puppy and baby walks

February 16

It is rare to have moments like this: Nolan is sleeping, I’ve had my coffee, and the internet is out.  It’s going to be a long day ahead with no world wide web at my fingertips to pass the time during nap and nurse, but maybe it’s an opportunity to process the next few weeks and to think about the weekend (Mom and her best friend, ‘Aunt’ Marianne) are coming for a visit.  Maybe today it will be meditate and nurse for me.  My brain is all over the place right now; so much anxiety about the future while simultaneously being required to live and love in the present because I have a little person I am responsible for.  That little person is dominating this blog I realize.  Arnie is jealous in more ways than I can count.  He probably remembers when he was big news in this house.  This morning while I was bouncing Nolan on the physio ball (magic way to help him fall asleep), Arnie peeked in the room and showed me that he was carrying Nolan’s extremely full (overnight) diaper in his mouth.  He taunted me with it.  Of course Nolan had just fallen asleep.  Visions of diaper goo all over our furniture and rugs were darting through my brain, and Nolan jolted awake when I jumped up off the ball.  Thank goodness he’s a flexible baby.  A few dog treats and stern “drop it right now dog” later and I had the diaper back in the trash (now the trash is on the dresser instead of the floor), and Nolan bounced back to sleep.  He’s swaddled and sleeping still.

Jealous is an understatement, Arnie thinks he is a child and should have at least half or more of our attention.  It just doesn’t work like that these days.  Arnie gets a walk from Nick in the morning before he leaves for work.  Then in the middle of the day, definitely before 2:45 when the 2 schools on our block release their munchkins, Nolan and I take him for a quick 2 block walk.  We have to do it before the swarm of kids because it’s just too much for Arnie to be surprised by running children at every turn.  He turns into a barking, protective, aggressive machine and I can’t handle his energy.  Then either Nick or I give him a walk after dinner, and he gets another one before bed at around 10.  Mind you, these are quick walks for the most part.  We are still doing our click treat training with him during the walks and it is effective, but this bundle of muscle dog needs more. He tells us that he needs more by the diaper incident, and by strategically dropping his toys in Nolan’s space: in the moses basket, in the clean laundry, on the sofa when we are sitting there, in the bathroom when we’re giving baby a bath... when the weather picks up a little bit, Nolan and I will do longer walks, which will take the edge off for our pooch.  

Here is a look at our getup for dog walks.  Nolan gets popped in the moby, sometimes he falls asleep right away, other times it takes coercing: bouncing, singing, brisk walking around the apartment...

And then the layering happens: little hat, fleece blanket, button sweater.  He's toasty.

I love carrying him this way, the squatting to pick up dog poo is precarious, but mostly it feels great.

And our other needy baby gets some relief. Win-win situation.