Somedays Are Just Puppy Days

It used to be when someone would tell me, “Oh, we’re thinking about having kids – but first, we figured we would practice by getting a puppy” I would laugh hysterically at them – on the inside, of course. Silly people, I would think condescendingly, you can’t put puppies and babies in the same category. They are hardly comparable. It’s just too different.

Well. I was right.

You cannot put puppies and babies in the same category because frankly (and this comes from someone who has had two babies): BABIES ARE EASIER.

Think about it: You tuck your newborn safely into her crib – you don’t have to worry that while you are out of the room, she might wake up, find your favorite pair of flip flops and sink her already sharp little teeth into them. A, your little baby doesn’t have teeth yet, and B) yeah, she can be safely confined in her crib*.

Or you need to run an errand and you can do it because your baby is wearing a diaper and isn’t likely to go to the bathroom all over the laundry detergent aisle of Target (partly because your adorable baby is probably wearing a diaper**).  Also, most stores allow babies in***.

And if your baby gets hungry while you are out and about, well, feeding is pretty simple too – no matter if you are breastfeeding or formula feeding. Both options are pretty portable. Schlepping a puppy’s bowls and doggy food? Not so much.

I feel that we’ve spent the first few weeks of our puppy’s life with us pretty much hanging close to the home front. First, we were house training him. It was pretty important to effectively AND QUICKLY get the pup trained to reduce mess, stink and inconvenience. Training took just over a week – which I credit to persistence in getting pup outside OFTEN.

Though originally, I intended to use the crate far more than we do, frankly, I don’t want to leave him in it for hours. We plan outings around his meal times (three times a day) and when he might have to go outside to “do his business”. And while we could CERTAINLY ease up on the freaked-out-edness and just LEAVE THE FREAKING HOUSE ALREADY, we’ve been kind of revolving around the puppy.

Yeah. It’s tiring.

I’ve joked for a long time how I am not really a niche blogger – I don’t have any one thing I talk about more than any other thing. Til now. I am talking about this puppy an awful lot, I realize – and please please please do not let me turn into a PET BLOGGER!  I’ve always had a tendency to just write about what’s going on and these days, that’s what is going on. Soon, this pet-owner thing will be smooth sailing – we’ll have adjusted on this learning curve, and I won’t be panicking (I hope) about the puppy’s tendency to nip and how I can’t get Pumpkin to be consistent and work with me on training him (“But MOM! I don’t WANT to tell him ‘no bite’!”).

I figure if there were any other new member of our family, I’d probably be writing about that a lot. And that’s what this doggy is. Despite the fact that I never really wanted any pets, didn’t want a puppy – he’s a part of our family. He’s a lot of work – so it’s a good thing he’s so photogenic.

*Yes, Puppy Dog has a crate, and yes we use it – but not nearly as much as I thought because now he’s house trained and I don’t want to just banish him to crate-hell all day.

**I know they make doggy diapers. I think they’re weird.

***Nevermind the rude stores that give you the evil eye if you walk in the door with a baby. Who likes THOSE stores, anyway?

Thursday Ten: Away and Back Super Speedy Edition

1. I left at noon yesterday to venture to Northern Michigan to visit Rachel who was in town for the Cherry Festival. Less than 24 hours later, I was on the road headed back home. Totally worth it. It was fun to visit with friends, be some place different, NOT COOK DINNER (festival lemonade and pretzel for dinner! Yum!), and just relax and chat. Even running on about four hours of sleep, I’m kind of recharged. This is a good thing.

2. I returned home to the land of house training a puppy. The girls – those lovely children of mine who begged for a puppy – aren’t as much help as they SWORE they would be… but I’d anticipated that when we agreed to go ahead and get the pup. I do not, under any circumstances, take part in the shoveling of doggy…stuff. That is a job that belongs to pretty much everyone but me.

3. Despicable Me comes out in theaters tomorrow. I was pretty thrilled to have received free passes to see this with my fam – and it’s a fantastic movie. The 3D effects weren’t overwhelming as they are sometimes – which is good because I’m not normally a fan of 3D.

4. Music this week? Uh, the soundtrack of “Despicable Me”. Nah, I didn’t receive this for free – I paid for it – but I really like what Pharrell did with it. It’s kind of a fun (yet KIDSAFE) soundtrack. Pretty awesome.

5. Musically, I also picked up Joshua Radin’s “I’d Rather Be With You”, as that is the song my guitar teacher picked this week. I’d never heard this song before, and I like it – I look forward to checking out more of his music.

6. Strangest addiction of the week? The Boggle app for the iPhone. For just under two bucks, I can Boggle to my heart’s content. I’m not very good at Boggle, but it’s addicting.

7. I have started reading The Girl Who Played with Fire – and I find myself moving very slowly through it – afraid I won’t love it as much as its predecessor. Does anyone else do that when reading a sequel?

8. While at the festival last night, I was craving an elephant ear and was able to resist its charms and eat a slightly less damaging meal. But I will get at least one elephant ear this summer because I LOVE THEM AND THEY BELONG IN MY BELLY. What is your favorite amusement park/carnival food?

9. Do you know how hard it is to not talk about puppies all the time when it seems like 80% of my life these days involves watching a puppy for signs he is about to pee on the living room carpet? I’m really not wanting to be a pet blogger (I don’t need no stinkin’ niche), but it’s just what life is these days. Soon, I hope to leave my house on a more frequent basis again.

10. The weather in Michigan has been insanely hot this week. Humid and hot and gross and yucky. Yes, yucky. I would take our meteorologists on the local news more seriously if they started legitimately employing “yucky” as the descriptor of our summer weather. Today, there’s a break from our 90+ degree weather. But mother nature has replaced stifling temps with… rain. Yucky.