Poor Mr. B.

My puppy, Mr. Belvedere, who is two years old, was diagnosed with stage five lymphatic cancer in November. The doctors gave him two months to live and he's been doing really well, and I was starting to think that maybe he beat the odds. Unfortunately the past couple of days he's been really sick, and yeterday he refused to eat; even when offered hotdogs off the grill. So, I'm taking him into the vet tonight and we'll probably end up having him put down. I'm so sad. He was my first baby boy and I love him. He always sleeps not just in my bed, but under the covers. And when he sits he always has to be on someones lap, or on your feet. He loves to be cuddled. I don't know if I'll ever love another dog as much. I hope they have big fluffy beds, large grassy fields, and lots of squeaky toys in doggy heaven.

So, this weekend my in-laws came to visit. And you know how people make mother in-law jokes and its pretty cliche, I now know why its the cliche. Actually for me though it was more my father in-law who knows everything about everything and has no problem telling you what to do. Here's a short list.

1. Things I do wrong with my child:

a. I don't medicate him to make him stop crying.

b. I don't do a good enough job cutting his nails

c. I hold him too much, if I keep holding him as much as I do now he will never be independent. He'll be wanting me to carry him piggyback at his College graduation.

d. I put him in the cart in his car seat at the grocery store, this is patently unsafe, and I obviously have a death wish for him.

e. I let him cry at wal-mart and didn't get him out of his seat because we were in the checkout line. Then, when I turned my back for 30 secs, he got Eli out. When i went to put my son back in I was informed he would cry, I said "I know, because you got him out of his seat." and the FIL said "wait til we get to the car to put him back in." fed up I replied "I'm putting him in now."

his response was "Make your baby cry, go ahead make him cry" so, I very maturely replied, "I made him, I pushed him out, I'll do whatever I want with him!" and then I glared and stomped off. I know I should have maintained my cool, but it was 3 days in and my nerves were frayed.

2. Things that are wrong with my apartment:

a. We don't have rubber stripping around our front door and you can smell the food that the neighbor cooks.

b. Our mini-blinds let in to much heat, FIL solved this by nailing blankets over the windows.

c. The furniture in the living room was not set up to his liking, so, when I went upstairs to put the baby to bed he rearranged it. And then told me how much better it looked.

3. General wrongness in the city and my life:

a. Jason and I must immediately buy a house and acquire a 30 year loan, it's silly to rent and we musn't be afraid of debt.

b. Every light in Pittsburgh should be right turn on red, the fact that they aren't is just stupidity on the city planners part.

c. He could never live in Pittsburgh because he "needs to live near water, you know I need an ocean, or a RIVER or something." Um, hello, we have 3 rivers. 3, we are currently driving across one!

And then there is the fact that they insist on speaking Spanish 75% of the time despite my constant reminders that I do not, in fact, speak Spanish.

So there's my rant. I'm sure I'll feel much better after a good night's sleep. Eli is teething and not sleeping well, and spending a lot of time yelling when he is awake. Poor baby, I know it hurts him. It's just frustrating for everyone.

The man is my FIL, the woman with J is his mom. And the adorable baby in the pirates outfit is obviously Eli, almost 4 months old already!

So, I was reading some other people's blogs, and I decided it would be nice to have one that was baby-oriented. I clicked on the create blog link and put in my info and it took me here. After I got done laughing at myself I decided to go ahead with the blog thing.

A few things have changed since that last post, I decided that Mr. Miami was a viable option, moved in with him, got pregnant by him and high tailed it back to Pittsburgh. Reading that last post it doesn't even feel like i know that girl, two years can make quite a difference in a girls life. Less than a year after that I was struck by baby fever. All i could think about was pro-creating. Here are the results of all that wishing and hoping and planning and dreaming:

Elijah Daniel now almost 4 months old and the center of my universe. Even if he is a bit of a sleep terrorist lately.