Brown Eyed Atti

Last fall as we gathered with family for the holidays, I had this foreboding feeling that it would be the last one that looked like that. My heart knew 2022 would come with change and loss and I wanted to be prepared. 

But honestly I thought I had more time....

Once upon a time we adopted a dog. He was a cute little rescue from our local pound. 

We named him Atticus.

 

His other names were Atti, Catticus (baby Alice), sweet boy, nephdog and granddog.

He came housebroken. He hated a crate and he shed like crazy. In the beginning, he got car sick. He buried his bones in the backyard.

He ADORED His Man. He tolerated The Woman. He didn't eat The Child. 

If I was cuddling with my Beloved, he would come and insert himself between us. 

He was a brat. 

He laid on ALL the things not his. He would look you right in the eye as he placed his foot on your [insert item here]. He managed to get a foot on Alice's beloved Kiki whenever he could.

He always knew exactly where you were stepping next and planted himself in that exact spot RIGHT before you stepped there. He also waited until you were perfectly settled in to your seat and about to take your first bite of a meal to scratch on the door to go out.

He was a picky eater and refused to drink out of metal bowls or those auto fill water bowls that go "glug, glug". He could remove any of the tiniest particles of food from his food that he didn't like. He would just carefully take them in his mouth and deposit them next to his bowl. He would devour pizza crust. He knew what time he got a treat at night and would throw a full on fit until he got it. 

He also knew what time His Man got home and he would wait by the door. 

If you ended up in his spot on the couch - he would stand and stare. And when that didn't work, he would climb on your lap until you moved.

He wasn't big on being manhandled but he loved to have his butt scratched. 

He hated the vacuum. He slept on our bed. He loved to be closer to His Man. He begrudgingly let Alice dress him up and then rolled all over her Lego designs. He always needed to be in the middle of all the things. 

We will be cleaning up dog hair for the rest of our lives.

He spent the last several years in my office on the CareBear couch he claimed as his. Moving this out of my office is going to absolutely crush me.

He had expressive eyes that let you know exactly what he was thinking. 

He is all Alice has ever known - there was not a Before Atti time for her.

He was ours for 12 years. 

Today we said good bye.

Letting him go has been absolutely heartbreaking.

He will forever be a part of our lives.

Sweet boy, it was an honor to have you be a part of our family. 

Even when you made our eyes twitch. Or woke us up barking at nothing. Or refused to eat the homemade treats I made you. 

I hope you are whole again and treat time is 24/7. 

We love you.

PS: When you get to where you're going, if you see a black Lab named Woody - tell him we love him too.

Until next time......

There better be Zombies next time....

We love our dog.

We love our dog.

We love our dog.

Sometimes we have to be reminded. 

Take this morning for example.

At exactly 3:20 a.m. this fine morning, Atticus started barking his lungs out in the middle of our living room. Like "Satan is at the back door" barking. Like "The Zombie uprising has begun at our fence line" barking. Like "Forget Timmy - the entire city has fallen down the well" barking.

His Man jumps from bed and lets him out to the yard. 

The Woman goes to The Child's room to coax her back to bed. Luckily she hadn't made it too far from her bed before I got to her. With her rubbing her eyes, "why Caticus barking?! He crazy!" Amen, sister. I told her I think he saw a cat. "Oh! He no like cats!" Nope. So back to bed she went with no complaints. Hallelujah. (This is the main reason the dog was allowed to live.)

I close her door and proceed to join my Beloved at the back door. "Do you see anything?" he asks. "No, just our dumb dog sniffing all over the place". We could hear other dogs barking. All I could think was, "15 Dalmatian puppies! Stolen!" (Thanks, Walt.) Side rant - why do dogs choose the most quiet of nights to lose their ever loving minds?! I was sleeping good too! I hadn't slept well in almost 3 days! 

He finishes up protecting the non-threatened perimeter and comes back in all excited wagging his tail - "look! I saved my people!"

No. Sir.

You woke up your people. 

That is NOT a good dog. 

Everyone went back to sleep easily enough. 

Except me. I was thinking about the Zombies. What if only dogs can see the Zombies? We're all screwed! 

So today, every time I catch the dog sleeping - I'm going to run into the room screaming like a maniac. 

This will do nothing but solidify his opinion that His Man's Woman is completely unhinged and has fallen of her rocker yet again. 

But I bet I find it oddly satisfying. 

Until next time......

Say it ain't so!

RAP photo 'horizon'.

I do declare, it looks as if sidewalks are on the horizon! 

Previously, our street had no sidewalk to the rest of the neighborhood. In order to get through to the park, we have to cross the main road in. When they started the construction, we were hopeful it would include sidewalks. And this week like magic - they appeared!! They don't go any farther than this - but it's a start! 

The KIR picture - 'above the fridge'.

