News Flash- a Baby can be very tiring!

Duh, right?  I know, I know, I had 4 of the little buggers around me for years! This is just a confirmation of one of my child-rearing theories: whatever age your kids are at any certain time, that is the age of other people's kids that you can tolerate.

When we had toddlers, anything OP's babies did was fine. Pre-teens? those active little guys and gals were just great, but man those little tots cried kind of loudly, didn't they?  Teenagers? Well, we had problems with ours but I could totally understand the group mentality and really, they weren't like the elementary years- you could have conversations with them and they liked to sleep late. And of course, when our offspring turned into adults (at various ages) I just could not understand those parents who started over again with a baby after they made it through the teenagers! What were they thinking?

Now we are grandparents and babies are adorable again- well, they always were adorable, but 15 minutes with one was just fine. So, I don't expect many readers to be interested in this post, but most of this stuff is written for me anyway. (By the way, Shoeshine, X and Ladyslipper are out visiting friends, so I am not ignoring them to be online!)

I know this might be hard to believe, but Ladyslipper is the brightest little girl I have seen for years. And the cutest. How amazing that she just happens to be related to us, right?

I think what has made J the happiest is finding another person who enjoys this cookie jar as much as he does.

When the head is lifted, Mr T's voice snarls "Get your hand out of my cookie jar!" and the lion roars. At first she opened it by lifting at the nose, but after seeing me use the ear, Ladyslipper wanted to do it that way as well.

We put her tiny snacks inside and she reaches in to sweep her barely-long-enough arm around to grab one. She doesn't want any help with this either.

Before she got here, she was taking 3 or 4 steps by herself, but she's stretching that now- mostly because she tries to get to the various remotes and controllers before someone can stop her. Her feet get a workout on the keyboard as well.  Except for the electronics the house was pretty well baby-proofed and things have gone fairly smoothly. Except that one night when she was inconsolable between 2 and 4 am, and the runny nose and drooling from a new tooth she's working on. And the constant battle to keep dog hair off her. Which apparently I am fighting alone- no one else seems worried by it.

And, speaking of dogs, how have they taken this invasion, you ask? Well, Anna is fine- she's the only one who has been exposed to children before, and she doesn't think they're special at all. Not aggressive at all, just passively ignores them.

Boomer was the one I worried about, but he has been fine; interested but not bouncy, friendly but not hyper. It's Rosie that's the problem child. She was terrified by the tiny being, scurrying around the edges of the room and startled into growling whenever 'it' moved. I held her collar anytime they were in the same room (which wasn't often) just in case she got scared and bowled the baby over. Rosie is feeling pretty sorry for herself because people are sitting on 'her' couch and a playpen is in front of her dogbed. Anna hopped into an open chair yesterday and Rosie decided she would join her, even though there wasn't room.

Anna did not welcome her and refused to scootch over. To fully realize how much Rosie suffered, check the view from the other side.

                                    Pitiful.

         But everybody else is having a grand old time!