2 months in

It's been 2 months now, and everyone - including all 3 dogs - is still alive.

Sherman is bigger than Sadie - he passed her up a while ago, and he's only 6 months old. His paws are huge, and I get the feeling he'll eventually pass up Sarge in size as well. Right now it is a bit irritating to have a 55lb puppy running around and he is a spaz and a half. When it comes to food, he is the most enthusiastic animal on the planet. But if he is sleeping, I truly think a nuclear bomb could go off and he wouldn't care. He isn't deaf either - he responds to sound anytime it is in the Kitchen. He loves Josh, though it's probably because he drops the most food on the floor and often will simply feed Sherman just because he likes to have his hands licked.

Sadie and Sarge have calmed down into normal dogs. Sadie is always the first to bark when there is something wrong and she always does the rounds at night to be sure everyone is accounted for. She is a very sweet dog and loves me the most, always laying down next to me and on the floor at the foot of the bed while I'm sleeping. Sarge is like a normal dog now that he is on the anti-inflammatory medication and glucosamine for his hip displaysia. He jumps and plays and can almost run as fast as Sadie. He is most definitely Miguel's dog.

Josh is talking more and more all of the time. He loves Sherman and will feed him at any chance (as stated before, just because he likes to have his hands licked). He can't say Sherman - he says it as "But-ton." The other day I heard him say, "shower" and he said it correctly so I asked him to say, "Sure" he repeated it. I asked him to say, "men" he repeated it. I asked him to say "Sher-man" and he said, BUT-TON. He looked quite proud of himself.

Katie is prettier and prettier everyday. As a mom, I am required to say that. She won't smile for the camera yet as she is quite interested in what is going on when we get the camera out. She looks quite interested in things though. She still has a head full of hair which refuses to be tamed.

Christmas was fabulous - Josh loves his scoot around toys and Elmo doll. Katie loves her clothes. The dogs are still working on their big rawhide bones. Life is good for us right now.

Our first "project"

We wanted Josh to make our Christmas cards this year, so I bought some markers and construction paper and a few Sesame Street stickers.

He contributed to some of the best Christmas Cards ever! We really enjoyed watching him too. It was his first adventure with markers. Crayons are for every-day, and markers are for special occasions.

Thank goodness for washable markers.

In their spare time

Daddy and Josh Rock out with Rockband!


and yes - that is Katie crying in the background...I guess she doesn't like to rock.

First Family Visit

The first weekend in November - including Halloween - we were happy to play host to my mom and my sister's family. I was quite excited because it was the first time I was going to see my nephew Gavin, and also because I hadn't seen them in almost 2 years - and Philip I hadn't seen in over 2 years!

We didn't have anything planned...just wanted to hang out. The house was (as expected) a complete zoo with 5 adults, 3 kids and 3 dogs in our small space, but I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent together. Miguel and Philip played Guitar Hero 3. We all stayed up late every night and managed to sleep in late in the mornings (yes, even Josh). We even had pictures taken of the kids together, with Katie in her beautiful, handmade blessing dress (thank you again, Mom).

We didn't do much for Halloween. People don't seem to go trick-or-treating here. It is more common to see the various church parking lots (any denomination) filled with "trunk"-or-treaters. In fact, our first 2 Halloweens here we never even saw any kids out. We did take pictures of our kids in their costumes though. Gavin made an adorable tiger, Josh was Yoda (yep, again) and Katie was decked out in the pumpkin gear.

We actually went to the Zoo one of the days they were here. It was great! Nashville has a much better zoo than I expected. We ended up buying a membership and for the next year, the Felix family now has something to do that won't cost anything but the gas to get there - and thankfully, it isn't far.

After a week, they all went home and normalcy has returned to our home. Josh misses the excitement, I think, but not the chaos. He has been able to return to his regular routine, which my sanity appreciates.

Katie has arrived

Kathryn Elizabeth was welcomed into this world after an uneventful labor. I will spare you the grisly details (though there aren't many).

