Awaiting a Special Arrival

This little fam-damily happens to be rather special to us.  When we moved on our traffic ridden street, we had no clue the amazing peeps God had planted in our midst.  Randy, Linsy, Hadley, Sunny and beebs to be are some of those chosen ones.  Linsy and I are cut from the same cloth in an absurd amount of ways.  She gets me and loves me regardless.  I don't know if Randy quite gets me but he smiles and takes me all in regardless. Hads and Squirt happen to be life-long friends and we sure hope that will remain true.  As they live out their last days as a family of 3 (plus Sunny) they asked me to take a series of shots to commemorate this current state of existence.  How could I say no to these faces?

A few weeks ago (I know, I suck at keeping up lately), we had a shower for Madame Linsy.  She requested a "Sprinkle" rather than a shower, which was quite lovely and totally appropriate.  The theme revolved around said concept, "sprinkles."  I loved celebrating this little miracle and can not WAIT to run away from my own children, lock myself in that baby's nursery and hold him/her for hours on end.  

 

Enzo Spiderman Medium V.

He's here and he's already one of us.  Our little red bundle of fur and love has captured our hearts.  Even my not as excited about getting a puppy as the rest of us husband's heart.  We picked up Mr. Enzo Spiderman Medium (aka Enzo) on Saturday at 4:30pm.  You can see Dude's name additions.  We had to compromise since he REALLY thought this dog should be named "Medium."  Enzo won out.  Why Enzo? Google "Ferrari" and you'll understand.  

Our pup missed his connecting flight at O'Hare, causing him to sit in his crate for an additional 6 hours.  We were annoyed to say that least.  I tracked down the woman who was in charge of him and made sure she was giving him love.  They had 2.75 hours during his layover and still didn't get him where he was supposed to be.  This only added to our poor buddy's trauma and to our anxiousness to go pick him up.  We pulled into the cargo building area near the airport and waited for 20 minutes for him to arrive.  They opened the truck door and there he was.  Our darling little ball of red fur and innocence.  He wasn't barking (unlike the two beagles in crates next to him).  And he was scared. So scared.  Enough that Tim had to pull him out of the depths of his crate and carry him to the grassy area. 

We allowed him to roam around and sit on our laps for a while.  He went to the bathroom, which we were obnoxiously excited about.  The kids didn't quite know what to do with themselves (still don't).  Squirt was cautious and sweet and Dude wanted to immediately play fetch with him and offer up treats.  We're working on following Mom and Dad's lead with Mr. Enzo, which is tough for our over-excited seven year old dog owner.  We crated him for the car ride home and he didn't make a peep.  Once we were home we hung out in the yard with him and he laid on our laps the majority of the time.  His heart rate started slowing down a bit, but the little guy was obviously traumatized.   

   

The first night we laid low and allowed him to roam around with us and get used to his new digs.  He was skittish and not wanting chaos, but he has definitely loosened up and shown more confidence in his surroundings.  So far, he doesn't chew on much (other than stringy things)  he doesn't lick people, doesn't nip, he's uber gentle and calm and is starting to get more puppy playing in him.  The kids can do anything they want to him and he takes it.  No bearing of teeth or growling thus far.  He started eating yesterday and hasn't had any accidents in the house.  Last night he slept the whole night through in his crate next to our bed. The first night sleeping was more challenging.  The best part?  He does NOT shed.  Not even a hair. I've worn black both days to test it and I'm amazed at the lack of hairy evidence.

Our challenge is getting him comfortable in his crate.  He was raised on a farm with free reign, so this business of locking him in a metal cage is NOT cool.  He'll whine and bark for an hour straight.  We have yet to leave him home alone, so we'll see how that goes this afternoon.  The problem we're sensing is that he (and his breed in general) are people lovers and CRAVE being near to their family.  I can't leave the room without him following.  He's currently sleeping on top of my feet.  Tough love will be instituted once we have some training under our belts.  

 We got a random 5 inch snow storm the night he came home.  This dog loves him some snow.  I guess, coming from the back woods of Minnesota, he's used to it.  

