Skinny Minnie

Once again, this post has nothing to do with me...

Yesterday, Butters had her check up with the vet. Six months ago, we were told she needed to go on diet food and our breeder called her chub-a-lub. We did not get her diet food but cut her meals in half (recommended by our breeder) and tried our best to stop feeding her from the table. At that time she weighed in at 89 pounds!

I am happy to report that yesterday she weighed in at 74 pounds, a 15 pound difference!  Wow! The vet and her breeder still want her to lose a 3-5 more pounds, but with Liam throwing his food on the floor and Evan still sneaking her some bites off his plate, well we'll just have to see how that goes.

In other Butters news, I really feel bad for the girl sometimes. I mean don't get me wrong, laying around all day (on the couch), sleeping, eating and playing with Evan and I are her high points. Not a bad life. But recently, Liam has really been going after her. He is so in love with that dog and just wants to show her how much, that Butters can't seem to catch a break.

Liam will constantly point to Butters, "dog dog, woof, woof" until we let him go to her. He then will "pet" her, give her hugs, pull her ears, climb over the top of her and most recently he likes to lay over her front paws under her head.

The look on Liam's face is pure love and adoration.

The look on Butters face is pure fear of what he might do next.

This has resulted in Butters trying to hide from Liam. On top of our bed is an excellent hiding spot as Liam can in no way reach her. She still hasn't found that hiding spot downstairs but under the dining room table can sometimes be sufficient enough. Of course if Liam is extremely persistent (as he usually is) climbing under chairs to get to his dog creates fun obstacles.

If we ask Liam to get a toy he immediately will get one of Butters toys and reach it out to her. He really likes "throwing" her toys to her and than when she doesn't retrieve it, he likes to go get it for her again.

Hopefully one day Butters will have as much love for Liam as he has for her.

Getting fat

Well this post could be about me but of course it's about Liam.

At Liam's one year wellness visit he weighed 17 pounds and 13 ounces.

Last week during his checkup where we discovered he has an ear infection, he weighed in at 18 pounds and 11 ounces.

That's almost a pound in one month. It usually takes Liam 3 months to gain a pound. It's a miracle.

Once again the doctor is not worried about our skinny little guy. He says he is following his own curve nicely and as Evan and myself our skinny (his words) genetics are obviously playing a role in his development.

I did learn this past weekend at my Grandma's 90th birthday party that skinny babies apparently run in the family. Grandma's baby book was on display along with photos and my Great-Grandmother had documented Grandma's growth through her first year.

Grandma Davidson's weight at one year? 17 1/2 pounds. Yep, I'd say it's definitely in the genes.

Bad Mom

What is the saying??? When one is sick everybody else in the house gets sick too? No, I don't think that's right. But that's exactly what has happened in the Walles house.

Liam has been sick for probably 2 1/2 weeks now. He's currently on antibiotics for an ear infection so we're hoping that the cold will go away as well. Of course, now Evan and I are also sick. Definitely a cold with lots of sinus congestion for me and when Evan came home from work today he said he felt lightheaded at work and possibly nauseous. Fantastic...

Maybe the worst part is for these past 2 1/2 weeks when Liam was being extra fussy, not cooperating while I was trying to wipe his nose and I thought he was being over the top drama; I now realize how he was feeling. Just crappy. Good job mom, your son was legitimately not feeling well and you just thought he had a little cold.

Good news is that we did take him to the doctor last week, he now has medicine to help him feel better and his two parents are now sympathetic to his illness.

We'll try to do better next time.

Video: Playing with Butters

This was back in late summer I believe but one of my favorites. Enjoy!

For Aunt Adriane: I finally figured out how to upload videos!!!  Liam's first steps taken a few weeks ago. I apologize for the poor quality, tell Evan he needs to buy me a new camera.

Being sick=learning new things

Liam has a cold...again.

Seems to me that this kid gets sick a lot. Could be from his daycare or chewing on the dog toys lying around the house but it is annoying to say the least.

Running nose, dry cough, waking up in the middle of the night (sometimes repeatedly) and the dreaded nose bulb aka "nose sucker" around these parts. Liam of course hates the nose sucker and usually screams the whole time we have to use it. I can't say I blame him.

Yesterday I decided that maybe Liam could learn how to blow his nose. He is extremely good at repeating most things that we do with animal noises and dancing. So why not blowing his nose as well? Sure enough he caught on right away. I think he has even figured out that if he keeps blowing his nose the "nose sucker" gets put away. What a smart kid!

This may be the best thing I have ever taught my son. Besides sleeping through the night, feeding himself and telling us what the monkey says.

A Stroll in February

Due to the extremely lovely weather we have been having, Liam, Butters and myself went on a walk the other day.

For those of you who do not know my dog and have not seen her in action while "walking" it can be a rather funny sight. While it is true that she may think she is walking she is actually lunging forward, stopping to smell God knows what, and than sprinting forward again. I'm sure hilarious to any person glancing our direction, but extremely frustrating to the person walking her.

You may think to yourself, didn't Butters go to obedience school? This is a question that Evan and I ask ourselves daily. (Did we dream that?) Yes, Butters most definitely went to many obedience classes and passed almost all of them. (Puppy, Beginner, and Intermediate we graduated but Advanced we were asked to take again)

However, I decided to test her and see if she could handle walking next to the stroller and prayed that we would not see any of the following:

1. another dog
2. a squirrel, rabbit, bird, duck or any other possible animal
3. a bicycle
4. actually anything with wheels including but not limited to rollerblades, skateboard or again a bicycle
5. another human being

You see the odds were very much against us and there were some obstacles during our 30 minute walk. Thankfully we did not see another dog or animal on our walk. There was a bicycle but the stroller was blocking her view. We did run into a jogging group of 3, but we saw them coming from a mile away and I drove the stroller and Butters into a grassy area where I put the stroller brakes on and then preceded to brace myself for any type of "lab greeting."

This can include but is not limited to a fierce wagging of the tail followed by trying to crawl to her new found friend where she will crouch down in front of her "friend" so they will pet her. Now that she has them fooled into thinking she is a nice dog, she will jump up to lick their face or to get their clothes muddy.

Yes it was risky to go on a walk without Evan. But I only threatened Butters 35 times; that could be considered a success.