He's BIG

It's been quite a while, huh? Well, things have been hectic around here, I was out of town for almost a week, ATR was a single parent, and yadda, yadda, yadda. So enough of the apologies (or pseudo-apologies) and onto an update.

When you live with a puppy day in and day out, it's hard to notice how much he is growing. But, when you are gone for a week and return, you can really tell the difference. Parker seems like a big boy now! And the vet confirmed it this morning--he weighs 24.5 pounds and will be 13 weeks old tomorrow. According to our records, Ripken weighed 21.1 pounds at 14 weeks. So, Parker will definitely be bigger then Ripken (not that we didn't already know that as Ripken is on the small side for a Lab). This will cause a bit of a conundrum for me as I've taken to calling Parker, "Little One" and Ripken, "Big One."

Parker had some "loose issues" last week and that apparently made ATR's job a bit harder while I was away as he was constantly on the lookout for a blowout at any moment. He managed to get Parker outside when needed, but there were some nights of only two-hour increments of sleep. Many thanks to our dog-watcher extraordinaire, Jessie, who helped with the day-time routine of lunch and walks. Couldn't have made it through the week without her help. And Jessie DID have to deal with a loose blowout in the crate which we all know couldn't have been fun. Thanks for that!!

In terms of the siblings, they seem to be faring better each day. There is lots of wrestling, ugly dog faces (which makes me think of Uncle Joe and him saying, "dogs that fight go outside"), pinning, nipping, and general puppy/dog play. Ripken is tolerating Little One more and more (except when Parker acts like a punk-ass on the walk and wants to bite Ripken's ear and neck), and I am feeling less guilt each day.

In terms of learning, Parker successfully has learned "sit" and can walk UP the stairs--still needs to learn to master walking down the stairs. Carrying an almost 25 pound dog down the stairs all the time is getting old. I imagine ATR will start working on "stay" pretty soon.

And all should get easier in about two weeks as ATR will have wrapped up another school year and we can tag-team puppy care during the day. And maybe, I will actually get some work done!