Update on Gimpy (Leo)

Justin just called on his way home from the vet with Leo. Today they had a consultation with the orthopedic specialist, which included a sedated examination of Leo's knees to determine whether or not he has a ligament tear. The doctor's opinion is that yes, he does have a partial tear in his left ACL, which can be successfully repaired with surgery. The bad news is that his X-rays show that he still has a growth plate in his legs which means he can't have the surgery yet. Apparently they remove some of the bone and attach a titanium device to the bone when they do the ligament repair surgery, and that can't be done until the bone is done growing. So... poor Leo has to rest as much as possible for a few months and also try to lose some weight. The combination of needing to lose weight and also having his activity restricted means the poor guy is going to get a lot less food in his dish every day (worst case scenario for a lab!) We're thinking the surgery should be scheduled sometime in early summer. Oh, and it costs about $3000. Yikes! Too bad we never got around to signing up for pet insurance...

Look whose birthday was today!

Our fearless puppy, Leo, turned ONE today!
He celebrated with some new toys, a large serving of german pancake this morning from the kids, a long walk through the woods from Justin, and a small dose of humiliation during a photo shoot with me. He took it like a real man.


The kids gave him some love - though not at the same moment, shucks says the photographer...

And Brooke had some fun trying on Leo's party hat (which we made at the kitchen table).

A fresh start

2009 = the year that I get serious about losing some weight and keeping it off!

Today is the first day of an online weight-loss competition a friend of mine has organized and I'm off to a good start. Had salad for lunch, went to the gym and walked on the treadmill for 47 minutes, ate an apple for a snack this morning. Wish me luck - there is a lot at stake for me, both personally in terms of my health, and also the competition prize money! Of course I already have a few ideas how I could spend that money...

Jack cracks me up. His vocabulary is exploding which is so fun. He is starting to have real preferences - for his food (he points to what he wants in the fridge, usually mozzarella sticks) and his clothing too. His favorite shirt is his football sweatshirt and he asks for it by name - "football!" while pointing to his chest. It's quite adorable. When you confirm what he's asking for he nods vigorously and says "Mmm!" He is working on a whole bunch of two syllable words, like airplane, football, Brookie, and, inexplicably, pinecone. He imitates everything Brooke does, including asking "why?" incessantly which is a bit much for one mom considering both of my kids now ask why whenever I tell them to do anything. He adores his dog, Leo, and calls "Yee-Oh!" loudly, including yelling "Yee-oh, pee pee!" loudly out the back door as Leo tries to do his business with a shred of dignity. It's quite hilarious.


Brooke had a concert in pre-school today, which was postponed from before Christmas due to the snowstorm we had. It was darling. They all had percussion instruments (jingle bells, shakers, triangles, sanblocks...) and sang about 6 songs. I got some video on my Blackberry but am not sure how to get it off the phone and post it. Brooke was really proud of herself and had to restrain herself from running over to hug me several times during the concert.

One less fertile male...

Leo has returned from his neutering surgery. Poor guy! He had the surgery Monday morning and then spent the night for observation. His vet told us to keep this big Elizabethan Collar on him to keep him from licking his wound for 5-7 days and to keep him from running or jumping for 10-12 days. YEAH RIGHT! Hello? May I introduce you to our 7 month old lab puppy? Neither of those are very likely to happen. But I put the collar on him... he was mortified. Need I say more?


And then within moments, this is what happened. Makes an awesome ballet skirt, doesn't it?

Leo's Big Snip-Snip

Ah, poor Leo... there comes a time in every young dog's life when we call upon a qualified vet to do the unspeakable to his manliness. After I was "humped" while kneeling down to put Jack's shoes on the other day, I said "enough is enough" and scheduled him for surgery. Enjoy your randy, frisky self between now and 8/18 buddy!

Bad Dog!

On Friday, the kids and I went to Costco and were gone for maybe 2 hours. I left Leo gated in the laundry room and this is what we came home to! He clawed a huge gouge in the wall. What was he thinking? I'll never know. Justin spent some quality time with a bucket of spackle this weekend. Good thing I have never loved the blue on the walls because this moves the laundry room up on the "must paint" list.

Lovable Stinker

I just came down the stairs from putting Jack to bed and found this in my path. He is snuggled up on the clean towels waiting to be carried up.

My little trouble maker

I knew in my heart it was a crazy insane thing to do getting a puppy, but he's cute isn't he? Introducing Leo - age 14 weeks. He chewed up my faux crocs last night and I'm ripped furious about it!