Words for Wednesday...Professional Dog Walker Edition.

AG likes to 'walk' Samson around the house and Samson will happily trot around with him. He's a great dog and we are fortunate he has adapted so well to our growing family. :) Enjoy these quick pics I snapped the other day. 

Two Peas in a Pod...

...why the family dog and AG are cut from the same cloth.

This morning I've had an epiphany of sorts concerning potty training our three year old. When we got Samson five and a half years ago he was a squirmy little puppy. He's what my Dad lovingly refers to as a Heinz 114 since he's a mixed breed. Within a few months we realized that Samson would need some serious obedience training. He wasn't a bad dog, far from it, he was just a really smart dog. Well, we completed basic obedience class and the trainer approached us and told us that Samson really would benefit from some one on one training. We agreed and we began a series of one on one classes with Cindy. She told us that normally she doesn't use a shock collar because most dogs will do what you want with heaps of praise and treats. She said that there is a small percent that won't and you have to do something else to get their attention. Samson is a bull breed mix...meaning he's a mix of Pittbull, American bulldog, Boxer, and Shepherd. He's very intelligent. In Samson's case 3/5 of the time we could get him to do what we wanted but that other 2/5 of the time he wanted to do things his way. The shock collar was exactly what he needed and we use it only once in a blue moon these days. (Mostly when we travel...so that he can explore and then come when we call him without wondering too far.)

How does this relate to AG? Well, it dawned on me this morning that AG is just like Samson. Most children are happy with heaps of praise and treats when it comes to learning a new skill set. With AG it really doesn't seem to phase him. We've tried all sorts of reward systems M&Ms, small trinkets from the Dollar Store, Disney Movies, new toys, new puzzles, pebbles in a jar to earn a trip to Chuck E. Cheese and his favorite place in the world...Disney, telling him what a big boy he'll be and how he'll get to go to preschool, etc. Doesn't matter because he really could take it or leave it. He wants to do all of those things (preschool, Chuck E. Cheese, Disney) he just doesn't care that not pooping on the potty is keeping him from all of those things. We began potty training back in August and we are still working on it. He is completely potty trained as far as peeing goes but pooping is a different story. He's smart. He can do it and has done it. He just chooses not to. He's stubborn. It's a battle of wills.

Now, don't think for a second that I'm about to use Samson's collar to get AG to poop on the potty. I've been praying for months that I would figure out what the missing link is because I'm quickly approaching the end of my rope. I guess this morning I realized that it's fruitless to try and bribe/praise AG because that's not how we'll get his attention. Same way we couldn't get Samson to heel every single time on a loose leash. We had to find a unique way to get his attention and it appears we'll have to do the same with AG. This isn't to say that we won't lavish him with praise when he does it...it just means that we are going to have to figure out a different way to get him to want to do it. Praise  and treats alone will not be enough for him just like it wasn't enough for Samson. I'm not really sure why this didn't dawn on me sooner but regardless I'm glad that it has.

Samson and AG...two peas in a pod. I guess it's back to the drawing board to figure out my new game plan. And that's okay. I feel better about all of this than I have in months...we'll see what happens.

1.11.11

These are a few of the pictures we took from our Monday morning romp in the snow...the rest to come later and details from our adventure. Enjoy!

AG saying, "Cheese!" 

AG doesn't have time for family pictures he's too busy watching the sledders fly down our street. 

Samson gave me his regal pose before he began to let loose in the snow. 

Our little bungalow covered in snow with steps barely visible. Pretty much perfection.

The nativity with a gently used Virgin Mary...

So last week I promised a post about our nativity...for those of you who've been waiting patiently here it is.

The first week of November AG was recovering from surgery and had a virus so we spent a week inside cooped up. That Tuesday he discovered a box under his bed that contained hisLittle People Nativity Set. Since he found it I thought we might as well go ahead and open it. I set it up in the den where we keep all of his toys...he enjoyed looking at and holding each of the pieces he also enjoyed making the angel play "Away in a Manger". After two days I noticed that AG had singled out one piece in particular...the Virgin Mary. He carried her all over the den and kitchen. So I commented to Andy as he got ready for soccer about my observation. Off he went to soccer and dinner from Moe's arrived via Jess and Aunt Caro. (They brought it to us since AG was sick and we couldn't go to college night.) As we were sitting down to eat in the dining room I notice Samson chewing vigorously on something...now knowing good and well that he is out of bones (because I hadn't made it to Sam's that week to pick up a new bag due to my sick child) I knew he had something he shouldn't. So I grabbed his collar and pried opened his mouth with one hand to reveal a slobbery, half eaten Virgin Mary!