She weighed a healthy 9lbs and 7ozs and is 21 inches long. She was 4 days past her due date, arriving on October 16th. She is a bit jaundiced-looking in one of these pictures, but we are hoping we don't have to deal with a return hospital-stay like we did with Josh. So far she is nursing healthily and is much more alert than I remember Josh being.

And yes, she has 2 chins and no neck...

The most common question we have been posed is, "How has Josh reacted to her?" Here is the answer:

Miguel's Birthday and a Baby Update

October 2nd was Miguel's 27th birthday. To celebrate, we went out to dinner for some good southern food. He received a few cards, some games and accessories for his Xbox and a Star Wars Collectible. As always, Miguel's birthday started on September 29th with a "King-for-a-day" event - in other words, we watched College Football all day and he got to choose everything we ate. He even decided no cake, but Key-Lime Pie. I admit I appreciated this as I could buy the pie and cake would have meant my having to allow my feet to swell up to humongous as I baked a cake. His birthday then continued through October 3rd, with his choosing special things for us to do and his being treated even "specialer" than he is normally.

For his Birthday dinner actually ON his birthday, we didn't go too far, because we are still waiting for our 2nd child to make her appearance any day now. We don't often take pictures of Miguel and myself - especially not me in my huge-condition. But, I figured a birthday and probably our last *big* outing before the baby comes, is a good reason. So here we all are.

I've even included a "belly-shot" for you to ogle. I am officially 38weeks, 4 days pregnant in these pictures. That is exactly the day I went into labor with Josh. We'll see how long this one decides to cook. Just so you all know, I predicted this child would be late when I first found out I was pregnant. I figured Josh was such an easy pregnancy, a short labor and an easy baby that this one is bound to be a hellish pregnancy (which it hasn't been, but it's not been as easy as Josh was), a crazy delivery and then the child will be a hellion and drive us completely insane. All because we had the "easy" one first.

I am now 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant and it just seems to keep going. Every day for the past 10 or so days, Miguel has said, "Tonight's the night honey, get ready." But nothing happens. I certainly haven't had the urgent feeling of needing to get everything ready yet, so I think we may truly be in for the long haul.

So here you go, the belly-shot you have all been waiting for:
And for those of you comparing the 38 week shot from last time with this one, please note, I am wearing the same pants in both pictures. I didn't think to try and get me from the same angle. And yes - I feel much bigger this time.

The Joys of a Good Rain

We've had quite a dry summer out here in Middle-Tennessee. You see, in the Mid-South, when you don't have a good thunder-booming rainstorm at least every other week, you manage to earn yourself the title of "drought" even when it's rained a few times and even if the lawns are all still green. This is quite a new philosophy for this California-girl. I like myself a good rainstorm, don't get me wrong, but when you have 3 dogs and the back-yard looks like you have 3 dogs, you end up with...

...mud.

Not just mud - but red clay that makes itself quite obvious as the wet dogs have shaken their coats in the ecru/almond-colored kitchen. Let's just say, I wait for it all to dry, sweep up what I can and then take bets as to when it will rain again and if it's worth it to mop now or later. Sadly, we end up waiting, but inevitably it rains the day after we mop. It's like when you wash your car. But I digress.

So this year, we're in a drought because it's only rained five times instead of twenty-five, and we FINALLY had our first good rain of the season. Sarge and Sadie, though they may be part Labrador, don't seem to appreciate the rain. Sherman, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy it. And the mud. And rolling in it.

This picture was after he had already dried off quite a bit. Notice the ground is not soaking wet? We usually wait for them to dry and then brush them, but this was bath-worthy.

At least they left some of the mud outside...After Sherman's bath, we waited for the tub to dry completely and I was able to use a brush and dust-pan to sweep up the dirt Miguel washed off of him out of the tub.

We're still not out of the drought and yes, our lawn did eventually die along with everyone elses'. I no longer make fun of our Southern Drought, and I did learn a lot about perspective this summer. I also learned a third dog doesn't really make things that much worse when you have to clean up the mud after it rains.

Josh's Headwound

Josh managed to get his first big boo-boo.

