Sleep Beep

[M. likes to do this, too]


[Then, she woke up.]

Lazy Saturday, again

Right now, Emily is playing with her bunny over in the living room, and H. is trying to claim some human time at the kitchen table. Oh, my beautiful study, how I miss you.

[The "flying frog" position]

But too often, even though it's boring, Emily hangs out too much with her Mommy. (Yes, sad. We're calling ourselves Mommy and Daddy, now)

[엄마 뭐해?/ Watcha doin', Mommy?]
Of course, this never lasts for long.

[Play!]

I get up at 6 and wait for the sun to rise

After a few days goofing off on Facebook, H. is back to Emily's blog, ready to commit to taking better pictures, ala figuring out how the camera works.

[Dawn of Poo]

On the second potty round this morning, I went out to the patio a little early to catch the last part of the sunrise, and Emily followed me out and did her business without having to be asked. Freebies!

Minutes of Fun

Wish I could say hours...


--
as I am ULing this, Emily has gone and done a poo accident in the hall. She poos nicely for M. and doesn't snap at him, but with me snappy bitey crazy. M. says it's because she likes me better. I don't think that's it.

FRAP is never easy to film

There's never a camera with a memory card when you need one. If you have trouble seeing the little white blur, so do we. So do we. *trips*

[FRAP, at a full 11 weeks, 1.6 kg]
--
Been itching to take a sunrise pic, too, but when I don't have camera handy, it's foggy out.

She Hears Voices

Emily can be pretty bratty. (she's also taken to pulling at our pants when she wants to play. Bad!)


Then, here's Emily being mellow. M. took 3 vids of her doing nothing. He's obsessed with the dog, too.

[Quiet and mysterious]

She Eats Trees

At least it's our long dead hydrangea.

Memo to Dog

"No Bite!" is not a game!

I hope the mouthful of armpit stink-o you got after Mommy came back from the gym was worth it, toothy.

--
The Solitudes (John Crowley): I should get off my lazy internet butt and order/read the rest of the Aegypt cycle. Key to secret history of the world begins with Gypsies -- can do no wrong. Slow, but lovely old-fashioned slow read.

Eye, Tooth, Nail

Three Things About Emily Puppy:

Emily spies on our neighbors, but never tells me anything.
She also gnaws on broccoli, but spits out the chewed-up pieces on her red cushion.

With nails scuffing on wood, you can hear her charging at you before you trip over ol' fluffy white underfoot.

Emily, my Love

This is from 2 days ago, and not very exciting, but heh, H. is obsessed with her dog.

[Isn't she a Cutie?]

--
Socialization is going well. We take her to new, crowded places every other day, and she greets visitors ecstatically at home. Definitely will make a crappy watch dog, tee hee.
--
Biting/Snapping, however, is a bit of a problem. We're trying "bite inhibition" by the book, and she thinks "ouch" and turning away is a game. Er...

Tether Bunny

When Emily is Lazy Puppy, H. drags Bunny or Rainbow Ball around the house tied to shoelaces, to work off some dormant puppy energy. M. came up with Tether Bunny:


Which quickly descends into Bunny Baiting, again:

---

Books: The only down-side to reading The Pursuit of Love (Nancy Mitford, 1945) was that I gobbled it up too quickly, instead of savoring it a few pages at a time, over a longer period. Now I have no frothy, funny things to read. Woes.

In the Cement Garden

Typical Dutch weather, airy grey with sudden patches of sun. It makes for lovely picture exposure. Potty over and done with, Emily and I goofed around on the patio.

And she dug up our garden patch.After a month of pouring boiling water over her Potty, we don't have many weeds left.

So, obviously, she needs to eat our last pretty tree.

She's already chomped half the leaves off the miniature rose. A Rose for Emily, honk honk. No icky Faulkner connections, please. Though, I'm not betting on the Rose's chances' to last till Spring.

She also sits guard, Stone Puppy:Bath Day was 2 days ago, but M. has a workshop to organize, and we need four hands to get her in the sink. Emily is now in her 11th week, and 1.46 kg.Stay tuned for Tether Bunny! Coming soon!

Trip Trip

Emily doesn't try to trip me, I'm sure. It's just that we end up walking like this:


Sometimes, she brings Bunny along for the trip:

Plays with her Food

We received a "packet" from the vet last week, which included 3 dog biscuits. I didn't think much of them, but Emily thinks they're amusing.

Unfortunately, all food is more amusing than appetizing to her, lately. I only have to offer her kibble to make her stop chasing me and run away.
--
Minor Traumas:
1. H. stepped on her foot by accident, while we were out to Potty. !!! (M. noticed the levels of spoiling went through the roof)

2. H. also trimmed Emily's scruffy little face hairs (pink stained tips and such). Too much snippy resulted in 삐뚤 빼뚤 and scrawny cheeks. She looks like Megatron. Woes.