I'm not going to lie...I was pissed. Really, there is no other word to use there. When Andy came home I showed him what was left of Mary...despite having no hands and half a head she was still smiling...bless her heart she couldn't help it. My husband, always finding humor in my frustration, informed me that now it was even more of an immaculate conception. Ha. I went on and on for the last month about how mad I was because it was a gift from some dear friends. And because you can't call Fisher Price and request a replacement Virgin. Or so I thought.

This past week I came home from our last college night at Moe's of the semester to find sitting on the window in the kitchen a "gently used" Virgin Mary...right alongside the half eaten one that I hadn't brought myself to throw away. I did a double take when I saw it and looked at Andy and said where in the world did this come from. My amazing husband spent quite a bit of time scouring eBay for a replacement. He finally found one and bought her. She's slightly smaller than the current model and shows she's been played with. I could care less about either of those points. I'm just happy that we have a new, gently used, Virgin Mary for AG to play with.

The lessons I have learned from this humorous little story are...1) I need my husband. Simply put. He is my other half. He finds humor in my frustration and he goes the extra mile to serve me. AG wouldn't have noticed much less known what was missing from his nativity but I knew and it bothered me...Andy found a way to fix it for me. So thank you Andy for all you do for our family. I couldn't do it without you. 2)Even when I'm frustrated I need to laugh. Our life is only going to become more wild and wooly as the years pass...laughter is a great way to let off steam and realize this moment is not what defines us. It's just a moment to laugh at and retell years from now when our kids are older. 3) You can buy pretty much anything on eBay...even a gently used Virgin Mary. :)

Ps-On Samson's behalf I will say that this episode was totally out of character for him. He has only chewed up a hand full of items since we've had him. I think he was frustrated at his lack of exercise, being cooped up, and not having plenty of bones to chew that week.

In the spirit of the Griswolds...

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Christmas Vacation. It's classic 80's and as soon as the theme song starts you begin to hum along. Chevy Chase is bound and determined to start the season off right by finding the perfect Christmas Tree. So he packs the family up in the trusty station wagon and heads for the woods to cut down the quintessential tree. In the spirit of the Griswolds we packed the trusty station wagon aka Andy's truck and headed for the tree farm not far from our house. Beforehand we stopped at the Dwarf House to eat breakfast with our friends the Hornsbys. AG fell asleep en-route to the tree farm and actually slept the first few minutes we were there. Unlike the Griswolds we didn't hike in the snow for miles and uproot a massive tree but we did traipse all over Silver Creek Tree Farm looking for just the right tree. There was plenty of room and Emma explored to her hearts content. We had to carry AG but next year I'm sure he'll be chasing Emma every where. I was thrilled to find a white pine just like what my dad cut down every year. We found a great tree, however, I've decided that accurately determining the size of a tree is harder in a field than at Home Depot. At the Depot you can hold multiple trees up and gage the correct size...not so much in the middle of the field. I say all of this to say that the tree we ended up with a much larger (wider) tree than I realized. Ha. The last two years in this house we've picked a tall skinny tree to go in a corner of the dinning room--so it can be viewed from the street. The tree is residing in the dining room but we had to move the table a bit to accommodate its wide girth. Ha.

So far we haven't had any problems with AG and the tree. He has figured out how to unplug the lights...we've remedied this by putting up a gate to keep him from the tree. However, the other night this frustrated Samson because our neighbor, Keely, came over to ride with us to dinner for college night. She knocked on the door and normally Samson would have trotted to the front of the house to make sure he approved of the guest at the door. On this day I had gated the entrance from the kitchen to the dinning room and had the door shut between the front hall and the living room...leaving Samson to bark for all of Old East Rome to hear and run between the hall door and the kitchen gate. Thus, waking AG from his afternoon nap and melting down due to all the commotion. Never a dull moment to say the least. :)

Here are some photos from the tree farm...I'll do a post in the coming days showing off the house. Stay tuned.

Trying to figure out the tree...

AG and his best friend Emma in front of our tree...

Can't hold one without the other...

Taken just days before AG took his first steps.

Update on life these last few weeks...

Hmmm, well in my last big update I stated that the coming weeks would fly by as we head towards the holidays. It's true because I have not given a real update in almost a month. So here's an update on all that we have been up to these last few weeks:

--AG is doing great and growing like a weed. I swear he is heavier everytime I pick him up. He had an ear infection a couple of weeks ago but seems to have recovered nicely. He was 22lbs and 15oz that day at the doctor. We go Monday for his next well baby check up and I'm curious to see where he is on the growth chart. Now that he has teeth he is starting to learn the whole "chewing" process. It's funny to hear him make little crunching noises as he eats his MumMum Bars.

