MinneSOOOOOHta and Such

Here's the latest from Katieland.

I recently went to MN to see my sis, bro-in-law and nephew. The last time we saw our nephew, Alex, we had just welcomed him into the world, and he was still in the hospital when we left. Now he is about 5 months old and a little character! :-) Datya let me take care of him the whole time I was there (Thanks, Datya!), and I feel like I had a crash course in taking care of a baby. I changed diapers, changed clothes, burped him, sang songs, read stories, put him to sleep, watched him get a bath, fed him a bottle, watched Datya feed him, played games, performed my duties as godparent at his baptism, etc., etc., etc. (Ok, the ladies also snuck a pedicure in there...) I asked tons of questions, and Erich and Datya answered every single one. I am incredibly amazed at how much Datya and Erich do every day!

Being an auntie is so fun! My favorite part of the trip was putting Alex to sleep. I never realized that you have to convince babies to go to sleep. They are so obviously exhausted, but they do not want to go to sleep and miss out on the fun. I told Baby Alex there will come a time when he will do just about anything to have a nap each day. :-)

Alex is the happiest little baby. He is all smiles. His whole face lights up when you smile at him or when he looks in the mirror. I really didn't hear any full-out crying while I was there. If you stop walking with him, he will give a little wimper, but if you start walking again, he is as happy as can be. Especially when he has a full belly! He will coo and sing like a little birdie.

Datya's big move happens in about a month. I can't tell you how giddy I am that big sis will be 11 HOURS CLOSER! I have tried to not get too excited, but now that they are homeless since their house sold, they have no choice but to move. ;-) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not the adoption coordinator for ACR anymore. I was supposed to quit at the end of December, but we couldn't find anyone to take over. I agreed to stay on until we found someone else. Well, we did, so I am just handling Gavin's adoption from now on. He is supposed to go on a home visit on Saturday. That's when a potential adopter keeps the dog for 2 weeks to see if they like him. If this lady likes Gavin after two weeks, she will officially adopt him. She already bought a tuxedo for him to wear, so I think she's pretty attached. :-) I just hope he will adjust to a new home ok and will eat regularly. I don't want him losing weight just as he is making so much progress. He weighs 130 now, so he needs to gain about 10-12 more pounds. He is a very sweet boy, and I love him dearly! Here is a pic of one of his favorite pastimes: sunbathing!

We babysat someone's dog for them this weekend, and they gave us a $50 gift certificate to Outback, so I think Xondervan and I will have a date night tonight. Yum!

Happy Birthday, Lovey!

It's Lovey's first birthday as a Lovey. Yay! ;-)

Playing Catch-up

Well, I haven't blogged in a while, so here's what's been happening lately.

Casey is at spring training camp this week! The owner of our local pet store (who happens to be a certified dog trainer) recently started this program where we drop off Casey each morning and pick him up each evening for one week. While we're at work, she will work on whatever Casey needs help with. Yesterday was his first day.

He knows all the basics like sit, down, walking on a leash, etc., so we asked if she could work on other things. Like him getting overly excited around new dogs--especially when on a leash. So she worked on that yesterday. Any time he would even bark at another dog, she corrected him, and she said he responded very quickly. I have never put him in an actual obedience class (though Xon and I work hard at training him on our own) or let him to go to doggy daycare, because I thought he would not do well with tons of new dogs there at once. But the trainer said she wishes all the dogs were that mellow, and that he's not acting up for her, so she can't really work on the problem. Which I guess is a good problem to have. We can't take Gavin to his obedience class tonight, so we're going to take Casey instead and see how he does. The trainer said we are welcome to bring him to doggy daycare, too. Casey is definitely a people pleaser, which is why when we were fostering Casey for ACR my dad said we must adopt him!

The trainer also worked on clicker training, which Xon and I have just learned and have started teaching to Casey and Gavin. She said Casey is wonderful on a leash, and she let him roam around the store when she was not training him. I think she even gave him a bath, because he smelled pretty when we picked him up. :-)

In other dog news, Gavin woke up in the middle of the night the other night and barked. Xon was sleeping like a rock and sat straight up and yelled, "Judgment!" (He actually meant to yell, "Gavin," but I guess he was still asleep!) Ha!

Gavin's dog bed was ruined because he got sick, so Xon and I went to Big Lots to see if they still had some for sale. He especially needs to have a bed, b/c he slept on concrete all his life and has large calluses on his elbows. We're hoping they will start to go away if he's sleeping on something soft from now on. Anyway, they were out of dog beds, but as we were walking out of the store, we noticed they had large fleece blankets for sale for $2.99. All different colors and prints. We picked a plaid print. Then we bought two pillows (one for $2.99 and one for $3.99 b/c we couldn't decide on what size--so we got one of each). Sewed it all together, and voila! A beautiful, inexpensive dog bed. We went back to Big Lots and got more of the fleece blankets so we can make more beds as needed. You can't get fleece that cheap, and it makes an excellent bed!

That's all from Georgialand. Y'all come back now, ya hear!