Four blogs in one week!?!

This must be a record!  Just dumping some thoughts, so bear with me on the rambling… 

Braden and Emma went to the Big Backyard yesterday for a play date with Braden’s friend Allison.  Sounds like they had a blast.  It’s a big indoor playground with huge slides and pedal cars and apparently helicopters.  I asked Braden if it was fun flying and of course he set me straight: “Dad!  They don’t really fly.”   Apparently they had a lot of fun.  Allison gave Braden a big hug and a kiss when they said goodbye.  Don’t worry, I think Braden is leaving his options open and won’t commit to a girlfriend quite yet. 

The play date also highlighted the fact that Kathie and I are…well… old. *cough*  Allison’s mom knew of Mark (who doesn’t, really?) and asked Kathie if she was related to a Mark Ehlke who went to MLC.  A Mark Ehlke that apparently was ‘quite a bit older than me.’  Great.  I just felt my arthritis start.

I brought home new pull ups for Emma yesterday.  I was excited because they had princesses on them and she LOVES princesses.  She was briefly excited about the princesses before she asked “Didn’t they have Tinkerbell?”  Um, no, Emma, they didn’t.  “But I like Tinkerbell!” Followed by some crying.  The ups and downs of being a father.

Kathie and I are both very excited about the dog.  The kids are very excited about the dog kennel we brought up stairs.  So far it has served as a tent, a jumping platform and a pretend washing machine.  I’m not sure they really understand the whole dog thing yet, and I’m not sure they will until we actually have a 16-20 lb puppy running around. Yep, Mastiffs are 16-20 lbs at 8 weeks. 

Now that’s a growth chart!

This is take from a testimonial from a American Mastiff owner.  The dog is a male, but it gives an idea of how fast these dogs grow:

On Jan 13th-  22.7 pounds

On Feb 10th- 41.7 pounds

On Mar 10th- 62.6 pounds

On Apr 08th- 87.4 pounds

On May 21st- 123.7 pounds

Yep, that’s right… 101 lbs between 1/13 and 5/21.

The Great Dog Adventure Begins

And I do mean GREAT.  We are adopting an American Mastiff.  The American Mastiff is a Mastiff breed that consists of both the English Mastiff and the Anatolian Mastiff.  The intent of the breed is to maintain the size, disposition and appearance of a Mastiff with fewer health problems and less drooling.

There are currently only 10 breeders, so it’s a bit of a rare breed.  That also means we have to make a trip to get our dog.  We learned tonight that a breeder in Ohio will have a dog available for us, ready to pickup March 19th. 

We’re getting a female with Fawn coloring.  Females are typically 28 to 34 inches and weigh a svelte 140 to 180 pounds.  This litters mother is two years old, 30 inches at the shoulder and weighs 145.  The father is only 18 months, but stands at 35 inches and 185 pounds.  

Mastiff’s are well known for their calm disposition and being great family dogs, especially with children.  A friend of ours brought their bullmastiff to visit us and we were just amazed at how calm she was and how good she was with the kids.

We’re very excited and can’t wait to begin this adventure. 

Some more info about the breed:

American Mastiff Breeders Council

Sycamore Creek - Our Breeder

Flying W - The original breeder and some great testimonials

Still here…

Yep, I’m still blogging.  Impressed, aren’t you?  Yeah, me neither.

Haven’t posted a lot of ‘Bradenisms’ lately, so here’s your fix.  Grandpa got Braden hooked on Scooby Doo and now it’s a staple in our house.  He tries to figure out who the villain is (Braden, not Grandpa… Grandpa just looks for puns and wise cracks).  Last week we were watching a ‘new’ episode and Braden said “Dad, I’m the smartest person in this family and I think that she’s the bad guy.”  And while you might argue the smartest person in the family might not call a woman a bad guy, Braden stuck to his guns.

Emma has her own version of the Bradenism.  Emmaism?  Nah, that’s not quite right.  Anyway, she has recently started using the phrase “Watch this!” quite often.  And by quite often, I mean approximately 237 times every 2 minutes.  It is also often followed by the phrase “Ow!”, but that’s not really the point here.  Braden used to do the same thing, but you could usually just get passed it by saying “Ok” or “wow” without having to really look.  With Emma you kind of have to give her your attention for two reasons:  Quite often she’s doing something like climbing the TV or the outside of the banister or shaving the cat.  Ok, shaving the cat hasn’t happened, but you get the point.  The other reason… she calls you on it.  Yep:

Emma: “Daddy, watch this!  Daddy, watch this!  Are you wachin’?”

Daddy: “Yep, I’m watching” (as I’m still reading the paper)

Emma: “No you’re not!  Daddy, watch this!  Are you watchin’?”

Daddy:  “Ok, I’m watching.”

Emma (or Braden or the cat): “Ouch!”

Fun stuff.  Tiring, but fun.

Catching Up

All excuses aside, I’m just not that good at keeping journals or blogs.  I see others constantly journaling their lives and I think “How cool is that!”  And yet, I struggle to set aside time to jot down my thoughts or share the events that make my life the blessing that I believe it is. 

But, yet again, I find myself at the keyboard under the guise of another valiant attempt at making this whole blog thing work.  So, all feelings of déjà vu aside, here we go again.

This latest foray into the blogosphere finds Braden almost 5.  In fact, he’s looking forward to ‘being number 5’.  He keeps asking when Easter is, not because of his strong belief and joy at our Savior’s resurrection, but because he knows his birthday is after Easter. 

Emma turned 3 in January and we’re still trying to figure out where that time has gone.  She is really blossoming into a smart, fun and strong-willed young girl.  She’s now attending day care three mornings a week and loves it.  Somewhere along the way she’s learned to count to 25 and knows all the letters.  She also loves to sing and dance and is quickly developing an interest in dolls, princesses and fairies. 

Alex is almost 10 months now.  His development has been amazing to watch, from arriving 5 weeks early, spending 10 days in the NICU to chasing him around the house as he does laps with his army crawl.  He’s definitely going to be the eater of the bunch, as we can’t quite shovel food into his mouth fast enough.

I won’t pretend that the above even comes close to capturing the news that I’ve missed over the last months.  But I hope it does catch us up a little. 

The last couple weeks has been a time of decisions for our family.  The first major decision was to hold Braden back in preschool for one more year.  His teacher and we both feel that he’s just not quite ready and that another year of preschool would be good for his development.  It was a decision that we really struggled with, but are confident that it’s the right one. 

He also under went some evaluations with the Children’s hospital childhood development group to help understand some of the anxiety and other issues we’ve seen with his development.  Oddly enough, they have suggested that he has anxiety issues with a potential diagnosis of Non-Verbal Learning Disorder.  I won’t pretend to be able to related what that really means, but we know the symptoms are very much inline with what we’ve been seeing.  We are going to start some therapy with Braden and a counselor to help both him and us deal with some of his anxiety and work through it together.  I’m anxious to get started (no pun intended) and help him blossom into the fun, smart, intelligent boy that I know he is.

Emma will start preschool next year, going two days a week.  We were thinking that maybe she could go four days a week with her brother, but decided that two days was a good start; especially if she can go to music or tumbling classes on the other days.  And yes, you saw that right, she and Braden will be in the same class.  That will make for an interesting dynamic.  I hope their teachers know what they are in for!

The other big decision was to get a dog.  Yes… we are crazy.  A few people have not been shy about sharing that impression with us, but we really believe now is the best time.  A new dog will grow up with the kids and be an integral part of our family.  We also believe a dog can provide a lot of value in a therapeutic nature and help Braden overcome some of his anxiety.  And while a dog will add more chaos to our already hectic world with three kids, we think that it’ll be a great family activity raising, training and loving a new addition to the family. 

But the real reason some people are saying we’re crazy is that we chose to adopt an American Mastiff.  We considered a Labradoodle, especially for it’s hypo-allergenic qualities, but decided that it would probably be a little more hyper than what we’d like.  Plus we have had Emma around a bullmastiff and she showed no ill affects due to allergies.   We believe a Mastiff will be the perfect fit for our family: they’re loving, affectionate and calm protectors of family members.  They are truly gentle giants.  And yes, they take up a little more space than a typical dog, being between 140 and 200 lbs.   We are just very impressed with the dog we’ve met and the testimonials we’ve seen about Mastiffs.  We’ve applied with a couple of breeders of American Mastiffs (they’re somewhat rare) and are waiting, as patiently as we can, to hear back from them on availability.

Well, that’s enough catching up for now… it’s exhausting cramming months of stuff into one blog.  Plus I have a crummy cold, so should get some rest.  I’ll see you all in another 6 months.  No, I promise to try even harder to be more faithful to my journal here… not for you necessarily, but mostly for my own benefit.  When I do get started on it, I do really enjoy journaling like this.

How are your Knee Flexes?

Braden, Emma and I were playing doctor the other night.  You know, it sounds creepy saying it that way, but it shouldn’t.  But I digress.  Braden grabbed a play hammer and tapped my knee.  He looked at me and said “Daddy, I’m checking your kneeflex”.  I asked if maybe he meant reflex.  “No, Daddy, it’s called a kneeflex.”

And I couldn’t really argue too much with him!

Um… Hi. Remember me?

Let’s see… Alex is now 3 1/2 months old and I suppose it’s about time I posted something.

He’s doing great!  He’s really such a good baby we’re very lucky.  He hardly cries, although lately he’s been getting a bit more vocal about his needs.  If he is crying, he’ll calm down immediately when  we pick him up.  He has slept through the night a few times now.  Tonight he actually laughed for the first time.  A real full belly laugh for about 30 seconds.  The odd thing is that he was fast asleep when he did it.  He was making cooing noises in his sleep and I laughed at it.  He must have heard me and just start laughing away.  He’s also able to sit in his exersaucer now… well, with a blanket to help hold him up.  Kathie thinks he’s growing up too fast… and he probably is.  But it’s kind of hard to stop.

Braden is enjoying the summer.  He loves playing outside!  He’s so tan I hardly recognize him as my kid!  He loves riding his bike (with training wheels) and doing yard work.  He likes digging up our mulch and moving it to other spots.  I think if I had mulch delivered, he’d probably get it all in place for me.  It might take 2-3 weeks, but he’d probably do it all.

Emma loves being outside too.  She like riding her tricycle and her scooter, even if she doesn’t like wearing the helmet she’s supposed to wear when riding it. 

We’re all a little sad that our good neighbors the Pines moved to Houston.  Braden really misses ‘the boys’, but we’ve all adjusted.  The kids like playing with Ryan and Riley next door.

We bought a new car.  Thanks everyone for your help with that via the taxes you pay.  Yep, we turned in the Blazer on the Cash for Clunkers program and bought a 2009 Camry Hybrid.  Good thing too, because the Blazer was on it’s last legs.  The check engine light even came on when I was driving to the dealer.  It’s very nice having a nice car to drive to work.  The blazer was a good vehicle for a long time for me, but the doors were starting to..um… fall off, the air conditioning didn’t work, the heater was sporadic, the CD player hasn’t worked for years, the catalytic converter was pretty much shot, and someone broke the lever to recline the driver’s seat… with the seat in a slightly inclined position.  (Don’t worry Dad, I won’t tell who it was).  So, needless to say, I’m really enjoying the Camry!