Our big news: we have a new family member!
Max, the poodle, joined us on Friday. I am not much of a pet person — which is why we’ve never had pets other than fish and my daughter’s hermit crab named Luna — but my husband had a number of dogs growing up. He’s been hoping to get a dog and has been lobbying for one for years. (Depending on how the “You might also like…” widget works for you with this blog you might see a post about The Great Pet Debate from 2016). I suspected his work schedule meant a lot of the care would have fallen to me. But since he’s still working 100 percent from home right now, this was a window of opportunity.
He and the 11-year-old are both officially in charge and they are pretty smitten. My Instagram account (@lvanderkam) may soon become all dog and toddler photos, so if you’re not already following me there, please do!
In other news: I am about to finish up six years of time tracking. I started in 2015 when kid #4 was a newborn. He’s now finishing up kindergarten. I have a record of how I have spent the entirety of kid #5’s life. I haven’t been doing a lot of numerical analysis of my logs after year 2 — it’s more been about having a half-hour-by-half-hour record of life. But I might decide to take some time this spring and do something with the logs. I’m not sure what. But something.
This weekend — and other weekends this spring — are testing a new muscle of weekend planning for me. We have three kids in baseball/softball and two in soccer. Theoretically all the game times/practice times for the entire season are all available, so I have written all these on my calendar but it turns out that…they move. So I’m learning there’s no point figuring out weekend logistics too far ahead of time as it’s likely at least one activity will shift to a different time or location.
And then there are the rain-outs. Sunday afternoon was going to be very busy, and then an overnight downpour meant the fields were closed. So we went from every minute spoken for to nothing. I’m trying to have a back-pocket rainy day activity ready for this possibility. We can always go to the new house and play in that yard. When the rain turned to a drizzle we did that yesterday. The kids took turns walking Max around what will be his new digs. I think he liked them!
Congratulations on the new addition! I saw max on your Instagram already, so cute. I grew up with Standard poodles and they are wonderful dogs. (They can be a bit stubborn, but great companions, and so handsome.) There are a few poodles in the neighborhood now (along with all the “doodles”) but there’s a duo that’s a bit smaller that now I suspect are moyens like Max. That’s a nice size. Enjoy!
Maybe he can be a running friend for you.
I am not a dog person at all but gee that puppy is adorable! Wishing you luck with the puppy phase. From what I have heard from friends it is similar to having a newborn.
So excited for the new addition to the family! My husband and I will be picking up a Mini Bernedoodle pup in 2 months (half Bernese Mountain Dog, half mini Poodle.
I am expecting the puppy to consume quite a lot of time each day, until she is housetrained, so I am already setting my morning alarm 10 minutes at a time every ~2-3 weeks, in preparation.
Congratulations! He is awfully cute! I’ve never had nor been around a pet more than a goldfish and had some bad dog experiences so I am super hesitant. We did get a puppy last summer (like everyone else!) My husband promised to be the primary care giver but that apparently did not extend to actually getting up with the dog (My early morning quiet/exercise time was usurped by puppy the entire time she was with us) and between that and my 3 year old’s terror of her, we had to find her a new home. I was also deeply concerned once life returned to “normal” and no one was in the house for 9+ hours/day. I know people do things like dash home to let their dogs out on lunch break etc, but I did not want to be that person (my husband thought otherwise!) We might try again in a few years when the kids are older or we have a different work situation or we might get a cat. I’m perfectly content to be animal free, so we’ll see what kind of convincing my husband can do! Best of luck to you and your family!