new for us friday: a puppy! un perrito!

This New For Us Friday is coming a bit late, I know, but we have been busy–BUSY!–over here this spring break, preparing for–and now caring for–our new perrito. Our new puppy!

Finally, after a long, long time contemplating the big decision to add a furry friend to our familia, the time seemed right.  The stars were aligned, spring is here, and we (finally!) have three potty-trained kids, and the kids are (knock wood) sleeping through the night, and our house is already a mess, and the right pooch from the right litter from the right family came along.

So along with trying to fight off our incredibly pesky colds, we’ve also been preparing our home for our new baby.  This New For Us Friday is–in my mind–as good as they’ll get (but Disney’s a close second!), so once again, the cool products I want to soon share are pushed to the wayside. . .

Welcome, Brady, our labradoodle-goldendoodle mix!  He’s our doodle dog!

• Our New Puppy: We’ve been trying to prepare as best as we could, despite the fact that we’ve all been feeling under the weather.  I mean, really under the weather.  Springtime colds are the worst!

We (thankfully!) borrowed a crate from our pals, and the first sunny day of the week, we cleaned and cleaned.

About a week ago, when it seemed like a puppy was actually within reach, you know what this teach mama did–she ran to the library, three kids in tow, and cleared the shelves of dog books. 

Sure, we’ve been reading books about dogs for years now; we love Matthew Van Fleet’s Dog, and we love Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton.  We adore Dick King-Smith’s many, many dogs in Puppy Love (and we especially love the illustrations by Anita Jeram). We have read Arthur’s New Puppy by Marc Brown, about a zillion times, and we’ve talked endlessly about how much responsibility a pet dog requires. 

Our kiddos have done a great job with Golden and Guinea, and although they make my husband sneeze, they really are super pets for kids. But a dog is quite different, so we’ve been reading up on the topic.  Among many, here are a few we really love:

• Your Pet Dog, by Elaine Landau—A Scholastic book from the series, A True Book, I love the ease with which Maddy and Owen can understand this non-fiction text, and I appreciate that the text features–Table of Contents, captions, chapter titles, etc–are printed larger, in bold, and are easy to read.
• Superpuppy. . . , by Daniel and Jill Pinkwater-–More for my husband and me, this book ranks above the rest for tips on choosing, raising, and training a puppy. It’s been in my husband’s hands almost as much as Brady has been for the last two days. 
• Puppy: ASPCA Pet Care Guide for Kids, by Mark Evans–The pictures in this book make it very easy for non-readers to browse through and understand, since almost every point is punctuated by a photo demonstration.  From house-training to health-care, this book covers everything puppy.
• Everything Dog: What Kids Really Want to Know About Dogs, by Marty Crisp–Seriously, it’s what every kid (and every person who’s ever had a dog) wants to know about dogs, questions answered clearly, concisely, and as honestly as possible. Very funny and has been interesting for us to read and learn!
• Your Child’s Dog: How to Help Your Kids Care for Their Pets, by Andrea McHugh–I like this for the obvious reasons–it helps puts the ownership of caring for dogs on the plates of the little ones.  Although we cannot put the entire care of our dog in the hands of our 6, 4, and 3 year olds (oh well!), this book gave us a few good ideas on how to hand over what is safe and reasonable for our kidds.

So that’s what we’ve been doing, this spring break–reading, preparing, playing, and getting to know our newest family member.  As crazy as things tend to get over here, it’s nice to slow down a little and enjoy the sunshine and a fuzzy little pup on your lap.