This Texas heat is killing me, and our yard! Ugh. I see I’m lagging on my blogging. Man my life has been busy! Harry the dog is keeping me busy at home as well as Sophie. She’s all over the place! She can stand when she’s up against a few objects. She stands in her crib and when she goes up to the dog’s crates she pulls up to a standing position, hanging on the bars for dear life.
We think she’s starting to sign some. She seems to clap for “more” and every now and again we see her do the “milk” sign but she’s not consistent yet. I’m excited about her doing more signs though. Fun, fun!
Today we played peek-a-boo. It’s so fascinating to see a baby actually growing and learning like a person! She looks for things and notices when they are gone. For example, earlier today I was in the bathroom and I guess she didn’t see me leave. She went around the corner and peeked her head around as if to say, “I know you’re in here mommy” and I could see her looking confused. I said, “Sophie! I’m over here!” She turned around and smiled really big and started crawling really quickly over to me.
My little cutie pie is getting so big! She’ll be 9 months on the 28th of this month . . . I can’t believe it! She now has her two bottom teeth all the way in and they are so incredibly cute when she smiles at you. And speaking of smiles she does that just about all the time. It’s so heartwarming. She’s got a lot of hair, David put it in a mohawk after her bath.
Last week Sophie was sick for the first time in her life. I keep saying it’s all the probiotics I add to her food. I’ve added probiotics to her formula since she was 3 weeks old and still do so. Anyway, she had a fever for a couple of days but no infection. The doctor said she had a “summer cold” and we could just give Tylenol and Bendedryl. She bounced back about mid-week last week and now she’s back to being her little happy self!
Crawling is rather speedy and she pulls up on her knees only. She’s not standing yet and I’m perfectly fine with that. She loves Amos and the rest of the dogs. Amos actually just lies there and she is very interested in his big paws and toenails. It’s funny. Noah and Trevor steer clear of her and Jake also just lies there and lets her get really close.
Here is a video of my happy little blue-eyed gal.
I’m still working diligently with Harry and he’s coming along nicely. I sure hope you all can make the competition–yes, you in the front row, I’m talking to you. Here is my schedule for the weekend. The horses being shown that go from mustangs to trained horses will be there as well. We are mingled in the same show. Here is the schedule for the weekend (Legends is the Horse Show):
THURSDAY, SEPT. 17TH
Move in day – Dogs to arrive after 10 AM
5 PM TRAINER’S MEETING – Dining Room in Watt Arena
7PM Trainers/Sponsors/Judges Reception at National Cowgirl Hall of Fame Museum
FRIDAY, SEPT. 18th –
(No ticket required – Open to the public.)
John Justin Arena
8AM – 2PMIdols In-Hand
Legends In-Hand
3PM – 7PMIdols Horse Course
7:30 PMMission :008 Youth Competition
Mustang Magic Draw
Mutt Makeover Preliminary (Large Dirt Arena)
Mutt Makeover Arena
5PM – 6PMMeet the Mutts
SATURDAY, SEPT. 19th
(Ticket required for Saturday Night Finals Performance. Buy tickets here.)
John Justin Arena
8AM – 1PMLegends Horse Course
2 PM Mission :008 Youth Top Ten Finals
4 PMIdols Top Ten Finals
Mutt Makeover Arena
1PM – 2PMMutt Makeover Preliminary(50’ X 50’ Astro Turf Area)
Big weekend for me and Harry. I would post about last week but I’ve slept since then so I have to start with what I remember. . .
Thursday evening my wonderful friend and dog trainer, Misty, and I left town around 8pm and drove to Austin for a weekend planned to hang out with our mentor trainer, Lee Mannix. I decided to take Harry since he needs to be trained everyday for our big competition just around the corner. I was hoping to get some good tips from Lee on Harry and what I can do with him (yes, he did give me some too!)
We stayed with Mom, of course, but she lives in far north Austin and Lee’s training center is in far south Austin. Misty and I made it to his place by 9am on Friday morning and were able to follow him around all day. Then after our big day Lee bought several pounds of shrimp and crawfish and we went to his place on the Blanco River in Wimberly to eat yummy shrimp and hang on the river. Now you must know that Lee is a one-of-a-kind sort of fellow. He’s a remarkable dog trainer, that’s probably saying it lightly. He made the front page of the Austin American Statesman a few Sundays ago. This guy is a love-him-or-hate-him guy. He’s a good ole boy who loves beer and dogs just about the same. So we had some good old fashioned fun on Friday. Lots of laughs. Saturday was another long dog training day and so was today [Sunday]. That guy never stops working! He said since the article came out he’s tripled his business and he wasn’t hurting for work as it was . . .
