Budget Howl-o-ween

Mollie and I will be going trick or treating with the Laskowski boys. Mollie has her costume, a whole $2 spent (yay dollar store!):



Mine will involve a nightgown, some baby powdered hair and a cardigan which I already have.

More photos of faerie Mollie and her "faerie godmother" will come on the 31st of October, howl-o-ween!

Mollie and the Slide

Several !mportant things happened today.

Mollie and I went over to Cousin Teri's house (it's just down the road, not even 1/4 of a mile) to fly our Buzz Lightyear kite (75% off at CVS, I got it for a quarter, don't judge) and play with the boys.

We had a fun time running through their backyard and chasing this triangle of plastic that had little yellow tails. Mollie had a blast.

Then Teri came out and worked in her garden and Mollie got to chase their kitteh Tucker through the corn and bat at the tops of carrots.

Then we played on the boys' play structure and we did something that was so fantasic that we had to do it again and again and again:



Yes, Mollie went down the slide and she LOVED it. She kept wanting to be picked up and put back on the top to do it again. I wish I had video of it, it was adorable.

Then I got stung by a bee for the very first time ever and the skeeters came out and we went home.

Remember Max? The Optimus Prime of puppies? That fuzzy little brownish puff?






Mollie got to visit Max at his house after her vet visit yesterday! He's huge!







He looks just like his momma, 'cept a bit darker!

They had a grand 'ol time together and Mollie slept the whole way home :)

In response to "Mysterious Ways"

Josh Graves, soon to be ex-minister guy at my home church (he didn't do anything bad, he's just going down south to work with another church) and his wife had a baby boy right about the time Mollie was born. I put photos of Mollie on Facebook and there were first photos of Lucas just put up, too. It's been fun to watch them both grow these past 16 weeks (16 weeks!).

Anyway, Josh mentioned something in his blog post "Mysterious Ways" about feeling sad about the fraility of life when he watches his son, and I wrote this huge comment in response. I cried while writing it. Anyway, here's the bit of his post:

When I catch myself staring at Lucas (which happens a lot), I can't help, at times, but feel a deep sadness come over me. Don't get me wrong, I love every moment of fatherhood. Especially the ones where I'm exhausted, he's crying and then, all of a sudden, he stops, pauses, and smiles at me. Yes, he's now old enough that I can say, with full biological confidence, he's smiling (it's not just 'gas' anymore).

The sadness comes from knowing how temporary (frail, the poet Shelley would write) life is. Lucas will be 18 before I can say "Gerber baby food." I'm going to wake up one morning and realize I am not nearly as young as I perceive myself to be.

And my response:

I think I know how you feel about the sadness of watching Lucas (who is super adorable in Kara's rolling-over video by the way). Right about the time Lucas was born, our dog had puppies and one of them was mine from the moment I saw her. She'll be 16 weeks this Sunday. I love taking her outside, throwing sticks for her to retrieve, cuddling together on the couch during a movie, hearing her jarring pitter-patter as she climbs the stairs to my room, the tinkling of her collar tags when she comes to me after I call her, days like today when she's big enough to graduate to an "adult" collar, and even when I have to scold her for chewing the couch instead of her chewies, and all those "mistakes" in the house because I know that she's going to grow up to be a wonderfully behaved dog because i've taught her right from wrong.

There are some moments, however, when she looks up at me first thing in the morning when she wants to go out and I know that one day she's not going to be there looking up at me. There might be days when I have to carry her down the stairs, and days when she can't wait even that long and won't have control over herself. There might be days when I have to hand feed her again like I did as a tiny puppy, days when she won't be strong enough to lift her head and drink water. I'm dreading those days. Just thinking about losing Mollie and i'm reduced to tears and longing for her to be beside me (even though I can hear her at the bottom of the steps playing with her squeaky toy and I know she's alright.)

The great thing about you and lucas is that, Lord willing, you won't have to see him decline in health, and can expect him to outlive you by many years. You'll have that assurance that you've raised him to be the best man that he can be and he will uphold the name of Graves after you are gone.

With Mollie, I can't expect her to live much past 15 years. There will be a day when she won't be there to wag her tail at me when I come home. This saddens me beyond anything I have ever felt. One day, Mollie will die. But the thing is, that when she does, i'll be right there beside her, calling her my Pup-O, as she begins her next great adventure, knowing that i've given her the best life that I possibly could.

I will have lived another third of my life by then but I hope that in providing for Mollie that I will have become a better and more compassionate person because of her. That's the best I can hope for.

