Puppy Blues

I was so surprised...That I'm not surprised...Just, raising a dog is annoying.

This adorable, little dude's name is Clover.

Well, friends, it's been a while since I've written anything for you, and I know you're all just weeping knowing life is going on over here and you don't know about it. And I'm sorry for making you cry. I just have...really not been busy enough to use it as an excuse. I'm lazy. Sorry.

Anyway, since I last posted, we've gotten our house, FINALLY gotten our furniture (after 3 weeks of waiting, calling and accidentally frustrated-crying at the guy and getting us a $50 gift card for our troubles). Oh, and we got a puppy.

As you can see, he's just adorable. He likes playing in the snow or grass (but snow's better), snuggling, new people and dogs, chewing things (especially paper and mom's...ahem, delicates), playing with/chewing on the cat, piña coladas, gettin' caught in the rain, and sneakily peeing on the carpet.

But look how cute I am, Mom!

Yes, a couple of those are just not very fun. We crate-trained him while we were still staying at the Fort Drum Inn (Sorry, neighbors!), so he's become really good at even just walking into his crate when we tell him, most of the time. Especially now that we've upgraded him to sleeping in our room at night and being crated just generally in the laundry room while we're gone. He does great with that, sleeping through the night and not peeing until Russ gets up and takes him out most days, and never peeing or pooping in the laundry room. He listens very well when we tell him "no," or just call his name. And he generally stops the behaviors we scold him for.

Damn these sweet animals.

However, we've hit what I'm deeming the terrible twos, because, despite having been almost fully potty trained, he's resorted lately to peeing on the carpet again. Ugh.

 The worst part is not disciplining him, because Russell and I are really good at being consistent. The problem comes when he just looks up at me. You see that face--he's so charming! And it's even harder to be mad at him when he comes scampering in from outside, snow all around his snout because he's weird and loves to sniff it. If I had a picture of it, I would show you, because it's so cute, but I don't.

Oh, and, he has vivid dreams all the time. It's hilarious.

The dog's kind of obnoxious. But he is very well-behaved, for the most part, and he's stolen my heart.