Harry had a blast on the river! He learned to swim and enjoyed it quite a bit. He also was running around off-leash and having a good time. He’s a natural swimmer and a very great dog. He’ll make someone a really great buddy! Lee kept saying, “Man that is a cool dog. He’s so awesome . . .” Harry also met goats as Lee has some on his property and he didn’t think much of them. He just looked at them and then sat down.
So the weekend was fun but exhausting. My brain hurts and so do my feet. I’m off to bed for now and hope to be able to add more later . . .
I haven’t said much about my poor hound dogs in awhile. I knew this would be the case after that little bundle of cuteness arrived . . . anyway . . . I snapped this darling photo of Sophie and Amos both wanting to go outside. Sophie was banging away on the glass and Amos walks up and, as if in slow motion, she stops and slowly looks up at him like he was the Trojan Horse. It was funny.
The dogs are doing ok. Noah split a toenail in half and it’s been a mess trying to keep him from licking it and we can’t touch his foot or he yelps. He was always a drama queen though so I think he’s more dramatic than he lets on.
And some rather cool dog news . . . I recently started working with a client that lives around the corner from George W’s new house in Dallas. We met outside down the street the other day and I said, “Let’s wait until this lady passes us with her two Scotties . . .” My client looks at me and says, “You know those are the Bush’s dogs, right?” And I looked again as she walked the two very handsome and well-groomed little terriers past us. Sure enough. So I saw the Bush dogs and their dog walker! Sorry no pic.
Harry Pooper, as David calls him, is doing great. His training is starting out nicely and he already sits like a champ on command and lies down. We are working on stay and walking nicely on the leash–nicely being the key word there. His leash skills are lacking.
I walk a couple of Golden Retrievers every Tuesday and Thursday morning and beginning in June I decided walking was not fun for me due to the heat and then the dogs weren’t getting long enough walks to do any good. My friend Michelle let me borrow her bike so I now bike while holding the leash and the dogs can run next to the bike. I do one dog at a time. Anyway, the other day I was riding along and I noticed a woman ahead of us walking her little Chihuahua on a Flexi leash (my pet peeve) while chatting on her cell phone. Riley likes other dogs a little too much and so I thought, well if I speed up he’ll be going too fast to be able to do anything. So I start to speed up. We come to the woman and her little yapper jumps out at Riley and he got all excited and pulled over to the back of the bike. I started to tumble down. I didn’t fall but jumped off the bike and kind of tossed the bike to the ground so I wouldn’t go down with it. Then I try to gather Riley up and get back on; he was being difficult aside from the fact that he’s 90-lbs of goofy Golden Retriever! The woman was just standing there, still on her phone and starts to apologize profusely. I said, “Don’t worry, it’s not your fault” as I’m still gathering myself and the bike and the dog. I hop back on and start to pedal and then realize the chain is off the gear of the bike. Wonderful. It’s only about 92 degrees out. And I hear the woman tell whomever she’s talking to on the phone, “Oh this poor woman, she just fell off of her bike and now the chain is off of it. . . ” I feel like a total moron. I get down and get the chain back on, have black, grease-covered hands and head back to Riley’s house. I laugh now just thinking about it, and even more when I think about the woman giving instant replays to the person on the phone about this poor red-headed fat girl falling off of her bike. So I ordered the K9 Bike Jogger. I’d been eyeing the thing for a few weeks and decided it would be worth the money because I’ve now been biking every week, twice a week for a month and sometimes at home with Noah. The K9 Bike Jogger attaches to the bike and allows the dog only enough room to run but not go behind or in front of the bike so that Chihuahua owners on the phone don’t have to report to their regatta gala friends about biking mishaps.
So far this week has just been full of fun days like that one. I’ve been incredibly busy, tired and I’m very ready for a few days of no dog training! So for now I’m off to bed and back up early to ride my bike with Riley again tomorrow. This week I get to do it 3 x instead of just 2. Say a prayer for me and that poor Chihuahua’s owner. . . .
This will be a long post and hopefully you’ll take the time to read it all because I’ve had a heck of a weekend and would love to share it with all of you! . . . First I’m so blessed to have such a wonderful family and little things will come my way and show me that I need to step down one rung on the ladder of life and not take anything for granted.
