1 Month!

Yesterday, Nora turned one month old!  We seriously can't believe how fast it's gone.  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.  It's been a lot of work, but overall an amazing experience!

"First month of life: Nailed it!"

Eleanor is such a happy baby.  She mostly only cries if she is hungry, has a dirty diaper, or is tired.  Otherwise, she is very alert and strong.  She has been lifting her head for a couple of weeks now.  She loves tummy time and plays with the toys in her activity gym (mostly by just randomly hitting them and looking at them).  She can also follow objects and voices.  She has also been smiling, but we're still not sure if it's on purpose or not.  It is darling, either way! 

Crossing my eyes! 

Nora is a good little eater, and has grown out of most of her newborn clothes.  She is also a good sleeper (as far as newborns go).  She usually sleeps 3-4 hours at a time at night, but she has slept as much as 6 hours in a row!  It's so funny that that is a lot of sleep.  Before having a child, I would consider that a bad night of sleep, lol!

Charlie has done well with her.  He likes to lick her head, hands, and feet, but usually stays away from the face, and only licks her once or twice.  We had her on the ground for her one month pics, and he was quite concerned.  He kept barking at us to pick her up!  Too funny.

Charlie loves Nora.  Nora's not so sure.

Those toes!

You should see this guy with his little girl.  Doug gets the "Daddy of the Year" award. 

Diva is over this photoshoot.

I can lift my head up!

Beautiful girl.

Wow, we haven't blogged in a looong time!  Lots of lovely things have happened, but blogging takes time (as you know).  Now that I'm on summer break, you might be hearing from me more often ;)

This weekend was beautiful, and we had a great time.  Friday night, we decided to go on a free date.  Albuquerque had a free movie showing at an outdoor venue--JAWS!  So scary.  I'd never seen it.  So don't make fun of me.

Saturday, we decided to take a hike on the Armijo Trail near Tijeras.  It was a beautiful day, and a nice trail.

Charlie was super excited!  He hadn't been out enough (according to him).  He smelled just about every plant we walked by.  You know what they say; always take time to stop and smell the flowers.

Freedom!

Fun times together!

Beautiful wildflowers.

This HAS to be the BEST picture we've ever captured of Charlie!  Look at it!

This is not just a stroll through the bushes--this is basically at the edge of a cliff.

We were there.

Keep Voting for Charlie!

Ok, ok, so I know people have better things to do than vote for a dog contest.  But if that was you, would you be wasting time checking your blogs?  Nah.  So while you are procrastinating on the internet, why don't you go to http://contest.kob.com/engine/Details.aspx?contestid=24573&pagetype=VOTING&SubmissionID=6574023 and vote for our pup. 

Charlie is really excited about this, and it means a lot to him.  And all votes got wiped out a couple of days ago because people were cheating.  So let's make him a winner!  You can vote once a day every day until February 4th!  And P.S., it's my birthday week, so consider it a gift to me. ;)
Thanks,
Amanda

Charlie and Me

We have been working with Charlie on letting him be alone in the house. He's been doing really well. Until yesterday. This is what we came home to:

True Identity

Today we went to the dog park with Charlie after his obedience classes. We tried to get pictures, but it was too hard to capture the action. Let me just use words: Sniffing, lots of sniffing. And jumping, and running, and some more sniffing, followed by ball chasing (Charlie was uninterested in playing fetch, but plenty of other dogs were happy to oblige when Doug threw his ball). Also a little humping, mostly by the biggest dog there and the smallest dog there. Charlie was much more respectful than that. He got along with all the dogs, big and small, and perhaps even found a girlfriend, "Gracie" that was about his same age, and let me tell you, she was the belle of the ball!

We had a lot of fun, and we are pretty sure that he will be exhausted tonight. Definitely a good thing! We saw a Great Pyrenees there (could it be Charlie's long-lost father?) and a Brittany Spaniel, both of which Charlie is a mix of. Or at least we thought. We've just been taking the Pyrenees on faith (and size!), but upon seeing the Brittany up close, there is no way that he is mixed with that. So, I looked it up and we think he is instead mixed with English Springer Spaniel. I'm sure you have all been losing sleep over that. Rest well, my friends.

English Springer Spaniel



Plus Great Pyrenees



Equals Charlie, the best pup ever!

A Day in the Life...

Good morning! What are we going to do today?



Boring! I guess I'll chase my tail!



Ooh, what's over here?



I want to go for a walk!



Seriously, I really wanna go on a walk!

Garden Statue

Ah, Charlie. Things are never boring when he's around. Today, we got our first request for a play-date for Charlie. About five neighbor kids came to the door and asked if Charlie could come out and play. How cute is that! We let them babysit him for a while, and he was in hog--er, dog--heaven. Later on, while he was in the backyard, we figured we'd check on him. This is what we saw:




Notice how he doesn't move. I think the neighbor kids must have taught him "statue".

Speaking of Volcanoes...

On Sunday we drove out to the volcanoes and went for a bit of a hike with the pup. It was a lot of fun. We got schooled by a runner in a red jacket that made us eat his dust, but we weren't racing. Charlie went all crazy at the top. I think he just got excited because it was windy. We had a lot of fun with the self-timer on the camera--we never quite got it right. Oh well. Here are some pics of us at the top:

How much is that doggie in the window?

I think every dog has to go through this stage. Charlie saw his reflection in the window the other day and started going crazy. This is actually when he started calming down.

Big Boy

FYI--Our dog is 35 lbs. Oh, and he's not done yet.

Today, I registered him online for his microchip. He already has a microchip, but you can set up a profile for him online. Kind of like a myspace or facebook page for dogs. Anyways, a lot of his info was already on there. It had his birthdate, which we didn't know exactly. It's October 12, 2008. I guess that means that he'll be five months old tomorrow.

Anyways, it also had his weight from when he was entered into the system by the animal shelter--10 lbs! I can't even imagine him that tiny! This bit of information made me so sad because he must have been really young when he was taken to the shelter. He's so lovable and such a quick learner--I can't believe that he wasn't adopted sooner. I suppose people were intimidated by how big he would get--the vet predicts 70 pounds!

Well, we've had our ups and downs with him. I think that by now he's potty-trained, and he no longer cries when we put him in his kennel. He can sit, stay, "give", lay down, and come. Most of the time, anyway. I just finished "Puppies for Dummies" and it was really informational. We're still working on keeping him from digging, and we've had to take care of a couple of medical bills.

That's what's going on with our "little" Charlie. We'll keep you updated.

Charlie in Action

Here's our pup playing. He's pretty mellow, so it's not too exciting, but it's still cute. He was a little more hyper before the video, but I guess he got tired.

Drumroll, Please.

After much deliberation, we have decided on a name for our pup--Charlie. We borrowed it from our favorite show, Lost, and our favorite character on that show. We think it fits him well, and it's the only name he would consistently respond to.