We had a fabulous baby shower a few weeks ago and SGM and I got all kinds of amazing things for the baby, especially many wonderful baby clothes.  Well I have been washing and washing and washing and ironing and ironing and ironing baby clothes for what seems like the last 3 weeks (supposedly you need to do this with everything before the baby wears anything, especially when they are little little when their skin is still sensitive) and had laid them all out and organized them on the guest bed so that I could put them all away.  Well, we let Copper out of our sight for approximately 2 seconds a few Sunday nights ago, she ran into the guest room, jumped on the bed, threw the clothes all over the place and then peed on the bed and ran out of the room.  You think she's excited to meet the baby?

Cheers to more Adventures in Copperland!

PS.  I took Copper to DDC this morning.  We walked in at the same time as another dog her size, maybe some sort of beagle.  The beagle's owner asked the DDC people if her dog and Copper played together and the answer was, "oh no, [beagle] is in the medium size group and Copper plays with the big dogs."  Awkward silence as the beagle owner took this personally and then said, "but they are the exact same size, why don't they play together?"  And the DDC people said, "well, because Copper is crazy and is super fast and strong and plays with the big dogs really well."  The beagle owner then slinked off.  Is this what its like to be a parent, always comparing your kids to everyone else's?  Yikes!

SGM informed me this morning that when he dropped Copper off at DDC yesterday he saw pictures of all of the dogs on the wall in their Halloween costumes.  It turns out that the costume contest was ongoing and wasn't decided on the day costumes were actually worn to DDC, but by popular vote by anyone who was dropping dogs off at DDC over the last few weeks.  Well, SGM said the results are in....and poor little Copper came in DEAD LAST.  I'm not saying I thought she should have taken home any prizes (here is the reminder of what she wore and what she was up against) but how mortifying, last place!  And she only got ONE VOTE.  And I'm pretty sure I remember (although don't hold me to it with my preggo brain these days) that that vote was from yours truly last week when I dropped her off.  Oh dear, I'll have to get on the ball for next year. 

Cheers to more Adventures in Copperland!

This morning it was time to fall back and what better way to gain lose an extra hour of sleep than by waking up to your dog throwing up a large rock boulder at 4am.  Ahhhhh, the joys of parenthood.

But it's Fall, and in Copperland that means we are raking every weekend from now until January.  The 100 year old oak in the backyard hasn't even started to drop its leaves but we already have a lot of work to do with the other trees around.

SGM was out raking the front yard today and decided to bring Copper out there with him.  We've gone back and forth about getting her an electric fence so that she can go out front by herself but have decided (at least for now) against it since she has the whole fenced backyard to play in if she wants.  Besides, I'm pretty sure she'd jump the fence and there would be no turning back.  So needless to say, Copper doesn't get to spend a whole lot of time in the front yard and there are many things for her to explore.  SGM hooked a rope to her collar and tied her to the (fairly heavy) wooden bench near the sidewalk.  I happened to walk out there to hang out just as Copper managed to topple the bench over so that she could move around with a little more flexibility.  I wish I had the whole thing on film, but I did catch a snippet of her out on the town, with just a small weight dragging behind her:

Last week at DDC (Doggy Day Care) we were told to bring our dogs dressed up for Halloween and that there would be a contest (yes, until January 1st or around then she is our only child, and we take her to daycare and have dress-up days...we'll see how long this lasts once Babe in Copperland arrives).  Well I LOVE a good contest, so of course felt like we had to participate.  At the same time I didn't want to have to buy a new costume (or heaven forbid make one) so I decided to go with last year's, a great pumpkin costume from Old Navy.  See Exhibit A below from last year:

The key problem to this plan was that in trying the costume on Copper the morning of the costume contest, I left her alone for 30 seconds and she chewed through the strap holding it to her body and would have probably eaten the whole costume had I not found her in time.  Honestly, I don't blame her too much because I had forgotten how much she had grown since last year and she looked sort of like a giant orange sausage, the thing was so small and tight on her this year.  So instead of being a cute pumpkin we had to settle for a (very) mediocre witch.  I can't even remember where we got this witch hat but I dug it out of her dog bin and we went with it.  See Exhibit(s) B below from Doggy Day Care:



Sad, I know.  We (I) clearly dropped the ball on this one.  If the picture evidence weren't enough, she came home with a report card that mentioned nothing about her costume or the contest.  I was embarassed for her!  Clearly she wasn't a winner--here were some of the other dogs that day:








Regardless, she didn't seem to let the defeat get her down that day as she played with her buddy Big Paws (not sure what his real name is) and her favorite DDC toy:



Cheers to more Adventures in Copperland!

PS.  The latest in pregnancy comments--I was at the Chik-Fil-A drive thru (gosh between this post and the last you probably think I am the least nutritious pregnant person ever) this week and the guy at the window took one look at me and said "congratulations."  I looked to my right and behind me to see who he might be talking to and realized it really was ME.  So I am now big enough to be visibly pregnant while sitting down at a drive-thru.  Fabulous.