It is home to a basket of rags out of reach of the little bitty, an empty Citrus Lane box & weightless supplements I gave up on. 

We ran some errands and did a little bit of shopping. We found a new bed for Atticus.

He LOVES it. He stayed on it all night. It's the best $15 we've ever spent. I might go back and buy 4 more. 

We also found a utility wagon on sale. The Dada and Alice put it together.

It was quite entertaining.

And when it was all together, Alice got to test it out.

She approves.

Until next time....

With a Sheep - Week 45

Another smile! It's a miracle! ;)

She is moving around a lot better! However, her top teeth have yet to grow in any more. This makes me sad. It doesn't slow her down any - she eats anything she wants to eat! But it would be nice to know there are two more teeth assisting her. 

We've learned some things about each other. Mainly biting and pinching are not learned behavior. They come completely natural. Fun times. 

This time I gave her my measuring tape to play with to keep her distracted. 

She loves Momma's tape measure. :)

She also LOVES her doggy.

I worry about them; Atticus seems to get annoyed with her persistence. But then they will play like this with each other and it makes me happy. My goal is to record her giggling more. It brings me so much joy to hear her giggle. 

Until next time....

Constant Shenanigans

Yesterday we got to spend the day with Nana. I had a check up and she came along to watch Alice. 

After my appointment, we headed over to visit our favorite L&D unit. We also got to visit with cousin Caroline and Cary while they were visiting their little one in the NICU. While we were having a snack and Alice was under the supervision of The Nana, she learned to dance on the table.

Oh my. 

Check out her cute little dress! It's so precious. It makes her look less like a baby and more like a little girl. Thanks, Alesha!

And look how tall she is now!

Such a big girl.

After her bottle last night, she attempted to crawl over her Dada to get to the lamp table. He's convinced she was attempting to dance on it like the Nana showed her. He feels like the Nana might need to be grounded. ;)

However, if Little Miss Sassy Pants doesn't start behaving - she might be grounded before she's 14 months old. 

Today she not only threw her pacifier out of her bed but her socks as well.

And then she brought the Cheerios to the dog! They needed a time out but that didn't stop them from sharing.

Yeesh. The vet isn't going to be happy with us. 

Today's picture challenges weren't that interesting so I thought I'd start off with some cute pictures instead. 

'Pieces' for RAP:

I try not to leave the house without gum. Ever.

And it was 'Bathroom' for the KIR.

This is our guest bathroom that is now hers.

Until next time...

Hanging and some sugar

These are my pretty necklaces waiting patiently for the day when I no longer have a pulling, chewing baby. One day, my friends, one day.......

A friend posted this Keeping it Real photo challenge. I wasn't going to do it, some of the prompts don't apply to us; however, I've decided I don't have enough crazy in my life so why not! 

So here's day one of the Keeping it Real photo challenge! Halloween Sugar.

And I was right! I didn't have to share! With the bad weather and the horrible construction - with all the rain, our very limited street entrance was all washed out - we didn't have any kids come back. (In all honesty, I didn't turn the light on either. We were having a cranky day.) 

We didn't dress up for Halloween. She can't walk, she can't eat candy, she would be absolutely miserable in a costume, she won't remember so we decided not to spend the money or frustration on attempting. And you know what? She didn't care. At all.

See! She had tons of fun getting stuck under the bar stools. And she won't remember that either! 

She's a mess, our girl.

Teeth are DUMB

Dear God,
Dude, seriously. Teething?! I mean, come on. For real. Is this a result of sin? Is this something Eve did?! I know we're made in your likeness and all but there has got to be a better way. Maybe it's worth revisiting, tweaking maybe. Like one day of pain and then BAM! - mouthful of teeth! I could see that working. 
Sincerely,
The Tired Momma

Y'all. Teeth are dumb. D.U.M.B. 

Alice is cutting one new tooth. That's all. ONE! And she was up SCREAMING from 1ish this morning til about 4ish this morning. Screaming. 

And since the baby was up, the dog felt it was time for attention. You can tell when he needs attention because he proceeds to sit and then lay down and then sit and then lay down right in front of you without being told. Over and over again. Until you pet him. Or give him a treat. At 3am. Yeesh. 

We can only handle one needy thing at 3am. Seriously. 

And I'm pretty sure I'm making her a little addict. She hears the teething tablet bottle and opens her mouth expectantly. And she doesn't fight her other pain medicine either. That's probably bad, right?! 

Seriously.

Teeth are dumb.

A Week in Review

We had a short week!

Which meant we had a LONG week.

Let's break down the highlights.