Background. My son is 19 months old. He runs everywhere he goes. He doesn't look where he is going most of the time, and like most toddlers, runs into walls and trips over toys and dogs. Somehow he has never managed to whack his head on the brick hearth. I know it is something which is bound to happen, but hasn't yet. He takes off, picks up speed and then WHAM! runs into the wall because he turned around to look for Dad or a dog.

More background. We keep Josh out of the bedrooms and bathroom during the day. He has pretty much free reign of the rest of the house (within reason) but we don't leave those rooms open for him to roam around in. When we're in those rooms with him it's no big deal. When we want to leave those rooms we aren't willing to chase Josh to get him out. At first he thought we would be up for the "let's chase Josh" game, but he soon learned otherwise, I know, we're no fun. We've managed to train him so he will exit the room when we turn the lights out and tell him we're all done.

And now for the main event of our story. Josh was with Miguel in the back bedroom (his own room) and was busy getting into things. Miguel was done with whatever he was doing in there and had turned off the light and was calling Josh to get him to exit the room. Josh takes off at a run (as always) and we hear, THUNK and Josh starts wailing. This is highly unusual for Josh, as he is most often a thunk-*dazed-look*-pick-myself-up-and-try-again kid. Miguel immediately turns on the light and picks Josh up. Josh already has a blue line running down the middle of his forehead.

It turns out - Josh was running in the general direction of the door, tripped over a fan we had *not quite* scooted into the corner and hit his head on a corner right next to the doorway. Smack-dab in the center of his forehead, he has a vertical line.

We immediately start to try and ice it because it started to swell right away, but Josh was much more interested in playing with the baggie of ice than he was in putting it on his forehead (first clue he was fine). He also learned the word, "Ice" that night and often asks for it in his drinks now. We figured we needed to watch him for awhile to make sure he didn't have a concussion or anything and after awhile I felt like the worst mom in the world.

I mean, who else would crack up and say, "My kid looks like an alien from Star Trek" when her baby has a ginormous bruise/goose-egg on his head, and continuation bruising on the tip of his nose and middle of his upper lip?

He was so pitiful when he was crying. Then 5 minutes later he started acting normal and I was telling Miguel to get the camera so we could document our son's alien-look. Miguel was not having any of it. He agreed with the "worst mom - EVER" idea when I went and got the camera myself.

It's really too bad, the pictures don't do it the justice it deserves. The second picture is a bit blurry, but it shows another angle. He really was pitiful, and I felt bad for him. Obviously it hurt, but nothing permanent and he's all healed and on to other bruises....for now.

Josh and Sherman update

Josh updates - Josh likes to "kiss the baby." He'll come over and kiss my tummy whenever I say that. In fact, the other day Josh was laying on the floor and Sarge was near him. I told Sarge to kiss the baby in an effort to get Josh's face washed. Sarge tried to lick him, but Josh was too busy struggling to push Sarge out of the way to stand up. He finally made it up and pushed Sarge aside and came over and kissed my belly. I laughed pretty well at that when I realized what had happened.

Late last week Josh just started talking more and more. He says things we've taught him on his own rather than being prompted now. He woke up from his nap on Saturday and told Miguel, "What's up?" We really have a great time with him.

I'm not sure if Josh really gets it that there is a baby coming into our house soon. He recently started pointing to babies and saying, "baby" but other than kissing my belly, he seems pretty clueless. We do our best to mention the new baby coming and that Josh's going to be a big brother. We've tried to stop referring to Josh as a baby - just a little boy or big boy when he does something grand. I don't know what else we can do, so tips are welcomed.
Sherman update - As you can see from the pictures, he's getting bigger and bigger all the time. The introduction pictures were from when he was 6 weeks old. This post's pictures he is 13 weeks. He's doing really well with his training. He is only pottying outside (if only baby humans could potty train by 13 weeks...) and he is learning from the older dogs all the time. He already knows he needs to wait until he is told he is allowed to eat something before eating it. He seems very smart is is OH SO CUTE!!!

I suppose that's everything new for now. No sign of the new baby coming yet. I'll be sure to have Miguel update this when she decides to show herself to the world.

General Family Update

I've been waiting for something cool to report before updating this site, but nothing cool has happened recently. We're boring people, I guess.

My belly is getting bigger and bigger. I swear, at 34 weeks along this time I was as big or bigger than I was when I delivered Josh. All of my maternity clothes are already too tight in the belly. I wonder what I will wear to work every single day. Thank goodness there are only 3 more weeks of having to figure out what "business casual" means when I'm big and full of baby. One of these days I will take a better picture so you can all ogle the belly, but until then, this one will have to suffice (the dogs are Sarge and Sherman).


Let's see - oh, we have a sad update on the red Houdini-dog we fostered for awhile (see Felix Family Animal Shelter entry, I dubbed her Houdini after that entry was made, as she just appears and disappears from our fenced backyard). She was running around the neighborhood the other night and was hit by a car. She was still alive and not visibly bleeding, though she wouldn't stand up. The person who hit her (a police-man, actually) went and let her owners know what happened. They came and got her and were asking around if anyone knew of any 24hr vet services. It was really sad. She had sort-of become the neighborhood dog. Everyone in the neighborhood knew her and she just roamed around and visited everyone. There was a bit of a confrontation between the owner and a dog-lover from the next block over. Miguel asked the owner if he was going to keep her in his yard now. The owner didn't care for that and started spouting off. The young guy from the next block over chimed in about how irresponsible it was to let her roam around and then Miguel was holding the kid back telling him to calm down. The kid went BALLISTIC!!! trying to get to the owner. It was funny to see this kid go from a normal mature person into ghetto-I'm-gonna-kill-you mode. As funny as it was, it still was sad to see Houdini taken away so obviously in pain. As annoying as she could be, we miss her.This picture is Josh holding Sherman's tail (not an unusual event) and Sadie getting ready to teach Sherman a lesson.

Miguel and I have both been recently released from our callings at church. Miguel was definitely sad about it as he really enjoyed teaching the Gospel Doctrine class. I was more sad than I thought I would be; I was the Enrichment Counselor in the Relief Society (aka - 2nd counselor). I'm not crafty in any way, so I was surprised to be put into that calling in the first place, but I learned some things. As much work as it was, I enjoyed working closely with the other sisters in the presidency. We'll see where we both end up next. Our little branch isn't big enough for us to be out of callings for too long.

That's it for now. I will post Josh updates separate, as I'm sure it'll be long. More puppy pictures to come as well...Sherman is getting SO BIG!!!!

Introducing....Sherman

So Miguel did it. He got himself a puppy. Wait, before Miguel gets defensive, Miguel got Josh a puppy. A little boy black lab puppy - very possibly a pure-bred. We found him on Craig's list and they wanted $50 for each puppy. I guess the dad is pure-bred, AKC registered, and has no family history of hip displaysia, thank goodness. The mom they aren't so sure about. She was a rescue who was supposedly spayed - HAHA - and also supposedly pure-bred. Regardless of blood-status, I wasn't about to pay for a puppy. Haven't you heard the saying, "There's no such thing as a free puppy?" So I said no. Miguel eventually talked the guy down to $30 and Miguel is paying for everything - shots, neutering, etc - out of his own allowance (yes, our budget gives each of us an "allowance").

Anywho - after 3 days of namelessness, I suggested Sherman. Miguel wanted something which started with an S to go with the other dogs (Sarge and Sadie), but we couldn't think of anything we both liked. I remembered Rocky and Bullwinkle and the "Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman" cartoon. I thought it would be funny to have a puppy named Sherman, and Miguel agreed. His reasoning was different from mine, though. He wanted to name him Sherman after General Sherman, as a slap-in-the-face to any Southern-pride rednecks. This makes me laugh, at least. Regardless of our reasons, we finally decided on a name and it's Sherman.

Sherman follows Josh around and pulls at his clothes. Josh thinks it is great to have an animal smaller than him. It hasn't taken Josh very long to learn to be gentle, so he hasn't tried to pick Sherman up by the hair (yes, hair, not skin) recently. Josh pets him nicely and loves it when the puppy "plays" with him, though the little needle-teeth come out sometimes and Josh occasionally ends up crying...oh well. They'll both figure it out. It's fun to watch Josh carry the dog toys around and the puppy chasing him with his little puppy run.