Going in the Bushes, Books

We're sorry we missed Sunday. Emily has taken to doing her business in the bushes (sometimes "laying" her #2 in the branches of our baby chrysanthemum). Problem is, she turns into a garden monster afterwards. I'm frantic running after her Craziness to hold the camera.



We'll be better next time. Usually, I'm trying to get her not to chase after me and bite the bottom of my jeans, and bark down the neighborhood.
--
Emily's now into foot chomping.

--
Book Notes:

H. did not throw Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) out the window (without bothering to open the window), but she was tempted to more than a dozen times while reading it. If a spiteful but intelligent teenager decided to scribble down some notes on how her family and acquaintances are all shallow, worthless morons, (but idealizes paper-cutout orientalist wallow) this would be the book. Sadly, it was written by a philosophy professor.

H., being familiar with phenomenology and the 19th C canon, is unimpressed by the trotting out of Kant, Husserl, and Tolstoy, all the while ignoring structure, plot, depth of character, generosity, and what she thinks of as "the higher intelligence of fiction" that transforms instead of justifies pettiness. What a waste of some good sentences. Not to mention there's a beautiful and kind sister who had been "seduced by the son of a rich man" and left to die, wronged and with child, crowbarred in at the 11th hour to add reason to resentment. I kid you not. No, no, it's set firmly in the 20th to 21st centuries.

Yes, from the infamous Christmas stash that brought us The Da Vinci Code.

New Toys: the Enemy

The only toy Emily immediately took to was a gingham baby rattle. Others, she regards with the deepest suspicion.


Then she runs to security.

Helping Out in the Kitchen

[Mommy's little girl FRAP]

After Yummy Food, Emily Barks at My Ankles

Post-vet, Emily was sleepy and needy, and refusing food.

So she got turkey white meat and no-salt gravy for dinner. She licked the bowl a dozen times after the food vanished, as if that would make more turkey appear.

Already I dread her reproachful face tomorrow when she finds Orijen in her bowl as usual.

*
Emily likes digging... in her crate. FRAP or post-poo euphoria?

[Diggy]

[More Diggy]

Rabbit Hunting

Emily's Prey:

Lazy Afternoons

Emily's energy turns on and off. Some afternoons, she can't be bothered to get up:



[news] Our visit to the vet's office was perfect and bribed with cheese. As usual with strangers, Emily went ears down, tail waggy, not a peep, even with a vacc shot. Big hit. Then she slept all afternoon, and got up at 10 pm to chase my ankles and bark at me. H. is learning how to growl with authority.

Pottery, Games, Life as Usual

Taking play pictures of her is difficult, as she stops what she's doing and comes over when the camera is on her. At least she's not a total blur.

[Sit! for the camera]

[What, you didn't take down the Christmas tree, yet?]

-- M. likes the cheery look. Left to him, we'd have the tree out until March. Some People We Know have their tree sitting out all year long, for several years.

*

My mom has always insisted on good dishes and silver silverware, so it was sad to hear Wedgewood went bellyup this year. After it happened to Lennox last year, too.

Mom's been sending the whole Lennox "Consort" line to me, 2-6 pieces at a time by mail and over visits. We now have the full set. This is the only one that acquired an interesting hairline fracture (all the others arrived safe), and is my favorite 'cause it split its side, hee hee.
Emily, privileged puppy that she is, eats out of Koryo Celadon. :

Don't worry. She's not too spoiled. It was just the right size. Her water bowl is a hamster dish.

Wish her luck! Emily's off to the vet for her puppy vaccs in 2 hours.

Anorexia or Pickiness?

Emily is being needy lap-puppy, refusing to eat her nice Orijen puppy food at meal time, and insisting she clamber up on me to have toast with apricot jam, too. Silly puppy!

I have to trick her into eating with the Kong. Wow, food slot machine! Gotta have that!

[mistake] So the Elfstedentocht wasn't on Jan/8. It must have been some other natural ice marathon, or other.

[good news] I keep tabs on dierenasiels, to see who's out there. Iggy Pudd, the Shiba mill rescue that I wasn't allowed to adopt, has finally found a suitable family. Yay!

FRAP, and a few surprises

FRAP, or Frenetic Random Activity Period, is when Emily goes through what we call Cujo Hour. Or what my late grandmother would call, in mildly rude Korean, 지랄발광.

Surprise for H.: holding Emily under running water and rubbing the poo off her butt isn't grossing me out anymore.