Monday my Beloved got to stay home for Labor Day. But it was less than relaxing. It started out fine! And then things went wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. First, Atticus wanted out; then I hear him barking with intent. I go to check and sure enough, a cat is on the porch. A very skinny, sickly looking cat that apparently has a death wish. All I kept thinking was "of all the porches in all the neighborhood, you had to die on mine." Atticus and said cat proceed to tussle before we can get the dog in the house. In his defense, it was HIS porch and he IS a dog. Daniel checks out the cat and it doesn't look to be freshly hurt. Hurt yes, but not by our dog. So he calls animal control knowing they probably won't send anyone out on a holiday. Sure enough, the poor cat is just going to have to keep dying in our backyard. I spend the next hour bawling over a cat that isn't ours and what a horrible world we live in that people would discard a pet so flippantly. 

We pack up to run an errand. When we return, we have no water. Again. I only discover this after I go to wash my hands after giving Alice some snacks. Again, my Beloved calls the city. By the way, when you call the city on weekends or holidays, you call the police dispatcher. Fun times. She sends out the on call guy to check the water situation. He finally arrives and Daniel heads out to talk to him. It's taking forever so I head out to check. The on call guy is leaning on his water-turn-offer device chatting with my husband. You see, he's having a hard time getting off because his boss is out on paternity leave and his elbow hurts. So he asks Daniel to help him turn the water off. Seriously. Apparently we have a busted pipe somewhere and the water just isn't getting in to the house. Oiy. 

So we pack up our child who is now sporting a pinwheel beard we have no way of cleaning off and head to Nana's. Her TV is magic.

Tuesday,  Daniel heads to the house at the crack of dawn to meet his parents so he and his dad can fix the leak. (This is where I take a break to mention how thankful I am that he has his dad in his life to help with such things. It makes me happy.) They're able to locate and fix the problem pretty quick. Meanwhile, the cat was staggered out of the yard. After the water is fixed and turned back on, Daniel decides to rest before he cleans up. Side story - they're doing construction in our neighborhood. It's a mess. It sucks. It has caused a MASSIVE water leak at the end of our street since the beginning of the long weekend. My Beloved decides to clean up only to discover the water has been turned off again. This time by the city FINALLY fixing the MASSIVE leak. Seriously. 

He decides to call Animal Control to come get the injured cat so they can humanely take care of it. We hate to see things suffer. Well she shows up, takes a look at the cat and asks Daniel if he has a pet carrier she could borrow. Umm.....excuse me?! Apparently she forgot her pet carrier when she got the "go pick up an injured animal" call and had to go back to the office to get it and then come back to get the cat. Had I been present, I might would have caused a scene. I don't do animal control; however, I'm PRETTY SURE the FIRST thing you should pack in your 'Animal Control' marked vehicle is a pet carrier. 

I'm losing faith in our city employees.

I spent all of Wednesday removing items from our child's mouth. A magnet, pages to a book, the computer plug, a Post-it-note pad and a nail file. The nail file caused the biggest fit but luckily she immediately located the baby saline bottle and started chewing on that.

On the upside, Alice and the dog did play nice all day.

Thursday I had a doctors appointment which meant we got to visit with our L&D friends. They love seeing our girl and we love visiting them!

Friday meant the Exterminator was coming so Atticus (who HATES him) and the baby (who is indifferent) got to go to the Post Office with me.  I asked how it went and my Beloved tells me we have Roof Rats. Come again? You might remember our rat dilemma. Well, they went away! We were happy! A few weeks ago we started noticing acorns on the porch. This is odd considering it's screened in. So Daniel points this out to the exterminator who examines the poop and announces we now have Roof Rats. I mean, come on!!!! (Apparently ground rats have round poo and roof rats have pointy poo - now you know.) So the acorns are their snack. Our back porch looks like the floor of a steakhouse meant for rats. 

All this nature is messing with my blood pressure. 

That brings us to today. We got up very early to meet our friend, Libby with Captured Moments to take some family/1st birthday pics. I can't wait to see them! She did SO GOOD!.

Here's a sneak peek from my phone. This picture is mine, don't judge. ;)

Such a cute little mess she is.

And tonight we got to attend a NICU reunion at the Children's Museum. She loved the bubbles!

And now we're going to bed. 

Until next time......

Hopefully things will simmer down.....

Something Covered

Good luck getting past these two! ;)

Our house is a little dark so I like to open the front door to let some light in. It'll get closed when the baby naps or the dog goes berserk. Until in, I like the light. 

Today I caught them both watching. It was too cute.

Something else that gets covered is Little Bitty's face.

This is how she falls asleep. I have to sneak in and uncover her face. Every time.

She's a hot mess.

Until next time.....

Hey Puppy, come see!!!

Hey puppy, come play!

This morning we spent some time on her floor playing. 

She chewed on a Rhino, played with a book and met her stuffed puppy who sings.

Then she spotted her real puppy.

Can you see the panic in his eyes? It's hysterical. 

They spent the next few minutes chasing each other. Sort of. 

She would (swiftly) head towards the dog who would panic and move to the other side of the room.

