Summer time

Wrestling with each other!

Well my plan to school in the summer has not worked out too well. We get distracted by other things. At least we are still reading daily and have projects. Shelby is cooking with me each night and learning about measuring ingredients.

In the past few weeks we have been to Six Flags, Shelby has had a few play dates with friends, we also got a new puppy. This puppy is a great learning experience for all the kids.

Shelby is learning how to care and train a puppy. She helps by taking him out several times a day. She is learning to only feed once in the morning and once in the evening. Plus water after every outing. We are crate training so every time we take him out he goes immediately outside to go potty. Then he gets to play inside the house for a little while before going back into his crate. The times allowed out are getting longer and longer until there are no more accidents. So far no poo accidents in the house (just one in the crate when we were asleep and did not hear him cry). He does still get excited to see us and will pee a little from excitement. Plus there have been a few accidents where Shelby let him out and then got distracted by something and did not take him straight outside.

We have worked it out where she has the day shift for potty duty and I have the night shift. Matthew so far likes the puppy but only will touch him if he is sitting still. Matthew has a fear of animals and wanted this puppy so we let him get it after seeing him not freak out. We are still wondering if it was a good idea or not. He runs away anytime the puppy is out and that in turn gets the puppy exited and running after Matthew. We are still trying to teach Matthew to be calm.

Abigail ... LOVES the puppy. Her and the puppy play together so well. I have to keep both of them from pulling on hair, biting etc. The puppy has started to chew on our hands in play. We are teaching him that it is not acceptable to "mouth" people by holding his mouth, telling him no and then giving our hand for him to lick. Abigail however likes the nibbles and is not helping us in the training process. The two of them wrestle and just really love playing together.

I added some more pictures of the past few weeks in our slide show!