a snowball before he left for work, and told them to throw it at me. Which of course they did since they listen to everything daddy tells them. :) Then of course I took them downstairs to attack nana and get her all wet. Hehe, that was fun.

snow covered bushes

more of our snow covered bushes

Cheyenne and Sasha went crazy playing in the snow, running around and around our deck and leaping at each other. You would think they'd never seen snow before. (I took these through a foggy door window)

Sasha butt :)

weighed down power lines

Sunday C got to sing with his preschool class at the church service (C's school is at a church), but I will save that for a post on it's own since I have some video to share.

So now I'm finally caught up! :)

SASHA, SASHA, SASHA

Well, I was just a little annoyed with Sasha today since I found chew marks on another one of my shoes, so I thought I'd share a video of Sasha being funny. Because she was not very funny today.

Anyways, nana was brushing her fur, but when she tried to brush her belly Sasha would kick her back legs like crazy. I got a kick out of it. (hehehe ;)

GIVE SASHA A TREAT

Just a fun little thing I found. I wanted to put it in the sidebar but it wouldn't fit, damnit. :( So give virtual Sasha a treat and maybe the real Sasha won't chew up my shoes.

adopt your own virtual pet!

PUPPIES AND POOLS

I've had just a lovely day today. Sasha (our black lab puppy) has been really driving me insane lately. Today was really bad though. She not only chewed one of my new sandals in half, but she totally mutilated one of the kids' library books. Then she stuck her face in the diaper bag that was on the floor and got out IJ's old binkie, and then chewed the nipple part off and chewed in half the pacifier attatcher (that clips it to the baby's clothes). She had to dig down all the way to the bottom of the bag to get it. Now, IJ doesn't use a binkie anymore of course, but we do plan to have one more child. I would have liked to use the attatcher again. :( And I get to visit the library on Monday with checkbook in hand. Lovely. What happened to my cute little puppy that was so calm and I had to carry up and down the stairs because she was scared to do it? Who would sleep in a little warm lump in my lap? Now it's "NO!" every two minutes. Yesterday she was running around full force outside and slammed right into IJ, sending him flying onto the ground where he scraped up his leg. Aaaaarrrrrrgh!! :( All is good now though, since I'm watching the nascar race at Daytona. Superspeedways are awesome. :)

Anyways, Sasha's not really what I was gonna write about today. A couple of days ago, R brought home a ten foot pool for the boys. He got it at Menards where he works, and because of his discount and that it was on sale, he got it for $40 when it was normally $60. Pretty nifty. :) C and IJ were pretty excited about it, and were ready to play in the pool before it was even filled up all the way.

A couple of days later when the pool water had warmed up some, we finally let the boys get in and play. It was still pretty cold, so they didn't last very long, but they didn't want to wait any longer.

Yesterday, the pool was nice and warm (it was sunny and 80 outside), so nana and papa got in with the boys. I was not planning on getting in, and was standing fully clothed next to the pool watching. Somehow I ended up getting soaked, because someone had to throw water at me (I do believe I have nana to thank for that). Of course, I had to retaliate, so I jumped right in and me and nana went at it. We both ended up pretty soaked. :) Then I tried to jump on the snow tube we were using as a boat for the boys. I landed on the tube, but the force sent me right over the edge and onto the ground! Nana and papa just stood there and watched it happen, laughing. They will pay. :) It was funny, at one point when all of us adults were having a ball in the pool, the boys had gotten out and were sitting in the van eating some cookies they had found. Hmm, I wonder who we bought this pool for? ;)

Here's a little clip of the boys splashing in the icy pool water on the first day:

Also, here's the flickr set with all our new pool pics. :)

I FEEL PROTECTED...

Yep, I feel safer already having Sasha around. Yesterday morning she started barking, and I couldn't figure out what the heck she was barking at. I looked up at the tv where Nick Jr. was airing a segment from the show Blue's Clues, something to do with it being the 10th anniversary of the show. There was Steve on the tv doing his thing...and Sasha did. Not. Like. It. She would get up close to the tv, but then Steve would move and she'd go running back and start barking at him. Back and forth, back and forth. Bark bark bark!! This went on until the segment was over and a commercial came on. I've never seen a dog get so worked up about what was on the tv before.

Should I assume, then, that she prefers Joe? :)

WE'LL NEVER LOSE HER NOW...

Sasha's identification tag finally came in the mail today. And I mean finally. I thought that it maybe got lost in the mail, and I was considering sending in another order form (and another 8 bucks). But now it's finally here, yippee! :) It's a silver bone with her name, address and phone number on it. And now she jingles when she walks like Cheyenne does. ;D

Sasha showing off her new silver tag

Smile for the camera! Sasha and Cheyenne

OLD NEWS

Here’s a rundown of all the stuff that’s been going on around here the past week. I know, it’s all old news now, I really need to catch up on my blogging. But I’ve been working hard on trying to get this site the way I want it to look. (It’s almost there!) And now I’m ready to blog here! :)

First off and most important, R got a promotion at Menards. He’s now an assistant manager. It’s more of a title right now really because his pay is staying the same, but he will get some additional bonuses and he has some different responsibilities now. R wasn’t sure that he wanted the management responsibilities, but I’m glad that he decided to go for it. I know that he’ll do a great job. :)

Last Friday Sasha had another vet appointment. She got a couple more puppy shots, and doesn’t need any more until she’s a year old. She’s up to 38 lbs. (the same as C!) And it was the last time I had to bring in her poop (and this time I didn’t forget it in the car! ;P ) since the roundworm pill worked. I’m still not sure if her bladder issues are cured or not, as she was still on her antibiotics at her appointment. Sasha’s off of them now, but I have to wait to bring her pee in to be tested until we can afford it. :( She’s been off the antibiotics for a couple of days now, and she seems to be okay, so hopefully the infection is gone. She’s been a pretty expensive puppy lately. But at least she has a pretty new orange rabies tag for her collar! :)

Last but not least, at the Health and Safety Fair we found out about a craft day that was to be held at our mall, since April is considered “the month of the small child” or something like that. So last Saturday we headed out for the mall, and it was pretty neat. Down the center of the mall there were all these craft tables set up from different organizations. And it was apparently a fish theme since all the crafts had some kind of fish involved: the boys ended up making fish mosaics, paper bag fish, whales with party blowers, and C colored a whale picture. C didn’t want to do any of the crafts at first, because he saw the quarter rides (correction: 75 cent rides!! When the hell did they get so expensive?) and wanted to do those first. I told him we would ride one at the end before we left since everything else wasn’t going to be there that long. He was mad. He pouted and said no to everything. Until he saw the water table. C stood and looked at it for a while, but I could tell he still wanted to be mad. Finally I asked if he wanted to do it and he reluctantly said yes. Two seconds playing in the water and he forgot all about those rides. He loves the water. When I finally pulled him away from the water table with a “Let’s let some other kids have a turn,” he was much more interested in what each table had. And he even got his ride at the end (except C and IJ had to share one -- 75 cents!!).

C and IJ at the water table and making their fish mosaics.