Anyway this post isn’t going to be about Sophie entirely but primarily about something I posted to my dog training blog as I have this really great thing that came my way! First about Sophie for those who want updates on that cute little thing! She’s into everything, I mean everything. I’m figuring out what to do with Kelsey and possibly get her to come more often but not sure. I just can’t get anything done at all. The poor thing was crying in her bed the other day for 15 minutes because I was trying to get off the phone with a client but she was frantic about her dog and I couldn’t just let her go. She had called me in desperation so I sat there and listened while Sophie cried in the bed until I could get off the phone! Anyway . . .
She stayed over at Grandparent Greers on Saturday and David and I had 7 dogs at the house over the weekend. One went home on Sunday evening and the other goes home this coming Saturday but the other . . . well keep reading . . .
Sophie’s teeth on her little bottom gums are just about through. They are peeking nicely and one is almost erupted completely, the other not far behind. They are so cute when she gives her little scrunch nosed grin.
I was chosen to be one of ten trainers to participate in the all new Extreme Mutt Makeover. The goal is to have trainers train 10 dogs they are paired with from the Humane Society of North Texas and then have them be highly adoptable at the end of it. The way they will show off these dogs is in conjunction with the Extreme Mustang Makeover which has been run in several states since 2007. Here is my blog post from my dog training blog on Saturday:
Well today I got my dog. My wonderful trainer, Misty, came to the house around 9am and we headed out. It was pouring down rain as we launched the seats in my Honda Element to the sides of the car (they fold upward in my car to leave cargo space); we toweled off and headed to the Humane Society of North Texas in Fort Worth to see what dog I was going to be paired with for my Extreme Mutt Makeover.
We arrived and all 10 other trainers were there and we all gathered in a garage-type area in the back of the shelter, dripping down sweat as the clouds rolled by and the sun came out to play. This event is going to be one whopper and I’m more excited than a kid in a candy store! We have our dogs for 6 weeks and we have to train them for obedience and then anything else we want to show off at the final competition. They said last year they sold 4,000 tickets and we’ll be in a 50 x 50 arena for our judging and competitions–yipes! I’m a little nervous . . . .
Apparently since 2007 they have been doing this Mustang Makeover (more on that here) where they literally take wild mustangs from goverment land and train them over 100 days and then have a huge competition with the winner receivng $25K. The horses are then adoptable. If they were not trained they would spend their lives in a pen and as a woman said to me today, “A wild mustang is better off dead than trapped in a pen.” I’m not a horse person, while I’d love to be one I’m just not educated on the magnificent animals because I’ve never had the honor of being around them to be able to learn more or even know how to train them. I’d love that, I think it’d be great. Here is the video of the winner of 2008’s Mustang Makeover. Just remember this was a wild mustang running free on open-land with no human contact just 100 days before this . . .
The group of dogs we were paired with were all evaluated by the staff and tested for being good with humans, other dogs and not aggressive in any way. The dogs simply are homeless and need training. They don’t have what a trainer would label as a “problem” other than owners that didn’t take the time to train them and give them what they deserve. We are going to do that for these dogs and I’m very happy to be part of it!
We had a lottery drawing and picked a number and 10 dogs were already pre-numbered. I picked #3 and got this darling fuzzy mutt of a dog. We really have no clue what he is but I think he’s one of the youngest of the bunch. I’m guessing he’s no more than 6 months old but his paperwork says 8 months. Here is a slideshow of the morning.
He was named by the shelter (“Pancho”) but they said we could name the dogs something else if we wanted so I had set up for my clients to give me ideas and I had a few that did but Tracy came up with one that David and I liked a lot and it fits him–“Harry”. So he’s now Harry and the Greers.
Alright Sophie is officially growing. Oh, right she’s been doing that all along! Anyway . . . it’s funny how suddenly you look at your baby and think–oh man, she’s really gonna grow up, it’s gonna happen!
My sweet little one is 8 months old now and she’s crawling everywhere, very quickly I might add. She’s also cutting her two bottom teeth and you can see them slightly poking through. They aren’t fully erupted but they are getting there! It’s really cute to see her smile and see those tiny little white tips poking out of that bottom gum. We’ve also got lots of smiles. She smiles all the time and it’s just so darn cute!
She can sit up in a highchair really well but not on her own. She sits for a bit if you prop her up yourself but if she wants to move she’ll flop over to the side, catch herself and then just go into a crawl.
