B.R. 4/30/08

The baby seemed ok for most of the morning. We played fetch for about twenty minoos after I got out of the showee. Then the super arrived and seemingly fixed the cold water issue. I say "seemingly" because I'd rather wait to run a load or two before deciding whether his services were accurately rendered. Anyway, the baby seemed put off by the appearance of someone strange in the apt, so she stuck by me and behind me throughout the super's visit. Later, during a resumed game of fetch, the baby ran off to the potty and when she did not reappear after a few minoos I checked in on her to see if anything had gone amiss. The baby greeted me with one paw mid-stride and half of her body past the threshold. She looked abashed, which made me steel myself for what lay in the b-room for my review. It wasn't that bad. The baby made a mucoid drop on the pad and sinkled on the floor. Though I wonder if the "sinkle" is really sinkle or if it was bile because of its vivid yellowness. Anyway, the baby did not run in for a victory high-five as she does after a successful potty. Instead she slinked off to her pillow. Oh wells. Later I tried to get the baby to "sit" for a piece of liver, but she wasn't having any of it. I'm chalking it up to upset tummy.

Anyway, because I was worried that she might get hypoglycemic on me, I gave her some Nutri-Cal. She did not like this very much. Too bads. I don't want her passing out on me during the day.

B.R. 4/29/08

The baby and I are playing a waiting game. We're neither of us budging, but so far she's winning. And what kind of game is this? Well, she's eaten three meals since last night, two of which she's managed to polish off the entirety of her bowl in one sitting. Yet over 24hrs later, there's been no yump. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nuttin'. She's sinkled 6 times since last night, but no yumps. Where did all that chickum and kibble go??? Makes one wonder it does. Furthermore, it's not as if her stummy is distended. Nope, she looks as svelte as she normally does. So we wait. Who will blink first?

UPDATE: We both win! The baby made good and had a v wonderful yump that was the epitome of healthfulness. Yay!

B.R. 4/28/08

I'm happy to report that the baby is feeling much better today. In fact, as previously mentioned, she was already feeling better by yesterday evening. How did I know? As they say the proof was in the pudding, and what a puddin' of a yump did she have this morning. It was quite wonderful, and was an auspicious beginning to our day.

The baby could not have known at the time, but Enn was due back today. It was reported that upon seeing Enn, although the baby took a few moments to orient herself, she was quite beside herself and did a circle dance of joy. She also rolled about the couch and exposed her stummy for some scratching. This is something that she has taken to only recently. It used to be that she would hop on her leggies and do a bear dance upon one's return to the apt, but nowadays she's all about the couch rolling and tummy showing:


As you can see, I had to cover up for the baby for her pose is not the most modest.

Currently the baby is shivering in my arms because she has just taken a bath. It's not her favorite activity, but I think she'll appreciate it because she was starting to smell like a little pound puppy and doing the i'm-itchy-stray-pup-hind-leggie-scratches. Now she has her head down and her eyes closed as she's lying against me. Of course she's still shivering. She is ridic, but that's the baby.

B.R. 4/27/08

The baby is having a rough day. She woke up with her tummy making churning, squirty noises, the kind that meant upset stummy. And sure enough, as she is wont to do when her stummy is not working well she didn't feel like eating anything. She even turned her nose up at the chickum! At this point I wondered if the baby may have sneaked a peek at my last entry and taken offense at the chickum pic. Hmm.

Anyway, since the baby refused to eat her breaky I tried offering her some other items that I know she liked if only to get something into her empty stummy. 1/2 egg yolk - yes. Chickpeas - no. Yogurt - no. Apple - no. Oh well, at least she ate the yolk. Or so I thought. An hour later what does the baby do but barf up a foamy yellow concoction. After that I laid off the food and did not feed the baby anything until 1) her stummy settled, and 2) she got rid of whatever needed to come out.

After a couple of bouts of squirty yump, the baby stummy seemed a bit more settled. All throughout the day, though, despite not feeling up to par, the baby still had fetch on her mind. I figured it couldn't hurt and was a sign that she wasn't feeling that horrible, so I obliged.

It wasn't until earlier this evening did the baby finally feel well enough to want to eat. She let me know this by sniffing and licking the area around her food bowl. Sure enough, when I got out her food, the baby did her usual circle dance of joy. She gobbled it up, and although her stummy is still making some squirty noises she's otherwise ok. In fact, she's taking a little nap as I type this. A little twitch, twitch nap.

Too Much Chickum???