Surprise for Emily: an ice-cube is the best toy. It slides, it shoots, it's crunchy. Hey, where'd it go?

Surprise for M.: his wife wanted to take a picture of Emily's heart-shaped poo and put it on the blog. He raised the spousal veto card.

People and Puppies

[Emily fell asleep on my neck. Oi.]

Emily is getting her doses of daily "Socialization." We wrap her up and take her out to say hello to strangers, people and dogs of all ages, have them pet her and feed her cheese, so she'll grow up to be a good member of society.

We had our first Puppy Guest yesterday, our friend Ernst, for dinner and videos. Emily loved Ernst, thought he was the best thing ever, tail waggy, ears back, happy wriggly.

*

Emily doesn't mind vacuum cleaners. I can vacuum her pillow with her sitting on it, and she'll just look at it. When she's in deep sleep, I can do whatever I want.[She can sleep in the oddest ways.]

[I clip her nails and trim her feet hairs when she's dozed off.]

Dirty Things

I caught Emily mid-poo today, and rushed her outside. She was pooing in the air as I clipped the leash on, and dropped a piece before we got out the door. Thankfully, she did the rest of the gooey sticky yuckier part outside. Small favors.

["This way I don't get into trouble."]

The saddest accident so far was when, in her excitement during play, she peed twice in her smelly big white blanket and, having already cut many holes out of it, we had to throw it away. Goodbye, Snow Garden.

H&M got 30 square bricks and laid them over 4 meters of disgusting garden gutter, so she won't go eating snails and worms and rotten leaves, and other yucky things when she goes out to potty. We're suckers for the puppy, we know.

[Before]

dried snails, slugs, worms, caterpillars, bird droppings, old rot, new rot, construction messes, three-year old cigarette butts, centipedes, spiders, gutter mud, stench.

[After]

Nine days of Puppy chaos/24 hours, and sneaking in a few pages a day, I finished, with great regret that it was over, Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate, in my wee 짬시간. It was utterly lovely, enjoyable fun.

Portraits

Puppy pictures are hard because most of the time, it looks something like this:I have to catch her in a drowsy calm moment, between naps:[Whatcha doing?]

[Fan Service]

[Back to Sleep]

Sleep Monster

Emily has three major modes: Cuddle, Frenzy, Sleep. Most of the day she sleeps. I wish she'd do it for a good 8 hours at night.

This winter's been cold in Holland, and today the Elfstedentocht was held (the 11 city race over canals, when it's cold enough to freeze over), first since 96-7. So, on the way home from errands, I bought Emily a baby's bib, lined with fleece. She "wore" it when she was asleep:

[More of a skirt]

To prevent Separation Anxiety (분리불안) when she grows up, we ignore her when we first come in, don't make a big fuss. I stepped out to get scent-free diaper wipes, and came back and called my Mom, all the while not paying attention to scrambly puppy. Where does the puppy go?[Same pose, different place]

She climbed up on the back of my legs and fell asleep while I was talking to Mom. Oi.

ps. She got a bath last night. I picked two nits off her. Evil Bastards.

Pee and Tears

Emily and H. had quite a stressful morning, all because H. wanted to catch 2-3 hours of sleep. Over 3 hours, 4 "accidents" in the house, before 10 am.

H. smacked herself on the head with a rolled-up newspaper for letting Emily down. H. really needs 4 arms to get things done, though.

So, we're on stricter Crate Training Schedule. Emily does not like it much, as it means being woken up every 2 hours to go out and do her business. And the first time we locked her up, the yowling. Cheese helped her through hard times.

Routine, routine, routine![Dirty but Pretty]

ps. No smell sensors for the Internet! Emily looks so fluffy and cute in the photos. What it doesn't tell you: she's so stinky! That's what you get for walking through the garden gutters 6 times a day. Pee Yew! Bath tonight!

Image, Reality, Truth

M. came up with the brilliant plan of providing Emily with burrow space. Romping fosters excitement and mania; burrowing induces calm. Our theory.

Hee hee hee, and it's a lot of safe fun. During the day, Emily plays best alone when hanging out in her snow garden. [Can you find the puppy?]

Now, can you see her?And, yes, that's Captain Keropi, a prezzie from Aunt Freda, and now Emily's favorite toy. We take it away from her when she's about to go Cujo.

Emily is pretty good for an 8 week+1day old puppy. Downtime in her crate is good for her.

[ Or maybe there's no good reason
Why i'm locked up inside
Just cause they wanna hide me
The moon goes bright

The darker they make my night ]

Of course, she romped right in there on her own. And the door's swinging wide open.

