Happy 3 Months Little Waffles

Wow... so THIS is the feeling that parents have that compels them to take monthly pictures. Never in a million years did I think I'd be THAT kind of mom, but here I am, trying to keep up with all her milestones on a monthly basis. Geezus...  I barely recognize this person!

She went in for her 12 week shots yesterday and everything came out clean! She is as healthy as a horse. Her ear infection is gone, her teeth are clean and growing, getting little taller, and she gained a solid pound and a half around her ass. She's now at 6.6 lbs!

Just look at her! Can someone please invent a potion to freeze them at their puppy stage?? This is her furmomma talking so I may be a little biased, but my dog is crazy, stupid cute. You'd be out of your mind if you disagreed. She gets love EVERYWHERE she goes! I've had people on many occasions stop in their tracks, turn around, come back and give her some love. Another girl seriously almost cried after seeing Waffles at Target. She got red faced and teary eyed from all her cuteness. A little creepy if you ask me, but I'll take it as a compliment! :P

She also got evaluated from a doggy trainer and she is a very emotionally stable and happy pup. But even better than that, I got news that every parent, fur or human momma, wants to hear: she is gifted. Too smart for her own good. She could be eating rocks for 2 different reasons: malnutrition or boredom. Since I'm feeding her the best of the best out there in the food department, that was immediately ruled out. So it's boredom. Judging by how fast she was able to figure out multiple puzzle feeders, it's been determined that she's a brilliant dog. And add beautiful that?? The boy and I couldn't be more proud of our Waffles. Our only hope is that we can keep her stimulated enough to maximize her puppy brain potential. :)

First 2 Weeks Home

Wow... Has it already been 2 weeks since Waffles has been home with us?? It's been a crazy whirlwind of different emotions throughout this puppy mommahood journey. The first week I was a complete wreck. I was waking up twice a night to take her out to pee, then waking up to go to work. For those of you that don't know me, I LOVE my sleep. I love it like a fat kid loves cake! I'm a hot mess without it. My poor kids at work probably felt the brunt of that. Thankfully it was only 3 days of grumpy teacher. :P

Which leads me to the next point.

Thank GOD for the boy. If he wasn't around to help watch her while I was at work, it would have only intensified the stress levels by 10967 fold. He helped entertain her, helped potty train her, and best of all, loved her with his whole being. He set the strong foundation of trust and respect in the crucial first few days. I truly couldn't have survived without him. I'm willing to be a hundred bucks that Waffles feels the same way too. :)

I'll be real with you guys and put it out there and say the first couple of days without the boy were absolutely miserable. I wanted to DIE. Giving her back was definitely an option for me. Not only was I backlogged in sleep, but I learned fast that she was an absolute terror. She constantly ate rocks, she ate EVERYTHING in sight, it took her forever to do her business, and her puppy urges to play were out of this world! Hot damn! I was ready to give her back! I definitely questioned my ability to handle her and be her pack leader. At my most desperate moments, I even went as far as calling dog trainers to get some professional help. There was one named Steve who I will write a separate post on, but he was a godsend. Because of him, I was able to survive my first week and truly enjoy week 2 of puppy mommahood. I got a better handle on her by learning her behaviors, her habits, and signals. Now, her and I are inseparable and I can't get enough of her!!

Some things that makes Waffles, well... Waffles. This is her in a nutshell.

Her Loves:

• Sleep - this girl loves her sleep. I believe that your pet is a reflection of you, and this one matches to the tee. After some fun play time with momma or dadda, she sleeps for a glorious 2-3 hours. It's absolutely heavenly. I've also learned that when your puppy sleeps, it is absolutely mandatory that you take advantage and sleep as well.

• Bull's Penis - Yes, you heard that correctly. Our little girl loves to chew on a bull's penis. It's her wooby and she carries it everywhere she goes! Her first day of discovering this delicious piece of meat, she actually debated whether to drink water or put down the bull's penis. You get one guess who won that one.

Her happy place. She only brings toys that she absolutely cherishes here. She loves digging it in the crevices of the cushions so nobody can steal it.

Will take it in her crate too to help her fall asleep.

• Tennis Balls and Alligator - She can play fetch for HOURS if her puppy parents had the energy for it. She also loves playing tug a war with her alligator friend. 

• Rocks - Oh. My. God. Does she love rocks. She loves to go hunting for them and will eat them any chance she gets! It drives me bonkers!!

