Nanny Fritz

At night when all are a sleep, Fritz is on duty. Most nights he lays by the bedroom door, well that used to be true. Now he lays on the floor in front of the boy's cribs. I have to remember to be careful if I have to get up in the middle of the night to take care of Cubby. He don't care that I am inserting my feet in between his legs or next to his head to reach into Cubby's crib and fish around for that bottle that got away, these are his boys and he's not getting out of the way for anything. Fritz is also helping Bear with his pitching skills. In order to play fetch in the room Bear has to be able to aim the ball threw a doorway and past the row of dog crates. He does okay and Fritz is always willing to get the ball for him no matter what direction the ball went flying. Some times the ball goes under a bed and Bear and Fritz go diving under and I look down at the floor to see two size 9 tot feet and two furry black paws and tail sticking out. These two goofy for balls have an audience. The moms all watch the fun while they feed their babies and Cubby has recently learn how to pull himself up in his crib to stand on wobbly legs and make his baby words. I'm not sure what he is saying (well to be honest, Bear is hard to understand about 50% of the time), but I know he is into balls too. It is late and all is quiet, the room is dark except for the light of the tv and computer screen and I look on the floor and there is a big dark empty space, a black hole. It is Fritz, stretched out with his tail under Bear's crib and head under Cubby's crib.

Day Off?

Day was sort of a day off. I took the day off from work to stay with my husband after he had a dentist appointment. Gotta keep my eye on him. So I went to the local restaurant for breakfast. My Army boy used to work there as a dishwasher before he left for the Army. Everyone wanted to hear the latest news about him and how he has been doing. I had talked to him a couple of days ago and passed along his greetings to everyone back home. After gathering up my husband from the dentist, picking him up some yogurt and pudding, and getting him settled in bed to sleep it off. I took the opportunity to put everything away that got pushed around when I laid my laminate flooring. I also re-installed the toilet and got the whole house swept up. I lined up all my sewing machines that are in cabinets and placed a portable sewing machine on top of each one. I still have one cabinet upstairs that the bird cage is currently on. All together I have six and two more that belong to my sister that she brought over for me to check out and I haven't got around to looking at yet. Cringe. Sorry. Then I gave Emma a hair cut and a bath. I also gave the poodle puppies their first bath, that was a little noisy and I got to have a bath too. Then I put collars on all the puppies and took their pictures to post to the website. Fortunately I have a good Internet connection tonight and was able to make some changes and post the pictures. It is a best guess with my camera right now. I can't tell what I'm taking a picture of, so I take a bunch and hope for the best. Tomorrow I'm planning on giving Gretchen, Mercedes and Fritz a bath, Hiedi's turn will be Friday. I have people coming to see the puppies this weekend, so I want everyone clean and smelling good. I'm also planning on doing some aggressive advertising for the weekend, three online newspapers and as many free online classified as I can find. I named Hiedi's big cream boy, Nanook which is the intuit word for polar bear. He looks like one, if I had a coke bottle I would take his photo with it. I also named Mercedes large chocolate boy Kodiak, which is another word for grizzly. He is a fierce and brave little fellow.

The Puppy Whisperer

The poodle puppies are now 2 weeks old. Yesterday their eyes started opening. The eyes don't just totally open up. At first the corner of the eye seems a little open and as you move the puppy around the light catches and a glimmer is seen along the closed lid. The puppies are all doing well, both litters. It is amazing how much bigger the poodle puppies are compared to the labradoodle puppies, they are 11 days older. Now that the poodle pups are getting bigger, they are getting handled a lot more. My older grandson, Bear, is now an official holder. He does a real good job. I ask him if he is ready to hold a puppy and he goes and sits down on the big comfy chair. I lay the puppy on his tummy and he puts his hands on the puppy and whispers in it's ear. Pretty good for a 21 month old. Today he held one of the sweet black girls. She was making noise in the crates and so I go and pull her out. Bear headed right to the chair and says "wanna hold?" and I put the puppy in his arms and she calms right down and goes to sleep. Bear usually holds the puppies for 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

New Photo of Our Poodle Babies

Mercedes puppies are almost two weeks old now. Any day their eyes should be opening up. They are all nice and fat and definately growing.

