Chocolate Castles as wel

We told ourselves on the way to pick Oliver up 2 weeks ago that this time around we would be smarter. He would not sleep with us, and we would be in control. We would be the strict parents that we should have been to our kids.
Oliver sleeps with us and has us all figured out. Because I have tried so hard to sit and be patient by the fake grass pad, I constantly say, “Oliver, come over to the potty pad and go potty.” Then I praise him if he goes and give him a treat. Today I realized that he is playing us. He has begun to walk over to the potty pad and stands there for a second and comes over to me expecting his treat. Because it had not dawned on me that a dog can’t pee in 2 seconds, I had been giving him treats each time he “looked” like he was peeing.’
For the first week both Randy and I took turns getting ready. We wanted to be sure that someone was constantly right there in case Oliver needed to go potty. After a week of that, I told Randy that we have got to get our life back. So we ordered a doggie play pen. Oh my gosh, if I had known how wonderful these things are, I might have even used them with my kids. I just never realized that you can put a dog in them and go take a shower, make a cake, do laundry. All these can be accomplished without a little doggie constantly sniffing around the house, making you crazy because you forgot to write down the last time he peed and you run around trying to grab him to take him to the fake grass. After my firstborn, I gave away the play pen. I just was not one to be able to walk by a crying child and ignore his pleadings to “get me out of this thing.” Oh but now…I have no trouble walking by Oliver in his pen, with a smile on my face, just because I can. Of course, that is after I have made sure I have all his toys from around the house and put them in. The thought of him getting bored breaks my heart. I have learned to ignore that cute little whimpering for at least 5 minutes before feeling sorry for him.
A few days ago, Randy gave Oliver an old tennis shoe to chew on. I told him I thought that was a bad idea but he insisted that Oliver would be happy with that and not try to chew on his new tennis shoes. We found that Oliver likes new shoes more than old ones.
Our daughter, Jodi got a new puppy the same weekend as we did. Hers is a female Lhasa Apso named, Myah. When these two puppies get together, they are absolutely adorable, but Myah seems to be the more aggressive one. We come home from letting them play and find that it has wiped Oliver out. So he sleeps for hours. Until it is time to go to bed. When we turn the lights out about 10:30, Oliver is wide awake. We are just too old for this. We thought our nights of having to stay up with little ones was over. I have always got so bored with people talking nonstop about their pets. I’m really not a dog or cat person, but Randy has wanted a dog for quite some time. Since He broke his shoulder about 6 weeks ago, I gave in thinking how great it would be for him to have a dog to just sit with him on his lap and keep him company while he recoups from the accident. Oliver only likes to sit on my lap. So I have slowly become a dog person. Randy thinks maybe a little to much of a dog person. I found a pet photographer coupon on Groupon. We are headed to Pets Mart to pick out the perfect little outfit for his pictures. No, I’m going ga ga over him, but we are having wallet sized photos of Oliver made for family and friends for Christmas. We had to take some of the pictures of our grandkids out of our wallets to make room for Oliver’s pictures. After all, the grandkids don’t even sit in our laps anymore. Yes, he sleeps like that!