Just yesterday she discovered how to pull up on the bed rails and put her cute little hands on the edge of the bed. She’s not standing but rather on her knees with her hands gripping the top of the bed rail for dear life. She did this when we had put her down for a nap and she didn’t agree that it was nap time. David just peeked the door open and says, “Stacy! Hurry, come here!” I said, “Do I need a camera?!” And so I snapped a pic of her. Now she looks like she is crying but she’s actually doing her huge grin that she does once she’s been crying and then discovers that you are there to save her. It’s real cute.
She also has this cute little “wind-down” thing she does in the car before she’s about to pass out. She’s incredibly loud but we always laugh a lot while she’s doing it. Then suddenly she’s quiet. Here is a snippet of her wind-down. In this video we are on our way to the airport so I’m in the back seat with her. You can see at the end her start to zone out.
Now here she is about 45 seconds after she started the wind-down.
I’ve also got to say that (I posted a link to this on my facebook page for anyone who follows that) I found this incredibly innovative and darling invention for babies and kids. I was searching for something before we left town and somehow came across this website that had these parents giving these things high ratings. I took a look and fell in love just looking at them. They are called Zoobies. They are a toy, a pillow and a blanket all in one! I ordered one for Sophie for the plane ride and she absolutely loves it. I got her the pink hippo and the baby version. The kids versions have blankets that are actually quite large and I wished I had gotten a larger one for when she’s toddling and older. She’ll play with “Hada” (that’s her name, all of Sophie’s toys have names!) and she likes to suck on her tags and her feet. She’s super soft and the blanket is a fleece blanket that is incredibly soft too. I turned her into a blanket on the airplane and Sophie was holding onto Hada and had one corner of the blanket in the other hand while she slept. Now that we’re home I put her in the crib and she literally hugs on her like Linus with his blanket. She plays with Hada when she wakes up too. So I highly recommend a Zoobie for a gift idea for any baby and/or kid!!
Well I need to break this up into a few posts because I have a ton of stuff to throw at ‘cha! Let’s see . . . where to begin . . .
Last Friday David, Sophie and I left for a family trip to Michigan. Sophie’s first plane ride. I had been reading and researching and all kinds of stuff in hopes that we would have a smooth ride and she would be comfy and happy. I packed just about everything I could think of and of course things she didn’t necessarily need but we were prepared to say the least! We had perfect timing for leaving and coming home. Sophie was due for a bottle and a nap both ways the second we began backing out of the terminal. It was just perfect. We also opted to get her a seat for her car seat instead of just holding her. Which was the best move we made. She would not sleep if we held her and she was oh so comfy in her car seat. We fed her in the seat, she was cranky for a minute or two then as soon as those engines revved up she passed out. She slept at least half way thru both flights and then woke up happy and we just took her out of her seat and played with her. She was fine and talked and chewed on the Sky Mall magazine. Here we are on the trip up there.
The weekend was great. We went to Clarkston, Michigan to have a family weekend as a memorial for his late Grandfather (who passed away in May). We went to visit David’s Aunt, Uncle, cousins and all of their babies. His cousin, Angela, lives in Tennessee now so they came from Tennessee for the trip. My brother and sister-in-law live in Chicago so they came from the windy city.
They set up for a photographer to do family pictures where we all had to wear the same shirts and pants. The babies all wore the same too. We took most of the pictures in the photographer’s backyard that was an amazing sight to see! You can’t describe it, you just have to see it. Anyway, here is a slide show of the family pictures. Some are from the photographer and some are pics I took with my own camera.
The trip was short but great. We ate a lot of yummy food and just sat in the nice 75 degree weather. It was just gorgeous up there! . . . . Margret and Dave have an awesome backyard designed with kids in mind! The grass is soft and plush, there is a sand box, pea gravel under the tree and loads of space. We all had a great time. Stay tuned for Scene II of The Greer Chronicles . . . . Here is a little snippet of Sophie in the swing.
Well it’s here. The crawl. She’s an official crawler. Boo hoo my days of a bit of freedom are over. It only grows from here. But she’s absolutely the cutest thing on the planet. Do all mothers think that? I mean I really do think she’s just the cutest thing ever. I could just squeeze her all day!
Today I went in after she had a nap mid-day and she was awake and talking to herself. She hears me when I come in and I always see that just adorable face peering over the top of her crib bumper since she’s always on her tummy in there. She’s got a grin from ear to ear. I could smell that she had a poopy diaper from the second I walked in. I walked over to the crib and peered over and said, “Do you have a poopy diaper even with that smile?” And I sort of laughed. She started to laugh at me and then I laughed harder and so did she and we sat there laughing literally at each other for about 1 full minute. It was so cute. Then I grabbed her up to smooch all over her.
