Bye-bye Brodie

Yesterday was a really tough day. Yesterday we had to say to goodbye to our 9 1/2 year old dog Brodie. 

About 5 weeks ago he was diagnosed with lymphoma with an estimated 1-2 months to live. So we brought him home wondering how it would go. But he was still Brodie. A little more tired and much more spoiled but still very himself. Over the last few weeks Brodie lost weight and in addition to the extra tiredness he was also having some trouble eating (due to the swollen lymph nodes in his neck). Sunday, still in good spirits, Brodie gobbled an ice cream - his favorite treat - and a can of dog food which I'd bought because his dry food was giving him a problem. But yesterday he had just taken a bad turn.

I was worried that we wouldn't know when it was time. I was worried that we'd be the people that let their dog hang on too long because they can't let go. But one look at that face yesterday and we both knew that Brodie was telling us it was time.

Brodie was our pre-baby baby. Brodie hated to ride in the car, hated to swim, had very little manners and preferred to drink running water (out of the sink). We were worried when we had Grant that Brodie would react badly. But it was quite the opposite...he just sort of stayed away. Until he couldn't anymore and just had to be around Grant. And then they became friends. Brodie was so good with Grant that it amazed me. I managed to catch some pictures of some really sweet moments that made love Brodie even more.

Sharing a popsicle

Hugs

 

Two nosey guys checking out the neighborhood

Joint napping session

More hugs

And lets forget kisses too.

I loved watching those two interact. It was great seeing Brodie's transition from wanting nothing to do with Grant into being a "big brother". And it's really sad today answering Grant's questions of "Where's Brodie?" or "Oh! Where his bowl go?" but I'm dealing with it and Grant seems to be understanding that Brodie isn't coming home :(

The loss of a pet is so difficult. It always breaks my heart when I hear of other people going through it and so many people have expressed sympathy over what we're going through. Brodie wasn't just a dog, he was family and it takes time to get over a loss like that. Husband and I have been together for 11 years so very little of our time together has been without Brodie. We're going to miss that boy, especially our night time cuddles!

Conversations With My Toddler

Beginning last Thursday evening, Grant was pretty sick with a cold. Coughing...up all night coughing...keeping us up all night. You get the picture. Sick enough for me to stay home from work Friday with him because he looked completely miserable. And it pretty much continued all weekend with some highs but mostly lows for the little man (Friday night/Saturday morning including a serious low that featured a vomiting episode around 2:30 a.m.)

Sunday brought much improvement and Grant was ready to get out for playtime. But it was cold and raining so that wasn't happening.

Grant: I need ride bike.

Me: It's cold and raining. And you're sick. You're not going out to ride your bike.

Grant: I need ride tactoo. [That's Grant-speak for tractor]

Me: It's cold and raining and you're sick. You're not going outside to ride anything.

At that point he seemed to realize he was losing the battle and let it go.

For a minute.

He walks over to me and announces: "I need ride...Brodie"

At this point my parenting skills waver slightly because I laughed at him. I know I'm supposed to give him a firm "No" and perhaps a toddler-appropriate lecture on why he can't ride the dog. But he's not a dumb kid and I am 99.9% sure it was a last ditch effort get me to give in to the tricycle or the tractor. Which, of course, didn't work. He knew he struck out and went in search of his truck toys. Silly guy :)

Making nice with Brodie at some point over the weeknd.
Brodie is a little skittish about Grant's affections so Grant put
his hand on Brodie's face and told him "It's ok. It's ok." SO CUTE!

Easter 2012

This year Easter kind of snuck up on me. I totally forgot about it. I know...bad Mama! But, I still managed to put together a little basket for Grant that he was very excited about. I didn't want to go overboard with his basket. Last year I just gave his basket to him, but this year I hid it! Of course, I helped him find it too. We walked all over the house trying to find it. (Husband apparently didn't see me hide it the night before and kept asking me who hid the basket. I was very tempted to say that it was the Easter Bunny!). We finally found it behind the rocking chair in Grant's room and he immediately shouted "Ball! Ball!" because he had a new football tucked in there among his new books, bubbles, and play foam (also some lollipops).



Showing Mama his bubbles.



Checking out a new book.



He immediately loved his new Poke-a-Dot book. It's
a counting book that you poke as you count.

 

See Daddy?

 

Of course Brodie got a little basket too.



We went to my Mother-in-law's house for Easter lunch. Before we ate, Grant got to open his giant basket from Grandma and Grandpa Earl. Which was - much to Grant's delight - fill with cars and trucks.


Can't you go any faster Grandpa?

After lunch they brought out a big basket of Easter eggs for Grant to play with. But I wanted to play with my new camera! So we went outside to see if we could get some cute Easter pictures and to let Grant burn off some energy.



Playing with Grandpa



Playing on the trampolene!



It's empty!

Grandma, Uncle Scotty, Daddy, and Grant



And we did actually manage to get a decent family picture before...

