Where has the time gone?

Our little boy is growing up at an accelerated rate, so it seems.

“Mauldin no!” I say… constantly.

Where has the time gone? I feel like someone has taken a remote and pushed fast forward.

“Mauldin, what did we say?” I continue as he stops in his tracks on his way to the dog bed… as soon as I look away he turns his little butt around and heads right back to his previous direction of naughtiness. Our son has a weird fascination with our pets... he loves them. As soon as he heads their way our little Westie, Andy, runs in fear of being pummelled by a 18lb 10 month old!

I feel as if every day he accomplishes something new. Thankfully I have been around to see each one surface. I was there when Mauldin said “Da-da” as his first word, which I might add is one of the only things he says with a repeating vengeance.

“Mauldin,” I repeat and head over to pick him up and replace him away from the dog bowls full of water. “I said no to the dog bowls.” He loves getting into their bowls. I came home today and my wife informed me...

"Go say hello to your son and don't even ask me why he is wet!"

"What?" I retorted.

"I looked away for a second and he was "in" Andy's bowl," Laura explained.

The kid can officially climb the stairs with no assistance, he is cruising like nobody’s business, the child is eating solid foods and feeding himself, holding his bottle on his own and clapping! The boy claps, patty cake is a fun game he likes to play.

Not only is Mauldin about to have a birthday, his first birthday mind you, but we will soon be another plus one to the Skates family unit.
We are now coming up on the 20 week mark for our little girl… Elle will be here before we know it and we are so unprepared. It seems as if with Mauldin we had tons of diapers, wipes, clothes, etc… we have a couple of bags of clothes for our little princess, but her nursery is still a guest room, no bedding has been purchased, what is going on? We are usually so far ahead, we are planners, this is so out of our character, but the urgency just isn’t … I don’t know, around as much as it was the first time. We are so much more laid back with this pregnancy!

I guess the freakout with happen after we come home with our shiny, brand new, bouncing baby girl.

It still hasn’t totally hit me yet. I assume when it does you may find me on the floor.

Happy Groundhog Day, everyone.

"Mauldin what did I say about the dog beds?"

A Couple of Mopes

Our dogs are Grumpy…

Sad or grumpy would actually be understatements. They are gloomy, cheerless, poignant, distressed, if you will…

Pick one of the aforementioned adjectives and they could both take the place of “Grumpy” from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs!

Logan, our hyper and always energetic Beagle, seems so melancholy… and Andy, our hyper-sensitive West Highland Terrier doesn’t know what to think. Andy just follows suit with whatever Logan, the Matriarch, does. They are a couple of mopes these days. We are not exactly sure, but we think they aren’t receptive to change. Logan basically shunned us for two days when we brought Andy home for the first time. Finally, she warmed up to him and now they are inseparable!

The other day, as Laura was casually lounging on the couch; Logan woefully hopped up onto Laura’s lap and just sat there like she was a breed that is about 20lbs less than she actually is!

Her expression was that of, “can’t you see how sad I am? Haven’t you noticed? What do I have to do to show you? I mean I can’t talk, so here… this is my SOS to you… Heed my notice master. I am sad.”

She stayed perched upon Laura’s lap even while we roared with laughter. It is on a very rare occasion that we allow our pups on the furniture and this was not one of those instances.

It was so out-of-the blue that we did not know how to react! It is absolutely shocking how protective and concerned our dogs have become in the past few months. They both follow Laura around as if they are waiting for her to collapse, or even, gasp, for her water to break! I certainly would not know what they would do, besides try and lick it up, if that were to happen!

How is it dogs are so aware of what is going on during pregnancy? I mean I know we have some super-intelligent K-9’s, but seriously? Do they know what is about to happen? Do they understand what we talk about when we discuss bringin Mauldin home? What if they think Mauldin is another dog? LOL!

Well, it will certainly be interesting to observe how they react when we finally bring Mauldin home… (that is, if he ever is BORN!)