Ever since we had Andrew, we have had troubles with Ojala. She was very, very jealous of him and between eating his clothes (out of the hamper), pooping in the boy's room in the middle of the night and having panic attacks when we leave for work, we finally had to give her away. Luckily for us, she went back to Beth's house, the woman that originally trained her to be a CCI dog. I guess it is very common for dogs to act this way when a new baby is born. Since Matthew was already established when we got her she didn't exhibit any of these behaviors. I took her back last week and Ojala was right at home. Beth has another dog, Gator, who was there when Ojala was a puppy. She also has Widget, who will be released to the next step of training in November as well as her newest trainee, Neeves. Ojala loves being with all her "friends" and getting the attention that she strives for and needs. We get to visit whenever we want and Ojala even write Matthew a letter which we read tonight. Norm seems to be the happiest he has ever been. Granted, he loved her and had a constant play buddy, but with his age creeping up there he likes to play on his terms and she was a little too energetic for his liking. She was a wonderful dog and we will miss her dearly, but plan to visit often as well!
Drew is now eight months old and just cut his 8th tooth! We estimate that he weighs about 20 pounds now...3 pounds more than Matthew did at a year. He is long too, fitting into his 9 month clothes with ease. He is still army crawling and has gotten pretty darned fast. Not sure if he will even attempt the "regular" hands and knees crawling. He is trying to pull himself up on things and can get up on a few things without help, but a majority of times he needs a little help. His legs are strong too and he can stand at the table for a few minutes before giving in.I am still making all of his baby food and loving the diversity of foods he can try. Some new favorite foods include lentils, butternut squash, mango, cauliflower, tomatoes and some spices. Many of his newer recipes are thicker and have more texture to them. I think he favorite one was a chicken with sweet potatoes and apples and the mixed vegetables with a tomato basil and cheese sauce. He is also eating small pieces of food like Cheerios, steamed carrots and cheese crumbles.
Matthew is doing great too. We took him to his first MSU game last week. It was an away game at Ford Field in Detroit, so we bought him tickets for his birthday. It was the perfect setting to take him to a game. It was climate controlled, had nice bathrooms close by and he got his own bucket seat. He was in awe from the moment we got there. He loved the band and of course Sparty. He was really into the game too and we got many compliments on his good behavior from the people around us.
He has started a "preschool" at daycare. Deah has 5 children that are Matthew's age, so it is a perfect time for her to work with them while Donna plays and takes care of the babies. He loves bringing home his drawings and paintings so we can hang them on his board. He is learning how to cut and starting to like drawing with crayons, though he would much rather play outside instead of color. He can count past twenty and identify his numbers to 15. Since he has such a great knowledge of his capital letters, we will start learning the lowercase letters and possibly some sounds. He loves singing lately and I have a song that we sing at school for the letter sounds that I can teach Matthew. This is about all he will do for preschool. Between my and Ryan's work schedule we can't possibly get him to a preschool (typical hours are 9:00-11:30 or 1:00-3:30). I plan on putting him in the Young-5's program through Portage in two years and then he will go to my school for Kindergarten through Fifth grade.
I love, love, love my new school! The new technology is amazing and the atmosphere is unlike any school I have ever been in. I love my job! I was very fortunate to be able to help pilot a Chinese program in my room this year, along with my friend Ann. We have a grant through WMU and have a Chinese teacher in our room for the entire morning. There is only two other teachers in the district doing this program. Each of our classes gets a 30 minute Chinese Mandarin lesson five days a week. Our two classes will stay together for the next three years learning Chinese. The kids love it and have already learned a lot about the culture. I missed out on going to China (for free too) for three weeks this summer. There is just now way I could have left while still nursing, plus you know how I do on planes! Anyway, between the new school, Open House, the dedication, and Parent Night it has been a very busy two weeks. So busy in fact that I still haven't taken any pictures of the inside. I plan on doing that this week at the latest and posting some for you to see. The hardest part was coming home every night to my boys already in bed. Though, one night Matthew was still awake. When he saw me he started crying, pulled back his covers and asked me to lay down in his bed. He just laid there hugging me and fell asleep within ten minutes. Those kind of nights break my heart, but I know they are done and I can be home every night with them.