 Grant decided he was done.

 This is probably my favorite "serious" picture of the day:


There's nuffin in it?

  Sorry for the picture overload. Honestly, I have a ton more I could have posted. I'm loving my new camera! But anyway, as you can see we had a great Easter and I hope you guys did too!

Coming soon: Monster Jam! Stay tuned :)

The Longest Game of Hide & Seek. Ever.

Since the moment Grant entered this house for the first time Brodie has been trying to avoid him. Since the moment Grant first became aware of Brodie he has made it his mission to become friends. Brodie isn't as quick as he used to be. Now when he sees Grant coming toward him - running just as fast as little legs will go and yelling "AHHHHH!" with an open mouth ready to give a kiss - he sighs, gets up, and moves to another spot on the floor. And this is repeated until Brodie leaves the room (not so easy with all exits blocked by baby gates). When Brodie finally goes Grant stands there looking like he wishes he could follow him. Where does he go? On the rare occasion that Grant gets to run after him, Brodie can usually disappear before Grant can figure out where he went.

I know where he went. Brodie, who is far too big for these kind of shenanigans, hides under the bed. He always has. It's painful to watch him try to get under there and it's even worse watching him come out. The funnies thing is that he thinks he's well hidden. But Grant has found him out. I guess the two back legs, a tail, and...*ahem*...nutters hanging out from under the bed gave him away. Grant sat there laughing and pointing like he was trying to say "Look what I found!"  And then he attempted to go in after him.

I'm not going to lie. I got a little nervous. Even though Brodie had many exit routes, he's kinda persnickety and only gets out on that side. So he was a little cornered and that's not good. But he handled it. He even let Grant grab his foot a couple times before I could stop him. Brodie has never done anything that makes me think he'd hurt Grant, he's actually been super patient (and he's not a patient dog). But still, after taking a couple pictures I removed Grant from the area and let Brodie have his peace. So now he's been found out. There is no where in the house safe. Poor Brodie :)

Spinach & Cheese Ravioli

New recipe? Nope. Baby food. Although some spinach & cheese ravioli sounds pretty damn good. I've had a hard time introducing new finger foods to Grant. I figured once we got over the hump that was the cereal puffs everything else would be easy. Wrong. Silly Mama. What has ever been easy when it comes to feeding this child? He'll eat some carrots, but not green beans. Fruit? No ma'am. In it goes and out it comes. If I want the fruit to stay in his mouth I have to hold my finger against his lips and he'll reluctantly chew. He'll eat the pureed version but not the pieces. So, when I was in the grocery store Thursday after work I swung through the baby aisle. I have a baby food problem. Since Grant has started "solids" I don't think I've left a store that sells baby food without buying some. This time I saw the ravioli. It said it's for a toddler but really that's just a guideline right? The ravioli is smaller than the kind I would buy for me and Husband and it seems mushier too. I had less than no hope that Grant would eat it willingly so I only bought one package of it. Well guess what? Miracles do happen folks. He loved it.

First he squished it in his hands. A guy's gotta check things out, yes?

After proper squishing it did actually end up in his mouth.

And then, much to my surprise, more of it went in his mouth.

Before I knew it he was happy about his ravioli!

Then the biggest shock of the meal came when the ravioli was almost gone. Brodie came to check things out. Brodie never comes to check things out when Grant is involved. Because Brodie is still waiting for us to bring him back where ever he came from (I, for one, am rather glad he's not going back there). Upon seeing Brodie, Grant leaned forward and started saying "Babababab! Ba ba ba ba!" Which leads me to believe he's trying to say Brodie's name. Then Grant hung his hand in the air to touch Brodie and I waited for him to run away. He didn't.

He actually licked the ravioli off his hand!

And Grant quickly realized that if he threw ravioli on the floor
Brodie would stick around for clean up duty.

Always the easiest way to clean up! (I promise the tray was washed
very well before we let Grant use it again. I'm not that bad!)

Hmmm...they might just become friends after all.

Ten Months

My baby is...well, not such a baby anymore. And less baby-like every day it seems. With toddlerhood fast approaching Grant seems eager to speed things up.

10 months old. He doesn't even look like a baby anymore.

Grant is all about some walking now. And he's quite good at it. Of course, he still falls on his bum. And he still reverts to crawling when he needs to or he's really tired. But it's pretty obvious that his preferred method of transportation (aside from being carried) is to walk where he wants to go. He's gone very quickly from only walking when he's already pulled up on something to just getting up from a sitting position and walking away. He's also able to bend over and pick something up without toppling over...most of the time. Sometimes - and this is happening more frequently, especially outside - he tries to run. This never works out in his favor.

He always falls when he tries to run. Sometimes he just falls forward and lands on his belly looking like he's not to sure how he got down there so fast. Sometimes he falls forward and lands on his face and is completely sure he didn't like it.

That wasn't fun.