 Of course we need to imitate the dog licking himself.  Why wouldn't we?

 Neighbor Abigail has been pining for a Pug for quite some time now.  She's ready and unfortunately, Enzo isn't helping matters for her parents.  

Enzo is rather dreamy right now.  I'm sure he'll start to gain annoying traits, but his overall nature is rather irresistible.  Dude is over the freaking moon.  This dog is going to be therapy for our little man.  Squirt is now much less cautious and is taking charge as the alpha over the dog.  I'm sure you can imagine.  Enzo is a family man without a doubt and we're blissfully excited that he's ours. I did nothing but hang out with him and the kids yesterday and it was awesome.  I don't care that my floors aren't clean, that the laundry isn't done, that I have emails waiting to be answered...this dog is bringing me a sense of chill.  I need chill.

Come meet our Enzo!  Dog lover or not (which I haven't been until now), he'll melt you.  

My Favorite Little Lady

Our Soon to be New Addition

No, we're not adopting a third child, although this does tend to happen overnight without warning.  But, after a couple months of discussion, pros and cons, more discussion, budgeting, researching, more researching and long talks with the littles, we have decided to move forward with adding a canine friend to our family. Whew....deep breaths.  Tim and I have never owned a dog, in childhood or together.  The closest we've come is hamsters.  And our children.  I honestly can't tell you what happened in my brain and heart, but a switch went off and I went from being a human who is easily annoyed by 4 legged creatures to a woman who oohs and aahs at every passing dog.  Cats, no.  Still detest the felines (sorry for all my cat loving friends).  I'm okay with them licking me, jumping a big...again, I have no idea what happened.  It's mind boggling to my poor husband and my closest girlfriends.

SO...we've been researching non-shedding breeds since I'm quite anal about the cleanliness of my home and my black articles of clothing.  After convincing myself of my undying passion for 2 different breeds, a co-worker of Tim's sent a photo of a friend's Goldendoodle (mix of poodle and golden retriever).  I fell in love within about 4 minutes and started researching the crap out of breeders around the country.  To my dismay, the average price for one of these highly sought after, intelligent, non-shedding and very family friendly dogs is $1800-$2500.  That wasn't happening (mostly because I quit my job a while back).  Just a small factor. Tim told me if we could find a doodle for under $1K we would talk more seriously.  And so, on Saturday at 11:53pm, while Tim was losing money at poker, I did just that.  I found an obsolete breeder in the back woods of Minnesota who has a litter of mini Goldendoodle puppies she hasn't been able to sell during their nightmare winter and has two remaining, a boy and a girl.  They're 4 months old, about 18 pounds, curly coats, non-shedding and ready to leave the farm and find a home.  Oh yeah, she's selling them at half price to get rid of the litter so she can focus on her other litter about to arrive.  Bingo.  I spoke with her the next morning, got the skinny and started sweet talking my man.  It worked friends.  He's on board.  Nervous, but on board.

We chose the boy, who is a beautiful red shade, exactly what we wanted.  He won't get past about 30 pounds, which is perfect.  Because of that, Dude has chosen the name "Medium" for the dog.  Or "Cool Dude."  Or "Jumpy."  He's really not giving us much to work with.  "Steve" has been his best offer thus far. And I don't think we'll go with Squirt's addition of "Lucy" since that's Cara and Wes's puppies' name.  We have a list of names but are waiting to meet him (hopefully on Sunday via American Airlines).  Today, Squirt and I filled a cart at Homegoods with doggie supplies and Tim's currently at our neighbor's buying their crate. We also have a trainer coming on Thursday night to work with our entire family in arrival of the little fur ball. And we'll start with two private sessions with him.  We're on it, as much as we can be.

Say a little (ok, a gigantic) prayer for we make it through the next 8 months of getting into a solid rhythm in one piece.  Dude is over-excited and gets a bit spastic around dogs, Squirt hides on the nearest couch and Tim and I don't have a clue what we're doing.  Why not go for it, right?  Makes nothing but sense.