• Water bottles - It's magic what a cheap water bottle can do for her. We spent so much money on buying her fun toys, and then we find out that all she really needs is a watter bottle! Wth?! She loves the crunching sound it makes and loves chasing it around on the floor. It's endless entertainment for her which means guilt free TV time for momma and dadda! :P

Her Hates:

• Camera - I loooove taking pictures of everyone and everything. If there's one thing you can count on me doing right, it's to take a million pictures of everything. So you can imagine how sad it made me to find out that she's not a fan. Right when I take the camera out, she looks away, up, down, left, right, anywhere but at the camera! It's a win for the day if I can get a good one of her looking. See what I mean??

Neener Momma. You can't get me to look!

• Digging for anything in her mouth - Wow... it's a battle on a daily basis between her and I. Her mouth is like a treasure chest. You can never know what goodies you're gonna find in there. And this little rascal will fight to the death to keep it in there. I've found things like pebbles, plastic tags, feathers, torn paper, plastic everything... And the crappy thing is is that she KNOWS when she has something bad in her mouth. She will get on her belly, keep her head down with her devious puppy eyes looking right at me calculating how long it's gonna take for me to take notice. She's too smart for her own good!

• Reflections in Mirrors - It's hilarious watching her look at herself in the mirror. She will paw at it and bark at it and eventually run away.

She Can:

• Sit - Two afternoons and a gazillion treats later, she learned how to sit. Right now, she can do it when she sees a treat or when she wants to be held, but anything other than that, she refuses to be my monkey. Damn it Waffles! What good are you if I can't be entertained on demand?? I've failed as a teacher with an extrinsicly motivated fur baby.

• Sohn - So I'm trying to teach her to be bilingual. I say "sohn," which means hand in Korean, and she gives me her sweet little paws! The boy didn't believe me, but we showed him!

• Do Her Business - She's been pretty good about going to the bathroom outside. We will only have about 2 accidents a day, which isn't bad at all! However, we've been her chauffeur and have been taxiing it to her pee spot. We now need to try to figure out how to teach her to tell us she needs to go. It's gonna be hard! 

• Sleep Through the Night - This was HUGE for me! I wanted to punch myself in the face twice a night when I woke up to take her outside for potty time. Thankfully after about 3 days, she's been able to sleep through the night without any accidents. She'll wake me up at about 7 AM, but will sometimes be very generous and will let me sleep in until 8!

Her Personality:

• Social Butterfly: If I had to use one word to describe her, it'd be hands down, sociable. She LOVES meeting new people. She gets excited and pees all over herself when she hears the door bell rings cuz she knows that only means one thing: GUESTS!! She has zero problems going up to people and wag her happy tail for some love! Unfortunately, I only have 1 picture with her and a friend. So far she's met neighbors, my family, the boy's mom, and friends. Researchers say that a puppy needs to meet about 100 people before she reaches 3 months to help build her socialization skills, so I'm happy to report that we're well on our way!

• Curious: She is such a curious little puppy. She loves playing explorer and sometimes sits quietly to hear what's going on around her. I always wonder what goes on in that developing brain of hers when she's in her thinking mode.

Hi neighbors!

• Sweet and Loving: Waffles is the epitome of a cuddlebug. She loves being scratched, played with, being held, and gives a million kisses to your face at every opportunity!

Waffles, some days are a serious struggle, but for the most part, your dadda and I love your sweet face! You've got so much spunk and personality in you that we hope you never lose. You're getting so big already so we're trying to soak up and embrace every puppy moment we can! :)

How can you not love this sweet face?!

Introducing Waffles!!

Everyone, meet the newest edition of our family, Waffles!

How friggen cute is she?! We can't believe she's ours!!

The timing of the announcement couldn't have been more perfect. We had plans go visit the puppies this past weekend, so knowing which one we were going to get made the bonding experience so much more valuable. Giving her a name and calling her by it also gave us a more permanent feeling that she was ours! It was definitely a different feeling when I held her, cooed at her, and played with her this time around.

When we last visited Waffles, Eva mentioned that she was a bit more active than the rest of the litter, but because they were still so young, the activity level and personalities of the other pups are still unpredictable. Well, this time around, you could definitely tell a difference! Waffles was a little shy and timid for the first 5 minutes of meeting the boy and I, but afterwards, it was game over. She was running around in circles and even peed in excitement! She is definitely more fearless than the rest of her brothers and sisters too. While her brother and sister were hanging out with us, Waffles had no problem exploring and going up to Cooper, Eva's much bigger cavapoo, and bite his tail to play. She also had no qualms of going up to Carme, Eva's poodle, who doesn't like puppies at all. She sat there showing her teeth, but Waffles was "la la la! Let's play!" The boy thinks we're a match a made in heaven. :P

And the booty on this girl!! She was last to be born, but was somehow the biggest. Which is strange because even in human babies, the bigger one usually comes out first. I guess even in the womb, she played alpha and shoved the others out first. Haha!