Sadie loves the puppy. She licks him and makes sure he is safe. She comes and gets us when he cries. She plays with him and lets him play with her. Sarge, on the other hand has taken awhile to warm up to the puppy. He would growl at him at first, but has since started playing with him and even allowing him to sleep next to him, so long as it isn't on his bed. He won't allow the puppy to take his toys either. It's pretty funny to see the 70lbs dog growling at the little 3.5lbs dog; and funny to see how stubborn the puppy can be. Sometimes it takes Sarge grabbing him by the neck and knocking him over before Sherman will belly-up.

Sherman is taking very well to potty training. As long as we're paying attention to him, we don't have any accidents in the house. He even lets us know he needs to go out sometimes, whining at the back-door. He's only 7 weeks, so we know we have a while of inconsistency to go, but we're pleased so far.

So no more dogs for us. At least, not until we have a bigger house...

Like a creepy cat lady, but with dogs...

Our house has recently been a foster home to random animals within the neighborhood. Miguel jokes that we are becoming "that family with all the dogs" and we'll end up with a huge pack of them and end up destitute. Ok, so we're not seriously that insane. We do like to help out animals when we find them or even foster for a few days when we discover or suspect mistreatment. We haven't kept one...yet...but I know it is coming, as Miguel seems to be on the prowl for another dog. I'm ok with our getting another dog, but I'm not interested in helping to house-train another puppy. We'll see what happens.

So our most recent acquisition has been a yellow-lab mix named Bella. She is awfully cute, has short short hair and is very energetic. Miguel found her on craigs' list and thought she would make our fun little family a bit bigger. She is about 14 weeks old and was kept from having to go to the pound when her owner was deployed to Iraq. The family who took her has 2 small kids and must not have had any idea what it would be like to house-train a puppy without a fenced yard. They decided as much as they loved her, it was time to pass her along because they couldn't handle her.

So our crazy-family enters the picture. Bella seems to get along with the other dogs ok, but she seems to be quite high maintenance. She won't submit to the older/bigger dogs (stubborn little thing), she gets upset if she is not able to sit on the couch and she has no concept of the word No. She doesn't act as though she has ever been disciplined, she digs and she is aspiring to become Houdini - she attempts to leave the yard at every available opportunity. She also proved her previous owner exaggerating when he said she is just about potty trained, as she gives no indication of needing to go outside, and when she is outside, she won't do her "business" until we've come back into the house. We kept her for about 3 days before Miguel decided he didn't want her and passed her along to someone new - someone without any other dogs and with older kids to tire out the high-energy animal. Bye Bye Bella, as cute as you are, I won't miss you.

We handed Bella off to her new owners on a Saturday morning. The following Tuesday, Miguel was in Petsmart and had both Sarge and Sadie with him. He sees Bella, but doesn't think it is really her because the owner is not who we handed her off to. Miguel is a bit puzzled because our dogs aren't going crazy, it's as if they know this little yellow thing, and Miguel mentions to the lady that we were fostering a dog who looked exactly like the dog in her possession. She looks a bit embarrassed and admits her husband found the dog with no collar and after having her for a couple of days decided they love her and want to keep her - but asked us if we wanted her back. Bella looked extremely pampered and happy, so Miguel told her the people we gave her to don't deserve her if they can't keep her in the yard and he let it go at that (and no, Miguel isn't heartless, but this dog was such a handful that I'm sure it's better this way). So Bella has hopefully found her permanent home.

Life at a Year and 5 Months

My son doesn't watch much TV. He is usually much too busy pulling all of his toys out of his toybox and spreading them about the part of the house he can get to. Occasionally he stops and will look at the TV - especially if he hears Elmo. In the mornings it is usually childrens' shows on TV or the news, depending on whether Miguel is watching it or not.