A disturbing resemblence:

An Evening Stroll

Since it was such a nice evening, the baby and I took a post-prandial stroll around the neighborhood. Our stroll first took us to one of the neighborhood health food stores to buy the baby some more raw hide sticks (which she is currently enjoying) and then carried us through gorgeous brownstone-lined streets to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. The baby had done quite well up to this point, navigating her way through unfamiliar streets filled with car and people noise. She had even walked nonchalantly by scores of other dogs who were also out for the evening. Strangely, all her confidence seemed to melt when we arrived at the Promenade, more exactly as soon as I came to a stop and sat down on a bench. Maybe it's because we stopped moving, but whatever the reason, as soon as I sat down the baby hopped onto my lap and started to quiver. The one time I tried to place her next to me on the bench so as to take a picture of her with the Manhattan skyline as the background, she circled once and then hopped right back onto my lap. Since the baby was not feeling it, I did not force her to leave my lap and instead took some pictures of her looking this way and that.




I had feared that by stopping the baby fell out of her exploratory mindset and was now in the grips of an unshakable fear of the greater world. However, my fears were unfounded as the baby perked right up as soon as she saw that we were on the move again.

Of special note -- I think the baby now recognizes our bldg. Her perky steps got even perkier when we neared our block and she positively ran up the stairs to the lobby. Smart baby!

B.R. 4/24/08

The baby was very good this morning. She got up around 8:30 and let me know that she needed to sinkle by jumping on me then off of the bed and circling by the door. To reward her we played fetch for about 10 minutes at which point I went to the kitchen to prepare her breaky. Unfortunately I forgot to defrost some chickum for her so I had to figure out how to cook the frozen leggie. I think I might have overcooked it because it looked kinda brown when I took it out of the microwave. Though a part of me wonders maybe if it looked that way because it's dark meat. Or maybe I overcooked it. Dark meat. Oh, I don't know!

Anyway, after breaky we played a little bit more but not too much because I didn't want the baby barfing up everything she'd just consumed. Then I started working. The baby does not like this very much because I pay zero attention to her except for the occasional head check to make sure that she's not doing anything bad. Most of the time she's not, but one never knows. In any case, here's what I saw during two of these head checks -- the baby leads a rough life:

Exhibit A, passed the s out --

Exhibit B, I'm so E for her, how unseemly --

B.R. 4/23/08

I waited and waited and waited this morning for the baby to do her secondary business but was thwarted by the baby's very slow digestive system. However, this was none too surprising since the baby threw the chickum she had eaten for dinner shortly after she had consumed said chickum. One minute the baby was happy and playing, the next minute I hear a chugging sound behind me. When I turned I saw the baby chucking up the chickum. She looked quite shocked, but quickly shrugged it off. She followed me into the b-room to watch with confusion as I rinsed and cleaned off her blanket -- the object onto which she had chucked the chickum. Afterwards she got into her play pose and tried to get me to play fetch, which I did. When the baby took a water break, she decided that it was time to finish off the rest of her dinner -- the kibbles -- which she did... but I digress from my original point which is that I wasn't surprised that the baby had no yump for me this morning because of the whole chickum affair.

Upon my return to the apt, I was concerned that someone was going to leave me the remnants of a unko party. However, the baby did not throw such a party and it wasn't until much later in the evening did she decide that it was time to relieve herself of last night's dinner.

Although I've given two paragraphs to the baby's excretory processes, the big news of the evening is that the baby and I had our first walk around the neighborhood. I have been scrounging around the cupboards with diminishing return, so I decided that I should try to get myself off to the store. Seeing how it was such a nice day today -- 71 degrees at 7pm -- I decided to take the baby with me. This is the path we took. I was very proud of the baby. She was a little skittish at points but did not refuse to walk at any time, and even managed to walk by many large dogs, i.e. every dog that we passed, without freaking the s out. Good baby!

Prim

The baby may be a messy eater but with most other things she is quite prim. She loves to clean herself like a cat, and loves to sit with her leggies crossed.

Babs would be so j if she ever saw how nicely the baby keeps her nails.

B.R. 4/22/08 and Happy Earth Day!

Before getting on with today's baby report, the baby wants me to wish everyone a very happy Earth Day. The baby says that everyone should do all they can to be as environmentally friendly as possible so that future puppies can grow up to enjoy the world. To do her part, the baby has vowed to be cleaner with her output so that there will be less clean up work which should significantly cut down on the paper towels and toilet paper currently being used on her behalf.

