Another thing that has been keeping me occupied (mentally at least) is, unfortunately, my bad news, so I'll start with that - we found out about two weeks ago (Friday February 23rd) that our dog Sunny, who just turned 5 years old a few months ago, is blind. He was in for his yearly check-up and shots and I mentioned that we thought that lately he was having trouble seeing, and sure enough, the vet said his pupils had almost no reaction to light or anything else. She said he may have 5% of his vision, she really can't be sure since he can't tell us, but he may see light or shadows or something like that. But for all practical purposes he is basically almost totally blind. He has a disease called PRA, or Progressive Retinal Atrophy, for which there is no cure and no way to stop the progression of it. It is a genetic disease that, believe it or not, is found in many breeds of dogs. He has apparently been slowly getting worse over the last 2-3 years, but from what the vet and the reading I have done about it says, that the owner usually doesn't know there is a problem until the dog is almost totally blind, and even then only when there is a change in environment. And of course, right when we returned from the U.S. we rearranged our living room to make it child-friendly and to keep Meredith from falling down the stairs. It was after we did this that we noticed that he was running into furniture, etc. And once we noticed that then we started to notice all sorts of other little things that we had been able to explain away but that were actually related to him losing his sight, such as not wanting to go down the stairs until the light was turned on (I mean, I don't want to do that either but in dogs, it is indicative of night blindness, which strikes first and has been a problem with Sunny for several years). It is a disease that progresses very slowly and the dogs are usually able to adjust well to it, and the vet said that he is otherwise in great shape and should live a long and healthy life. I have been so worried about his allergies and skin problems, and worried about whether he would have back problems (very common in dachshunds) that I didn't even think about anything like this! There isn't anything we could have done but I have been very sad all the same. The vet said this is harder on the owners than on the dogs. In fact, that may be true, Sunny still brings me toys to throw for him, although bless his heart, he can't see them and he doesn't know where they are once I throw them and has to locate them by smell, but he still finds them and brings them back to me to throw again, like he always has. We will have to learn how to live with a blind pet, not too many changes really, but as his vision totally goes, because what little is left will eventually go, we are going to have to keep his environment steady, not let him off a leash outside, not sneak up on him, things like that, and most of all keep a close watch on his hearing - he needs that more than a sighted dog and we need to intervene early if he starts to lose his hearing.
Meredith loves her dog, as you can see from these pictures. He seems to really like her too, just wants to be close, and maybe lick her face if he can. This picture was taken in early February.
In the next picture, she is playing with his ear, which he really likes and will sit perfectly still by her. I have to be close to make sure she doesn't pull too hard, but usually she is very gentle. She also likes to play with his tail and his paws. He just wants to be close to her, since we used to make him keep his distance when she was very small. Again, this picture was taken in early February.
Here Meredith is playing on the floor at home, and Sunny is standing guard. This was in late January. In the next one, she is playing in the ball pit at a friend's house. She absolutely LOVES a ball pit, as you can see. I guess we'll have to get one for our house too! This one was in early February.
And now moving on, everyone is doing pretty good! Meredith is nine months old now and is changing in leaps and bounds. When she was right at eight months, she started pulling up, and the next week she started crawling. One month later, she is really good at both. She crawls very fast, and she pulls up on everything - she can even pull up on a flat wall (although it is easier for her to fall over that way). She stands really well and only needs one hand now to hold on, and has recently started letting go with both hands - sometimes she can stand alone for a few seconds before falling over. Her crawling was so slow, and she was so methodical and careful about it before she started crawling, that I was sure standing and walking would be the same, but she is a very adventurous pre-walker and we don't think independent walking will be far behind. She will pull or push up on anything (including other children and the dog) and "cruises" (walks around the room holding on to furniture or toys, or anything else, again including the dog). Her favorite things are the phone, remote control, and the dog's bones. She is truly into everything - we are having to put more and more things out of her reach and sight. It's not all fun, though - we are having some long, drawn-out, painful teething that seems as though it will never end! She is nine and a half months now, and we still don't have any teeth, although we don't think that will be long either - on her bottom middle gum are two pointy bumps, and now the top middle is starting to get swollen too. In the meantime, it seems to cause her unbearable pain at times and really interferes with a good night's sleep for all of us. She drinks from a sippy cup fairly well, although when she holds it herself she prefers to turn it upside down and chew on it. She can also feed herself some finger foods although it is a little messy and Daddy has a hard time with that. Overall Meredith is a very happy girl and doing really well!
Here is Meredith with her first cookie. I hesitate to say "eating" it because she really played with it a whole lot more than she ate of it. She happens to be naked because she had spit up and I was in the middle of getting her some new clothes when this picture was taken. Don't worry, I don't make my child eat naked! In fact, a lot of times she gets food in her clothes and hair!
Here are some shots of her first crawl in late January (although this was recreated - this was really her second crawl). I had the phone on the floor and she took off after it one day. Once I realized it wasn't a fluke I grabbed the camera and got her to do it again. The first picture is of the actual crawling, and the second is of how happy she is when she gets the desired object, the phone.
This next picture is from early-February, where she is getting much better at crawling and is going after another well-liked object, the remote control.
This next picture is from early-February, where she is getting much better at crawling and is going after another well-liked object, the remote control.
This one is also from early February. This is of her pulling up on some of her toys.
Todd and I are doing well too, we are just coping with the lack of sleep and his work schedule. Todd likes being in production now but he is very busy, and often on call. He turned 35 two weeks ago, and we had a very low-key celebration at home. And I stay busy chasing Meredith around. I have some really good friends here that also have small children, and we help keep each other sane and let the kids run around together and let off steam. I am also still involved with my women's group and other activities.
Todd and I are doing well too, we are just coping with the lack of sleep and his work schedule. Todd likes being in production now but he is very busy, and often on call. He turned 35 two weeks ago, and we had a very low-key celebration at home. And I stay busy chasing Meredith around. I have some really good friends here that also have small children, and we help keep each other sane and let the kids run around together and let off steam. I am also still involved with my women's group and other activities.
Things in Germany are the same old, same old as we close in on the end of our third year here. The winter has been thankfully mild this time around (I was not looking forward to the normal bitter cold and snow with a young baby). It has only snowed once (in early February) and you can see from this picture that it was a pretty pathetic excuse for snow, and it melted that same day. The downside is that because it hasn't gotten very cold, the ticks this spring and summer will be awful. But we have been enjoying it in the meantime!
I guess that's about all I've got for now! I of course always have more pictures to load, so I'll try to get around to loading pictures of Valentine's Day and after when I have time. Also, just FYI - we had some problems with people that we didn't know leaving comments on our blog, advertising and stuff, so I set it up where I have to approve all comments before they are posted to the blog. So please continue to leave us comments, but if you write something and then it doesn't appear, it is still there but I just have to sign in and allow it to be posted first, just so you know.
Stay tuned for more updates (although don't expect another one this week!)
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