We are packing for Sophie’s first [air] plane ride. We are going to Michigan to see David’s family (Aunt, Uncle and cousins, etc.) for the weekend and we are all flying. I’m excited and nervous as I sure hope she’s a little darling on the plane. I’ve been reading a blog I found that a flight attendant wrote just for people who fly with kids. What a wealth of great info that has been! So, I think we’ll be all set.
I had to get her a few new outfits that are long-sleeved, namely PJs, since she’s too big for all the ones she has. She wears a 12-18 month now in just about everything. She’s so long! I’m guessing she’s very close to 20-lbs because she is almost in a size 4 diaper too and that is for 22-37 lbs. Big girl!
Ok. Here is a video of her crawling. Don’t you just want to grab her up and eat her? She’s just delicious.
First off Sophie’s still and Grandma and Grandpa Greers as I type this. She spent the night last night and so David and I went on a date. We went to dinner and to see Harry Potter. It was nice but Sophie hasn’t been away from us in a few months now and I discovered that I really missed her all night. David woke up this morning and was happy to sleep in. I can’t sleep in. Too much to do and I’m used to getting up with the cutie pie anyway. So I’ll try to get some things done before we meet to go get her.
Onto some Litta News (Litta is Sophie, BTW) . . . Sophie’s on the move big time and she mixes in actual baby crawling with the army crawl. She still feels more comfortable army crawling and can do it pretty quickly but she’ll stop, put that hiney in the air, lift her legs and then move some more. It’s funny. You can see the gears moving in her little head trying to figure it all out. She also likes to crawl over to my bunny slippers, which I wear all the time, and grab at them. Pretty cute. I took this cute shot of her. I said, “Whatcha got there?” and she looked right up at the camera so here it is.
Due to all her new found adventures she’s got some pretty red knees. David took some old socks of hers and cut them to make some knee pads.
This has been a much better week for me in many ways than last week–whew! First of all what is up with all this heat? My grass is angry at the sun. It’s all shriveling and wilty. I feel sorry for it. I actually give it pep talks in the mornings–come on, hang in there, you can do it! Anyway, I never did plant any flowers or anything in the beds and I suppose that’s a good thing because they may not have survived.
I am having loads of fun riding my bike every Tuesday and Thursday with this dog that I am supposed to walk. I started walking him (yes like a dog walker, even though this isn’t really what I do I am doing this for the money) back in April when it wasn’t so bad. Once this heat hit I was re-thinking the whole job. It is just too hot to walk long enough to really get the dog exercised. So I had a light bulb go off and I thought–what if I had a bike and I rode a bike and held his leash? He could run and we could go for shorter distances and for shorter time spans. So my good friend Michelle had a bike she never uses and she let me borrow it. So I load it in my car each week and I’ve been biking with him for about a week and a half now. Funny thing is he’s worn out after 8 minutes. Seriously, it’s the shortest trip ever. He’s so tired that he’s lagging behind the bike and I have to spout out words of encouragement to keep him trucking along. He’s insanely cute. A huge white Golden Retriever named Riley. Big guy, known as the “English Golden” so they are bigger and blockier. He’s about 90-lbs. He’s the sweetest thing in the world.
I also have taken Noah a few times myself in our neighborhood because he can keep up better than anyone else. We have gone after dusk when the pavement isn’t so hot and he’s always excited about it. I’m going to try to get David to get some of it on video. It’s really cute with my big booty on this small little cruiser bike and a dog running next to me.
Onto the little one. She’s still only army crawling but she’s attempting the full crawl for a couple of seconds at a time. She’s just about there. And she’s quite speedy. I am vacuuming even more than usual (yeah who’d have thought that was possible) to keep the hair and debris off the floor. I still pick her up and I have to use the sticky roller to get the hair off of her! Poor little girl. She doesn’t meet health code standards.
The other morning I went to let one of the dogs outside and I put her bottle on her highchair tray. I came back and she was feeding herself. She’s never done that so I got a picture. Cutie. She’s able to do some problem solving. David gave her some magnets and she studied them for quite a while.
However the good news is that the jumperoo is still a saving grace. She loves to bounce in that thing still . . . for now. Here she is going to town!
The Greer Blog 