Settling in

Paul and I managed to get everything moved into my parents' home last Thursday, thanks to my brother, Kevie, and his friend Adam. It's been a bit manic cramming all our stuff into one room, but luckily it's a huge room, so even the two dog crates fit with all Alec's furniture and our bed, leaving a play area for Alec. Good thing Paul and I tend to be minimalists.

Alec had a hard time adjusting to other noises in the room (the dogs tend to move from our bed to the floor several times throughout the night) and woke up a lot the first few nights, but he slept all through the night on Monday. On the other hand, he's adjusted quickly and happily to extra people around constantly holding him and pushing him in his car. He's such a social little man! While people push him in the car he waves goodbye to people he passes and will sometimes put out his index finger to touch someone else's-a sort of E.T. moment. He's also begun imitating animal sounds. When we were reading an animal book yesterday I was making a quacking sound for the ducks and he tried to imitate it, he did the same for elephants and kittens. It was so cute!

Paul and I are not enjoying our commutes now and lunchtime seems so dreary since he can't come home, but otherwise we've settled in more quickly than we'd expected to. Paul hasn't had much time to work on his PhD yet, but we still don't know for certain his extension was accepted and we didn't think he'd have much time before returning to finish.

The dogs are doing so much better than we expected. Paul walks them in the morning, then later in the morning I put them on the side of the house to rough-play together outside while Alec naps and I exercise. This seems to use up their energy, as the rest of the day they lay around the house. The collars are reminders if they get a bit excited, but we rarely need them. No one's bothered by them wandering around downstairs and we keep them in sight or sound at all times so they can't get up to much, it's turned out to be a huge blessing being able to keep them in the house here.

Kelsey's Christmas puppy was finally old enough to leave her mother. A little shih tzu she named Kippie. There are now 5 dogs in the house (my parents have a shih tzu and a pomeranian). I've included some pictures of Alec and Kippie, though we can't ever leave them alone since Alec's used to larger dogs he can tug on. During the day when I'm alone with the dogs and Alec it often feels like a mini zoo. Luckily the dogs all get on well and they nap most of the day, so with Kippie in my lap and the others laying around I can get some lesson preparation done during Alec's afternoon nap.