Can you guess which one is Waffles??

Her butt is HUGE compared to her face; about two of her faces! It was hilarious seeing her sit and watching her a$$ expanding 2 fold. She couldn't sit still long enough for us to capture it on film, but you will see soon enough! The boy loves that his two girls have huge Michelin tire a$$es. :P

I'll stop gushing about our new baby girl and just post pics now.

Momma loves you!!!

I just want to eat her face!!

All her brothers and sister: L to R - Waffles, Henry, No Name,  Monty

Waffles squirming, "Let me outta here lady!! I want to go play!"

One of our favorite photos of the day.

Puppy in a bowl! What Eva uses to weigh the pups. Waffles is a whopping 3 lbs. 3 oz.

Our first family portrait!

We love you, Waffles!! We can't wait to bring you home so we can shower you with lotsa love and kisses!! :D

Groundbreaking News

We were just notified by Eva that the puppies are all spoken for and I am getting the

......

......

......

...... red girl! YES!!!! I had my eyes on her the whole time!! SOOOO excited!!!! How the boy and I feel right about now:

 Puppy parenthood has just become that much more real.... Nesting time!

Proud Momma <3

Spring is in the Air

When I imagine spring, I see new blooms, pink and white blossoms on trees, fresh grass, green mountains, and best of all, baby animals! The boy and I were updated with new puppy pics from Eva, and it was the epitome of spring!! The pups were propped inside a bed of flowers which made the girls even more cute! How is that possible?! I just want to eat them!!! But then this picture reminds me not to... :P

Without further adieu, here are the princesses of the hour:

Red Girl, 4.5 weeks old, 2 lbs. 12 oz.

Ok mommy... I'm done taking pictures now!

You get one more. This is the last one!

Sable Girl, 4.5 weeks old, 2 lbs 2 oz.

The boy and I miss them to tears, so we will be making another trip to visit them this weekend! Wooty woot!!

**All pictures courtesy of Eva from Cee Cee's Puppy Palace.

Meet and Greet with the Pups!

After our Sonoma trip (I'll post more on that later!), the boy and I made the 3-hour trek to Reedley to meet the littles for the first time. We were both so giddy with joy! We couldn't wait to hold them and play with them and kiss them and cuddle them! Easy there, Lennie....

A bag of peppered beef jerky and corn nuts later, we made it! The momma was definitely on guard and barking at the new comers, but after letting her sniff us and giving her some scratches, the momma let Eva take out her pups so we can hold them. Oh. my. god. We just about died from all the soft fuzzy nuzzlers! They were friggen PRECIOUS!!!! If there's really a heaven, this is what it would be - spending my afterlife cuddling with puppies all the live long day. Puppies, puppies, PUPPIES!

Capturing a Kodak moment :P

It was all I could do to not put one in my pocket and walk out. If one goes missing, it wasn't us, Eva! :P We canNOT wait to bring one home! We have our eye one one of the two pups you see there, but we still have to wait for the lady in front of me to decide. It's going to be a rough couple of weeks of just waiting. We miss miss them already!!

2 Weeks Old!! :)

Just a quick update on the little pup's growing progress:

They are now a little over 2 weeks old! Their eyes are open and ears are detached. :) They're momma is feeding all her babies lots and lots of yums to make sure they are fat and chubby! In fact, so chubby that their cute blub is taking over their eyes! It actually kind of reminds me of a certain special someone when he was just born! Shall we do a side by side comparison?? 

Mmmmhmmm... The resemblance is uncanny. Who says puppies can't look like their human daddies??

I haven't heard many updates on their activity level, but I'd imagine that in the next couple of weeks, they'll be crawling around and exploring their new world in no time! They're exactly like human babies - nothing but blobs the first couple of months (weeks in doggy years) where they do nothing but eat, sleep, poop, rinse and repeat all the live long day. I can't wait to see their personalities shine while they run around wreaking havoc everywhere they go!

Here they are now - fat, chubby, and just cute as a button! I could just eat them!! 

Chocolate and tan boy. Lookin' quite gangsta here!

Red girl. Little sleepykins wondering, "Is the photo shoot done yet??"

Sable girl. She does not look happy. She wants to nuzzle next to momma right now! 

Just 4 more days till I see them!