Colin and the Grape

"Ball, I love you!" "Where Ball?" "BALL! I love you."

My Adorable Colin being...well...Adorable.

Journie was performing a "ribbon dancing" show and this is what Colin was doing in the background. Unfortunately, he stole the show!

Colin Calls the Shots

Since we got our new puppy, I have read a few books about puppy parenting and many, many, many, articles online. A frequent theme is that dogs are pack animals and they need to know their place in the hierarchy of their pack. In order to have a well behaved dog, he or she must be at the lowest rank so she will respect all family members. Size is not important in establishing this pecking order it's mostly about attitude. Pack leaders are calm and confident. They command respect from the dog by the way they act. Today I saw proof that this is true. 

At night when I take Savannah for a long walk, trying to tire her out so she will sleep, I carry Colin in my mei tai carrier on my back. The other day as we were walking, Savannah kept running out in front of me so I would keep stopping, command her to "Sit" then we would move on. After doing this a few times I noticed Colin started saying "Sit" as well. (His sounds more like "dit".) Ever since he has taken to following the puppy around saying, "Sit".

The puppy has a nasty habit of barking, growling, chasing, and snapping at my kids whenever they make a quick appearance, coming out of their room in the morning or coming in from outside. It is driving me crazy so if anyone has any suggestions for getting it to stop I am open to advice. (We are starting obedience classes in the next week or two.) I attribute it to the kids reactions to her when she acts like this. They squeal, back away, sometimes run. They get nervous and scared. Colin on the other hand has no fear of her. He confidently crawls over to her and she does not jump, bark, or snap at him. She does occasionally try to chew on him but not aggressively like she does to the other kids. She has bitten him twice hard enough to leave a mark and he is still not afraid of her.

Today I supervised while Colin played with her. First Colin was sitting by himself playing with a toy. The puppy took it from him and ran off to chew on it. Colin cried and then started crawling after her. He went right up to her and took it back. She watched him play with it for a minute then took it back from him. I intervened then and put the toy up high because I was afraid she'd nip him by accident in their little tug of war game. She sulked off and laid down behind the couch. Colin followed her sat in front of her and said "Dit" in a confident voice then grabbed her muzzle. She did not bark or jump at him. He did this several times and she took it. (He wasn't grabbing hard enough to hurt her, in case you were worried.) He even patted her on the head a few times. If this had been any of the other kids she would be all over them barking and biting. I can only attribute it to his attitude, he is calm and unafraid and his voice is commanding when he tells her to sit. It was so funny to watch.  

I hope I can convince the other kids not to be afraid of her so they can earn her respect too.      

Colin Crawled!!!!

Yes, I know it wasn't far. But it's still pretty awesome!

Colin Starts the Road to Crawling

The other day my husband noticed Colin getting up on his hands and knees! Now he's doing it all the time. I can't believe he's big enough to start doing this! Check out this video:

Fun With Contact Paper

Today we made pictures with contact paper and jewels. I simply taped a piece of contact paper to the wall (sticky side forward) and gave them jewels to decorate with. The kids seemed to really enjoy this activity but didn't spend as much time at it as they did with the sensory bin. They have come back to it often throughout the day though.

My First Sensory Bin

I finally got around to making a sensory bin! Woo-Hoo! I have been meaning to do this for at least a few months but never had the time, money or a good idea. I finally decided to just throw some stuff I had on hand in there and pick up a few little things at the Dollar Tree to make it interesting. I made this with my 2 year old son in mind. But my older girls played with it for quite a while before he woke up from his nap. Some things I put in are: white pom-poms (snow balls), snowflake confetti, little plastic tools, scoops, tweezers, a small broom thing with a dustpan, felt robots, silicone cupcake wrappers, jewels, and some sticky styrofoamy stuff (like floam?). The girls made cupcakes, we had a treasure hunt to find the jewels, and in the end we broke out in a "snowball" fight. So over all I think my first sensory bin was a success!