A trip down to the Farm

Last weekend Loic and I spent two days at Jody's farm!  We left with Jody Saturday at lunch and came home at dinner on Sunday.  We had a great time - Loic loved the animals, I was shocked at how comfortable and fearless he was around them all.  It was really, really special; Loic loved that it was just him and I.  I need to make a point of doing stuff with just him, he was super well behaved and we had a total blast!  Thanks Jody, we had a great time.

Loic *LOVES* chickens, much like his Grandpa - must be genetic?!  Jody has one very tame chicken and Loic can pick that chicken out of the crowd.....sorry chicken!!  I hope he is still tame after Loic picked him up all weekend!

Jody and Jess gave me an awesome birthday gift on Saturday before we went to the island - a family photo shoot!  They have both shared a few pictures with us and we totally love them.

Here is one I love:

These two are just so adorable!

I must say, cudos to you two for trying to get all of us to both look at you and not close our eyes in the same photos!!!  What an aweome gift!

-E

Oh Tyler

We are almost 5 weeks into Tyler's recover and he is doing really well.
We have been cleared to go on 15 min walks which we are both enjoying.
We have another rehab session next week and just yesterday, he had his first massage which he really seemed to like (he even fell asleep at one point!).

Then today, I gave each kid a box of raisins to eat at the table.  I then ran downstairs to put on a load of laundry (Rob was around, don't worry, the kids were not at risk of choking) and when I came into the room Loic said "Maelle is giving Tyler raisins!" ugh.  I called the clinic and figured he ate between 1-7 raisins and the vet said we should come in to make him vomit.

Having been down this road a few months back due to him consuming 6 pounds of kibble in one sitting, I knew it would suck.  He is a hard patient to make vomit, he has a bit of an iron stomach.  I was super worried about him hurting his back too.

Anyways, after much debate we took him in.  He was predictably hard to make vomit but we did get at least one raisin out - and we found 4 more at home so we figure he should be ok.  We will do a urine test in the morning and as long as he is able to concentrate his urine we should be in the clear....

Oh dog, are you trying to kill ME?!?  He is now resting comfortably and I am about to give him his first dose of charcoal.  Fun times!

E

Tyler, Pumpkin Patch & Halloween

We had a nice Halloween this year (well, the dog would seriously disagree but I digress).

Maelle went as a baby dragon - adorable - and Loic went as Batman!  He said Batman doesn't smile in photos.  We started at my parents' house and then my mom and I walked with the kids up to Dave and Linda's.  A fun night for us all.  Well, not Rob - he stayed home with the terrified dogs.  Why do people feel the need to blow up sticks of dynamite on Halloween?  I will never understand it.

She spent a lot of the night asking us for Chocolate

Batman is very serious about photos :)

We are almost at the 4 week point with Tyler's recovery.
We have now done 3 acupuncture sessions and have our 4th and last session tomorrow.  Tyler has improved enough to go to rehab and we went to our first session this week.  Tyler did an awesome job!  The sessions are an hour long at Canada West with two rehab technicians.  They did some laser therapy, some exercises (that we do at home 3 times a day) and Tyler learned how to go into the underwater treadmill contraption.  They gave him a lot of cookies so he was game to play along.

"I am in a giant glass box full of water but there are COOKIES!!"

Tyler is not in any pain anymore, but, he has to relearn how to use his hind end properly.  The goal of rehab is to teach him how to walk properly so that he has less of a chance of re-injuring himself.  Rob still has to carry him up and down the stairs and I use a sling; he can do the stairs but the worry is that he will slip and re-injure his back.    We have 5 more sessions planned and then we will see how he is doing.

We went to our annual Pumpkin Patch visit last weekend!  It was as awesome as always.  This was our 5th year going!!

How did he get so grown up all of a sudden?

The best of many photo attempts....

She spent a lot of time climbing over and under these ropes!

So much cute and so much naughty in one tiny person!!

Lolo driving his sister around in a tractor :)

Milking a fake cow

Adorable.

My poor Tyler

It has taken me a week to write this down but I feel like I should keep track of what I am hoping is his recovery.

Last Sunday Tyler slipped on wet grass at the park and put his back out, we were playing fetch. Canada West says it is a disc injury (slipped or bulging is their best guess without an MRI).  An MRI is $2,000.  We have seen their neurologist twice now, she is very kind.

We are doing the rest and wait and see approach with my poor dog.  He can walk but not well.  He can also go to the bathroom which is a bonus.  He doesn't feel his hind feet well which makes him walk like he is drunk....

The neurologist at Canada West says she has seen a lot of success with acupuncture so off we went yesterday for our first appointment at Vancouver Animal Wellness.  It was nice, I liked the vet, and he seems more mobile today.  She did acupuncture, a cold laser treatment and she also burned some herbs near his back - I am trying to be open minded but she lost me slightly at that point!

If we could contain him he would be crated.  We tried leaving him in his x pen while he was heavily sedated but he just panicked.  So, he is on his dog bed loose in our upstairs.  We got a great product to cover the laminate floors so he can't slip and we made it impossible for him to go near the couches; heaven forbid he tries to get up on the couch.  He seems to be really good at just resting.  When we are home we tie him to the bed so that he doesn't wander but he seems content there.  I like that he is in the centre of the action - he wags his tail at us and the kids every time we walk by him.

We have to carry him up and down the stairs to pee and poo which is easy for Rob but hard on me, he weighs exactly half of what I weight and I find it awkward but I can do it!

I am hoping with all my might that he recovers.  This is the end of agility for us but if he can come back to hiking and holding his favorite ball I will be over the moon.

Come on black dog, we need you well again ASAP.  10 years of Tyler is not enough thank you very much, I need at least a couple more.

Getting acupuncture, what a good dog

-E

East Coast Grandma is here

We picked Rob's mom Barb up from her other son's house on Friday and have been having such a great visit.  She is here for almost a month from Toronto but we have to share her with her other family while she is here :)

Mom/Barb/Grandma has been spoiling all of us, but more importantly, the kids have been having such a great visit with her!  We have been to the Farm, shopping for little girl clothing (Barb bought Maelle some *adorable* pink leg warmers), been to Pink Berry and have just been having a great time.  Rob, Barb and I also had a lovely kid-free dinner this week at one of my favorite places to eat (Arm's Reach Bistro) and tomorrow Barb and I are getting manicures!  I think the last time I had a manicure was at my wedding....over 8 years ago now....

Rob and I took this week off to relax and recharge at home, and to enjoy his mom's visit without work getting in the way.  The kids have been mostly at home with us but are going to daycare tomorrow so that I can hike, Rob can golf,  Barb can go out with friends for lunch and so that Barb and I  can get manicures.  It feels so very decadent to have a day off while the kids are in daycare (sorry kids!!).

Tyler has been so lucky too - Barb has taken him on some great hikes while she has been staying with us. Barb is going to come watch me teach Rally tomorrow night - should be fun!  I hope Tyler listens to me while she is there :)

Rob and I went to a very (very) fancy party on Saturday where I danced my heart out.  It was amazing. I may have also had too much wine...however, Barb babysat both Saturday evening AND Sunday morning for us.  I need to figure out a way to hire that early morning babysitter so that we can sleep in more often.  It was pretty much amazing.

On Monday while Barb walked Tyler Rob and I took the kids to the local Ecology Centre, which was fun.

Coming up this week:  Rob and I are going to dinner together, we are all going to eat at my folks this weekend plus many more coffees, dog walks and grandkid cuddling.  Oh and good food thrown in for fun - we made homemade lasagna, and I plan on making some salad rolls and a great soup too.

Now some pictures!

Maelle with her many jewels :)  We are sure in for it later on!!

Loic and his new friend!  

Pink leg warmers, cow boots, brown tights, oversized sweater and hat - adorable

Loving his Pink Berry!!

Kids to water are like moths to a flame; here we are at St. Andrews park earlier in the week

Loic and I went to a very 'Pintrest oriented' birthday party with a real spiderman last weekend!

10 years (!) ago today

It was 10 years ago today that we adopted Tyler from VAS.

How on earth did we live without him?  How on earth do we live with him? lol

From an agility star to the best family pet ever, I would say we lucked out 10 years ago when we adopted Tyler.  He changed our lives, he brought wonderful friends into my life as well as great some hobbies.  He has taught me more about dogs than I ever thought possible and he is a once in a lifetime dog.

While he is now at least 10.5 or 11 years old now he is still ready for anything.  I love the fact that he is always up for anything and he has boundless enthusiasm.  Ah Tyler, you sure know how to live life to the fullest!

 Last week on the couch

 Ha ha ha!!  The things we do to these dogs :)

 This photo is from when we lived on 15th street, so between 2004 - 2008 sometime

 In Maple Ridge summer of 2008

I think this picture was taken the summer of 2006 but I could be wrong!!

Tyler, you are so awesome and we love you.

-E

Do you need to buy a gift? I have the store for you!

Dear Blog Readers (all 5 or 6 of you!):

My mom and my Auntie Corkine (aka Christine) have opened their very own Etsy shop!
These two ladies are stellar sewers - they sell all sorts of things from luggage tags to aprons to awesome bags.  They also take orders!  I have a wallet made by them, two bags, a few luggage tags, plus a lot of clothes my kids wear.  Oh and my mom made me a nice blouse too!

If you are looking for a unique gift - you can pick your fabric - or a themed gift - they make awesome aprons with different patterns - look no further!  I think the luggage tags are awesome and are a steal at only 8$.

Check out their site:

http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/CCFabricCreations

Now get shopping!!

-E

Summertime catch up

We spend a lot of time outside in the summer, so blogging has taken a bit of a backseat.  If we are home for the evening, and after the kids are asleep, I like to garden and sometimes stay outside until it is just too dark to see anything anymore.  When we are home on the weekends, you can usually find us all in the backyard playing in the pool.  The dogs are doing well - Tyler is teaching Rally with my one night a week and we are both enjoying it.

We have been keeping busy!  I haven't posted since AAC Regionals - a lot of fun things have happened since then.

This baby continues to be both totally ADORABLE and potentially naughty all at the same time:

So very, very cute!

This little boy continues to be awesome in most ways and funny, funny, funny:

Eating Pink Berry on Father's Day

My spring garden did very well and I *may* have planted too many peas...I had two huge patches of green peas and still have half a bed full of sweet peas; I will cut back a bit next year on the peas I think!

Shelling peas on the left, sweet peas on the right

Baby Robertson came to visit!!  It was lovely meeting him and spending time with him and Erin too, of course:

Robertson with his Grandma

One of us (Tyler, cough, Tyler...) ate 6 pounds of kibble in one sitting.  This certain someone earned himself a $162 trip to the vet to be um, relieved, of said kibble:

The vet said "I have never seen so much food in one dog!"  

 Maelle continues to insist on wearing a hat at all times (we draw the line at when she is sleeping but she sure tries!)  She says "Ha! Ha! Ha!" meaning "Hat!" and points at one of her various hats until she has it on her head...funny girl!

Unflattering hat but still cute!

While they took forever to grow, our carrots are very tasty:

My gardening sidekick and I

We were supposed to have Loic's Birthday party last Sunday but someone went and caught Scarlett Fever (yes, you can still get Scarlett Fever!)  Poor kid had a high temp and a *terrible* rash.  After less than a day on antibiotics he was much, much better.  We are having his party tomorrow instead :)

My poor hot, itchy, boy at the Doctor last week

Speaking of Birthdays...look who turned 4 last Thursday!  Rob and I picked him up from daycare for a special birthday lunch, just the 3 of us.  Loic requested a pirate pack so off to White Spot we went!

I sure love this boy!

Bad picture, but look who is walking!  And who can now wear pigtails!!  That dress is so lovely, Grandma Barb bought it last summer for her :)

Chatty, mobile, cute baby girl

Last but not least, I harvested garlic today!  10 months to grow, 10 minutes to pick:

So worth the wait!

Tomorrow is the big party - wish us all luck!!

-E

Smart SMART black dog

We went to Regionals last weekend and I am still stunned at how well Tyler did.

We got: 5th in Jumpers, clean run and 7 seconds under time
We got: 6th in the 2nd Jumpers, clean run and 11 seconds under time
We got: the Gamble in the 2nd Gamblers - this never, ever happens

We also only had 5 faults and 10 faults in Standard.  Oh my gosh was Tyler ever awesome.

Drumroll....we ended up with just over 466 points!  This from the dog that had only 200 or so at his first Regionals and just over 350 at his second.  He was on fire this weekend.  We only needed 350 to qualify and he got over 100 more than that!!!

We ended up 10th overall in a very competitive division - such a good, good dog.

