Adjusting to our new life

The past 11 days has been quite an adjustment for us as we try to get used to having Colby here with us. I think that it is actually a little harder for me because I am home more often than Justin is.

I think the thing that we are having trouble with (at least the biggest thing that I am having trouble with) is the biting. I know that he thinks he is playing with us, but his little teeth are quite sharp. We try to give him toys to chew on instead - but he really just wants our hands. So now I have scratches all over my right hand. I hate having to leave him in his pen, but I don't like to get hurt. So when he won't give up on trying to chew on me, I have to put him up for a little while.

Despite the biting problem, we love him. :) And especially right now when he is sleeping while Justin rubs his tummy we think about the fact that he really is just a baby and he is so cute.

On another note - we think that he has already gotten quite a bit bigger since we brought him home on the 14th. I hope that he stays on the small side, but it is good to know that he seems to be happy and healthy.

So easy to lose my patience

The past week has been an adventure as we get accustomed to have Colby here. Especially since Justin left on Sunday evening for a 2 day training up in Chicago and I was on my own to take care of our new puppy. For those of you who have never tried to housetrain a young dog - it is no fun.

Sunday evening was nothing but headache for me as I tried to finish getting tests graded for my students while Colby barked almost the whole time. Then on Monday morning I kept taking him out to try to potty but he wouldn't do it - instead he waited until we had come back inside so he could poop on the floor in my bedroom. I grabbed him and took him out again (this time in my underwear) for him to just stand outside and whine until we came back in. I barricaded him in the kitchen (so I thought) to run upstairs and finish getting ready. 2 minutes later - he has pooped on the floor in the kitchen so I get the joy of cleaning it up before leaving for class.

On MWF my schedule is that I go teach my 2 classes and am gone for close to 4 hours. I come home to eat lunch and then head back up to the college where I meet up with a high school kid that I am tutoring in AP Statistics. When I got home from school, I see that I had not successfully barricaded Colby into the kitchen since I find him underneath the couch. He is so small that he can fit through the gate that we bought to keep him in the kitchen. It was not easy to find a gate to fit a 5 foot opening and the one we found doesn't do us any good! I take him out, feed him and take him out again but can't get him to potty before I have to leave to get back to the school. An hour and a half later when I get home I find that he has pooped in his crate so it is now all over him and his pad, his two little stuff toys and a chew rope we had in there for him.

The chew rope goes in the trash - the other items go in the washer and Colby goes in the tub (something that he does not seem to like very much). After I get him clean, I take his crate outside to hose it down and get it clean. The rest of the day and Tuesday both go very well and I think that his little accident on Monday is an isolated incident. Until Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday, Justin is home so Colby gets fed his breakfast a bit earlier than normal all in the hopes that we will be able to get him to potty before I have to leave for class. Everything seems to be going well - he even went to the bathroom outside about 15 minutes before I had to leave. So I stuck him in his crate and ran upstairs to brush my teeth and change my clothes. No more than 5 minutes later when I came back downstairs - he was covered in poop. Urgh! So here I was - already in my nicer clothes having to give him a quick bath, put his stuff into the washer again, and get his crate cleaned out before I can leave. Luckily I made it to class on time since I really don't have the luxury of being able to show up to work a few minutes late on occasion.

Now this morning even though I had taken him out 45 minutes earlier and he did his business, I found a pee stain in his crate that wasn't there when I took him out less than an hour earlier. I know he is just a baby, but supposedly they don't like to go where they sleep (I think he is proving that wrong) and since he is 2 months old, he is supposed to be able to go for about 3-4 hours without having to be taken out. I have a whole list of things that I need to do - but I am not doing any of them because I finally got him to sleep but if I get up he will wake up and chances are mess in his crate again. Grrr. I think that Justin should take a couple days off work so that he can take care of the dog all day and I can get some stuff done.

A new member in our family: Colby

Yesterday, we adopted a new member into our family. Colby was born on Ash Wednesday, is about 4 pounds and so cute!!!

We have both been wanting to get a dog ever since moving into our house. Then over the past week Justin has made a few comments about needing to get a dog. Yesterday morning he said - today we should go look at some dogs. We did and ended up bringing one home.



So now we are already enjoying all the work involved with having a brand new puppy - including getting up in the middle of the night to take him out and try to get him to potty outside and not on our floor - not working so great right now.

As expected we spent more on the puppy supplies than on the adoption itself. Oh well! :)

Here are a few more pics Julie took of Colby this morning. Isn't he so cute?

Our Easter weekend

First and foremost - this is the coldest Easter weekend that I (Julie) ever remember. Yesterday, it was so cold here, that by the evening it was 63 degrees in our house and we had to breakdown and turn on the heater - something I never thought we would have to do in April in Houston. But beyond the weather - here are some pictures and a little bit about our weekend.

Believe it or not - this is a picture of the cake that I made on Saturday. It may look like a hollow chocolate rabbit - but it a cake. :) Making the cake was an adventure because about 7 minutes after I put it in the oven, the power shut off. And this wasn't one of those "the power goes out and then turns right back on situations". No - the power was out for 45 minutes and the whole time I was freaking out that my cake would be ruined since it had already started baking when the power shut off. Luckily though - I was able to turn the oven back on as soon as the power came back and the cake seemed to turn out fine.

I posted the best picture first, here is a picture from the side where you can see that even though I cut the the rounded portion off of both halves before putting them together, it did not fit together very well. Oh well - it still turned out very tasty and of course I got a picture that makes it look its best.

After finishing with the cake, Justin and I colored some Easter eggs. Here are just a few pictures of the eggs that we colored. Coloring eggs is not just for kids!

Then, we had our friends Jen and Paul and their kids Aaron and Brian over to play games and eat some of the yummy bunny cake. We ended up playing a few children's games that we had bought this past week - Chutes & Ladders, CandyLand and Ant in the Pants.

Sunday morning we ate some of the hard-boiled eggs that we had colored the night before and sat at our beautifully decorated table.


Did I mention that I put together Easter baskets for us? Justin's is the big one on the right - mine is the smaller one on the left.

Then for Easter dinner we headed down to Texas City (really close to Galveston) to be with some of Justin's family for Easter. We had a great dinner and then afterwards, Justin's job was to help the kids dye some eggs. He had gotten some good practice from the day before. Here are some pics of them having Easter egg dying fun.