Fall Farm Visit

Over the weekend, we took the family out to Great Country Farm for some fall fun and pumpkin picking.  We had “the kids” pose for a little picture…

The girls got to feed some goats, donkeys, horses, and a cow.  Cayenne was somewhat interested in the animals, but they didn’t see too bothered by her nor her by them until she and a walking-free chicken came head to head.  I don’t know who was more freaked out – Cayenne or the chicken!

 

   

Here are just a few pictures of our pretty pup. 

The slides and rope swings were fun for the girls.  Cayenne really wanted to follow the girls down the tube slide, so we let her follow them to the top of the slide, then she sat on my lap and went down.  Pretty funny!

 

Of course, they loved the big jumping pillow.  Nina just wanted to do acrobatic moves across the top of it, while Lyla was happy to slide down the side of it on her stomach.  Those two are so different!  We got to see a pig race, a pumpkin chomping T-Rex, and other fun farm activities.

One of the big highlights was taking the hayride over to the pumpkin patch. 

Cayenne really was curious on the ride out to the pumpkin patch.  There were so many new things to see and smell!  We then walked all over the patch looking for a perfect family pumpkin.  We decided on a good one then took the tractor ride back to the farm.  The girls did a little more jumping on the pillow, and Mark fished for a little bit in the pond, then it was time to head home. 

  

Cayenne was so exhausted!  She was asleep before we even left the parking lot!

As if that weren’t enough activity, we did a casual date night with the girls when we got home.  Lyla and I had dinner at our neighborhood pizza place, then of course we had to walk over to Sweet Frog.  What a good way to finish off the day!

Four weeks

Well, Thursday cracked the four week mark since we’ve had Cayenne. As you can see, she’s really growing!  Her legs have gotten much longer, she’s filling out, and even you can see how she’s growing into the skin on her head.  So far, we can say that she’s a puppy who loves to play, loves to cuddle, and seems to be quite a little smartie.

One of her favorite games to play with the girls is frisbee chase.  One of the girls throws the frisbee, then they all run after it, and when Cayenne gets it in her mouth, she starts running all over the yard with the girls chasing her.  Nina and Lyla laugh and run while Cayenne tries to hold the frisbee up and keep running without getting caught.  It’s really cute to see the three of them having so much fun together!

Three Weeks

Well, it’s now been over three weeks since we got Cayenne.  She is doing great, and she is really fitting well into the family.  She’s very sweet and loving and she is still just as cute as she can be!   Right now, she’s definitely the baby of the family – loves to be held, cuddled, etc. and, despite the fact that she is getting so much bigger, she’s still trying to be a lap dog!  She is a typical puppy in the sense that she is good as gold one minute then getting herself into all kinds of trouble the next.  Like the vet said (when we took her for her first visit last week), puppies only have two speeds – super fast or totally out.  There’s not much in between. 

Speaking of getting into trouble, she snuck into the garden last week, and in keeping with her name, she stole a couple peppers.  We found two jalapenos under the deck that she bit into (but didn’t eat all of), but she loved this banana pepper.  She picked it from the garden then we found her laying in the yard eating it!

The girls are doing great with Cayenne, and since they started taking on a more “leader” presence around her, she has gotten much more submissive to them, and the girls love it.

 

At nights, she is one tired pup!!

Aside from puppy business, the girls are having a good start to school.  They both have really nice teachers, and things seem to be going well for both of them.  I think Nina would happily give up having to get up early and get off to school, but getting up and doing homework seem to be the only things she doesn’t like about school.  Lyla has adjusted very well to being a Kindergartener.  She has a short day (only three hours), so it’s been a great way to transition from being at home with me full time to starting school.  Her teachers are so nice, and she’s already gotten quite a bit of praise from them for being a good little student (which is great for Lyla)!!

 

As for Mark and I, we had the chance to get out for a date night recently.  We went to a wedding at a local winery, and despite the fact that it was raining, it was great to be out and enjoying a really nice evening together while knowing the kids and the pup were happily at home with Mousey and Poppy.  (These pictures were taken with my phone camera, and I can’t figure out why it makes eyes glow.)  So, three weeks into the puppy acquisition and I think we’re all settling in to our new life now.  It’s still a lot of work, but we’re very happy to have her! 

