We've got a crawler!

It's official. We've got a mover and a shaker. That's right, McKenna is on-the-go!

Now this video is VERY poor quality.... but of course I have to share because it is legit her first time crawling. She even adds in one of her other newest tricks which is waving.

 

It happened Sunday. All day she was getting up on her knees, weeble-wobbling, falling to her belly, and trying to slither. She was "mobile" but only by inadvertent scooting.  In the first video she was crawling straight to Chief Osceola. In the next video where she's really getting the hang of it she had the dog bowl in her site. Let's just say the dog bowls were moved yet again.

I think the BEST part of this milestone is that Daddy was home! It was pretty damn awesome it when Kevin was able to see it, because this is one of those "big" milestones.  This Baby is officially mobile, and I guess it's about time to actually start babyproofing!

Chief Osceola's Night Out.

I don't even like posting this story, but need a place to let it out.

We had quite a disturbing experience two mornings ago when McKenna woke us up at 5am to nurse. I think this was one of those wake-up calls that, Wow, we really have been neglecting our poor boys (and for those that don't know me, I don't actually mean neglect, I mean not treating them like the babies we did before our, well, baby).

Normally when it's early in the morning Chief Osceola is raring and ready to go for the day when the rest of us have plans to go back to bed.  On my way to McKenna's Nursery I noticed that he wasn't tagging along, or anticipating my arrival as I moved through the house. I was thinking, "aww that's sweet, he must be sleeping in McKenna's room" even though he's not allowed in there. Nope. So I kinda did a more thorough search while holding McKenna, to no avail.

At this point I check places I already knew he wouldn't be, like the guest bedroom or closets, so I woke Kevin up in a bit of a panic. We both started doing the panicked hurry running around the house. Kevin, with his distinctive tone "where's my dog?" (because Chief Osceola is still his puppy to him... it's alright, Chief is still my puppy to me). Chief Osceola suffers from sporadic seizures, so that panicked feeling is all too familiar.

Kevin started to open the blinds to go out on the back porch as I went out the front door. Lo and behold, I didn't even have the screen door opened for a millisecond when I was consumed by a cold, wet golden retriever. The four of us (Me, Kevin, Chief, & Chief Osceola) rolled around for a few minutes on the front rug in a frenzy.

How could we let this happen?!! How could we be such awful parents? Chief Osceola has a tendency to think that when a door opens, it's his opportunity to frolic and play in the yard. But our dogs never stay out without us. And we don't have a fence. Kevin and I were having a disagreement when he opened the garage and took the trash out around 9PM. This was the only and last opportunity for Chief Osceola to slide out. In the tension filled house, we both were in bed, backs facing one another, and sleeping before 10PM. There's no excuse, though. How did we not do a headcount? Chief Osceola's movement is always so prominent.

The sprinklers had been on so he was soaked. Kevin later noticed that there were muddy paw prints at Every. Single. Car. Door, even the car he's never ridden in... that was the dagger. If you know Chief Osceola's personality, he can be pretty intense, overly-excited, and happy. He gets fixated on something and won't forget about it. He also doesn't like being away from people. [Think: Stewie from Family Guy].




So we know good and well he spent the entire EIGHT hours outside trying to get back in. I can tell you one thing for sure, he wasn't laying down when I opened the front screen door.

I felt angry with Black Chief.  He's so intuitive, he always lets us know when something is wrong or off. I spent a little while that morning crying, wondering how we've gotten to the point where our Fur Babies have become Dogs. It's made me sad, but has also brought me to the realization that we need to spend more time loving on them. They were our babies before we even met! I can't fathom how we did it. We were so selfish and too preoccupied with ourselves our poor pup suffered.  Let me tell you he has been given some love the last couple of days.

Let's let on a positive note.... a girl with her puppy.

McKenna and her pups

The boys are really starting to enjoy McKenna more and more.  I anticipated they would warm up as she got more responsive, especially now that she coos and squeals and smiles when they come around.  They also get excited when she wakes up in the morning.

I think they have an unspoken competition as to who gets the coveted position in her room next to her play mat.  It's typically Chief Osceola (aka Boogs, the Golden Retriever) because he always wants to be a part of anything that's going on. Whatever room we're in, he's in. Whatever we're doing, he wants to be a part of it.

But he feels left out when Chief (aka Black Bear, the black lab) snags the spot.  He usually does it just to be close.

It's funny sometimes Chief seems to almost intentionally block the doorway to her room. Boogs will be pacing outside the door with no way to get in. Chief rarely hogs the attention, so when he does it he gets a lot of lovin'.

Just yesterday McKenna was reaching out to touch Boogs. She got a few firm grips of his fur and ears, and he just sat staring at me as if he knew he was just supposed to sit there and allow it to happen. Of course though, Boogs still acts like a puppy most of the time so it didn't last long.  After a couple of minutes he was bouncing around wanting to cover her in kisses and nibble on her little hands. 

It's so fun to watch their relationship develop. I can't wait until they can actually start playing with one another.

Chief Osceola's 6th Birthday!

Little Man's 6th birthday was Sunday and unfortunately a rather uneventful day. Typically we get them Mickey-Dee's ice cream cones and sing Happy Birthday, but we ran out of time. This was his last birthday as the Baby of the family.  To boot, the poor guy got his vaccinations on his birthday!

 

But I did throw together a birthday crown for him to wear, inspired by Little Blue Olive. I use the word "inspired" very loosely because I literally stapled this crown together, while LBO's little celebration crowns are hand sewn, one-of-a-kind art pieces.

 

Amusingly, this disposable crown will likely be used for Chief and Chief Osceola's birthdays from here on out!

 

I wanted to share a few pictures of our handsome man on his Big Day!

 

Jealous big brother, Chief.

 

I love this one because of how little Black Bear cares about what's going on in the background.

 

 

 

Happy 6th Birthday to our [current] Baby! We love you, Booger Bear!