Three Months Old!

I call this one her "Madonna" pose. It reminds me of all those statues of the Virgin Mary.




I love this shot! She was actually crawling towards me and was making this hilarious face!

Weeks 5-7

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks here, I spent a week in the Land Where Communication Does Not Exist and then I got a job and Mollie lost her littermates. Squirt is growing like a little weed though.

She's had her first car ride (to the library), her first collar, her first walk on a lead (about halfway down the sidewalk, she hates it!), her first dog treat, her first vet visit, and she's now eating completely solid food and drinks out of a water dish. My little baby is growing up!




She's got this little stuffed cupcake that we call Pupcake that we got for a buck from the clearance section of Walmart of all places and she loves it. I think she likes the soft texture. She doesn't even sniff at the rubber chewer things we bought the pups and the big dogs seem to have eaten nearly all the plastic balls. But anyway, that's Pupcake and she loves him. :)





A couple of shots with Jones, some belly shots of Mollie and one of her giving a kiss. Jones plays so good with her, he's all gentle and stuff. Indy's still afraid of her and will only sniff and run away. Pansy.



She likes to sit in Krisy's doorway. Here's Indy, too.



You can almost make out her eyes here, they've started going a lighter shade of brown.



Playing with Jones.



First puppy treat



This was when we only had Maddy and Mollie and Joni brought Max out for a visit. They all took a nap together. :) Maddy went to a new home Wednesday night and it's only been Mollie since then. You can tell she's looking around for them to play with, and then she lays down and sighs. It's the saddest thing in the world. But she's got Pupcake and empty toilet rolls to play with and chew, so we try to keep her busy when she's awake.

We've got her spending nights that I don't work upstairs with me, so that's nice to finally have my own pup in my room. We cuddled.

I took the following video clips the other day, like monday or tuesday or something. There's a bit of Maddy, too.



Mollie's 7 week birthday is tomorrow :)

Puppy Flier

Kinda sad to be thinking about giving the pups away on their 4th birthday, but I made a flier that will go up at the library and vets near us.

First time in the grass! And happy 4 week birthday!

More bars in more places!

Getting nine pups to sit in a row and look at the camera is hard work.









Finally I had to go with photoshop:



And in other news, the pups are four weeks old today!

Second puppy mush feeding

The second puppy mush feeding went so much better. I read somewhere to use a round plate with a lip and an upended bowl in the middle (so they can't walk or lay down in it) and this was sooo much cleaner. Of course there were hungry hungry hippo pups that put their two front feet in it and Marvin tried to hop the bowl, but it was much much much cleaner than the last time. The pups got a good scrubdown with a towel afterwards instead of a bath and that made them much happier!

First Puppy Mush

Monty didn't keep his mush down well... he woke up a few hours afterwards and yakked it all up, poor fella. Mollie did well, she had a full belly! She's been pushed around by the bigger ones in the frenzy of being fed by Sandy and so she hasn't had a chance to eat much because after all the fighting to get in she's exhausted and falls asleep. With the mush, both Mollie and Marvin both got nice rounded tummies! Yay! It was so cute, but such a mess!

We're going to feed them puppy mush about once a day for the next week or so, then gradually increase it to wean them off Sandy. She's not happy with their new teeth.








It looks gross, but it's just puppy chow and warm water after a spin in the blender.

Mollie barks, and her first toys

A couple of firsts today, first puppy mush (post about this tomorrow), first toys and first good barks.

Mollie's first real steps

Mollie and her littermates and their stupidly excited owner go for a romp in the pool pen!

Playing

A couple of Mollie's littermates have started to play! Yay! We had a little photo sesh today after we they all went outside for the first time ever. We got a kiddie pool for them so they stay clean and we can catch any bugs that may want to invesitgate. Also, Sandy will let the boys be in the room while the pups are nursing, so that's nice. We don't let them up on the bed, but at least they arn't shut out like before.

I got a bit of video of them playing for the first time. Hopefully the other puppies start playing soon, too!




from left to right: Baby the Cat, Jones the potential father, Mommy Sandy, and potential father Indiana


Mollie and uncle Harold. I love how she's all 'Hey, who is this strange man! Save me!'


Mollie still sleeps alot. Here she is with littermate Marilyn.




Mollie is queen of the sleeping puppy pile!


Monroe's awake!


He's a cheeky little puppy, just like Mollie. They both like to stick their tongues out!


Max says bye-bye for now! We're off to take a nap!