Hiedi's Puppies are here!

Tuesday night after I got home from work, our sweet girl Hiedi finally let lose and had her puppies. I had barely gotten home, got my coat off and was checking everyone like I do; husband, littles, dogs and puppies. Everyone getting little pats of love. I watch Hiedi in her crate for a little bit. Husband and Bear go downstairs to start dinner and I see Hiedi is ready. She's pushing and moving around and pushing some more. I'm excited, these are the puppies we have been waiting for more than 10 months for. We are trying to add a new coat color to our selection. I watch Hiedi as she pushes, phone in hand. As soon as I see the pup come out, I'm ecstatic, I can see that it's light. FINALLY!. I love Fritz and he fathers beautiful puppies, but he only produces black and chocolate. We are always asked about lighter puppies. Soon puppies are arriving every 30 to 40 minutes and everyone of them is light, so close in shading that I can't believe what is coming out. After 8, Hiedi is done. I thought she had more but she was finished. About midnight I coax her away from her puppies to potty and decide to give Hiedi a bath. She is basically coated from nose to tail with birthing fluids, except for the top of her head and down her spine. I usually weight til the next day to bath the mom, but I could just imagine what the neighbors would think if they saw her looking like that. It's kind of funny that all last year I have people asking for the lighter puppies and right now I'm having inquirers for chocolate. Tonight I placed ads online. To place ads I have to take photos, write out descriptions of the puppies and wait and hope I can get online. My camera is on it's last leg. Something got dropped on it and the display screen is cracked so I can't see what I'm taking pictures of. At least it is still taking pictures for now. Another future business expense. After taking photos, eating a dinner of waffles and putting the littles to bed. We declawed Hiedi's puppies. It upsets the mom more than the puppies. Hopefully the ads generate some traffic.

Things my 6 months old grandson can do.

So I’m here waiting for Hiedi to give us a sign that this could be the night and have her puppies already. I have my grandson Cubby on my bed and he is currently rolling an empty 2 litter pop bottle over and over. Earlier today he discovered that he could make his thumb disappear! Yes that’s right folks, he’s a regular magician. Okay so he really just figured out to fold his fingers over his thumb. Then he waves it around in the air and twists and turns it, showing any and all who are watching that his thumb is gone! Yes, magic. He is also pretty good at hand to hand transfer and if you blink your eyes real slowly you can’t see the exchange at all. He has also mastered two words; mum mum and da da. Since I am not either of these people he keeps talking about, I am working on getting him to say Jana. If he can say Jana, then I will have to conclude that he is a genius on all counts. Especially since I can’t seem to get anyone else to call me that, including his 21 month old brother, Bear who calls me Mike. Mike is his dad and he should be calling him dad or daddy. At least once or twice a day I’m saying; “I’m not Mike and I’m not momma.” Other grown ups seem to keep forgetting that I’m not his momma either. After all I think that everyone should have his own name. They already have a grandma, granny, grandpa and poppa, calling me grandma is too confusing for these little minds. I just checked on Hiedi for extra occupants in her crate, just her in there looking like a big momma pig. She just wags her tail at me and rolls over even more on her back to see if I will rub her belly for her. Cubby is getting around more than ever, he has a combination of rolling over this way and that with a little wiggling and he gets himself from on place to another. He can sit upright for short periods of a time until the weight of his head gets the better of him and he tilts over. Cubby is also making rocking motions that are precursors to crawling. He is constantly moving around so that he burns thru the calories he consumes pretty fast. His wonderful Dr. says that he is at 65% range for his length and only 10% for his weight. Nice and long and lean and since he is a good eater not to worry about his weight being on the low side. By the way, over the weekend I replaced the tile in my kitchen with laminate flooring and as soon as I get the door casings put back on, I’ll post before and after pictures. Next weekend I’m hoping to do the floor in the bathroom, if nothing else comes up. Did I mention how good Cubby is at smiling?