Meet Our New Grand-dog

Meet Thunder, I mean Flash, I mean...

Well, he'll have a name soon!

Duke meeting the newest member of the family 

Now it's Rascal's turn

This cute little (and I mean LITTLE) guy is joining Katie, Gabe, Sunny, Thunder, and Buster as the newest member of their family. Isn't he adorable? He's eight weeks old and only weights two pounds. 

Buster: "But I didn't ASK for a little brother..."

The kids are so excited to have a new puppy!

Grand-Pets!

Not only are we blessed to have three grandchildren with a fourth arriving soon, but we are also blessed with several grand-pets! We currently have four grand-cats: Shadow, Twilight, Marley, & Nym, and three grand-dogs: Coco, Buster and a brand new puppy. The newest grand-dog arrived on Friday. She is a Boxer named Brownie. Actually her full name is Brownie Sparkle Princess Butterfly. This is what happens when you let the two-year-old and four-year-old choose the name! She's a little sweetie... welcome to the family, Brownie!

Brownie checking out Thunder

She has now moved on to Sunny

Buster sniffing his new baby sister

45 minutes into it and she falls asleep!

Random Stuff

Thunder attended Grammy Daycare yesterday alone. He is just so anxious to walk. He moves around the house on flat feet and flat hands with his bottom up in the air. It looks so uncomfortable. He pulls himself up on the furniture and on any toys big enough to support his weight. He babbles constantly and shakes his head "no". He is a friendly little boy and almost always cheerful. His favorite person at my house is Gramps, followed by Rascal. I come in a distant third! He is all boy and it's fun to have some boy stuff mixed in with all the girl stuff.

Bananas, Raspberries, and Grilled Cheese Sandwich - yum, yum!

Buster was neutered yesterday. 

He's recuperating at Grammy's house for 24 hours.

The summer vignette in my window seat keeps evolving

Oh, the Fun We Had!

Sunny and Thunder are back with their parents today. Katie and Gabe picked them up yesterday afternoon having spent a fabulous week in Hawaii! 

The long visit went better than I had hoped. We weren't quite sure what to expect having them for that long. Sunny did not get homesick until yesterday. I think it's because she knew they were coming back that day. Thunder did great the whole time. I already covered Buster's behavior in a previous post so I won't repeat it here. I will say, though, that the Veggie Tales CD on continuous loop worked like a charm and he did not bark, whine, or howl Friday - Monday nights. Yippee!

Here are some photos of the past few days. Now I need to go take a nap...

Bouncing on the bed

Playing with Buster

Playing stickers with Gigi

Papa and Thunder

Gigi and Thunder

Pool time

Ready for a ride

Swimming

Bath-time fun

Donuts for breakfast - yummy!

This Week at Grammy's

Whew. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I am exhausted. In a good way. But still, completely exhausted. The culprit is not who you probably think it is. It's not the grandkids. It's the grand-dog.

Sunny and Thunder spent the week at our house. They're gone tonight and tomorrow night to spend time with a family friend. Then it's back to our house for two more nights.

It's actually gone much better than I could have imagined. We have managed to keep busy. We haven't gotten bored yet. Sunny is not completely homesick as I worried she would be. Tia Jessica and Tio Adam came over one night for dinner. Gigi and Papa came over the next night for dinner. So, the kids have had some variety in grownups to play with.

The reason I'm exhausted is Buster. Don't get me wrong, he's the sweetest little dog. He's a very good boy. But, he's a puppy. He is driving Duke insane. When he bothers Rascal, Rascal growls and snaps at him and he backs off. When Duke growls and snaps at him, he just keeps going.

The problem is at night. Katie said Buster is used to sleeping in his crate all night. Great! The first night we put him in the crate and after whining for several minutes, he settled down and slept all night. We were thrilled.

The second night we put him in his crate and he whined. He howled. He barked. He work the kids up at 1:30 and I had to lay on the couch with him the rest of the night. I got no sleep.

The third night we put him in the crate. He whined. He howled. He barked. Dan finally got up and went to lay on the couch with him. Buster fell asleep. Dan, not being comfortable on the couch, decided to leave Buster out on the couch and came back to bed. Sunny woke up to go potty at 4:30 am. As I stumbled down the hall in the dark... well you're probably way ahead of me... I stepped in a puddle. Dan's comment was "I thought it would be easier to clean up a mess than to get no sleep." My question "easier for who?" After mopping the entire hallway and all the paw prints in the living room, I couldn't go back to sleep.

The fourth night. We tried a different approach. We put his crate in the laundry room and closed the door hoping he wouldn't wake the kids up if he howled. He was quiet. Hallelujah! He was quiet until 12:05 am when Duke needed to go out which woke Buster up and the howling, barking, whining began. Of course, he woke Thunder up. Great. After taking care of Thunder and getting him back down, I was up and down the rest of the night determined to NOT take him out of his crate. I'm exhausted.

Since the kids are gone the next two nights, I'm going to put his crate in the playroom at the front of the house, close the door, and put on the Veggies Tales Toddler Tunes tape in continuous mode all night. Hope it works.

Here's some photos of the fun we've had so far this week:

Fun at the park

Buster and Thunder

Look who's standing!

Cookie time

Tia Jessica dropped by to see the sun visors Sunny and I made

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

We got an unusual text request from Katie on Saturday morning. She asked if Buster could spend the night at Gramps' and Grammy's. Uhhh, sure?! She and Gabe went out with friends in Scottsdale. (Since Gabe works on that side of town and had to be there early Sunday morning they were staying overnight). Sunny and Thunder were spending the night at Papa and Mama Rossi's house (friends). That left Buster with no where to go. Gramps and Grammy to the rescue!

I was under the impression that Buster sleeps in his carrier at night. When I put him in there for bedtime he started to whine. Then he yelped. Then he howled. I texted Katie "I thought he sleeps in his carrier, why is he howling?" She texted back "he sleeps with us". Great. Fortunately he calmed down and went to sleep after a few minutes. He slept without a peep until midnight when the alarm on the clock in the living room went off. Dan went out to turn it off. Buster saw him and commenced howling. Dan got back up, put him out for a potty break, and then dumped him in bed with us.

No big deal... for Dan. For me, however, it led to a mostly sleepless night. I had Buster under the covers pressed up against me on my left side. Duke was on top of the covers, pressed up against my right side. Summer was on top of the covers pressed up against my feet. All that animal heat made for a hot night. All that pressed up against me felt claustrophobic. Thank goodness Rascal is too big to sleep on the bed!

I got some cute pics of Buster. He loved having the "big boys" to play with. It was cute to see him copy their movements. He loved going outside with them.

Little Buster

Emerging from a nap

Rascal, Buster, and Duke with Gramps

I've mentioned before that Sunny is fascinated by cross-stitching. She loves to get in my lap and watch me stitch. Tia Jessica lets her push and pull the needle through the fabric when she stitches. Sunny constantly tells me that she wants to learn to stitch. Yesterday morning I got out the sewing cards. I "sewed" one to show her how to do it. Then I turned her loose on the elephant by herself. She did it! She was so proud of herself. Last night when Katie picked her up, Sunny was standing at the door calling,"I stitched for you, Mommy! I stitched for you." We got out the elephant to show off to Mommy. I can't wait til I can teach her stitch!

"See what I did?!"