Pathetic

I know, a picture says a thousand words.... but I feel like I should at least give a little background as to WHY Odin looks like a helpless invalid right now.

Norwegian Elkhounds are one of those breeds prone to getting sebaceous cysts. And Odin, unfortunately, has had the bad luck of MORE cysts than our vet or breeder has ever seen on an Elkhound. Aren't we all just lucky ducky? :( What's worse, sometimes the cysts will seep or get infected, which encourages both Odin and Lola to lick, bite and scratch at the sores until they are raw and super sensitive to the touch.

As time has passed, it's gotten so bad that we've had to keep the two dogs separated during the day when we're at work. Odin wanders the house with a cone on his head (so that he doesn't lick the cysts himself) while Lola is kept crated all day, storing up all of that ridiculous Lola-energy to unleash on us the minute we get home.

In any case, Jon forgot to separate the two of them when he left for work on Friday and unfortunately, Lola WENT TO TOWN on one of Odin's larger cysts on his upper back/shoulder. When we got home, it had become a huge wound that, overnight, developed a terrible infection and made you wince just looking at it. :( We cleaned and medicated it (we have an antibiotic cream specifically for this sort of flare up) 2-3 times a day throughout the weekend, dressing it with huge pieces of gauze and self-adhesive tape to try and allow the wound to heal on its own.

I took him to the vet this morning and, given the severity of the wound, we decided to just clean it out as best as possible and medicate Odin with oral antibiotics, hoping that the sore and infection will heal over the next few days before our vet tries removing the cyst. I asked what I could do to keep it covered (since it's an open wound) and/or how I could keep Odin from scratching it raw (which he's been doing since he can't lick it himself).

The vet said I could try putting a t-shirt on him to keep the sore covered while it heals and to put socks on Odin's hind paws, so that if he DOES try scratching himself, at least his nails won't dig in and make the sore worse.

So, that's exactly what I did. Pathetic, isn't it? :)

When I got home tonight, the socks were off and scattered on the floor. It doesn't look like he scratched himself (since the t-shirt was still on and covering the sore), so I think it's actually going to help quite a bit! We'll see.

You know it's hot when...

...your hubby forgets to put the 4am milk bottle (that has ~2oz of milk left in it) back into the fridge at night....and instead leaves it sitting in Logan's room the entire day until you find it that night when you are putting Logan down for bed.

I opened it up to wash it out and the remaining milk inside was CHUNKY.

Yuck. Ick. Gross.

I think we skipped over Spring and went right into Summer this past week. The weather has been BEE-utiful! :) We spent most of the weekend outside and were EXHAUSTED by this evening (partly, I think, because of too much sun, but oh well).

We got a "ride-on" toy for Logan while we were out - since he's so interested in scooters and tricycles, etc. I thought he might like to try this out (it's sort of the first step before navigating pedals I guess).

He's really into it! But, it's still a TAD bit tall for him, so he can't push off and get the speed he wants. As our neighbor pointed out, that's not a problem, since he'll be tall enough by next week. ;-)

I just noticed on the Little Tike's website that kids can bounce on it to move it forward, which means kids don't actually have to reach the ground to get it to go!

Doh!

I'm going to have to show that to Logan tomorrow. Especially since he's been trying to jump/hop lately! :)

Play sets... for Men

I've been wanting to check out the play sets from Backyard Adventures
for awhile since I want to find something fun for our backyard.

Most are super huge for our little backyard but all of them are super
AWESOME. I'm trying to convince Jon we can manage a small no frills
one for Logan.

He's not biting. *sigh*

Van Gogh in Training

Just bought a new arts and crafts book for toddlers recommended by a
friend (thanks Jenn!). I'll have to start buying some frames since I
don't have much fridge real estate left to display all the new artwork! ;)

No Biting

Yesterday when I picked Logan up from school, the teachers were beaming with pride. Logan had a GREAT day! Logan did REALLY well! Logan was in an AWESOME mood!!

I thought it was a little strange that they were so excited. After all, he's usually in a great smiley mood. So why were they talking about it so much, like it's the first time he's done well?

And then we got right down to it.

He didn't even bite a kid. Not once!

Ahhhhhhh. The light blinked on in my head.

So, the teachers can get just as frustrated as I can with this crazy kid of mine. Good to know.

What's more - they were SO happy, that they repeated the whole GREAT REALLY AWESOME FANTASTIC MOOD speech all over again this morning when I dropped him off.

Wow, he must really be making a great first impression with the new teachers. hehe

As it turns out, it was a huge deal. Because, as I've mentioned before, Logan's gotten into the habit of not only pushing, but biting too. It's extremely frustrating trying to reprimand a 16 month old about biting, putting him in a time-out for 30 seconds, explaining that what he does hurts people. He looks up at you, grins real big and gives a huge hug. And, if you continue on your scolding session as you put him in the time-out, he suddenly looks very confused and starts to scream, kick and cry. He just doesn't get it.

At any rate, not only did he not bite a single kid yesterday, he was actually in a tempting situation to bite a kid but still didn't. Which is also huge. When another kid came up to him and took away a toy, instead of biting or hitting back, he just screamed really loudly.

Which, sounds bad at first, but is in fact a step in the right direction. Because, it meant he was trying to verbalize his disapproval rather than lashing out with his teeth instead. The teachers felt this was a great step forward, and I'd have to agree. They even encouraged him when it happened - telling him it was great he was trying to use his words and told him it was okay to say "MINE" back at his fellow classmate if that happened again.

And then another light clicked on.

SHIT. They're teaching him how to say "mine".

I suppose it's an improvement over biting, but man oh man. What am I going to do when he goes around stealing everyone's toys from their hands (or not sharing his own) yelling MINE directly to their face? How exactly do you tell him NOT to do that after we taught him that's what he should do? I guess we'll deal with it when the time comes, but I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

Falafels

Logan and I stopped by the Falafel's Drive In (the best!) to pick up
dinner tonight (Daddy has another late night maintenance). The owners
have known our family since I was a baby, and love to pinch Logan's
cheeks while reminding me how I was once that small.

Tonight they gave him a free mini banana shake with his falafel balls,
hummus and fries and I had to wrestle the damn cup free from his death
grip just so he wouldn't make a mess in the car on the way home.

Mean mean Mommy.

(He screamed the entire 3 mile ride home to let me know it, too. *sigh*)

Cutting it close

I thought I had enough gas to get me to lunch and back home before
refueling. But on my way home (after lunch) I realized I was reading
the dash wrong the whole time! Since, that 72 number never changed.
The gas light blinking on BRIGHT was what finally clued me in.

2 miles worth of gas left. Whoops! Good thing I was near a Costco
when I noticed. heh :)