Just the Boys at home now

Well, it's an all-male household now! Olga and Lara left for Cyprus yesterday morning.
Their flight from Heathrow was due to leave at 8.50am, so it was an early start for everyone, and we got there just after 7.30 (so nice when there's no traffic, it's only a 25 minute drive to Terminal 5), and everything was going smoothly. Olga had even managed to pack everything in one medium sized holdall, for which she deserves a medal. We nearly forgot the pram, but luckily I remebered when we were only 30 seconds from home. The trip would have been a lot more difficult without it!
On the way back to the office I passed a small crash on the M4, in the direction of Heathrow, and it had caused a 3 or 4 mile tailback, I was relieved we'd not decided to go that way to the airport, and I felt for anyone stuck in the queue who was going that way!
I was a lot more concerned when Olga's number popped up on an incoming call on my mobile at 10am! It turns out that their pilot aborted the take-off at the last second (the Captain's and 2nd Officer's respective speedos were showing different speeds as they headed down the runway!) and so they had to change to a new plane. All in all this caused a three and a half hour delay before they could take off again, not ideal preparation for a four and a half hour flight with a toddler. The silver lining to the cloud was that all this was happening during the morning, when Lara would be awake and playful anyway, rather than the middle of the night when all the fuss would keep her awake and grumpy. It also meant that she was very ready for a nap when the plane finally took off, and she slept for an hour en-route, so Olga could have a quiet glass of wine at least!
This leaves me at home to look after the boys. I don't mind admitting I was looking forward to getting home from work at 5.30 every day, sorting out food and walkies, then retiring to bed nice and early and catching up on sleep. Well, I got home from work at 7pm yesterday then had to go to the supermarket for more food for Jackson at 9pm, and tonight I got home at 8.45pm. Maybe tomorrow I'll get home at a sensible time... famous last words. I'm due to be on holiday from Thursday until Tuesday, but that just means I can do my jobs in the garden!
Jackson and Mishka are still getting on very well, and are playing more with each other than in the very early days. Terriers like a good game of "bitey-face", which is pretty self-explanatory, and it's funny to watch. When Mishka is standing up, Jackson has to take a run-up before he jumps high enough to land a nip on Mishka's whiskers. Mishka tolerates this for a while then just brushes Jackson away with a gentle swipe of his head. On our wooden floors this tends to send Jackson sliding a good two feet away before picks himself up.
Toilet training is an endless battle at the moment, but we knew to expect that, and there is improvement every day, but I still have to dodge the piles and puddles, armed constantly with a kitchen roll.
Jackson is a star though, he always seems happy, and he stopped crying at night way back on Thursday or Friday night last week, a sure sign he's settling in here. I took him down to Littlewick Green on Saturday for a while, with Lara, and he got much more attention than she did. I could have made a bit of cash if I'd charged for people to give him a cuddle. It's all good experience for him though, so he'll be a well socialised dog when he grows up.

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....!

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...

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!

More sniffles

Olga and Lara went to London on Wednesday last week, to apply for Olga's visa for Cyprus; however, it turns out that as the spouse of a British citizen, she won't need a visa! After all the form filling and two visits to the Embassy. We had a feeling there was a rule like this for some EEA countries, but it was good to hear it from an official at the Embassy, so Olga knows for sure that there won't be a problem on arrival.
The downside of the trip was that Lara picked up a cold, and has been snotty and with a night-time cough since Thursday. During the day she's fine, and she's gone to nursery as normal today, but it did mean she had some restless nights, including deciding that 4.45am was a good time to get up on Saturday morning, and that Papa should keep her company downstairs.... that was a long Saturday! It might have helped my cricket though, I nutured a season-best innings of 24 in the middle order, albeit in a losing cause.
Lara's learning to cope with colds now, she can go and get herself a tissue from a box and wipe her nose, although this normally just smears the gloop over her cheek, but the intention is good!
Yesterday was spent doing some shopping, tidying up, and building some things that we'll need at home after next weekend... watch this space!