Last night Vivi decided that she wanted to snack every hour. This did not result in much sleep for me. I got up as usual with Rookie Dad at 4:45am to take Scout out and help with anything he needs before work. He used to have to get up before 3am for work last fall and I was able to get up and make breakfast for him. I sometimes don't have any memory of taking Scout out these mornings, so I have awhile to go before I am back in breakfast making shape. ( I did throw in some pop-tarts the other morning) Vivi and I don't get out of bed until 11ish every morning, she is an 11pm-11am sleeper; but this morning she got up around 9:30am. This was a good thing because Scout had been going crazy in her crate since about 7am preventing me from going back to sleep at all. I loaded Vivi up in the stroller and we took the beast out for her morning bathroom break. Scout is usually pretty high strung in the morning, but today was worse than usual. Before we had even gotten into the elevator Scout had managed to find a nasty moldy container to stick her face into and try to eat (thank you college students who can't figure out how to throw things in the trash). Then as we waited for the slowest elevators in the world, Scout almost jumped through a window trying to see what was going on outside. Now managing a stroller and a psychotic dog in an elevator is not easy when you are alone. But add another person in the mix and it becomes a study in mental control (not to yell profanities at the dog) and physical strength ( keeping Scout from flipping out of her collar, which she has done. She will stand up on her hind legs and then flip herself backwards to get out of it). Once outside Scout decided to lunge at every car that passed by and if she saw another dog she would lay down and wait to say hi-even if the dog was walking in the opposite direction. So here I was dragging the worlds worst behaved dog along on the sidewalk as she laid starring at the poodle that just walked by while pushing the worlds best behaved baby in the stroller.
Vivi is an absolute gem on our morning outings. She now actually plays with 'bugsy', one of her toys. She used to just stare at it, but now will pick it up and turn it around. It is fascinating to me how quickly she is developing and growing. Anywho, after much negotiating Scout finally agreed to do her business and we headed back home. It was then that Scout started doing one of her most annoying habits which is to play tug-of-war with the leash. When she was a puppy and wanted to walk holding the leash it was cute. Now it is not so cute. I accept full responsibility for her habit since I didn't stop it as a puppy. Scout is a strong dog so when she plays tug-of-war with the leash I end up looking like an owner who has no control over her dog. Then Scout will start growling at me making me look even more like a fool. I have to try to keep my calm because Scout will only do this when there are lots of people around, so there are witnesses if I start to threaten to send Scout back to Mexico. Finally I grabbed her by the collar and walked pushing the stroller with one hand while leaning down holding onto Scout. As we entered the underground parking to get to the elevator a pick up truck was doing all sorts of odd maneuvers trying to squeeze into a spot. He was blocking my way to the elevator and every time that he could have stopped and let us go by, he would instead put his hand up to stop me and then would try and fail again to get into the spot. Finally after a few minutes of fumes being blown into our faces, I held my hand up to him ( I wanted to hold up only one finger, but decided that I wouldn't start a fight with a truck) and we made our move to the elevator. Almost home. Almost. When the world's slowest elevator finally arrived out walk 4 students who want to pet Scout. Which means that I now have to hold back Scout as she dances on her legs trying to jump on them. That's the first and last time they'll want to pet her. By the time the students leave the elevator as shut and gone back up to pick up a cleaning lady and maintenance man both with carts full of things. Another few minutes later and we go through the same song and dog dance as I try to get the stroller out of the way of their carts. Finally we make back home and I think that things have to get better. But instead I found myself getting annoyed at everything. There is a beagle that howls from 5am to 5pm and I came very close to hunting that dog down and reporting it to the manager. Then there are two dogs on the first floor that will bark nonstop at a blowing leaf. Speaking of leaves and blowing, the maintenance man ran the damn leaf blower for what seemed like hours underneath our windows. The neighbors kept smoking so I had to keep closing the windows. Things were not going my way and it wasn't even noon yet. I knew I had to get out of my funk so I went to the one person that I knew could cheer me up.
Vivi and I laid in bed together and cuddled and snuggled and chatted about how silly everything was that was making me mad. She will turn over onto her side and put her hand on my cheek and then scoot in close so her nose is touching mine. We will lay there and just look into each others eyes and I can't help but to get tears in mine. She is so perfect. She is an old soul. There are times that I will look at her and she will look back at me with such wisdom. It's hard to explain and maybe I'm crazy but she is wonderful. Simply put. She likes to stroke my left arm while I change her diaper which I always take as a thank you from her for wiping her butt. She can scoot from one end of the bed to the other or from my feet up to my head. She still likes to sleep forehead to forehead and holding hands. And nothing beats the morning or just woken up from a nap nuzzling that I get everyday. When I think of all these things and then get to actually experience them, all negativity flees from my mind. There is no such thing as waking up on the wrong side of the bed when all I have to do is turn around and see a smiling baby next to me.
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