Our family is growing!

So everyone around us is having babies. (2 cousins, the Tally Zierdens, and 2 bridesmaids from our wedding are all due in September-and there are more) We are not going to give in to the pressure yet. We feel that it would be better for all of us if Daddy were out of graduate school first!
So, we are adding to our furry family. Local friends bred their yellow lab last Spring and we doted on the puppies, but felt that a brand new puppy wouldn't do well on a cross-country road trip. We decided to defer until this Spring's litter.
Finally the eagerly anticipated puppies arrived on Saturday! We received the call around 3 pm Saturday when there were 2 males and 2 females, with more on the way. The littler ended up with a total of 8 puppies-4 male and 4 female.

We went to see them on Sunday afternoon. Now, I admit that they are not necessarily cute at this point. They are kind of rat-like…but give them a few weeks! Momma Annie was doing very well – a bit tired as you can see. We also got to see one of the puppies from last year’s litter that the family kept. She pretty much looks like her momma. They are smaller than Bailey and quite a bit lighter in color.

An added bonus is that both (human) parents are veterinarians, so we have learned a lot about how all of this works. They suggested that we get a female and keep the family line going! It could be fun to do that some day, but at this point, I think having a new puppy in and of itself will be enough of an adjustment. Bailey is 7 years old and is very laid back. She is very content to lay right next to one of us most of the time. She has learned to sleep in and is just a good dog. So, getting up early with the puppy (during Summer vacation) will be a rude awakening.

Bailey is definitely very attached and spoiled, so it will be difficult for her to have another dog in the house. We are hoping that she will become the nice big sister and not the crotchety old lady annoyed by the pup. We will make sure to keep giving her lots of attention and do lots of reading on how to acclimate an old dog and a new puppy.

We do think that we will get a female. We can’t agree on a name yet (which is also true about baby names-not that we need one yet). We spent some time on the internet looking at puppy names and found a few we like. Any suggestions for us? It can’t be a child either of us has taught, or a name that someone in the family is using as a baby name –those are the points of contention so far.

We'll keep the blog updated with pictures. In a few weeks their eyes will be open and they will be moving around more. In June we are going to help take care of the puppies so there will be lots of pictures then. We'll bring our puppy home in July!

In other news, we got up early Saturday (very hard!) and ran in a 2 miler in preparation for our 5k this Saturday. It was the First Annual Starr Hill-West Haven Clinic 2 Miler. West Haven is charlottesville's oldest housing project.

It was great to be in the community-the race ran through the neighborhood. On a funny note, each corner had student volunteers who the Colonel had written up or suspended in the last week! The run started with a huge hill and was generally hilly. We finished 7th and 8th (out of about 45...but really only 20-ish ran) and felt pretty good about our time. This weekend will be a longer run, but mostly flat.

We are enjoying being runners at this point and aren't too achy yet! We haven't decided what our next running endeavor will be. We pretty much know that a marathon is not in our future, but there are 10ks and 10 milers that we may aspire to.