Swing Away!

Sammy has officially learned how to swing!  Hooray!!!

We tried and tried to teach him "the moves" involved in swinging, and it just wasn't sinking in.

Then one day, after a yummy picnic dinner of sandwiches (hey, everything tastes better if you eat it outside!), he and Griffin went down the deck stairs, jumped on the swings and he pushed... and pushed... and kicked... and he was swinging!

He was SO proud of himself.

*sigh*

My boys are growing up.

I remember when he used to be this big.

And this big.

Oh, man.  That is one cute baby.

New Hair, New Name

Little Miss Snickerdoodle has a new name.  We decided that although we like the name Snicker, it didn't fit her as well as her new name does.  These days, we are calling her...

wait for it...

Tripsy!  Heeeeeere, Tripsy!  Come here, girl!

Wait!  No!  Stop biting my toes!  Don't sit on my feet!  Quit walking right in front of me!  I'm going to trip on y... ouch!

 

And thus we renamed her Tripsy.  Quite fitting, I think.  Mike actually came up with the name after we had been at Grandma G and Grandpa Suzie's house.  We took Snicker... er, Tripsy... along to socialize with the other little doggies (Gordon still hasn't allowed her into his world yet), and they (Gma and Gpa) got to experience the joys of tripping on our puppy all over their house.

Grandpa was walking through the kitchen (Tripsy's favorite room of the house, for this is where most treats originate from), and little one was walking... tripping, really... along under, beside, and on top of his feet.  He said,"I'm going to start calling you Footsy, because having you around is like having a third foot!"

I mentioned that to Mike on the way home, and he started playing around with names.  Tripsy kind of stumbled out of his mouth, and I immediately loved it.  It's so perfect!

It is hard to switch our brains over to calling her something else after thinking of her as Snicker for a week, but she didn't know that her name was Snicker yet, and she actually responds to Tripsy!  Yay!

And yeah.  She's not housebroken yet.  But she sleeps through the night now.

 I had to give you some perspective on just how small she is.  She looks big in all of the pictures, but she is about half the size she used to be.  Or maybe I just have big shoes.  *sigh*

Happy Mother's Day!

We have a new member of the family!  I went with Christy, Mark and Miguel to pick her out the day before Mother's Day.  Happy Mother's Day to me!  I am over the moon in love with this little girl.  Here she is, in all her puppy cuteness.  We call her Snicker, short for Snickerdoodle.

She is a 12-week-old Shih Tzu, and I think she was the cutest one of the bunch!  She came right to me when I called her, and as soon as I held her I knew she was the one for me.  She is sweet and loves to snuggle, and she follows me around all day and lays down in between, on, behind, or in front of my feet.

She kept me awake almost all night the first night, whimpering and crying and begging to get up on the bed with us.  I was firm and patient (it was hard!) and kept putting her back in her little bed and saying "In your bed, Snicker."  She slept from 3am-4am, finally, and then woke up and was sniffing and running around the room, so I took her outside and she did her business.  Yay for (somewhat) house-trained dogs!

When we came back inside, I was so tired I was a bit desperate for sleep, so as a last measure, I dangled my foot off the bed next to where her nose was in her bed.  She went right to sleep!  Hallelujah!  I had figured it out!

After a minute, I pulled my leg back up into bed (my hip felt like it was going to dislocate soon), and fell asleep.  Five minutes later, she woke up crying and jumping at the side of the bed, so I put her back in her bed, said "In your bed, Snicker," and dangled my foot by her bed again.  She fell asleep for about 10 minutes.  And so on and so forth, until 5 nights later (last night) she slept through the night without waking up once!  Yippee!  She feels like part of the family now.

Just don't ask Gordon.  He's not sure about her yet.  Sooooo insanely jealous that she gets to go outside in the front yard (too many things to chew on in the backyard) and he has to stay inside and watch from the front door.  He's growling in his sleep right now... probably at her.

It is nice having her almost house-trained.  I just loved the lady we got her from.  She sure loved her little puppies, and I could tell it was hard for her to sell them after raising them for almost 3 months, but I'm sure glad she did, because we just love her! 

She loves Mike, and she knows that he is for playing with, and I am for snuggling with, and the boys... well, the boys are for carrying her around and dangling toys in front of her nose!

Boy, the angle of that photo makes my head spin!  Sorry about that.  I love watching Sammy love on Snicker, though.  He sure loves the puppy... almost as much as I do.  :-)

The second part of my Mother's Day happiness is that Mike finished painting the main floor.  He took Thursday and Friday off of work and spackled, sanded, primed and painted all day both days and Saturday as well.  I brought Snicker home in the midst of the painting, so she got to get used to the house being all torn up and moved around!  I am getting it put back together, though.  Here are several pictures of the main floor as it is tonight.

 Had to sneak that last one in.  Doesn't Miles just look so cozy all snuggled up with a couple of books and a fuzzy blanket?  Hmmm... I think I'll go join him.  With Snicker at my feet, of course.