--Speaking of teeth it looks like the top two are coming in. We were up twice last night with him because of it. I'm also already seeing signs of the next two on the bottom and top. At this rate the tooth fairy will be visiting us before kindergarten. (For those of you who don't live in Rome AG's future kindergarten teacher, Mary Niedrach, is the tooth fairy. She pulls all the teeth at Berry Elementary and ask any child in any grade who the tooth fairy is and they will tell you Mrs. Niedrach with out batting an eye. Guess it's a good thing she lives just up the street.)

--AG is cruising like a pro these days. We got him a lion push toy that he can practice walking behind it this week. He is starting to figure it out. He already knows how make it play music and is starting to "dance" to the music. It's fun to watch. As for crawling he has mastered it but doesn't do it for kicks it has to be purposeful. He crawls to a location so he can pull himself up and cruise. He would rather be up right than on his hands and knees.

--We've had visits from GiGi, GrandNan, Uncle Tommy, Aunt Caroline, Cousin Ronnie, and Nanny in the last two weeks. We are looking forward to spending time together with all of them this holiday season. Now that AG and Ronnie can "play" it is humorous to watch their interactions together. I have a feeling Christmas is going to be much louder this year than it was last year. Ha.

--College students...at the end of September we celebrated Viraj's birthday with a dinner party.

Complete with a scrumptious cake from Honeymoon Bakery. AG is still not a fan of birthday candles. Ha. Seems to be the only thing that really and truly upsets the little man. We have some hysterical pictures from the party to prove it. I guess they'll be fun to show off 20 years from now. :) Hopefully, we'll be able to celebrate Viraj's LSAT score in the coming weeks. Our Thursdays are in full swing with our college girls. We still do dinner at Moe's and then everyone heads over here for Grey's and Private Practice. I've really enjoyed the new girls that we are getting to know this year. It amazes me that even now that we've been gone for several years we have a whole new group of students to love on simply by word of mouth. All the students that we work with now were still in middle/high school when Andy and I were at Berry.

--This past weekend we took AG to his first wedding. He did great! He even fell asleep on our friend Chris late in the evening. We enjoyed showing him off to some of our Berry friends that we haven't seen lately. Noel was simply gorgeous and we were honored to be apart of her and Michael's special day. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you soon!

--This weekend we are headed to Gwinnett. Andy has to coach and it happens to work out that we can celebrate birthdays while we are at it. (We have four family birthdays next week.) Also, Friday we are going to the Buford vs. Thomson game to support my brother-in-law. Costello coaches for Thomson and we are looking forward to all being together to support the Bulldogs. It'll be AG's first football game. So far he's seen a couple of baseball games and we are planning to take him to see a (Mighty) Ducks game when we are on the West Coast in March. Andy was hoping that maybe the Thrashers would be playing them then but they aren't. No worries it should still be fun. More about that trip in the coming weeks.

We are blessed. Life is great. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate next week so that we can take AG's 9month pictures in the leaves on campus. We've had at least 5 inches of rain in the last few days with more on the way. The rivers are already experiencing mild flooding...good thing we live on such a high hill. Rome is the city of 3 rivers and 7 hills. Anyways, hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

Side note--I wrote this on Wednesday and didn't get around to posting it due to my desire to put a slideshow with it. However, we've been dealing with a very cranky, teething child and it hasn't happened. Look for a long slideshow with my next post. Last night we were up two and half hours Andy ended up strapping him into his carseat and taking him on a ride. Apparently, he crashed out near the soccer fields. We are going to give the local remedy, Dr. Star's Teething Lotion, a try...I'm swinging by the only local pharmacy that still compounds it on our way out of town. If it works expect a post all about it. AG's friend, Emma, got her bottle of it yesterday...at this point Ginny and I will try anything. Here's to the weekend and I hope that we may get some sleep. And Ginny too! :)

Dogs and Banjos...

A video or two to start your weekend off on the right foot. Blogger wouldn't let me post two in the same post so here is two posts with two videos from yesterday.

AG and Samson's relationship continues to develop and grow with the passing days. We've enjoyed watching it and can't wait to see it in the months to come. If you know me you know how much I love a good quote (Isn't that right Brent?!) and I collect quote books. Here is one from a Charles Schulz book:

"As soon as a child is born he or she should be issued a dog and a banjo..."--Charlie Brown

Well, AG has the dog I guess he just needs a banjo now. Have a great weekend.