Now for today's report:

The baby had a good rest last night, and for some reason felt inclined to sleep in the crook of my leg. This meant of course that I could not move very much lest I disturb the baby's sleep. Anyway, as always the baby woke up much more alert than me and was instantly ready to begin a game of fetch. Given that I was already running behind, I could not oblige and began fixing her a bowl of chickum and kibble. The baby seemed saddened by the lack of attention, that is until she smelled the chickum. Goodness, did that change things. The baby began dancing around me like I was a Maypole. Needless to say she dug into her breaky as soon as I had set it down, and this afforded me guilt-free time to run to b-room to brush and shower. While in the shower, I noticed that the baby had come in for a sniff at her pad. However, something wasn't quite right and she turned on her heels and left again. At the time, I could only hope that the baby had not decided to revert to her bad days when she would sinkle and yump anywhere in the apartment. As it turned out the baby was merely reconnoitering as she would later return to the b-room at her leisure, while I was out of the b-room as the baby has a very human desire about wanting to do her business in solitude, and sinkle on the pad. It was therefore unfortunate that our morning had to be interrupted by a bout of sticky yump that adhered itself to the baby and the floor. Oh well, at least she tried.

B.R. 4/21/08

The baby was a v good girl last night and this morning. Also, I'm proud to announce that she has not had a sinkle accident in many a moon. In fact, she's been spot on and I'm loving it. That said, I was a little worried last night and this morning because she did not have a b.m. all day yesterday. Worried because I was afraid that she was going to have a poo party once i left the apt today. Luckily the baby had a yump shortly before I left that was mostly on the pad -- one little bit was left dangling off. I had anticipated that she had another big yump in her somewhere and had hoped that she wouldn't make too much of a mess while I was at work. When I left this morning she gave me many a dramatic look and seemed v sad because i would not engage her in a game of fetch even though she kept trying to entice me by getting down in her play pose. It wasn't until she saw me put my pants on did she realize that I wasn't going to play. Only then did she retreat to her pillow and look at me with hang dog eyes.

Upon returning this evening, I went directly to the b-room to check out the baby's output for the day. Luckily for me, the baby made it on her pad and I did not see any unsightly streaks anywhere on the sofa, her pillow or the rug. She is a wonderfully considerate girl, or can be anyway.

Sometimes she's a little demanding re: fetch. Here's her staring at me throughout my entire dinner -- I don't recall seeing her blink:


She finally relented with the staring when she agreed to join me on the couch for some popcorn. Then after some tv and popcorn, we played what else, but fetch. The baby is relentless.

Three Things About the Baby

While going through some of the pictures I took of the the baby at play I realized that this would be a brilliant opportunity to point out three things that not everyone may know about the baby:

1. note her likeness to a certain Robert DeNiro;

2. the baby is a terribly messy eater and loves to leave her kibbles strewn about, though she will return to them later in the day/evening for a midday/midnight snack; and

3. when the baby stand upright, she bears an uncanny resemblance to T-Rex, though it could just possibly be her teensy leggies.

The Baby At Play

Normally the weekends are the baby's favorite time of the week for a couple of reasons. Firstly, her people are at home which makes the little accountant very happy. Secondly, everyone is at home paying homage to her sweet visage and being -- lots of petting, snuggling, and fetch-playing. Unfortunately for the baby, this weekend has been fraught with absences and she has been none too happy about it all. One evidence of this is the fact that she hasn't been eating all her kibbles which has resulted some horribly softee-like yumps. This is unfortunate for me, as her clean up crew, but deservingly so. To make up for the absences, I've chosen to stay home today and have been playing fetch with the little girl since we both got up this (late) afternoon.

So Lonely

The baby is sad. Enn is busy tracking down airline tickets, and I'm enthralled by the Passover programming on PBS. First there was "Primo" with Antony Shear. One word, amazing. It very succinctly captured the horror and banality of the Holocaust; very much like Mr. Levi's writings on the subject. If one were to only read one book by Mr. Levi, or in fact any book on the Holocaust experience, I highly recommend "The Drowned and the Saved".

Anyway, the baby is very sad, and here is a picture of her looking so very sad next to the toy that no one is throwing for her:

Trixx I Played Today Pt. Deux

Today while Enn was watching "The Brady Bunch" -- during which Cindy asked Alice if she was going to marry Sam the butcher -- I said the following: "Remember that episode where Alice and Sam were going to get married but instead got in that horrible car accident and Sam died? That was a sad episode to teach the kids about death." To which Enn said, "Really? Is that what happened?" LOL!

ST 2, Enn 0.

B.R. 4/16/08

The baby was very happy to have woken up this morning with Tax Day behind her. Not that the baby need worry about taxes, but the baby is extremely empathetic and the thought of all those anxious people gave her a sense of general disquiet. Anyway, the baby had a fairly unremarkable day of lounging, eating, fetching and chewing. That said, the lowlight of her day had to have been her visit to the vet for some bloodwork in anticipation of heartworm season. At first the baby didn't realize that was her destination, and so she happily jumped in her carrier thinking that we were headed off somewhere fun. I don't think it was until she saw the familiar stainless steel table that she realized her fate. But even then I have to say that she did a wonderful job putting on a brave front, as she did not wimper or scamper or attempt escape at any time during her visit. The baby is a good girl. When we came home, Enn rewarded the baby with a piece of avocado, which I think is now the baby's favorite food. If she's lucky I'll share a bit of my onigiri with her.

UPDATE: As it turned out there was no need to share. Enn made the baby her own little baby-sized onigiri. Here's the baby going to town on said onigiri:

B.R. 4/15/08

Nothing exciting for today's baby report, though I heard that the baby went cray with her yumps -- I'd been wondering where all that chickum and kibble had gone. Anyway, the rumor is that she had an unko party last night. Luckily I slept through said party and by the time I'd gotten up the unko fairies had cleaned up most of the mess. All that was left was a slight streak on one of the new carpet tiles I had laid down this past weekend. I'd show you an actual picture of the baby's yump, but this is not a cray Japanese site.

B.R. 4/14/08

The baby has had an eventful morning. First thing this morning, the baby barged onto the bed and took a spot right by my head on the pillow while resting her head on my right shoulder for a little pre-waking nap. Then as she adjusted herself, she unceremoniously dumped her little body onto my face and shoulder throughout the waking moments of my day. Later, upon waking, the baby demanded that we play fetch, which we did because the baby does not like to be disappointed, and this made her very happy. Following that rousing game of fetch, the baby ate her chickum and kibble breaky that I had carefully prepared to her specifications. Then while I took a showee, the baby lounged about in the sun and took in her daily dose of vitamin D. As I exited the b-room the baby again demanded that we continue with our earlier game of fetch. However, because she could not decide between the bone or the ring, the game was forfeit. When I went off in search of a proper shirt to wear the baby sneaked off into the b-room and sinkled. After cleaning her marshmallow and rinsing off her paws, I let the baby go and played a little fetch with her as a reward. Now the baby has taken to alternating between sprawling herself out on the sun pillow, the floor (when the sun gets too hot for her), her patchwork carpet and the couch. Currently she is on the patchwork carept looking as if she'd just spent the entire night carousing in the streets. It's tough being the baby.

Sunbathing

As previously mentioned the baby is quite a fan of the sun. Perhaps it's her Floridian roots or maybe even her Techichi ancestry, but whatever the reason the baby LOVES her some sun. So it's no surprise that when the chance to combine two of her favorite activities came up, that is sunbathing and modeling, the baby jumped at the chance.

Here are the results:

So natural...



so intimate...

Smoking the Pipe

G-naw!



Getting down (and flashing the fangs):



But never forgetting to look good:

B.R. 4/9/08

The baby had another little sinkle upon waking this morning (she had one during the middle of the night when she sneaked out of the room). After her second sinkle, she ran about like a crazy person trying to entice me into a game of fetch. Luckily for her I was feeling magnanimous and so indulged her in a quick game as I stumbled about looking for a pair of glasses. Then I prepared the baby's breaky of kibbles and chickum. I was happy to see that she ate her kibbles sometimes during the course of the night since she had previously eschewed any contact with them. Anyway, while I was preparing her breaky the baby kept walking in and out of the b.r. which made me wonder if she had a blockage or something that prevented her from sealing the deal. Since she hadn't committed herself to b.r. activities, I finished up her breaky. The baby leapt about joyously around me as I walked from the kitchen to her dining area. I think she likes her chickum. As expected, the baby, being the b.g. that she can be, picked out all the chickum and left kibbles strewn about her dining area. I placed them back in her bowl and am hoping that she will eat them sometime during the day.

And now the b.m. report: While it was still v. sticky like soft-serve, the baby's yump for this morning was otherwise healthy looking and colored. No mucous and nothing sinewy or bloody. I'm hoping that the kibbles from last night will kick in at some point and help to firm things up.

Here is the baby after her morning activities:

B.R. 4/8/08

The baby jumped out of bed as soon as she realized I was getting up. I find this v. interesting and funny because were I to get back into bed the baby would hop right back onto the bed and snuggle up alongside me. As it was I was a little slow in getting upright so the baby did a little bear dance at the foot of the bed to make certain that I was in fact getting out of bed.

