Bringing Home the Baby ...

Last week my husband and I had the great pleasure of adopting our first puppy - an eight-week-old Bernese Mountain Dog named Hugo.

Hugo's arrival home

Needless to say, our life changed pretty quickly.  This became crystal clear when in the middle of the night, my husband sat up in bed, looked at me and said ... "go get the ball" ... and rolled over and went back to sleep.

My conversations this week have sounded like this "have a pee", "have a pee on the grass", "no peeing in the house", "no biting", "be gentle", "have a poop", "no! don't poop there!", "come out from under the deck" and "good boy, Hugo, Mommy loves you!".  If I were my neighbour I would lose my mind if I heard any more about peeing in the grass.

Our little goof, into everything! 

Loving the "wilderness" in our backyard

It has been really fun watching him learn so much in only one week.  He has learned to come and to sit - we are still working on lie down.  He has learned to climb stairs, to ride in the car, to wrestle with his new friend Leo the poodle, to sleep in his crate, to work the room at a party, to be "gentle" (lick instead of bite) and he is slowly learning to go for a walk.

Hugo's first solo car ride

My husband and I are having great fun raising our little pup and have spent the vast majority of the week in our backyard or at the soccer field across the street.  I have not been up this early consistently since my days of lifeguardiing - 5:30 am on Friday morning running around the field with him, and I enjoyed it!