Cuteness Overload

Some observations over the last few days with the new pup:

Charley trained me for parenthood. Keaton retrained me for pet parenthood. There are so many things that I forgot about puppies that I now remember, and so many things that I will do differently with Riese because I have Keaton. When we got Charley, I had no clue what I was doing at all. I would carry him around everywhere and probably didn't help with his separation anxiety because I was so attached to him. When Keaton arrived, I was also clueless. I also carried him around everywhere, and he had a tougher time going to sleep on his own because I didn't want to put him down. Now that Riese is here, I have somewhat of a clue of what I'm doing. When he's sleepy, I *usually* put him in his crate so he gets used to it. So far, he's transitioned well. I think I am finally learning some kind of balance...maybe. I guess we will see. Right now I'm sitting in a pile of laundry that needs to be folded, on a carpet that needs to be vacuumed. Such is life. I guess we will see how Mr. Riese reacts to the vacuum this afternoon.

So far, Riese seems to be a pretty laid back little guy. He's sweet and very attentive. He licks less than Charley (so far). He likes kids and other animals. He will come to you when you call him, and is starting to learn that we go outside to go potty. We praise him a lot when he does so. Keaton even goes over and pets him and says "Good boy potty outside!" Riese even seems to be catching on when I tell him to sit!

Yesterday was kind of a 3-ring circus at our house. Keaton has been moody (getting 2 year molars now!) and is over-excited about Riese, so getting him to nap was nearly impossible. He would lay down and then sit right back up and say, "I'm awake!". It took me about 30 minutes, but I finally convinced him to sleep. As soon as that was over, I came out to the living room and had 5 minutes of time to myself before Riese woke up from his nap. He had the most energy he'd had all day, so I took him outside and tried to wear him out. When he started getting tired, we came back inside, and Keaton woke up. Scratch that, Grumpy Keaton woke up. I thought it might be nice to have Riese sit on Keaton's lap in the beanbag chair so the two could be together and Keaton could regroup a bit. The result was about 30 minutes of pure cute. They were so adorable together, I took about 100 pictures. Check out Riese- The Album for that photo session. Riese is not a morning puppy, so when Keaton's wide awake and wanting to play, Riese has been passed out. I let the two sit in the beanbag again this morning, and Keaton hugged Riese and said, "I love you, puppy!" Heart.Melting.

I think that's about it for now. Riese is asleep and I'm now folding the laundry instead of just sitting on it. Maybe I WILL get something done today!! :)

-Ash