[What it looks like from the outside]

All natural melodrama: brought to you by Emily Puppy

A Perfect Day

Perfect Manners Puppy comes with a price.

Going out to Potty: 11 times. (and three #2s too!)
Must watch Emily's every twitch, and predict when she needs to go.
- including three times in the rain. She always picks the most disgusting part of the yard. Once I peeled an earthworm off her leg. She always steps back on her puddle of #1, and stepped on #2 once too. Must wipe her bum, clean her paws, and praise her with cuddling and warming, while picking up her messes, and cleaning up the yard with hot water and broom.

Meals: 4, soaked in warm water, and hand fed one kibble at a time, while practicing "come!" and "sit."

Averting Cujo Hours: 4 times, around 1 hour each of careful interaction and ignoring the bratty behavior, cutting short barking and tantrums before they escalate, and taking away the wrong toys and giving her calming chew toys.

Then, there's the other 7 post-nap playing that must not become Cujo Hours.

Include 30 minute cuddle-walk, greeting strangers for socialization, and you have Emily's 24 hours.

Result: One Perfect Day.
Puppy Parents: Exhausted.

[ETA] That was Sunday. Monday morning, Emily has forgotten everything. Oi.

Cujo Hour

After a power nap, Emily Puppy turns into Evil Monster. I call it her "cujo hour," when my sweet cute baby turns into Dog Hyde. We're trying to keep these short, under 15 minutes, then quickly calm down, but she can go on up to 1 hour, with barking, howling, air-biting. Rampage!

It escalates if she gets the Bunny, so it's off limits for now.

Clean at Last

We gave Emily a bath last night! M. wanted to be cautious, so we skipped washing her face, but I go at her with cotton wipes 3 times a day anyway.

Still a lap junkie:

[Peekaboo!]

Though her second favorite thing is digging at the cardboard crates we set up as the gates to her play pen. H. has to run after her and extract pieces of paper from her mouth.

ESPuppy

Somehow, Emily Puppy seems to know that she's getting a bath today, and is not doing #2 at all, in a futile attempt to delay it.

[Her Nibs]

After her first morning Potty, she ran for the neighbor's again, got garden gunk all over, rolled in something stinky, and came back smelling like a rose garden... that's been dumped with fresh manure.

I brushed it all out, and two huge gobs of eye-boogers, too. But pink stains are here to stay, at least until teething is over. Doesn't she look like Obi-wan Kenobi?

[Use the Force. Snuggle me!]

Say hello to Uncle Shaggy, Emily. Cats don't like him, so he's okay:

Post Trauma

At 5 am Emily had done Potty#1 in front of her crate, before I woke up at 5:20, but that was OK. She's new to the play area, and we only introduced the night tray yesterday. I cleaned up and put the tray over her #1 spot.

We got up again at 7, then at 8, and went out for Potty, which she did. Good girl!

Instead of letting her clamber on my lap, I had her sit at my toes, and she we practiced "Sit" while I hand fed her kibble.

Perfect Manners Puppy.

When Mommy's not being confusing, that is. I've learned my lesson.

Day 3 Trauma Part 2

She slept in her crate, but woke up while we were having dinner, and cried her heart out, cranky. We let her cry because Ian Dunbar and Brian Kilcommons and Cesar Milan say not to comfort her in the middle of bad behavior. That just reinforces it.

We took her out when she calmed down.

Then came evening potty, during which she decided she hated the leash A LOT. Instead of Potty, she pulled and balked and fought it. Then ran straight under the fence to the neighbors. Good thing the leash was on. She CRIED. In the YARD. Like we were MURDERING HER.

So, I had to ignore her after that. M. hand fed her dinner. She was good then.

Bad Mommy taught her some silly rules the first 2 days. Now we have to undo them before it's too late.

Day 3 Trauma Part 1

As with all things, it began with Potty. She made a mess in front of her crate before I woke up, but that wasn't her fault. It was outside her crate, and her playgym blankie touched both #1&#2. Had to cut those parts out.

Later in the day, she did a beautiful Potty outside, both. So I was taken off guard when, after I'd stood up to clean something, she ran to jump on my red cushion. Then prompty peed on it. Trauma! Said my first "No! Bad Puppy!" in the act. *heartbreak*

After that she clambered for my lap again, and I realized I'd started a bad habit. So, more heartbreak, as I kept telling her "No," and keeping her from climbing. Lap time, only when invited is the New House Rule.

Hello 2009

Emily is part cat, part groundhog. She likes burrowing into dark cushy places. This is the old stinky blankie we cover her crate with. It's the playpen next door.[find the puppy]

Of course, laps are best. Insta-snoozer: