I think...I think I've forgotten how to write.
In the last year, with all of my spare time spent studying for exams and/or trying to be a somewhat decent mother, I really got out of the habit of publishing any blog content. In the last couple months, I've been feeling the itch to return, but I've really been struggling with where to start. So much time has elapsed and so much life has happened in my digital absence. The boys both celebrated birthdays, I earned a professional designation, and a lot of progress was made toward our family's financial goals and my personal bucket list goals.
Writer's block has been been hitting me BIG TIME. But also, in the time that I've written this handful of sentences, I've been interrupted by small people needing things from me no less than 13 times. As if I needed a reminder of "Oh right, this is why I can't expend the mental energy required to string words together."
In any case, I'm doing my best. And I figured today's topic was a "softball" post. One that I really want to share and one that is incredibly easy to write because it can be summed up as...
WE GOT A DOG!
To provide some backstory, the week before Christmas was a big, fat stinker for our family. Everyone was battling various ailments, our daycare provider had a pipe burst in her house and had to unexpectedly close through the end of the year. This was exacerbated by the fact that Chuck and I collectively had no sick or vacation time left to take off and deal with the aforementioned crises. A co-worker had just gone on maternity leave so not only did I not have the time to take off, but I was also leaving my short-staffed team in the lurch who needed me for all of the last-minute, year-end calls and tasks.
Suffice to say, it was stressful. We both wound up taking unpaid leave, relying on family members, and somehow found our way through the chaotic holiday season. I like to think the boys didn't know the difference and all of the time spent with family was fun for them, but if I'm being honest it was not fun for Mommy.
In this blur of commotion, I wasn't sleeping much. It was a Friday evening and one of the boys had woken up (crying? vomiting? It's all a blur at this point) and I couldn't fall back to sleep. A few months prior we'd submitted an adoption application at an animal rescue in Dayton, but there wasn't really any follow-up. We thought we had found our dog back in the Fall, but it wound up falling through as the pup we had our eye on was nipping and they were concerned with us having small children in the house. So in the very early morning hours of Saturday, December 21, I started mindlessly scrolling PetFinder's available puppers and discovered that were some puppies available at our small county's humane society. I submitted our application some time around 4:00 AM with absolutely no expectation that anything would come of it. Imagine my surprise when I got an email a mere six hours later from a volunteer asking if we wanted to come meet the puppies.
I filled Chuck in on the whole situation and asked if he wanted to meet them. I showed him the pictures of the Lab/Terrier puppies and while we agreed that they were all cute, we both had our eyes set on one named "Shadow." Chuck is often reluctant to venture outside his comfort zone and is the steady, reasonable partner to my sometimes impulsive self. He had some reservations and questioned if our full-time working lifestyle was adequately suited for a pet. His points were all fair and I was fine if we went, met the pups and then decided it was too much for us. I emailed the volunteer back and she let us know that there were only two puppies left and they had another family coming at 1:00 PM to meet them. She asked if we could come at 1:30 PM and we confirmed.
We didn't let the boys know where we were going. Instead, told them we were going to take them to a surprise place. When we got there, Shadow was the only puppy left and I was inwardly thrilled. The friendly volunteer brought us into a small office and allowed us too love on the last pup of the litter. The boys were still totally clueless and just marveled at how adorable this little guy was. After a few minutes, the volunteer excused herself so Chuck and I could talk about if we were going home with a dog. It took absolutely no convincing from me- if anything, I was more hesitant while Chuck was instantly smitten. When Charlie uttered, "I wish we could have a dog like that" (still oblivious as to why we were there), I was sold.
We signed the papers, drove to Walmart to pick up all the necessary doggy paraphernalia and just like that- he was ours.
It took us about a week to finally settle on a name. I was advocating hard for "Buddy," (like the Elf) since we got him 4 days before Christmas, but Chuck begged me to pick any other name. He frequently refers to the boys as "buddy," so thought it would be too confusing. We just couldn't land on one that we both loved. The following Friday, we went over to his parents' house and I introduced him to my nieces and nephews. Our goofball oldest niece jokingly suggested that we name him "Reginald" and call him "Reggie" for short. I realized when she said it, that I actually didn't hate the name Reggie. I shared it with Chuck when I got home and he was on board. Seven days after he joined our family, he finally had a name- Reggie.
Everyone warned us that puppies were hard work and it would be like raising a third child and let me tell you- they were right. The past several weeks have been A LOT. We have cleaned up so much pee, poop, and chewed-up debris. He is still jumping, nipping, and trying his darnedest to eat all of the unattended people food. But honestly, for a puppy? He's doing great. He gets a little bit better at potty training each week. He loves to cuddle and is a good listener. The daughter of a friend of ours is a senior in high school and comes to walk him every day at lunch time. It's the perfect arrangement and we feel far less guilty leaving him home while we're at work all day knowing that he has some social interaction while we're gone.
He's a royal pain most of the time, but he's a puzzle piece in our family and we're so in love with our Reggie Roo!
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