As soon as we were in the l.r. the baby ran to her toys, sat behind her bone, and stared at me with begging eyes. Paying her no mind I grabbed her food and water bowls and prepared to make breaky for the baby. The baby feigned disinterest, so I played with her for about 10 minoos and then ambled to the b.r. to brush my teeth. no sooner had I positioned myself in front of the mirror did I see the baby's reflection running towards her food bowl.

Since the baby seems to be having some stummy upsets I did not feed her chickum and rice, but rather chickum and kibble. At least that was the plan. The baby, being quite the finicky eater, picked out the chickum and left the kibbles in the bowl. I am hoping that she'll eat them during the day when she realizes that chickum will not magically reappear in her bowl.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. While i was in the showee, and before I was able to acertain the baby's actual food consumption, the baby ran into the b.r. and did her circle-sniff. After a tense few minoos the baby deposited a squishy pile of yump that looked like rendered chickum fat with some bits of red intertwined with bits of gristle. Odd, considering I remove any signs of fat from the baby's food and feed her zero gristle. Anyway, fearing that she'd be cleansing her bottom by herself, I ran out of the showee and grabbed her. All for naught as the baby's bottom was v. clean.

Upon my departure from the apt, the baby gave me a woeful glance from behind her pile of toys. Being the little accountant that she is, the baby gathered up her toys and placed them on the sofa while I was in the b.r.

I Never Knew

Growing up, we ate lots of abalone -- usually sliced and sauted, and sometimes sliced and in soups. Never in my imagination did I think that they looked like this:

Gorging

Sometimes when I don't keep an eye on Enn, this happens -->

And when confronted, she gives me the same guilty sheepish look that the baby gives when caught sinkling off of her pad.

Still, what to do. Enn's a horrible little gorger.

Celebrity Look-Alike

The baby knows how cute and beautiful she can be, even in her sleep. For example, today while taking her midday nap, the baby took the opportunity to demonstrate her uncanny resemblence to Audrey Hepburn -- yes, that one, she of the long graceful neck:

b.r. 4/3/08

the baby was very excited to exit the bedroom this morning. the sun was shining which meant that she got to engage in one of her favorite pastime, that is lounging and lolling in the sun. however, the baby insisted on playing before relaxing so we played fetch for a while. i think the baby likes to do this to get the juices running because as is her wont she stopped in the middle of a return and ran off to do some sinkling. afterwards, she very graciously let me clean her marshmallow; post-dabbing we returned to our game.

a short while later i fed the baby the remainder of the chickum which i intermixed among kibble. tricky baby of course picked out all the chickum and then ran off to the b-room and let out a little yump. while it was a clean execution, the baby did deposit a reddish dollop of mucous just outside the boundaries of her pad. all this of course while i was in the showee. of course not trusting the baby's hygiene i ran out of the showee dripping wet to check her bottom and to clean up her morning deposits.

when i left the baby she was alternating between her pillow in the sun and the floor just outside the reach of the sun. i sometimes think that she must be honoring her techichi roots by being such a little sun-worshipper. then again, she may be seeing imaginary butterflies for all i know.

A Love Letter

The baby was very playful today. She woke up in a good mood and did her business first thing. Her yump wasn't perfect, still a bit mucous-y. Unfortunately for me, her clean-up crew of one, the baby wasn't shy about spreading her the fruits of her discomfort around. However, even with such obvious signs of stummy discomfort, the baby woke up to play. I think that's why she agreed to pose for the following, which she'd like to dedicate to her fans:

B.R. 4/1/08

The baby had me concerned today because although she sinkled throughout the day, she did not have a yump despite having had several meals of chickum and rice. One wondered what became of all that chickum and rice. Anyway, her usual routine is to sinkle and yump upon waking. Today, she sinkled but did not yump first thing, though she did come in a couple of times while I was in the shower to sniff at her pad. Alas, the baby did not commit then and did not commit anytime this morning. Upon my return this evening, I saw that she still had not yumped, and this made me a bit worried as I wondered whether she was 1) impacted or 2) left me a secret present somewhere soon-to-be-discovered. At first I thought I had smelled a present, but luckily it turned out to be the rotty garbee that I had yet to throw out. In any case the baby seemed otherwise healthy and happy, and her stummy did not make any funny sounds. All this added up to a happy baby and therefore a happy muhmuh. The baby did finally yump after sher ravenously consuming her chickum and rice dinner. She does love her chickum and rice.

Something else the baby loves... her toys.

Note her possessive paws -- two at once: