A Boy & His Dogs

Our son SO thinks that he is a canine! Most days, I'm surprised he's not walking around on all four like Kylee and Zoe do!

In the interest of full disclosure, when I was pregnant with Shane, Chris and I were a bit concerned about how the dogs, especially Zoe, would react to having a baby in the house. I mean, our girls had been our babies all along, right until we were blessed with a little blue bundle of our own.

Both Kylee and Zoe are rescue dogs, and both have their "issues". Not knowing what their full backgrounds are made it difficult to envision how they'd handle having a little one around. Kylee has to be the center of attention at all times, so naturally, we were concerned about how she would handle playing second fiddle for a while! And Zoe, poor Zoe. She was abused by her previous owner and has always been skittish around strangers - mainly men and children.

But, from the moment we brought our little guy home, our girls took to him like glue! Sure they have their moments when they've had enough of him and I'm sure they're wishing he'd just disappear for a while (don't all siblings?!), but ultimately, they love him - immensely. They've taken him in like he's one of their own and Chris and I couldn't be happier!

I mean seriously, could they be having any more fun together!! Just take a look at his face!!

Yeah, I'm talking about you Buddy!!

More tomorrow!

Update

We still have a good number of photos to share from our little holiday vacation - spending lots of time lounging around the house sort of lends itself to snapshots! But I thought I'd use today to update everyone on how we've been doing.

Chris has been doing really well. Christmas day was his last really bad day. Since then, he's started to take a daily Pepcid which has REALLY helped to control the majority of his stomach/digestive issues, which have always been his biggest complaint. The difference in him was noticeable between Christmas and New Years - he was looking better, he was feeling better and he was acting like his regular old self again - that week was heaven for me (and for him, too, I'm sure!) He got his 2nd monthly injection on Friday, January 2, and aside from a few "not so great" days following the injection, he's been doing really well again. This month has been going SO much better than last month - and we hope that continues to be the case. He's been out of bed more, he's been doing more, and the pain pills, with the rare exception, are finally starting to stay INSIDE of the bottle! Yippee!! Chris has also figured out that his eating habits have a lot to do with how he feels. He can't let his stomach get empty, and he can't eat too much at one time. Smaller, more frequent, meals seems to be the ticket to him feeling better. Needless to say, we're extremely happy that things seem to be going well and we're hoping that the problems he was having last month was just his body's way of adjusting to the new doseage of medication. Still, please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers - they certainly don't hurt and do appear to be working!! His next Dr. appointment isn't until February 2nd, when he'll get his 3rd injection.

Our little guy is growing in leaps and bounds!! I swear that he's bigger everyday! His vocabulary has REALLY started to take off lately and he's even putting together lots of 3 and 4 word "sentences" - it's SO friggin adorable! He's at such a great age now - he's completely in love with his dogs, he has no problem telling you that he doesn't want to wear the shirt that you picked out for him and that he'd rather wear "this" one instead, he gets his shoes out of his closet, HE reminds US that he needs to wear a hat when he goes outside, he knows he'd rather be spending his days with Mommy and Daddy then going to visit his friends at daycare, he's decided to call his Grandpa "Papa" and to hear it come out of his mouth is the cutest thing ever (sorry, Grandma's!!!), he's such a good helper when it comes to feeding the dogs (or cutting their nails, or taking Zoe out on the leash, or giving them baths), he runs to get the phone when it rings - but no way will he answer it . . . he's just the best!!! He's the absolute joy of our life and we couldn't possibly be any more in love with him!!!

Even the dogs are doing well! Zoe's new (fishline) ACL is well on the way to being back to normal - despite the scare she gave us on Christmas Eve, and Kylee . . . well, Kylee is fine as long as someone is around to devote their undivided attention to her!!

This year has been good to us so far! Hopefully this trend continues! 2008 has a lot to make up for!!!

Poor Zoe

Chris dropped Zoe off at the vet this morning so that she could be sedated so that the vet could take an x-ray of her leg.

Her ACL was completely ruptured!

The vet did the surgery and repaired her ACL and as I post this, Zoe is in the process of waking up from the anesthesia.

We're hoping she'll be able to come home tonight, but the vet tech said that they will often keep dogs overnight after an ACL repair because it is a difficult surgery to recover from.

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for our little pup and that she's back at home with us tonight.

I see lots of lovin' in Zoe's future!!! And even though Kylee wouldn't admit it, she's home missing her sister right now!

Tisk, Tisk, Tisk

Once again I find myself catching up with pictures that are almost a month old! Sooner or later I'm figuring that life will stop being so busy, right?!

Getting a glimpse of freedom:
A bit blurry, but SO Shane! Run and run and run and run - that is all he does!
Sweet, sweet, Kylee. And check out that bokeh!!

On another note, Shane is getting braver and braver when it comes to leaving his room at night! Until recently, if he woke up in the middle of the night (or even when we put him down) and he wanted one of us, he would get out of his bed, stand in front of his (closed) door and cry - blanket and sucker in hand. He'd stand there waiting for one of us to come get him.

Yeah, no more. . .

Yesterday morning Chris and I were awoken, not by an alarm clock, but by the sound of something hitting our bedroom floor. Upon further investigation, we found Shane standing in our doorway armed with an arsenal of suckers. One by one he was tossing them into our room (probably aiming for the poor dogs alseep on their dog beds)! Then, last night, about an hour after we put Shane down to bed, Chris and I were sitting on the couch trying to catch up on the 60+ shows we've got waiting for us on our DVR. We thought we had heard something but quickly dismissed it. We were fairly certain Shane was fast asleep by now and the dogs were in the family room with us. Another few minutes into the show and again we thought we heard something. This time we decided to check things out and as soon as we walked by the pass through into the kitchen we found the culprit. Our son, in all his night time glory (pjs, blanket, sucker) was sitting on the kitchen floor playing in the tupperware drawer! So much for being fast asleep, and so much for our stealth guard dogs!

Is too late to put him back in his crib?!?!

Catching Up

Yeah, I've admittedly been pretty bad with updates the last week or so - things had been crazy around the house and Chris and I had both taken a few days off from work - so blogging was the last thing on my mind!

This is our "catch up" post! The photos I had planned on sharing last week that I never got around to posting! Tomorrow and Thursday I'll post some photos from this past weekend and then back to "5 On Friday" this Friday! That will get us entirely caught up!! YEAH!!!

Chris has been working A LOT of overtime lately, with the crazy hours he's been keeping and the lack of sleep, Shane has had a few days where he's gone to daycare all day. The dogs are loving this! They get the house to themselves, they don't have to keep one eye open at all times to see if Shane is on his way over to harass, I mean love, them! It also means they got some extra loving from me when I went home for lunch!

Horrible shot of me, but I had to share this - Kylee is SO loving life in this shot:Finally, a few more pictures from our day at Stepping Stones in Norwalk a few weeks ago. We plan to go back again in the next week or so! Shane LOVES the bubble exhibit they have outside during the summer. Stepping Stones really is a FANTASTIC children's museum - anyone in the area should definitely look into checking it out.

Playing in the "water room" - as long as you don't make him wear one of those smocks (meant to keep him dry) he's happy as a clam!
Weeeeeeee!!!! We always start off in the toddler room (for kids 3 and under) to let Shane warm up. We think he's more comfortable at first when he's around other kids his size or smaller! Then we work our way around the rest of the museum - meant for kids 8 and under.
LOVE that face!
BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Bubble!!!!
I think Daddy likes the bubbles as much as Shane does!
My boys, my loves . . .

Miss Kylee

Because I don't think we share them enough . . .

The Kids

"Na-Na Na-Na Na-Na"

" Just kidding, Kylee! I love you!"
"And I love you, too, Zoe!"

Puppy Love

Shane just can't get enough of the dogs lately! And since Zoe is the only one who will stand for it (most of the time anyway) she's usually the one getting all of his "lovin'"!

I've shared similar pictures in the past, but these are too stinkin' cute not to share! I love the look of glee on his face in the 2nd shot as Zoe kisses him back!

I love how he loves these girls!

After Hours

Shane and I have been spending many of our evenings playing, and walking, outside. Last night I took a few pictures to document all the fun that we have out in the back yard! We're REALLY looking forward to the summer at this house!!

Sometimes sunflare can be a good thing and it can really make a picture . . . however, that didn't happen for these next two shots! They are really cute pictures of Shane though, so I had to include them - darn sunflare!

Climbing up the slide and giving me the "enough with the camera already" look!
Mission completed! We made it to the top!
Getting into position . . .

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Cutie!! Just wait until he sees the "big boy" swingset we're going to start assembling this weekend!

Up and down. Open and close. He's a busy little bee, this kid!

Taking a time-out to give Zoe a big old hug!
And of course, fair is fair, we couldn't leave Kylee out!
Our (very generous) next door neighbors gave us their old "club house" for Shane to play with. Their kids had it for a few years and it's in REALLY good shape. We gave it a good scrub down on Sunday and plan to do the same this weekend. He LOVES it!

Again with the open and close. In and out.
I think the door is his favorite part of the whole house!
"Didn't I already tell you enough with the camera?"
This time he means it!

Until next time!!!

Snow Play, No Way

Finally got our first BIG snowfall of the year. I'm SO excited! I can take Shane outside to play! Literally spent 20 minutes getting him dressed. Diaper, clothes, socks, snowsuit, boots. Tuck boots under the snowsuit. Put on hat. Put on hood. Put on mittens. Fight to get the thumb in the thumb hole. Repeat. And this is how it played out:

What the heck???? Mommy????
Mommmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyy??????!!!!
Ok, now I'm sure I don't like it . . . MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYY
Just in case there was ANY doubt
Seriously? Do all toddlers hate the snow this much?

At this point I'm thinking we should go inside . . .
And yet, I still continue to take more photos
He is SO going to hate me when he's older!

The dogs on the other hand, they were loving life today!!!

Flurry Frenzy

Shane has this thing about being outside - he LOVES it! However, on Friday he started coming down with his very first cold of the season, so letting him go outside in 10 degree weather isn't really something we want to be doing. Try telling Shane that. So, on Saturday when it started to flurry out we quickly bundled everyone up and ran out back to enjoy the fresh, BITTER cold air for a few minutes.
And this is what happens when he takes his mittens off: