Friday, June 13, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Goodbye Kaiser
Kaiser went to the big dog park in the sky yesterday. Old age had caught up to him at last and he was laid to rest before the worst could come. He was two months short of 12 years. 12 years! Can you remember what you were doing 12 years ago? I happened to be 20 and beginning my junior year at UMD. Perfect time to get a dog right? Time has flown by. There of course have been a few (ok maybe more than a few) knocked over garbage cans, missing loaves of bread, run-ins with various small mammals (e.g., skunks, porcupines), roll-o-ramas in poop/dead things, etc to add weight on one side of the scale. On the other hand, his entertainment potential was huge (e.g. rumbling gait, propensity to lick clean spots on the floor, his summer haircut, etc) and of course there was his deep (often melodic) howl every time you came home. He was also the great protector who scared away that creep trying to get into Tiffy's old house while Brenda was taking a nap. Most of all he was my wilderness companion. We walked many a mile; ate next to many campfires; and slept side by side under cloudy, rainy, hot-mosquito infested, cold-snowy, and clear skies. It's safe to say that we've been through thick and thin.
I took yesterday off to focus on Kaiser before his journey. We took one last walk along the railroad tracks by Brown's Creek north of Stillwater. Even though the pace was less than a mile per hour, the old Kaiser was still there. He had his spark and still wanted run down the ravine to the cool and shade of the stream; oblivious to the fact that it would be impossible to get back. With some guidance we made our way to an accessible spot and I helped him get into his old hole for a dip and drink. He was happy and for a moment age had been erased. On our way to vet he asked me to thank all the people that helped take care of him over the years and apologize to any enemies that he might have made along the way.
I'd like to think that this DP in the sky has a few amenities to your liking buddy: miles of trees, grass, and water; rabbits to chase and beaver to swim after; bushes that bear strange fruit such as loaves of bread, sticks of butter, steaks, and the odd 1-1/2lb chunk of summer sausage conveniently located at head level; no ticks or deer flies; and a constant temperature of 40 degrees with a sunny spot for a little warmup and nap. Goodbye Kaiser.
I took yesterday off to focus on Kaiser before his journey. We took one last walk along the railroad tracks by Brown's Creek north of Stillwater. Even though the pace was less than a mile per hour, the old Kaiser was still there. He had his spark and still wanted run down the ravine to the cool and shade of the stream; oblivious to the fact that it would be impossible to get back. With some guidance we made our way to an accessible spot and I helped him get into his old hole for a dip and drink. He was happy and for a moment age had been erased. On our way to vet he asked me to thank all the people that helped take care of him over the years and apologize to any enemies that he might have made along the way.
I'd like to think that this DP in the sky has a few amenities to your liking buddy: miles of trees, grass, and water; rabbits to chase and beaver to swim after; bushes that bear strange fruit such as loaves of bread, sticks of butter, steaks, and the odd 1-1/2lb chunk of summer sausage conveniently located at head level; no ticks or deer flies; and a constant temperature of 40 degrees with a sunny spot for a little warmup and nap. Goodbye Kaiser.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Baby-Q Blogsplosion
Yeah, it's been awhile. It just makes this time that much sweeter...right?
When last we spoke, though unknown at the time, we were at the beginning of the great unraveling. Let's backup. Remember the supa-sleepa? There was a fall from that status. Sometime in early April the Wild-man started becoming just that. He went from being totally rockable & sootheable (thus totally happy & predictable) to unhinged in the span of about two weeks. The reason? SLEEP (or lack thereof). After an education campaign, much debate, a fair amount of stress, a whole lot of fruitless soothing tactics, and resulting lack of sleep for mom and dad we were ready for 'sleep training'. This consisted of letting Wilder 'cry it out' in controlled intervals until he became so exhausted he had no choice but to sleep. The theory is over time he will learn that "I continue to wake up in a safe environment so this sleep thing must be ok". Let's just say when we first tried this it was total agony. Particularly for mom. The early results, however, were clearly better than where we had been. The nights leading up to sleep training it took hours of soothing before he would go down only to wake up an hour or two latter and cry for another hour+, then repeat. The first few nights he would cry a total of 20-40 minutes and then wake only once thereafter. Things then steadily improved. The supa-sleepa has now returned! Now he goes down with no crying, both at night and for naps. He's getting the sleep he needs and he's super happy when he's awake. We are now proud to announce that Wilder has now been sleeping through the night for the past week!
Many other milestones have also been achieved:
When last we spoke, though unknown at the time, we were at the beginning of the great unraveling. Let's backup. Remember the supa-sleepa? There was a fall from that status. Sometime in early April the Wild-man started becoming just that. He went from being totally rockable & sootheable (thus totally happy & predictable) to unhinged in the span of about two weeks. The reason? SLEEP (or lack thereof). After an education campaign, much debate, a fair amount of stress, a whole lot of fruitless soothing tactics, and resulting lack of sleep for mom and dad we were ready for 'sleep training'. This consisted of letting Wilder 'cry it out' in controlled intervals until he became so exhausted he had no choice but to sleep. The theory is over time he will learn that "I continue to wake up in a safe environment so this sleep thing must be ok". Let's just say when we first tried this it was total agony. Particularly for mom. The early results, however, were clearly better than where we had been. The nights leading up to sleep training it took hours of soothing before he would go down only to wake up an hour or two latter and cry for another hour+, then repeat. The first few nights he would cry a total of 20-40 minutes and then wake only once thereafter. Things then steadily improved. The supa-sleepa has now returned! Now he goes down with no crying, both at night and for naps. He's getting the sleep he needs and he's super happy when he's awake. We are now proud to announce that Wilder has now been sleeping through the night for the past week!
Many other milestones have also been achieved:- The saliva glands have been activated. Bibs are now enforced.
- Toe sucking...
and then thumb sucking. No more pacifiying on mom and dad's fingers!
- Wilder has moved from the co-sleeper (which attaches to our bed) to his own crib. With sleep training going so well and his continued increase in size it was time to move. He's doing really well in there.
- He's met his cousin Luka who was born April 2nd.
Yes, he lives on the second floor. - The big news is that Wilder is now a roller. The sequence was pretty funny. He used to hate tummy time. His solution then was to get strong enough to roll out of tummy time and onto his back. In a few days, however, Wilder was strong enough to roll from back to tummy. Upon doing so he relized that he hated it and then got so upset he couldn't get to his back again. Now he's full on rolling. He's even starting to proto-crawl, though it's hard for us to guage actually how close he is to crawling.
- He loves to stand (supported of course). The Johnny jumpup is now a favorite activity:
- Hand coordination is improving all the time. He can pick up toys on his own and pull on your face really well. Just in the last few days he started figuring out how to use the rattle for it's intended purpose.
Finally, our last update was the visit from auntie's LT & V (http://subterraneanterrier.blogspot.com/) and the corresponding Baby-Q. Now, this doesn't mean that we partook in what Kelly Bartz would call "the other, other white meat". We just got together with some friends, many of which happen to have had children in the past few months-years. So thanks to everyone but especially Maeva (http://www.sproket.biz/blog/), Bella, Brinnon (http://teambartz.blogspot.com/), Rilo & Tenzen (http://tenzyupdate.blogspot.com/), Evelyn, and Henry (http://anotherblogaboutababy.blogspot.com/); we had an awesome time:
A super size pack of kudos to Kelly for the Surly Furious and making this a kegger (sweeet), and most importantly LT & V for bringing everyone together.
We should probably sign off. As always there are more pictures on the Picasa site. Cheers, B3
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