We're in trouble now

Caroline continued her overachievement maneuvers this morning. She started climbing the stairs. The first was kinda tough - slipped on the floor. After that, she was ready to go.

Fortunately we had the camera nearby. We bought an extra baby gate to cut off the kitchen and dog food from her. We put in an order for another one - time to rush it!

Hope all is well
Walt

Good morning

Quick update: the dogs are doing just fine. Bella is past her cough and the disposable razor Barkley ate seems to have traveled the length of his digestive system without harm. We found one part of the razor after hosing down his poop.

Irony: Barkley started Petco's obedience training this week. The trainer said he seemed pretty smart. None of us are buying it.

Caroline, as we've said, always wakes with a smile. Since she's started standing, we get that too. Here's a typical wake up.

Walt

Vet stimulus support

We told you some of this would involve the dogs. This week we got to provide our local vet hospital with our own form of a stimulus package.

On Sunday, Bella started coughing pretty badly. It worsened to the point that she started throwing up. So Monday at lunch, I took her to the vet for what turned out to be a 3.5 hr visit (no appt...stuck waiting). Whatever she had, it was like kennel cough. $300, x-rays and 2 bottles of pills later, we headed home. She has to take 3 pills in the AM and then PM for 2 weeks. After jamming them down her throat lost it's thrill, we moved to mixing the pills with wet dog food. Problem solved.

So Friday rolls around. I have to be in work at 4:30AM for a teleconference then a formation run with 800+ others. Finally making it home at 8AM for a shower, Cindy greets me with the happy news that Barkley decided to each my disposable shaving razor. It seems he was mad he didn't get his morning walk and was bored. Yep, off to the vet again. After waiting for a much shorter time (razor blades in stomach moves you up on the waiting list), the x-rays confirmed Sir Dipshit had indeed chewed/swallowed the razor. Fortunately, the blades were small so the vet's recommendation was just let them pass. 2 hours and $230 later, we went home. Now, in addition to giving pills to Bella, we have the lovely duty of inspecting dog poop for the next 3 days to make sure the blades pass. As Bella will occasionally eat dog poop, we have to constantly monitor them both. Barkley never changed his clueless but happy attitude even a little bit.

Cindy bought me a copy of the Marley and Me movie to commemorate the event.

How in the world did Golden Retrievers end up on a smart dog list?

Standing on my own!

So last week we thought, Caroline's getting close to standing up on her own, maybe we should lower the crib bed. The very next morning, she stood up on her own in the crib. The crib bed was lowered that day. The attached clip was taken not long after. Since then, Caroline has only begun to climb faster. She's also quite proud of herself.

A friend of mine told me about the high-water mark in his house, i.e. the level above which the kids can't reach. Ours just climbed!

Adventures in Babycrawling

Caroline is getting faster at crawling. She's not up on her hands/knees yet but her commando crawl would make a drill sargeant proud. Last night she crawled the length of the house from her room to our bedroom door, did a complete 360 and then continued into the room looking for toys (and found them too).

This morning she decided the activity ring would be far more interesting if she crawled into it from the bottom vs being lowered into it by her parents. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite get her way out of the ring and had to appeal to Dad for assistance. Bella elected not to get involved. Barkley was off eating one of her socks.

Hmm, what are those bowls for....

So Caroline was zipping around the kitchen doing the commando crawl thing when she came across something new...the dogs' bowls. Yep, you guessed it, she went exploring. Fortunately Cindy saw her with her hand in the food pile but before Caroline had a chance to dine on the Nutro Lamb and Rice meal dog food. The next day, Cindy saw her make a beeline for the dogs' water bowl located in our upstairs bathroom. Again, got to her before anything went awry. Unfortunately, she wasn't so quick Saturday morning. Caroline, it seems, has just enough strength to flip over a partially filled water bowl. The pic above is Caroline post-flip and post crawl through the puddle (she was happy to help re-create the incident). Her cute little pink outfit turned brown in an instant. Fortunately, it was time to get dressed for the day anyway...

Experiments with eating

Caroline has begun eating solid food with mixed results. We noticed she grew fascinated with our dinner and bought some basic cereal for her to try. It took a day or two for her to learn how to swallow and she didn't hate the concept. Maybe half of the food on the spoon makes it into her mouth. We've since tried alternating veggies with the rice. The results have been mixed. Carrots are NOT on the list of favorites but squash is...acceptable. Somedays she wants the bottle and only the bottle. Others, she's willing to try the solid stuff.

Fortunately, everything is washable.