Kinky Or Just Unlucky?

Well, I got home from work today and there were some kitchen chairs moved in front of the new sofa. I thought "uh-oh, Livi has been messing with the couch and mommy is keeping her out of there. What a bad girl!! I was wrong. Turns out, and I am really upset I missed this, Chili decided it was time to show everyone in the house that Olivia belonged to him. Humans do it with post-its or a marker, dogs have their own marker. The way it told to me was that Brooke heard some giggling next to the couch, and so she looked over and Chili had lifted his leg on Olivia. Yes, he peed on her. Right on her stomach, and she was loving it. Is it wrong that I am relieved that it was on her and not the new furniture? What kind of daddy am I? She was just giggling along as Chili expressed how he really felt about her. So Brooke cleaned it up and put chairs there so nobody crawled there while the carpet dried.
I figured a golden shower was something you experimented with when you got older and bored with your current bedroom life. Chili is introducing her to some stuff a little early!! Two baths for you tonight Olivia. No treats for you tonight Chili! And Lu, don't you get any ideas or I might start having to show the dogs who owns them, the Chili way.

Four Dog Night

In the animal world there are two types of strays, those that pass by Brooke unnoticed and those that get rescued, these are their stories.
Last night after we had just put Olivia down for the night our dogs started going crazy and barking in the sunroom. Brooke looked out and saw a big black lab wandering aimlessly in our back yard. Being Brooke, she immediatly sprang into action. She went outside and checked the collar, much to Chili's dislike and objection. The only thing on it was a current rabies vaccination number. There was a pretty big storm brewing already so she brought her into the front yard away from our dog's view and started calling some numbers. First was the vet to see if we could get an address from the rabies number. They were closed. Next came animal control, they were closed and wouldnt have an officer on duty until Thursday (apparently in Clinton, you can go a day or two with out animal control???) Next we stopped our neighbor who was on his way out and asked if he knew the dog. He did not, but had his wife call the vet at home (they are good friends) and she couldn't help until morning. So there we were, a stray lab, our yard, Olivia asleep, and a storm approaching. To Brooke, there was no choice. Let the dog stay in the carport over night and deal with it in the morning. The dog was already hiding in our bushes at the sound of the distant thunder.
So Brooke walked the dog in the carport, gave her some food, water and a blanket and headed inside. The storm picked up pretty quick, and soon it was pouring like crazy and lightning was everywhere. It was pretty spectacular actually, however, now we had a knocking at our garage door. Well, not knocking, but a frantic scraping. Obviously she wanted in. We let it go for a few minutes and decided to stop her because we didn't want the door damaged. Upon opening the door we saw the bite marks. If we didn't do something she was going to literally chew through the door. So we thought about it a while and decided on closing the metal/screen door and put a plastic bin in front of that to stop her. We patted ourselves on the back, headed back in (through the side door and through the rain) and went inside. Not long after there was that scraping again. I went back outside through the back and saw her standing over the bin, she had ripped through the metal grate and screen and was chewing the door again.
We stood there not knowing what to do when I said "Nice, next the power is going to go out and we are really going to be in a mess"..... 5 minutes later we saw the transformer blow up in the distance. DARKNESS.....
I went back into the house and fumbled for some flashlights.
At this point we knew we had to do something because there was no stopping her from destroying our door. We called the police to see if they could come and at least take her. We got the run around saying we weren't in the city (funny, we get trash pickup and pay city water and taxes...) and finally got a county cop to come out. I was surprised at how fast he got there. Guess small towns do have their advantages.
Mr. Sheriff walked up and explained that he does not handle dogs and he was sorry. Best thing to do was wait until morning. We explained AGAIN that she was going to destroy our front door if nothing was done and explained that animal control was closed until Thursday. He told us that there were four animal control people that usually drove around drunk, but was surprised they wouldnt be around for an entire day. Then he had an idea. He told us he had the solution. We were thrilled. He was going to solve our problems. He looked right at me and said w/o cracking a smile, "Well, you could always.." and made a shooting gesture with his hand. I looked right back at him and said "Ok, you can go now." and that was the help from our police. We watched him drive off and felt kind of helpless..
So we made the hard decision that we needed to get her to the school up the street from us and let her off leash under the awning or something. I know that is bad, but unfortunately, we had no other choice. Tying her up away from the door was out of the question, she would have choked herself. I did NOT want her in my car so I told Brooke to follow me while I walked her to the school and she could follow me in the car. I took the umbrella, leashed her up and headed out in the pouring rain. It was not a good feeling walking with an umbrella when there was lightning literally every 10 seconds, but I made it to the school. I let her off the leash and felt like such a jerk jumping into the car and saying "go go go"... we started out of the parking lot and looking back, she was chasing us, which broke both of our hearts.
With the dog hot on our trail, I had Brooke take a long way back to the house by doubling back, heading down another road and reaching the house from the other way. We laughed because it felt like we were escaping an axe murderer.
We got home and were in the clear... Brooke of course could not sleep and was worried about the dog all night.
When morning came, Brooke decided to go search for her. She headed out in the car and about 5 minutes later showed back at home excited. "I found her" she said. She drove by the school and saw her in a yard, rolled the window down and said "mama" and her ears and tail went up and she chased the car back home to our house. So Brooke fed, watered, and pet her and waited until the vet opened to get the information.
As I was writing the last paragraphs, I got a call from Brooke that she had reached the owner and he was very excited and was going to pick her up in 10 minutes. They had searched all night for her.
Happy ending. We were relieved to see that that dog was actually loved and not just some outdoor dog someone didn't care about.
Next post will hopefully be all Olivia, but this was just too crazy not to share!!

