Some funny new behaviors that Mr. Oliver has been exhibiting

Mr. Oliver will cry and cry and cry, then he will start saying "MAMA!" or "DA DA"...but mind you, he's literally cursing these words. The second we show up, no more MAMA or DADA, its just screaming.

He's knows how to put his hand on his mouth when he's being loud and obnoxious. So, I say *Ahhhhhh* and pat my mouth with my hand, so it makes that weird echo noise. He loves it, so I look at him and say, "Oliver, *Ahhhhhh*" pat pat pat pat pat.

He also knows how to put his open mouth on any part of you and blow. He will also graze you with his teeth, of which he now has 8 teeth.

The other day he was having a cow, figuratively, and we were out shopping, so somehow, had a plastic spoon so he just took it and fell in love with it. So funny.

Modesty is for amateurs

Here is a photo that Crazy loves. Psssst that's Marlee standing off to the side.



Here are photos from tonight....Crazy was trying to cover Mr. Oliver's *goodies* and was paranoid that he had caught a glimpse of them while he was shooting photos. Remember this red busket? Yes, that's the busket he got baths in when he was an itty bitty baby.



Luckily no wieners were injured or harmed in the making of this photo session.

So, when are winter squashes available?

Gee Crazy, let me think about that for a while. I honestly don't have a clue when winter squashes are available....

So this has been an extremely expensive week. We had to take the car to the automotive repair shop because one of our headlights were not functioning properly....one thing lead to another, and then $1,800 is spent on car repairs. Ouch! Then we took Mr. C to the vet, the holistic vet, and that cost us just under $500. Then we just paid our dogwalker $300. Donations will be much appreciated. :-) I'll be the one in the ghetto with a collection cup so swing by.

So...onto the vet. As I have said in a previous post, Mr. C isn't the spring chicken he used to be. It distresses everyone in the house when we have to crate him because he cries uncontrollably. But we cannot give him access to the house because he's unreliable. Anyhow we coughed up a ton of money for them to be baffled. They said that for sure Mr. C's had hypertension, so they shaved two of his toes to test his blood pressure. Even though he was extremely hyper, his blood pressure remain normal, not high. He then got some acupuncture, I have never seen a dog tolerate having needles stuck in them, nevermind having six needles. They then turned down the lights, to which Mr. C whine and whine. Crazy told me, that he for sure *thought* the acupuncture was working (SARCASM). Anyhow, they think he may either have Cushings disease or hypertension. The hypertension would explain the neurotic hyperactivity we get to see everyday. So the resolution was, they will call us and let us know once the blood work comes in if they figure out if there's something medically wrong with Mr. C. I would HATE to know that we spent $500 bucks on the visit if nothing came of it. What would make a dog break house training to such a terribly degree? He hurts, and has phantom pains. He's nearly deaf, the pocket of one of his ears hurts when I feel it. I don't know. I've had this dog forever. I just don't know what to do now.

Mr. Oliver is still not really sleeping through the night. Crazy and I are just exhausted. There aren't enough hours in the day to complete everything we have to do. We wake up at 6 am to get Mr. Oliver from the crib, after him waking us up crying for a while in the night. Then Crazy showers while I dress Mr. Oliver, then I shower and when I get out, Crazy packs lunches and walks dogs. We are out of the house by 8:00 am ish. We don't get home until 6 pm which is when Crazy walks the dogs again. Then the mad dash to keep Mr. Oliver awake and get dinner on the table. Then Crazy puts Mr. Oliver down at 9ish to 10ish, and we have to do the dishes and the dogs get walked again before bed. I forgot to add, that the dogs get fed in the morning, except Mr. C gets fed again at night. There isn't enough hours in the day to clean the house, plan nutritious meals and eat bon bons. Seriously.

So since we failed at removing formula from Mr. Oliver's diet, we had to make a mad dash to the grocery store to pick some up. Then when we got back, I made some cauliflower soup with onions, some baked chicken wings and caesar salad. I gave Mr. Oliver some cauliflower soup and wings sans the skin. He ate heartily, then got really grouchy and started to rub his eyes and nose which symbolizes "Mama, can't you see I'm tired here?"

I have a deep dark secret. I love reality TV. Seriously. I LOVE Top Chef (I'm rooting for Stephanie), Housewives (NY version cause the ladies are so catty), Meet the Roloffs, Jon & Kate plus 8 (that woman has a total grip on her sanity). Then there's Jeff Lewis (Flipping out), who's the ultimate CRAAAAAZZZZY guy, but his neuroticism is so fascinating to watch. I don't like to watch those stupid MTV shows or the Celeb Reality shows on VH1, I mostly love the reality TV shows on Bravo and TLC.

To pacify or not.....

No....
Yes....

No....
Yes....
No....

We are keeping the pacifier for the time being. Seriously, can you blame us?

More spaghetti eating

So I've decided to add spaghetti into Mr. Oliver's diet. The reason is because I get to include carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and other healthy stuff in his spaghetti. Here are a few shots of him eating his dinner. Sorry, I didn't know Crazy was including me in the photo shoot.

Growin pains

So, as Mr. Oliver grows older, I remind myself that I never want to have another child. Seriously.

He's growing some teeth. I don't know why they always come in pairs. But there they are.


He's still not sleeping through the night like we were praying for. For a 2-3 week stretch he actually went to bed at 9 pm, and slept until 5 am. We were thrilled, and secretly prayed it would continue. Mr. Oliver normally has 2 naps, one before noon and the 2nd nap is before 5 pm. This way, he would come home, hang out, have some dinner, then a bath, and then off to bed. Anyhow, he has decided he no longer wants the 2nd nap. Which BLOWS. He comes home and is so cranky, he decides to take a nap at 6 pm! Then we wake him up in an hour, then he proceeds to NOT go to sleep until after 11 pm and this is after a struggle. Then we decided not to give him the last nap, but he just cries and cries, which makes me want to shove my head through a wall.

So our Pediatrician tells me that Mr. Oliver will cry as much as we will get him. So just let him cry and he will get over it. So last Wednesday he started crying at 3 am. He cried and cried and cried for an hour. I just layed in bed wishing for a miracle. After an hour Crazy went to fetch him. Mr. Oliver took about 20 minutes to finish his crying in bed with us. I told Crazy, I never want to have another child ever again.

We were going to attempt take the formula and bottle away from him this long weekend, however Crazy and I have a difference of opinions, and so, Mr. Oliver will continue the bottle after this weekend. I want to take it away cold turkey, but Crazy wants to slowly integrate milk into Mr. Oliver's formula. Anyway you spell it, we failed miserably this weekend. Mainly with me telling Crazy not to give Mr. Oliver any formula, and Crazy sneaking formula to Mr. Oliver behind my back.

I went out to dinner and drinks with an old college friend last night. She confided in me that she was starting the process of divorce. They've been married for ten years and have a seven year old daughter. I feel so horrible for her because Crazy and I are coming on the eve of our 9 year anniversary. I don't know the recipe for happiness in a marriage, but somehow Crazy and I have made it to 9 years. I just can't imagine spending 10 years with someone and being so dissatisfied with them that I have to divorce him.

Mr. Oliver up to date

So we were at the grocery store last week and here's a picture of Mr. Oliver lounging in the seat.

He was sleeping initially...what a punk.




Here's a picture of Mr. Oliver taking a nap at Uncle K & P's house.


So to update everyone on why there was no post for 2 weeks.

Mr. Oliver got sick, then shared it with us. I was sick for 2 weeks and am slowly getting over it. I didn't have the strength or desire to go to work for a week, and then showed up. I hate going to work but haven't really seen a job worthy of me to bother with, except the resume I submitted to a publicly held company. I'm getting training in a financial software, but slept through most of the training, due to my cold medication and the mumbled garble from the phone (i.e. trainer).

Some funny things about Mr. Oliver that we've noticed lately. He's still not walking (grrr). But he's got funny eating habits. So Sunday, Crazy made us some tasty biscuits from flour we get from Mr. Oliver's Auntie C every year. Mr. Oliver got some tasty warm biscuits with butter and honey. He was so happy to be eating, that he grabbed a biscuit in each hand, then saw there was biscuits on the tray, so he would bob his head down to grab a biscuit on the tray. He couldn't stop making *MUM MUM MUM* noises and smiling at me. It was really cute. I wish I could have video tapped it...but I didn't (because I'm a selfish bastard).

The disks that we have from Crazy aren't being recognized by my burner, so everyone still has to wait to receive their CD's. Sorry. We've been really busy with being sick and crappy parents. Our house once again is a disaster, at least Kylee is being walked by a dog walker who gives her a nice walk twice a week where Kylee can go do some serious mudding.

Mr. C is annoying the crap out of me with his neediness. I know it sucks, but he's decided he no longer wants to be house trained, and will *go* whenever he feels like it. This began when we moved to this apartment over 2 years ago, so it isn't Mr. Oliver's arrival that sparked the new behavior. Mr. C is also deaf and the way we know is that he no longer hears us come into the house or approach him when he's sleeping like he once did as a hearing dog. So because we aren't in the house a lot, Mr. C spends alot of his time in the crate, and he is in the crate when we are in bed at night. A behavior we noticed is that he now poo's when no one is awake, he used to wake us up to tell us he needed to use the bathroom, but now he just *goes* when the need arises. He poo's all over the place, so he has to stay in the crate. I never guessed that being a parent would make me a shitty dog owner. I am trying to come to terms with Mr. C not being reliable in the house. But its so hard to come to terms with this, especially since this has been the good dog for so many years. He will be turning 15 in August. I wish he could spend his golden years with a better person.

Cough Cough, Barf Barf

Well, we are sick again.

What did I do to deserve this? Mr. Oliver got sick on Friday. He had a little fever Friday when we picked him up from daycare...then vomited at costco. He loves to vomit at costco.

Saturday....vomiting, running nose, coughing and green gunky eyes. We had plans to visit an acquaintance. Then on Sunday, we went to visit a friend to drop off our foster girl Marlee. A spot opened up for her at my friend's house...and because we aren't set up to handle a dog who can't pee/poop on leash, we had to let her go. In Marlee's place, Kylee now gets walked by a dog walker.

Monday morning...3 am...Crazy brought poor Mr. Oliver to bed. His eyes were crusted shut. I had to carefully pull all the gunk out of his eyelashes so that he could see. Crazy spent the day with Mr. Oliver Monday, while I took today off. *cough cough* I've got it now.

The culprit? Mr. Oliver got him some more toofs. Yes I tell you. Do toofs need to come in pairs? If you are Mr. Oliver, they do. So he just got one on top, and one in the bottom. Making it 3 on top and 3 on the bottom. Woo hoo!

We will go to LA this weekend for a small family emergency and will try to buy Mr. Oliver a huge cake for him to demolish as a belated birthday dealio. Too bad Auntie A will miss birthday cake. We'll eat an extra one for her. :-)

I want to give a shoutout to Uncle Ben!

Surprise Bacon.....

Stove Ownership