A Sad Farewell

It was our first year of marriage- I begged and begged for a dog! Josh was sure it was a gateway drug to having a baby...however, after getting Samson, our beloved boxer, in 2002, we still managed to wait until 2006 to have our first child. Now, I will say that having Sam as a 5-week-old puppy was akin to having my first child- he whined all the time and I couldn't go anywhere w/o him- drove me nuts to be honest! Josh took him out in the middle of the night and I remember thinking I may not be so good at this whole being a mom thing...ha ha. Anyway, Sam was our firstborn- we took him to the dog park, walked him, rough-housed with him, snuggled with him, etc...until we had Rebekah. You may recall that infants are exhausting...I had no extra energy for Sam and sadly, he relegated himself to his new position as backburner dog. We still walked him and loved him, even took occasional trips to the dog park, but it was not the same and we all knew it. Then, Rebekah got bigger and they became best pals and Sam had a new station in life- entertaining our real firstborn! Sam probably felt valued again...enter our second-born...never mind walking him- we barely get outside with the 2 of them, much less a hyper dog, pulling my arm off as I try to pick up his nasty poop!! Anyway, the poor dog has been neglected to say the least. Now, add to the mix our impending move overseas...taking Sam is not an option, especially to a rented flat. So, we are faced with the dilemma of what to do with sweet Sammy. Yea for Josh's sister, Rachel!!! She and her family (husband Pat and kids Quale and Emilia) are delighted to be the new owners of Samson! We thought we had more time with Sam, but with them living in DC and the temperature heating up, we had to fly him this week!!! So, I took Sam (and our 2 kids) to the vet (aka "puppy doctor") to get a clean bill of health and Josh set up all the other details- the flight, the exact right kennel (crazy restrictions), etc. and we drove to Chicago yesterday as a family to drop him off at the airport...very sad indeed.

So, yes, we packed up and all 4 of us went to the airport and then stayed the night in 1 room! Yikes! Both kids did great in the car- truly! We were in the car from 10:30am-4:17pm and Rebekah fell asleep at 4:15pm...seriously! Luke slept virtually the whole time. We didn't have a sad farewell b/c we missed the first flight out and the processing took so long that by the time it was over, Sam was kenneled and it was done. Rebekah knows he went to be with Auntie Rachel, but we're not sure what she really thinks.

Now, for the hotel room- my personal nightmare! 1 bed, 2 pack 'n plays, and 4 people...wow. We ended up sleeping Rebekah behind a barricade of chairs in a p 'n p- no problem! She didn't nap and due to dinner traffic (we were in traffic for an hour just to get to Wriggleyville where we drove past the stadium and ate dinner quickly), she went down later, too, so she was out immediately. Unfortunately we were in the same room that needed to be dark- at least for the falling asleep part- and Luke decided to flip out...so we exited and nursed him, then all turned in. He slept in the other p 'n p right next to me- I tried to catch every noise so as to avoid waking up R...that meant lots of wake-ups and extra feeds. At some point, Josh had the genius idea of setting up a make-shift bed in the bathtub for Luke- made his noises a little muter for R, but very much still audible for us. Let's see- I fed him at 9pm, 12 am, 3:20am, and at 5am I knew he wasn't hungry, but we didn't have the luxury of hoping he'd go back to sleep, so I finally pulled him in bed next to me to stay on paci-patrol...it was fun to snuggle but we both woke up hot and sweaty* at 7:20...now as for R, she only woke up once and just for a minute- I patted her tummy and she went back to sleep until 7, too! Sadly, Josh got the stomach yuckies R had last week (I had it a bit last week, too) during the night...rough night (at least Josh had bathroom company)! So, we packed it up and came home earlier than we would have otherwise. Both kids did great on the way home, too- I am super-impressed with R's road trip prowess...with nothing to do but play with shoes and talk to Mommy and Daddy, she kept herself happy both ways with hardly any fussing! Luke looked around and slept as long as his paci was in and that was wonderful, too!



As for Sam, I forgot to mention that his later flight was delayed 2 hours, so he didn't get in until late, poor Rachel and Pat! However, looking at a texted pic of Sam chewing a rawhide bone, Sam is having a ball and adjusting just fine!

This was his last bath (seriously, maybe his 5th bath since we've lived here- ouch!) Rebes was thrilled to help out...

This lovely maroon contraption was a gift from a sweet friend- thanks Meagan! It's called a Hooter Hider...I imagine you get the idea...R apparently does. She often thinks I'm hiding the baby, which is a favorite game of hers- she can hardly wait to tell you where she has hidden some priceless treasure! Anyway, once again, my personal belongings are no longer mine alone.



*I have been obsessing about Luke's ever-worsening acne...it seems to get better (see last post!), then get bad again. I was examining it today and putting 2 and 2 together- heat rash! He does have acne, but a lot of his splotchiness and red bumps are heat rash, probably from my excessive swaddling (i use 2 blankets). So, today at his normal awesome naptime, I dropped the swaddle- no bueno! No nap...so, now I am trying to swaddle him in less clothes and 1 blanket...poor little guy- needs the swaddle to sleep and keep his paci in (no flailing arms), but the swaddle makes him break out in heat rash, which can't be comfortable.