She would get distracted and he would feel safe. And then she would spot her dog again. (insert giggle)

She'd head his way, he'd head the other way.

It was all very entertaining. VERY!

He eventually panicked and went to the closet. It's his safe place. "Take THAT baby!"

Just wait - she'll find you there too.

We love the show Big Bang Theory. On the show, the character Sheldon will say "what fresh hell is this?!" when faced with a change. And that's exactly what I think Atticus is thinking. (insert another giggle)

This is going to be fun!

Good Morning!

Waking up to this face sure makes for a good morning!

Today she's been more excited about crawling. Yesterday she would only crawl to get to someone so she could be picked up. Today she crawled to explore. 

And today Atticus found out she's mobile.

She was on the floor and spotted him laying next to the gate. She locked eyes and set out! You could see the panic in his face; I wish I'd had the camera ready. (I know, I know "Seriously?! You DIDN'T have the camera?! You take pictures of EVERYTHING!") But it all happened too fast!

She saw him and took off.

He had this face that clearly said "What the *%&&?!? It MOVES now?!"

And then he jumped up and ran to the couch to safety with a look on his face that let me know he completely blames me for this. 

And I laughed. A lot. 

Oh Atticus - it's only going to get worse, my friend. It's only going to get worse.

We had lunch plans but they fell through so we got to have lunch with the Dada instead.

It is so nice being so close to him. 

She's now sleeping off a fit. I'm pretty sure she's teething something fierce and now she refuses a bottle. It's lovely. But not really. 

Until next time...

D is for.....

DOG!


Duh!

They have a new game. They sit close to each other and she tries to touch his paws and he tries to lick her face. It's hysterical to watch. I'll try to get video of it. She's pushing his face away and he's pulling his paws away. Nobody wins. 

Atticus has also started to leave his bone on her play mat. I take it off but he just brings it back. The other day she wiggled to it. She still isn't crawling - we've entered the "I can't crawl and it's making me RAGEY!" phase. Good times. She got to the bone and I said "Alice! No!" which made her stop, look at me and then smile as she lunged for the bone. Seriously. We're in big trouble.

I got up and threw the bone which made Atticus think this was a fun game and proceeded to bring it right back to her. And the fun game started all over again. 

It's a sad, sad game. ;)

Until next time....

His Noise Maker

Atticus loves our girl.

At first he didn't care for her little squeals but he got used to it.

Then he had to learn to like her constant jabbering and occasional yelling (mostly directed at him when he's not listening to her).

Now he's adjusting to the fact she can get to him and reach for him and grab him. 

And he loves that she's eating yummy chewy things that she has no problem handing to him! When she runs out, he looks at me as if to say "yeah, we're out so we're going to need for you to take care of that." 

But now. Now THIS.

"But that's MY tub."

Alice is way too mobile to be bathed at the sink and has been moved to the big bathtub. HIS bathtub. 

He's adjusting. ;)

Edible

She seems to think so.

She's been eating like a champ! Unless she's not in the mood - then there's a scene. A very loud scene.

She's discovered her "PICK ME UP! I'M BEING TORTURED!!" scream. It's loud. Very loud. And uncalled for but she's unreasonable and insolent and will hear none of this. Fun times.

I've started giving her Puffs to eat so she can practice picking small items up. So far she's unsure about them. Atticus on the other hand has figured them out pretty quick.

She takes a bite and then offers it to him. I'm not sure where she learned this; she just KNOWS. And he's not complaining! Now when Alice eats, he sits right next to her. 

These two are going to be nothing but trouble.

Until next time....

From Above

These two. :)

Atticus has been so good with her. Even when he gets close, he seems to be very careful of where he puts his feet. He loves to smell her and lick her. Now when she screams - he loves to leave the room. We all would love to leave the room. Baby Girl has some lungs!

And she LOVES him too. He walks in to sight and she giggles. It brings her joy to have him lick her. Silly baby. Now that she's better at grabbing things, it's sweet to watch her reach for him. 

We still have concerns and we're still very observant when the two are on the floor together. But I'm relieved and elated to see them together. 

Until next time....

An Animal

Her dog. 

Watching them chat with each other brings me joy. 

We had a bad storm come through yesterday and blew the cover off our fireplace. And now we have a chirping fireplace. 

This doesn't impress the dog.

Between the chirping fireplace, the rats currently living under the porch and the children next door who think jumping from the roof to the pool is the smart thing to do - I'm going to have to medicate the dog. 

Yeesh.

Environment

We don't run a day care - we just have a very active Little Bitty who requires rotating around to keep her entertained. Yeesh.

I snapped this picture yesterday of Atticus and his baby.

It's super sweet how they seem to love each other. 

My Beloved saw the picture and had a mild fit - "you let him lick her face?!"

Yep. It makes her laugh! If it makes her laugh - it can't be too bad for her. Right?! ;)

Until next time....