We're getting more actual words out of him now. Dada more than Mama but he knows who he's talking to or about and he knows the one he calls with come running. Over the weekend I kept saying banana to him as he was eating his banana cereal puffs and he started saying "Nana nananana" so I'm going to assume my clever little guy was trying to say banana.

He's loving his stage 3 foods. Most of them. Some have gone over better than others. The self-feeding thing...eh. I need to push it but I don't. He loves the cereal puffs and Cheerios. But when it comes to real foods like cut up fruit or green beans he'll have nothing to do with them in his mouth. LOVES to squish them in his hands and giggles while he does it. But they're not going in the mouth. And if I try to put a piece of fruit in his mouth? No ma'am! If it's not on a spoon then Grant is the only person that's putting food in his mouth. It makes things ever so slightly difficult. Oh, and we discovered that instant mashed potatoes (yes, I'm that lazy) make his belly swell up so bad that he looks like one of those mail order kids that Sally Struthers is always trying to help.

Most recently Grant has discovered that his new-found mobility makes it much easier to torment poor Brodie. So for now, I'll leave you with this:

(Don't worry, Brodie frequently gets rewarded for choosing not to eat the baby.)

I Scream, You Scream

Brodie screams for ice cream. He really does. He gets so excited over his ice cream that he sounds like he's screaming. Yes, we are terrible doggie parents...we give him real ice cream (not every day). In my family we've always given our dogs real ice cream. There's something weird about those Frosty Paws and I can't see how they're any better for them than actual ice cream. But also, the little ice cream cups cost the same as Frosty Paws and you get three times as many. Sometimes I switch it up and buy him the sundae cups (yes, he even eats the chocolate) instead of plain vanilla. I've even come across sherbet cups. He's not picky. He'll eat any of it. We ran out of ice cream one day after he'd been promised it (you know, because he remembers stuff like that) so I froze some apple juice. Loved it.

Last week after Grant's check-up when we got home I let Brodie out as usual. He ended up staying out a little too long. I know this because he rarely "asks" to come inside. But it was apparently hot enough for him to come to the back door looking kind ragged and I could tell that hanging out under the deck wasn't cool enough that day. He deserved an ice cream (Ok, it was out of guilt - I may have forgotten he was outside) and he wagged his tail the entire time he was eating it.

After some playtime Grant ended up going down for a good nap. And with his belly full of a chocolate sundae Brodie enjoyed some baby-free peace and quiet relaxing in the sunny spot.

Eight Months

How time flies! Eight months old and getting so big. It's not fair. Grant is such a little man, it's ridiculous. In the past month he's been eating a lot more and he usually wants more when the bowl is empty. He's eating anything we feed him - even the meats! I had to get just the right mix of a fruit or vegetable, but I can get him to eat the meats now. And we're getting more adventurous with fruit and he's really enjoyed that. Some of the stuff we're kind of limited on. Our pediatrician recommends not introducing any citrus into his diet until he's a year old and that includes strawberries (longer if there is a history of family allergy but thankfully there isn't!). Do you know how much baby food has strawberries in it? We'll be able to get even more creative once he can have that. And he's making some progress, but not much, with the sippy cup. I'm hoping that some new ones I bought recently may help...but so far, I'm not seeing the improvement I hoped for.



Eight months old!

 We know Grant weighs about 17 1/2 pounds due to a recent trip to the doc's office for his first ear infection (and first antibiotic prescription). And while we're on firsts - we have a first tooth! It makes his silly grins even cuter. Grant still spends a lot of time in the baby jail because he's into more and more every day. Nothing is safe...



Especially not my coffee table books. Which he seems to think are his own.



We're also learning what "No" means. This is what I got when I told him "No" to climbing
into the coffee table. That face is hard to be strict with!


This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have three whole days to spend with my little man! We did so much...well, I did so much. He pretty much had no choice but to participate. We played, he napped, I cooked, we played. On Saturday we went for a walk at some parks near the house and I decided to get out the camera. Not much cooperation from the munchkin. He just wanted to pick the grass...and eat sticks.

Hmmm...I'm gonna eat it. (It was in his mouth two seconds
later, completely unpreventable. Oh well.)

And I took a few more today...he just so damn cute, how can I not? Plus, I love this little romper. It has little crabs all over it and I love orange on him. It's still a bit big because it's 12 months but it's still adorable on him. And those are his first pair of real shoes!



He smiles like this a lot now.

 

He'd rather pick grass than look at Mama!



Sitting on Daddy's jeep!



Handsome devil :)

Now, my project for the next few months: get started planning Grant's FIRST BIRTHDAY! This year has just been flying by and it's going to be here before I know it. I have a theme in mind but my main problem is finding somewhere to have it. My ideal place is having it at the park where we like to walk. They have big shelters you can rent out with grills and lots of tables. I just love the idea of having a cook out/picnic kind of thing. It's simple. The problem? August is H-O-T. And the party can't be at our house. It's just too small. So I'm taking suggestions...