Thursday 6 August 2009

The lazy boy

I've had to come to work today to get a job finished, so the boys are home alone. I went home at lunchtime and checked up on them, they're fine. Modern technology means I can point a webcam at Jackson's pen, and monitor it via a Skype call from work. I'll work on getting a proper feed to the internet this weekend.
Here's how he seems to be spending most of his day....!

Wednesday 5 August 2009

So far, so hectic.. I mean, Good

These last four days have just raced by. Lucy came over on Sunday afternoon to help us out, and have a play with Jackson, and this was a great help through Monday, when I had jobs to do at home. It was chaos once Olga and Lara came home at 6pm - who gets fed first? Who bathes Lara and puts her to bed, who's going to walk Mishka? Watch out for that puddle of pee!!
I slept downstairs in the lounge with Jackson on Sunday and Monday nights, and Olga stayed with him last night. That way we could let him out of his 5-foot by 5-foot pen, and he slept on the floor by the sofa, until 5.30am in my case - up considerably earlier than Lara! He'd play for an hour or so, then it was time for another nap, before the rest of the house got up.
Tonight we've decided that Mishka can stay up with him in the lounge. Jackson is secured in his pen - he is crying, but we have expected that, and we'll just see how long is goes on for. He's perfectly OK, we've left him in his pen for around 3 hours on a couple of occasions now, say to go to the supermarket like today, and when we've come home, he's been quietly sitting in his pen, or dozing, so we don't think we're doing him any harm by leaving him alone (or at least with Mishka) tonight.
We had our first proper family "play" in the back garden this morning, it was great; the photos are in the new Picassa album, below.
Lara loves Jackson, she's been sooo happy to see him when she's come home from nursery. I need to get the video camera ready to record it. Tomorrow, perhaps. We're careful to always be close by when she wants to pick him up, she hasn't quite mastered how to pick him up safely yet. But she gives him kisses before the rest of us get any.
Mishka's reaction is perhaps the most surprising, and most interesting. He's absolutely calm around Jackson, I really wasn't expecting that. I like to think that it's because he's spent nearly two years around Lara, and the last 12 months of that she's been pestering him to play, pulling his fur, grabbing his nose and suchlike, that he's just used to the attentions of little kids. Jackson will try to get him to play, and mostly Mishka just ignores him, although increasingly we see that he will take the bait and games of chase get started.
Well, Olga and I are both shattered, I could have gone to bed before Lara tonight, but I'm still here at 11.40pm, and Jackson is still letting me know he's not asleep yet. It might be another broken night. Maybe Jackson and Lara can syncronise their waking up? Lara slept through the night for the first time in weeks last night, although she has teeth popping out everywhere, and it's very humid outside. Hopefully she'll gives us a good night's sleep and then we only have to listen out for Jackson! We've decided against using our spare baby monitor to listen to him, he'd keep us awake, but we are leaving our bedroom door open in case he gets really upset and wakes us up from two floors below!
Enjoy the photos...

Sunday 2 August 2009

And then there were FIVE... Introducing Jackson


As if life wasn't busy enough, now it'll get really interesting. This is Jackson, our 2-month old Welsh Terrier / Border Terrier cross. We decided some time ago that we would get another dog, and it was just a matter of waiting until the right one came along. We picked him up from Llandudno yesterday, combining it with a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa in Radcliffe, so they could look after Lara while we went to collect Jackson.
It was mild chaos when we got back to Radcliffe, effectively we had three kids running around, all needing feeding and looking after. Anyone who thinks that a puppy is easier than a baby to look after, think again! Imagine bringing home a toddler who doesn't wear a nappy, and that's what it's like with a puppy. Mishka is actually the one who needs the least attention, we could leave him in the back garden and just get the little kids sorted out.
I only have time to write this post this morning as Lara is almost asleep for her morning nap, and Jackson is having one of his power naps. He's soooo confident, constantly wagging his tail and investigating places, and goading Lara into playing with him, we really didn't expect that, and it's a big bonus. We were expecting him to be rather shy and down for the first few days, but he's been totally the opposite. I was worried about how Mishka would react to him, maybe he'd see Jackson as a threat and bully him, but Mishka actually ignored him to start with, when we went for a walk on the beach in Llandudno, and then played nicely with him once we got back to Radcliffe.
Jackson and Lara are getting on very well, and first impressions suggest they will be great friends. She copies him already, and can mimic his bark very well. How they share toys might be quite interesting in the next few years!



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