In addition to Elmo, Josh also likes a show called, "The Big, Comfy, Couch" which is about a clown and her doll who hang out on the Big, Comfy Couch and talk about various child-friendly, educational things - like having a bad day, or being rude, or sharing. There is usually a song (my fav being about your belly button), or dance routine of some kind and the main clown usually reads a story at some point. At the end of the show, she always cleans up after herself (my favorite part), claiming, "I made the mess, so I have to clean up, it's only fair!." But I digress...

This was the first TV show Josh ever showed interest in, so whenever we think of it we'll turn it on in the mornings. At the beginning of the show she always does a stretch routine on this big rug that looks like a clock. Recently, Josh has taken to joining in. When Loonette says she is going to do her clock-rug-stretch and lays down on her rug, he'll lay down and put his legs in the air. He doesn't really follow along, but when Miguel and I realized what he was doing we cracked up. I guess he does it whenever the show is on now. It makes me laugh. I have only ever seen 1 other set of kids "interact" with the TV and I don't remember doing it when I was a kid. He also will wave to her when she waves at the beginning of the show.

As for what he does the rest of the day - he eats 'Banananas' and carries his toys around the house. He usually has cars strewn everywhere. He talks ALL the time, in this Josh-gibberish that we can't understand. He practically runs everywhere he goes, which can be pretty entertaining when there are toys all over the floor because he trips and falls over things all the time. Then again, he trips and falls over nothing at times too...

Here is a little video of Josh just being Josh. Sorry it's a bit blurry, but he's talking and running around like he does every day, so I thought you might enjoy:

Josh Loves the Dogs

I'm very excited about this post - I'm a nerd, regardless of if I try and hide it. I love technology.

I found a way to post videos of my kid on my blog.

So here it is - the first one. This was last Sunday after church.

Josh has learned a few things about the dogs. He knows he can push them out of his way. He knows Sadie will just sit there and let him use her as a step-stool. He also knows the signal to get Sarge to speak. The other night I was changing Josh's diaper. He was not where he could see Miguel, but he could hear him; Miguel was telling Sarge to speak. What does Josh do? He started making the signal! I laughed pretty well with that one.

I laughed again today. Miguel took Sadie to the vet (her eyes have been weeping and we can't tell why, though she is not acting sick). Sadie barked while they were in the waiting room and Josh told her to, "Shut up!" What terrible parents we are that we have told the dogs to Shut up enough that Josh knows...And sadly, there was no way for any onlookers to know that we don't actually tell Josh to shut up! Thankfully he didn't say it again. I suppose we get to really start thinking more about what we say before we say it now, here we thought we had been being pretty good about teaching our kid manners. I'm sure this is just the beginning...

Felix Family Animal Rescue

So the cat left us on Saturday morning. Wednesday comes around and Miguel notices a dog hanging around our back fence in the morning. He saw it had a collar on, but didn't recognize the dog. Dogs are not unusual in our neighborhood; we can see 5 when you look out of our back-door, thanks to chain link fences.

The little boy next door knocked on our door in the evening and he had this same dog with him. Miguel went outside and took pity on the dog and invited her in so she could eat. She drank a lot of water and ate all of the food she was offered. Her tag was from the Humane Society and she looked very young. She played a bit with Sarge and Sadie and I noticed she has recently been spayed - her tummy was shaved and her scar looked recent.

The Humane Society phone number was on the tag, but they were already closed for the evening. So we got stuck with her for the night. We put her out with the other dogs for awhile, and they ran around and played like she'd been there forever. Later on when we brought them into the house is when things got more interesting. She would go up to Miguel to get petted, and Sarge would bark this low bark at her. It was not something I had ever seen him do. She finally got sick of it and tried to play with him and Sarge and her went at it. It was bound to happen - they all needed to determine their places in the "pack." It sounded like they were going to rip each other to pieces.

She won.

Miguel was very disappointed in his dog. Here are some pictures so you can understand why.

She isn't even half his size!!!!

So after she positioned herself at the top of the pack, we had a heck of a time getting the dogs to listen to us because she didn't know the commands we use. Thank goodness I was going to be at work the next day...poor Miguel.

