My Ruby girl turned one at the beginning of May!
My puppy is no longer a puppy.
Psh...who am I kidding, of course she still is!
To celebrate, we made hamburgers for dinner and made a mini-cheeseburger for her.
Dan and I even sang Happy Birthday to her.
She just looked at us with her head cocked to the side, probably thinking we're a bunch of crazies and to just give her the dang burger already.
It was so anticlimactic.
I honestly was a little disappointed.
She practically swallowed the patty whole!
We looked at each other, exchanging the "well that was real exciting" glance.
And then it was over.
We didn't do presents or even get a birthday hat for her.
I knew she wouldn't sit still long enough to get a picture in the hat, so I bagged the whole thing.
We did end up giving her another mini-cheeseburger, in pieces this time so it hopefully digested a little better.
We did try to take a family selfie.
Here's how well that turned out.
Turns out its a wee bit difficult to get a puppy to focus on the camera.
Dan and I sat down later and poured through our phones (okay mostly my phone) looking at all the pictures we have of her from this first year.
I knew the instant I started taking pictures of her that people would laugh at me.
She is a dog after all.
But there is something to be said for getting a dog before you have children.
The dog becomes your child.
And in retrospect, I wouldn't take back any of those pictures, because I can look at each one and smile.
Miss Ruby may very well have been the one of the best decision we've made thus far in our marriage.
She's teaching us to be better parents, and especially about patience and problem solving.
Hopefully some of what we've learned will translate into parenting our own children some day.
Some of the highlights:
1. She was obsessed with biting at my ankles for the first few weeks after we got her.
I was CONVINCED she hated me, or was racist, because she never did that to Dan.
2. Potty training in the middle of the night.
Good hell...I am so grateful we got her when we did, and that it was summer and I was only working two days a week.
I got so little sleep that first week because I was waking up every 2 hours to take her out potty.
Thankfully, it was worth it and we had her potty trained by the end of the first two weeks, and down to only one potty break at 3 am.
3. Falling asleep literally everywhere, in every position.
She initially would fall asleep on her back, which I thought was the weirdest thing ever.
Eventually she started curling up in a ball, and will occasionally stretch out on her belly with her legs outstretched.
4. We moved her from her small kennel to a big one way too soon.
Huge mistake.
She's never slept in a kennel since, but has taken to her dog bed quite nicely.
And then around 6 months old, she decided she needed to sleep in our bed from 3:30 am till we got up at 6.
We've tried to break it, but now we're to the point where I'm so tired that I don't even care if she gets in the bed or not.
Dan swears with our next dog, they will be sleeping outside to avoid the above problem.
5. She always wants to be with us, and be close to us.
Literally.
If you move and she is snuggling next to you, she will get up and move closer, sitting on top of you to be close to you.
I love that she always wants to be with us.
It's only frustrating when she's whining because she knows we're leaving...even when we're taking her with us!
6. It's one of my favorite things to watch her track birds, especially when we're on walks.
She's done this since she was tiny little.
It's hilarious because we'll be on a walk around the neighborhood and she will stop dead in her tracks to stare down the birds.
We've been so blessed to have this beautiful little lady in our lives.
I can't even begin to picture my life without her.
Happy first birthday Ruby girl!
To celebrate, we made hamburgers for dinner and made a mini-cheeseburger for her.
Dan and I even sang Happy Birthday to her.
She just looked at us with her head cocked to the side, probably thinking we're a bunch of crazies and to just give her the dang burger already.
It was so anticlimactic.
I honestly was a little disappointed.
She practically swallowed the patty whole!
We looked at each other, exchanging the "well that was real exciting" glance.
And then it was over.
We didn't do presents or even get a birthday hat for her.
I knew she wouldn't sit still long enough to get a picture in the hat, so I bagged the whole thing.
We did end up giving her another mini-cheeseburger, in pieces this time so it hopefully digested a little better.
We did try to take a family selfie.
Here's how well that turned out.
Turns out its a wee bit difficult to get a puppy to focus on the camera.
Dan and I sat down later and poured through our phones (okay mostly my phone) looking at all the pictures we have of her from this first year.
I knew the instant I started taking pictures of her that people would laugh at me.
She is a dog after all.
But there is something to be said for getting a dog before you have children.
The dog becomes your child.
And in retrospect, I wouldn't take back any of those pictures, because I can look at each one and smile.
Miss Ruby may very well have been the one of the best decision we've made thus far in our marriage.
She's teaching us to be better parents, and especially about patience and problem solving.
Hopefully some of what we've learned will translate into parenting our own children some day.
Some of the highlights:
1. She was obsessed with biting at my ankles for the first few weeks after we got her.
I was CONVINCED she hated me, or was racist, because she never did that to Dan.
2. Potty training in the middle of the night.
Good hell...I am so grateful we got her when we did, and that it was summer and I was only working two days a week.
I got so little sleep that first week because I was waking up every 2 hours to take her out potty.
Thankfully, it was worth it and we had her potty trained by the end of the first two weeks, and down to only one potty break at 3 am.
3. Falling asleep literally everywhere, in every position.
She initially would fall asleep on her back, which I thought was the weirdest thing ever.
Eventually she started curling up in a ball, and will occasionally stretch out on her belly with her legs outstretched.
4. We moved her from her small kennel to a big one way too soon.
Huge mistake.
She's never slept in a kennel since, but has taken to her dog bed quite nicely.
And then around 6 months old, she decided she needed to sleep in our bed from 3:30 am till we got up at 6.
We've tried to break it, but now we're to the point where I'm so tired that I don't even care if she gets in the bed or not.
Dan swears with our next dog, they will be sleeping outside to avoid the above problem.
5. She always wants to be with us, and be close to us.
Literally.
If you move and she is snuggling next to you, she will get up and move closer, sitting on top of you to be close to you.
I love that she always wants to be with us.
It's only frustrating when she's whining because she knows we're leaving...even when we're taking her with us!
6. It's one of my favorite things to watch her track birds, especially when we're on walks.
She's done this since she was tiny little.
It's hilarious because we'll be on a walk around the neighborhood and she will stop dead in her tracks to stare down the birds.
We've been so blessed to have this beautiful little lady in our lives.
I can't even begin to picture my life without her.
Happy first birthday Ruby girl!
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