You might be thinking what could these charming little 6 month and 18 month old boys and this adorable little puppy have in common? Well, quite a lot actually!! See below:
1. Chewing.
Owen likes to chew. On everything. And, I mean everything. It's a fun game of his to randomly come up to my leather sofa and bite it. Why? I have no idea. Or the coffee table. Actually, let me correct that.. any table.. including restaurants! (sorry Outback! He wasn't interested in your steak, just your table..). He has also gnawled on his crib railing. I've put a cover on it, but literally in the 2 days it took for Amazon to ship it to me, you'd think I left this kid in there for days with nothing to eat but the espresso finish. Aidan doesn't have teeth yet, but uses me as a human chew toy. He attacks my hands, arms, shoulder, etc like it's a delicacy! Chunk also used to use me as a chew toy.. he also preferred wicker baskets, old navy flip flops and the crotch of every pair of pants I left on the floor.. sigh, I suppose I'm glad my kids don't eat my clothes.. but, still! I do wonder if the sour apple puppy spray would work for them??
2. House breaking.
We've not even gotten into the potty training part (which I'm assuming could be related to paper training a pup, but I didn't go that route.. we crate trained.. pretty sure I can't use that method with Owen!). However, I can remember when Chunk was a puppy, and I hear the "sound".. the sound of a forceful stream soaking into my carpet.. last week, after Owen's bath, I take him upstairs to get dressed.. we do this routine every night.. and, I turn my back literally for 2 seconds to grab a diaper and his PJs and I hear that same sound. Look back, and there he is peeing on the carpet with this HUGE smile on his face. Aidan is very much guilty of this, too. He gets me ALL THE TIME. Open the diaper and WOAH, pees all over me. And, he too has the biggest smiles ever!!
3. Listening.
You know how puppies will come and suck up to you after they've done something wrong or not listened? My kid does the same thing. I tell him no, he'll come over and give me the sweetest kiss.. and then, go back and do the exact same thing I said no to. Then, he returns to hug me.. only to go back and do exactly the same thing! Just with the dog, he's so darn cute it's hard to get mad!!
4. Eating crap they shouldn't.
For real. This one used to drive me nuts.. and, still does sometimes! Aidan is fully exempt as of yet.. but, once he can move around I'm sure he'll be equally guilty of this as well. When Owen was a little younger.. first starting to crawl/get around.. he was INSISTENT upon finding every piece of trash, dirt, dust, dog hair, etc that was accessible to him and EATING it. Why would anyone want to eat a wad of dog hair? I don't know, but to him you would have thought it was cotton candy! This kid would scream if I removed said grossness from him mouth. Scream. We are better now about eating trash.. usually, he'll bring it to me instead.. or, just stop and point it out to me.. ya know, like every morning we come down the hardwood steps.. and, he has to pause on each step and look for fur balls in the corners? Just because. Chunk was also king of eating things he shouldn't.. like spider webbing I hung for Halloween.. that was a fun time. Or, raccoon and rabbit crap he finds in the yard which causes him to get sick. Every. Single. Time. Ugh, the vet bills! If they would both just stop eating crap, I'd appreciate it greatly :)
5. Growing.
When I first brought Chunk home, he was adorable. I brought him home sitting in the lid of an electric frying pan balanced on my lap. That's how tiny he was (I didn't want him to pee on me!). The rate this dog grew was incredible. I swear every day he changed. By the time he was 6 months old he was nearly full grown! I couldn't believe how quickly it went! I wish I had remembered that when I had my boys. After having Owen, I wasn't prepared for how quickly he'd change. And then with Aidan, life gets so busy sometimes that you blink and realized he's now wearing 9 month clothes when he started in Preemie?! Watching them grow so fast makes my heart ache. I feel like I can't possibly capture all the changes they both exhibit every day! I have a bad habit of never taking pictures off my memory card for my camera (I suppose that's expected when I can hold over 4000 pictures!).. today, Owen and I spent nearly 30 minutes looking at pictures and video I've taken of him and Aidan in the last 8 months.. it was incredible to see how much Owen has changed.. and to look and see how tiny Aidan was.. and how big he is now!
I would never say that being able to raise a puppy is direct correlation to being able to raise a child.. but, I have to admit there are a lot of similarities!! Too bad the tips and tricks I used with Chunk aren't acceptable to use on my children..! Although, I still am tempted to buy the sour apple spray!!!
