Billy Fox

Have I mentioned Stella's very slight, minimal even obsession with puppies? Like how she would be a puppy if such a thing was possible? How we call her the Puppy Master and all bed time stories must involve at least one bad guy and puppies? Have I also mentioned Stella's um...strong personality? Her screaming for close to 25 minutes to get her way type of strong personality? Yeah, it has started to be a bit much. We know she is still 2 and this sort of behavior is normal for her age, but man, it sure can be trying. There is little that we can do to calm her, she gets herself so worked up, but we know that she has the ability if she just would try. To help her along we have asked for the help of Ollio, our friendly Christmas Elf. 

Yes, yes, I realize that it is not yet Halloween and we are already busting out Ollio. I too hate it when Target brings out their Christmas stock when the Halloween stuff is still out. But you see, we need Ollio and the power of Santa to help us. We have tried everything to stop the tantrums- ignoring the behavior, sticking to a schedule, quiet time, limited sugar, pleading, begging, crying...everything. Now, like most parents before us, we have started bribing our little lady with the promise that Santa will bring her a puppy if she is able to control her behavior. You know what- for the last 2 weeks our house has been calmer and happier than it has for a very long time. It is actually working. Thank God.

We headed out to a breeder today to just check out some 5 week old puppies with the slight possibility that we would get one. OK, we knew, we're not that strong. The way that this breeder works, whomever gives a deposit first, has first choice on a dog. Since we were the last to deposit, we get last pick. When means we are forced to take one of these guys:

One of these little fellers will be coming home with us on November 7th. We either get the chunky wittle white stinky wabador or we get the chunky sweepy darker stinky wabador. Kind of a win win for us.

Teigue is so excited about our new member, he wants to go get him tomorrow. He has decided that when we go pick him up, he will carry Billy to the truck and Billy will ride in his lap. No, scratch that, safety patrol captain has deemed that not safe, instead he will ride in the middle of the two seats on a pillow from Jayno's room and covered up with Teigue's blanket. We fell in love today. Hopefully Billy will help Stella work out her emotions in the future.