It was slightly disheartening to hear and see all the talk about breeders, and importing puppies, just to do agility with.  My VAS adopted lab kept up and beat a lot of those fancy 'sport bred' dogs and I couldn't be happier.

I shall do a rant about that topic later, for tonight I am just so, so so happy with Tyler :)

-E

(ps - pics and video to follow)

Dogs, kids, teeth, garden

Well today was not awesome.  I was supposed to go to the Dentist for a crown but after a traumatic 3.5 hours I ended up with a root canal and a temporary crown....fun times.  I will say that I can very, very happy that we have extended dental.  In 4 weeks I go back for my real crown.

We went for a family hike on the weekend with our dogs and my mom's dogs and of course our kids.  Carol over at SAINTS wrote a good blog post about how new parents can keep their pets.   Rehoming our dogs was never an idea that we had, even though we knew Arthur and Toby were not giant fans of kids.  Arthur just passed away but we did a good job of making sure he never bit the kids.  We will do the same with Toby.  Carol wrote about how spending short bits of time with your pets is all you need to do and I would agree.  I would also say that having dogs gets you and baby out of the house at the beginning to go for a walk.  There were days where that walk did wonders for my mental well being.  Plus - I could get a coffee too through the drive through :)

This is a picture from our hike on Sunday.  Loic and I hunted for bugs, the dogs chased sticks and Maelle watched everything going on around her:

 Such a good black lab!

 Loic watching Toby dig (and dig and dig)

My garden is coming along nicely!  We have eaten a lot of radishes, green onions and lettuce.  We have kale ready to start eating too - this pic is of some washed Pearl lettuce:

Oh Maelle :)  This is her new favorite pose:

 Agile baby!!

I made a delicious salad this week, soon I hope to use everything from the garden (well, not the feta) to make this salad:

-E

2 + 2 + 2

We are a household of 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs.  5 years ago we were a household of 3 dogs and 2 adults; so much can change in 5 years!!

Maelle is *so so* close to walking.  She can walk easily if you hold onto one of her fingers.  As I predicted, I think she will walk around 14 months just like her big brother.

Loic has a cold, again :(  He is at a bigger daycare, which he still really loves, but I think that means he is exposed to more cold bugs.  He had a good day though, we went to a parade, he had a mid-day tub because we got soaked at the parade, he watched a movie then went with Rob to get the truck washed at a fire fighter fundraiser.

Loic is on a bee theme these days; we go outside and he loves to watch the bees gathering pollen on our raspberries and creeping thyme plants.  I am so happy that he continues to love animals and plants (like his mama).

The dogs are doing well.  I can't tell if they miss Arthur or not.  Rob and I feel relieved that we made the right choice when we did and that Arthur didn't suffer.

In garden news, I transplanted some tomatoes into pots and into the garden yesterday and made my own hanging baskets this years with annuals my dad gave me!  They look very pretty.  Next up - put in some pepper plants given to me by a co-worker/garden friend :)

-E

Oh, Arthur. Sep, 1998 - May, 2013

We euthanized Arthur tonight.  His heart had finally given out after 15 years of life, the last 3 on heart medication.  The vet was nice, she said there was nothing more to do and that it was absolutely the right decision to euthanize him.

A toast to Arthur: you were very naughty, but you were our naughty Chihuahua.  We hope you are with Cody somewhere and that the two of you are barking at both everything and nothing together.

In Maple Ridge

In Tofino

-E

Jody's place! And a dirt party

Here are some pictures from our trip to visit Jody.  Maelle and I spent two days there and we had a lovely time :)

Maelle with a Chicken!! :)

Maelle watching the kitchen with interest when we were out for lunch

I tried to get her to cuddle with me in the morning but all she did was frown, roll over, and go back to sleep next to me....adorable

Maelle and Jody at the park, Loic would have loved this park!

Baby and Moose :)

I took Loic to his buddy Ezra's 4th Birthday party on Monday and the kids alternated between jumping on the trampoline and digging in the 'job site' aka pile of dirt in the back yard.  Loic had a blast!  (He is the one in the red shirt on the far right of the 'job site'.)

A parting shot of my front veggie garden.  The peas on the left are super happy, and the blank spot has just been planted with bush bean seeds:

Rob has another cold, I have a raging ear infection but the kids are doing well (hope they stay that way, fingers crossed).

-E