Chew Chew Chew

The teeth are growing. And last night she tried to chew on our new coffee table. I guess we are in for a long time of closely watching Olivia and what she is chewing.
We decided it was time to get her to start holding her own bottle. Yes it is well overdue but for a while there we were more concerned that she actually ate something as opposed to how she ate it. She has actually been doing very well. Brooke has been working with her in the day and she has picked it up pretty fast. Still not perfection, but she is now able to pull it out of her mouth and get it back in when needed, we just need to lift her arms when the bottle starts getting empty. She still won't just do it on her own while sitting, she only does it on our laps, but she will get there.
She has started doing very wet "motorboat" sounds with her lips now and spits everywhere. She loves the sound and probably the way it feels, however we must now wear raincoats inside when she is awake because she sprays like a fountain.
She is still loving her runs and gets to go on them most nights. She will usually just lounge in the stroller or chew on her stuffed mouse (not the brown kind!!)
Oh, and the dogs have adapted quite well to not being allowed on the furniture. We hope we can keep that up.

Pearly Whites

Olivia has been hard at work growing two bottom teeth. They are both poking through now, but just barely. Her mouth is clean as she has been staying away from bugs, worms, spiders and anything else gross that she could possibly chew on. At least that we know of or are willing to admit. The teeth are hard to see in the first picture below, but they are there. I give it another week and they will be very noticeable in pictures. Actually, in full scale, they are very visible in this picture, but I am not uploading the full scale pic.



This picture you can see them better:

YUCK!!

Ok, nothing eventful today other than as I was carrying Olivia from one end of the room to the other, Brooke said "is that something in Olivia's mouth?" I looked and figured it was just a shadow, but upon closer examination, it was a small cockroach. Olivia had a chewed up small roach in her mouth. Brooke quickly swept all parts of it out. That is all I have to say on that subject.. We were horrified.

Teeth and Other Changes.

We decided to pack up her swing and jumparoo and put them in the attic. She doesn't use either of them anymore as she prefers to crawl everywhere she can and get into everything she shouldn't. She watched us over the baby gate as we put all of her stuff in the attic. She really wanted to be on the other side of the gate. I have a new found appreciation for the people that put those baby items in the boxes at the factory. On her swing, I got all of it in but could not even get the seat in the box by itself. So the seat is in its own plastic bag. That one still baffles me. We have also packed up the changing table on the pack and play and turned the pack and play into a playpen. We now change her in her room on the changing table Rob made for us. Oh, and we are storing the bumbo seat and feeding her in the highchair now. So many new changes for our big girl.
Olivia herself is really changing as well. Her face looks different and she keeps making new sounds and faces. On top of all that, we have our first tooth poking through. It is a sharp little one. You can see and feel it. Brooke also noted that it looks as if the second front bottom one is trying to come through as well, but not as far as the first yet.
She has also given up on her pacifiers and juice at bed time. She doesn't seem to need a sucker at the moment, though I am sure that can change.
We have been practicing her standing. She has gotten up to 3 seconds as her best so far. We will keep working on that. Shooting for 5!! She loves it and laughs every time she collapses into me.
Lulu has taken over Zoe's pillow, as the dogs (at least for now) are not allowed on the new furniture, and growls anytime any other dog even gets close to the pillow.Chili is protesting by hiding in the corner under the end tables.

It Came!!

Well, after a large rainstorm and 2 hour power outage, our furniture arrived. Yes, there are problems, we need to return the coffee table and a few of the couch coushins, but at least it arrived. We still need to move the old couches out to the street for trash, but at least we can relax for a while on our new ones, at least until we get the replacements.

And here it is:
And another view...

Rooms to Come

Ok, here is the new living room story.
After spending all that time at Rooms To Go Saturday, with a new salesperson (we were his first sale I think) we arrived home pooped. Brooke started getting nervous looking over the itemized invoice. We had ordered taupe couches and the invoice said Peat. No real problem since online they didn't have a peat sofa listed, only taupe, so possibly online and in store had different names. When looking a the coffee table portion, it said "sofa table." Distinct difference between the two. So, upon putting in the skew number from the invoice into the online site, nothing came up. I figured possibly online had different skews as well, but got a little nervous when i found the coffee table and end tables we really wanted with an entirely different skew. Seemed all sofa tables started with a different first 4 digits than all coffee tables did.
I decided to call Sunday when they opened and have our guy look over the invoice and assure that what we ordered is what we are getting. After looking over it he said not to worry, all was correct. I argued a little but not much I could do, he was looking at the item in the store and all I had was online with different skews. I felt a little nervous but decided to trust him.
Monday rolled around and Brooke decided we should add a second end table to the order, we had left it off because we didn't think we had room, but found space for it. I called RTG Monday and spoke with our salesman and he was excited to add the table and lamp, and would call if we needed to do anything extra. 10 minutes later he called Brooke and said that we would have to come into the store (1 hour away) to re-sign the paperwork. Brooke asked if he could fax it to me and I could sign and fax back, that flustered him a bit and he said he would have to check with management. I called him back to check about 10 minutes after he talked to Brooke and he was apologetic and said he was wrong all along, the coffee table order was incorrect as I had previously suspected, and that we now owed $35 more on the order than expected. Fine, not that big of a deal, but i was kind of upset because i pushed the issue with him on the phone Sunday telling him i was pretty sure he was wrong, and he assured me he wasn't. So now we owe extra, plus more for the second end table. He gave me the total that we now owed and asked if I had a calculator so i could figure out tax for him... Why me????? Ok, i asked what tax was. He told me 7% and said to just multiply the amount he gave me by 1.7 and that would give me what he owed. I said, actually you mean 1.07, he of course argued and said "trust me, it is 1.7", so I obliged, knowing there is no arguing with this guy anymore. When I said ok, we owe you 340 (way inflated of course) he kind of sat there on the other end and I could tell he was trying to figure out what happened, so i said "I think you really mean 1.07" and he finally clicked and said oh yea oh yea, you are right (heard that a few times now from him regarding HIS job.) So we got the price all set, but it still seemed a little high so i questioned that and he gave me a rundown and at this point arguing was moot. He was still stuck on us having to go sign for it and I asked if Marcia could just go down and do it for us since I wasn't going to drive 2 hours just to pay more money. He said OK, so i hung up and called Brooke. Brooke called Marcia and she said she would do what ever but we should talk to a manager and see if the paperwork could be faxed.
Long story short, the manager impersonator (longer story) said no, so Brooke decided to head down and straighten it all out in person. Turns out the sofa order was wrong anyway and the peat color was not what we wanted. And after all of this the order was $100 cheaper. Ugh.... So the furniture is still due here Friday, but I am not holding my breath. That is our RTG experience. I don't have a problem with the store, but will not use another "first timer" again.
Stay tuned to whether we get our furniture or not Friday, hopefully there will be an Olivia on the sofa picture by the!!

Rooms To Go

Yesterday we spent all day looking at new furniture for our living room. Our current couches smell like dog and have not worn very well. We wanted something that would be more stain resistant and fresh. Aside from that, the side of the sofa has pulled away and has exposed staples now that can easily poke a little finger. We think we made a good decision on the new sofas and coffee tables. They will be delivered next Friday. We will keep you posted!!

Below is what is GOING (well, not the laptop)...........

Here is what is STAYING............

Pizza and Sunflowers

Last night we had another play date. This time with a friend of mine from work and his sister's family. They have 2 kids, one 8 and one 18 months. We had pizza and gave the kids a chance to play together. His house has a big open area where they have planted sunflowers and they have grown like crazy. The kids had fun interacting with each other and playing with their toys.
After dinner, we all went out to get pictures with the sunflowers. It had been raining for the past couple of hours but had stopped and the weather was great. The sun was just setting and it was very cool outside. We got home and go Olivia to bed and she went right to sleep. (Wow, these blogs are short and to the point, but can sound like a third graders homework writing assignment.)

Long Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend. We kept ourselves very busy. Actually didn't see any fireworks except for the 5 that went off at 10:00PM Sunday night by our next door neighbors. Those shook the house, but were pretty.
Friday I had off and basically lounged around and took care of Olivia for most of the morning so Brooke could sleep, since she had a hard week with Olivia due to her stomach problems. I went for an afternoon bike ride and did some other stuff around the house. Saturday after Olivia's first nap we headed to Columbia around 10:30 for lunch. Stephanie and John were coming down for the day as well but had to head back up to Charlotte early because she had to work early the next morning. We had BBQ and an awesome chocolate cake with strawberries in the middle and on top that Brooke made. Olivia was very good and even took an afternoon nap for about 1 1/2 hours. After she woke up we all played with her for a while longer then decided to head back home. Olivia spent the night with Mima and Grandpa Rob.
The next morning (Sunday) Brooke and I decided to go see a movie at an actual movie theater. Something we haven't done in over two years. One of the side effects of living in a small town. We had lunch, went to the movie and finally picked up Livi and headed home.
We had been invited to a dinner get together for later that night but had delayed giving a firm answer until we saw if Olivia would nap beforehand or not. When we got in the car she fell asleep so we confirmed our dinner plans and told them we would be there in about two hours. We drove home, showered, bathed Olivia and headed out to dinner. Olivia was great at dinner and though very tired, never whined, just showed tired eyes. After dinner we headed home, put Olivia down and went to bed ourselves. It was a long and fun weekend!

Belly Aches and Play Dates

Olivia had another play date and had a great time. Olivia and Jemma played at Jemma's house. What is Jemma's last name? Gearheart.. Jemma's dad works at PC as a professor and yes, the mail room will frequently mess up our mail.

As for Olivia, she has not had a good past couple of days. She won't nap and has been staying up 11 hours a day. We think she has a belly ache judging from diaper changes and her inability to nap. Hopefully she will feel better soon. Actually, she is great when she is up, but when she gets tired she can't sleep, there has been some very cranky time in there, but she ends up getting a second and third wind and turns back into the Livi we know.

Puff Puff Yogurt Puffs

Today we got Olivia some baby yogurt puffs. I had to try one first, and now I want to fight her for them, they are GOOD!!!!!