Sweet Sleep

I know I've been slacking on the blogging front, but I have been completely exhausted and on the verge of a breakdown. With a sick baby and then being sick myself, we have gotten little to no sleep for almost a month now. We started Belle on another round of antibiotics last Wednesday and she finally started sleeping through the night again on Saturday and the poor little girl must have been just as exhausted as us because she slept from 8pm until Nick woke her up at 10:30am! Finally we are all starting to feel a little bit rested and relaxed again. Let's hope this trend continues! :)

Quick update on the new room at Daycare - Isabelle absolutely LOVES it!!! She doesn't cry when we leave in the mornings anymore. In fact, she usually tries to get out of our arms when we walk in the door so she can run to her room. Trevor, Autumn and Belle are such good buddies! I just LOVE seeing them together! Trevor has this huge grin and giggle when she walks in the room and Autumn ran over and gave her a hug this morning! It's just the sweetest thing. And she loves her new teachers! She runs to them in the mornings and works her way right into one of their laps - she's very good at that! Today when I picked her up, she cried because she didn't want to LEAVE! That's a first! But I am so much happier with our new teachers. They are much more attentive and fill us in on what's going on throughout the day, and when Belle has a diaper rash, they let us know or if she hasn't been eating much, or if she's been grumpy or clingy or just unlike herself, they NOTICE and let us know... It's very refreshing!

We started our training with Bark Busters on the 16th. It went pretty well. We have been working with both the dogs on the techniques that he taught us and we are doing okay. I have already started seeing some changes in Elwood's absurd behavior. We don't have another session until the 4th, so until then, we are just supposed to keep working with him for 15-20 minutes per day. I am not being so great at doing my part, but I am trying! I hope we can keep it going and get to a manageable state with this monster! :)

That's it for me for now. I am going to go try to get a third full night of sleep!!! Wish me luck! :)

Just stuff

Haven't posted in a while so I just thought I'd update on a few things that have happened lately...
Belle news - since December 17th, Belle has gotten 5 new teeth in and is really working hard on her final 1 year molar which means not much sleep for any of us and a whole lot of Tylenol and teething tablets! She also has a serious case of the sniffles and a cough that just sounds terrible. She will be going to the doctor tomorrow because she either has an ear infection or has developed a new habit of smacking herself in the head... Either way - it might be something that the doctor should check out! :) We also got notification yesterday that she will be moving to a Toddler room on Monday. At first I was a little upset because I thought that she would be separated from her buddy Trevor (because he's not walking yet, so I didn't think that he would be moving). But I found out today that she will be moving to this new room along with Trevor AND Autumn. So the three of them will be staying together, which is wonderful! :) And, technically, it's not a "Toddler" room (that would mean rate reduction) but just a bigger room for the three of them. I definitely think this will be a good thing because when I went to pick Belle up last week, she was walking around the room and about stepped on a new baby about 3 times - so they will have more room to play in the new room with more age appropriate toys. They will also be having circle time and will be learning shapes, colors and songs. It is going to be wonderful to see these three grow up and learn together! :)

Along with all her good stuff - our little girl has a mind of her own and is one seriously independent little lady!!! She has decided lately that she wants nothing to do with getting her diaper changed and has learned the fine art of the temper tantrum. She will throw herself on the floor and cry when she doesn't get her way - which I think is really kind of funny and it makes her even more angry when I laugh at her... Hopefully that will keep her from doing this later on - and please note as hard as it is, we DON'T GIVE IN to the tantrums!!! Yeah, we'll see how that goes when it happens in the grocery store... She has also recently taken to telling US when it's bedtime. Around her normal bedtime - or before - she decides she's tired, drops her toys, says "night night" and heads up the stairs... She has also started telling me "mama, night night, bath". It's really too cute and most of the time it really goes well... sometimes, she suddenly decides that she doesn't REALLY want to go to bed and then we are all up half the night... But this is one trend that I hope sticks around!

Jen news - I found out last week that I passed my Professional Engineering exam... which means that technically, I can now sign and seal plans (and also be liable for anything that is wrong on them). This being said, I have been holding back on telling this news to the President at our company. However, today, I went to talk to her about some other things and asked her "so, if I were to pass my PE, would I be expected to sign and seal plans right away?" And when she said "No! That's what we have senior associates for." I said "in that case, I passed my PE!" She was super excited and it was really nice to actually be able to share my news. But I did talk to her a little bit more about not being ready to sign and seal stuff yet and she was okay with that. I think that's it for me.

Well, tomorrow, I have to get up early to take the monsters to daycare so I can get to work early since I have to leave early to take Belle to the doctor... I was also so excited to have lunch with KP and Grant tomorrow and I had to cancel because I have a meeting at 10 that will probably end up going waaaaaaaaay more than 1 hour... :( So sad! But, hopefully we can reschedule for next week and if not, at the very least, we are having a girls day next Saturday and I sooooo cannot wait! I am in desperate need of soem pampering and girl time...

Round Two

Well, we just signed Elwood up for dog training... Round Two. He decided he was going to start barging through the gate to start trying to bite other owners when they come to pick up their dogs at daycare and we decided that was enough. The place I found, Bark Busters, is an international company and has a lifetime garentee on their training, including new behaviors that may arise later. They will also move WITH us... So, when we move back to Michigan, they will assign us to a new trainer in our new area, free of charge. The best part - it is actually CHEAPER than the on-leash training we did in Michigan (which, btw, was scheduled for a 2 week program and ended up being 7...) They do all in-home training and will go other places with you if you frequent other places (like dog parks, down town for walks, etc). They don't do any training with human stuff (like clickers, choke collars, treats, etc), so it should be VERY interesting. The only way we were ever able to get him to react to anything, even after the previous training, was with a prong collar. I am so excited about this training - I really hope it works!!! I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to, one day, be able to finally leave him out of his kennel for the day without him tearing everything apart or having a serious anxiety attack.

So, we begin training on the 16th! Wish us luck! Our homework between now and then is to make a training "wish list". Here's what I have so far...

1. Stop aggressive behavior (toward people and other dogs)
2. Stop jumping on people
3. Stop unneccessary barking
4. Keep off furniture
5. Keep from begging/jumping on counters for food
6. Control anxiety
7. Being able to go for walks without pulling
8. Stop whining

And my ultimate goal from all this:

Be able to leave him out of his kennel so he can be a happier dog. :)

Wish us luck!