Another Puppy Post

It’s been 2 1/2 weeks since we got Cayenne, and we have to say that now she’s definitely adjusting to life in the family.  Thankfully, she’s been a good sleeper at night.  We wear her out during the day, and after her very first night, she never cries or whines at night and sleeps in her crate wonderfully.  She is also really growing!  She was so tiny when we got her, and in the past two weeks, she’s gotten much taller, gotten much more stamina on walks, and she’s filling out too (thanks to that Costco puppy food!). 

Her only vice has been nipping/mouthing everything and everyone.  Those puppy teeth are sharp, and regardless of “just being a puppy” we knew it was one habit that we had to nix quickly.  So, last week was puppy boot camp in the Simpson house.  Mark and I have been working a lot with her to help her learn to get it under control, and she’s responded very well.  She has such a sweet personality, and she’s such a little snuggle bug, so we’re going to keep up the boot camp in the house until all the nips are nipped in the bud!

She is cute to watch outside.  Just the other day, she saw something in the yard that got her attention…

…then she got on point and stalked that little cricket until she could pounce on it!

On these sunny and mild days, she loves going for walks, laying in the sun, and playing with us.  She has her own basket of toys that she drags all around the house.  She is learning to play fetch pretty well, and she’s already learned four tricks.  She can sit, give paw, lay down, and roll over.  She’s so funny.  Mark taught her the tricks in progression, and when he gets the treat, he has her start with sit, then go to give paw, then lay down, etc.  However, as soon as she smells the treat, she just starts rolling over and over.  She just wants to just straight to the end trick and get her treat.  Too cute!

At nights, she is like a little snuggly baby.  She wants to be right on top of us, in our lap, or laying right next to us.  She wants to sleep with her head on our arm or on our chest, and when she isn’t tired, she’ll bring her toys over and play with them in our lap. 

Normally the girls are already in bed when Cayenne gets really snuggly at the end of the day, but over the weekend when they were home from school in the morning, Nina got some lovey time with Cayenne while the pup napped in the sunshine streaming in through the window.  I was glad Nina got the chance to do that because the prior week of puppy boot camp wasn’t the easiest on the girls.  They didn’t like the nipping at all (in fact they were pretty scared by it), but they also didn’t like to see Cayenne getting in trouble.  We had many conversations with the girls about the necessity to train Cayenne in good habits now so they will get to have all these sweet snuggly times in the future.  This time in particular, was what I think Nina had always dreamed of when she thought of having a puppy!

One last note about the pup – she loves the leaves!  This fall is going to be really fun for her. 

Whenever she finds a group of leaves, she just wants to run full speed back and forth through them.  It definitely gets her really wound up, but it’s so funny! 

 

Puppies definitely are a lot of work, and there have been a few panicky time thinking what have we gotten ourselves into, but we know she’s a smart, loving, and affectionate little puppy, and we feel certain that she’s going to be a great addition to our family!

A Week!

Well, we’ve had this sweet little Cayenne for a week now.  She really is doing great.  It’s definitely like having a new baby in the house in some ways, but she gets easier and easier every day.  She’s learning everything very quickly, she’s very loving, very sweet, and we have been very pleased with everything about her.  She’s still a puppy, so we’re working on the chewing, the puppy mouthing of everything, and helping her learn the rules of the house, but we think she’s going to be a smart little dog – she learns quickly already.  She loves to play, LOVES to just sleep or play with her toys on our lap, and wants to just be right with us wherever we are.

As I mentioned previously, we’ve enjoyed taking some different hikes this past summer.  The girls love hiking and exploring, and it’s always nice to be out of the house and doing something active as a family.  This was our fist time taking Cayenne with us.  She loves all the smells in the woods, and once we got by the river, we took her off leash for a few minutes to let her explore around.  She did a great job of staying right with us.

   

We were curious to see how she’d take to the water.  She didn’t go rushing right in, but she was curious to walk along the edge for awhile.  This is about as deep as she wanted to go, but we’ll keep exposing her to the water, and I’m sure she’ll become a river dog right along with the rest of the family!