He called the Humane Society and they gave us 2 phone numbers, neither worked. So he called them back and they gave us an address. Note to self - don't give Humane Society my information because they will just give it out over the phone to strangers. After I got home, Miguel walked the dog to the house (just around the block) and no one was home. We ran some errands and tried again and the woman who took her from us gave us the feeling it wouldn't surprise us if we see the dog again. We figure if she shows up again we'll just take her back to the human society.

So we're back to normal with our 2 dogs and 1 kid.

Brief Visitor

Last Thursday was an interesting day. Miguel woke up and...well, let me use his words:

I woke up and noticed the dogs weren't in the house so I went in the backyard to check on them. I noticed that Sarge had one of Joanne's athletic socks in his mouth. I instantly got irritated that he managed to sneak it outside of the house. I walked outside and gave him the command "Out! - Out!" which for him means to drop whatever he has in his mouth. After he dropped the sock I saw it RUN across the lawn. It scared the hell out of me. Both dogs took off after the moving sock again and cornered it. "Lay down! Stay!" I commanded. I walked up to the moving sock and realized that it was not a moving sock at all, it was a kitten!

I picked the kitten up and brought it in the house. It INSTANTLY ran to the dogs water bowl and drank for about 2 minutes. I then offered it some dog food and it ate way too much than what a kitten should eat.

Luckily my dogs didn't hurt it, and in fact my dogs just licked it. It was kind of cute watching the dogs play with the kitten. Sarge was licking it so much that the kitten looked like it fell into a pool.

So Miguel took care of the kitten on Thursday, and I posted pictures of it on Craigslist and Freecycle on Friday morning. We had responses on Saturday morning and by mid-day a seemingly loving family arrived and took the little beast off of our hands for good.

Needless to say, 2 large dogs (regardless of how playful and loving) combined with our toddler and a sleep-deprived Miguel don't mix well and the kitten spent some quality time in the bathtub on Thursday and Friday. He was much more playful and fun on Friday so we got our kitten-fix for awhile. Thankfully there were no "accidents" in the house, and hopefully 2 days of dog food won't stunt its growth too badly. Miguel ended up with battle scars from trying to "unstuck" the kitten from under the couch, but other than that, we came out unscathed. Hopefully Josh throwing the kitten into the fireplace once didn't cause any permanent damage...I think he does better with bigger animals at this age, though the path to "gentle" has at least now been introduced.

More adventures will be posted soon...as we've recently acquired another "visitor." Stay tuned.

First Attempt at this

Ok, so we Felix's have never had a blog, so we'll see how this goes...

To update you on our family, within the last year we've purchased our first home, taken in 2 dogs and found out we're expecting our second child.

I'm now a little more than half-way done cooking this second kid. They tell us it is a girl, but we'll believe it when we see it, as there was no proof in the ultrasound. I have another ultrasound in 3 weeks, so hopefully we'll have some confirmation then. If not, it'll be a surprise! We still don't have any names. Miguel insists it's his "turn" to name the baby...we'll see.

The dogs turned 1 a couple of weeks ago. It's hilarious to us to know they are 4 months younger than Josh, yet are so much bigger and much more eager to listen to us! Sarge has hip displaysia and takes medicine every day for it. He is doing so much better, we aren't afraid of losing him for a good-long-while now. Sadie is as much of a spaz as ever. We've decided she is slowly recovering from multi-personality-disorder, as she is deciding more and more she likes Miguel all the time, rather than just every other day or so.

Our 16-month-old just doesn't seem to get time-out yet, but definitely knows what he is not supposed to do. We will keep plugging away at the time-out thing until he gets it. We do our best to just be consistent. Now the trick is getting him to eat what we cook. Last night he would have none of the stir fry I made. He made the greatest faces, I should have taken a picture. He didn't eat much, but he's still alive. I wouldn't give him any bread (a staple of his picky-ness). He wasn't too happy about it, but he will understand - sooner-or-later - that he's just gonna have to eat what we make, or he'll starve. We'll figure out this parenting thing yet.

OK, that's good enough for now. I've posted some pictures from the puppies' birthday weekend. They hung out with some other dogs while we looked on. Josh loved every minute of it.