Precious little puppies

Something I have been very worried about since I found out about Baby G is our other children (Alabama and Jack) and how they will react to having a baby around the house. I have made a list of things our dogs do that I foresee being an issue once our little bundle of job arrives.

1. When Stephen and I are on the couch, there is always at least one 70 pound "puppy" laying across one of our laps. How are we going to hold an infant with dogs laying where the baby should be?

2. When a person is on the floor, our dogs like to pounce on them. The biggest problem with this is when Jack drops his toys under the table, and one of us has to get on all fours to find it, Jack goes straight for the head. I am not sure Baby G will appreciate being pounced on... especially when he/she is on all fours learning to crawl. Baby G's head will probably fit inside Jack's mouth.

3. Our dogs eat on the carpet... Let me rephrase. Our dogs take a mouthful of their food from their bowl (which is kept on the TILE floor) and find a comfy place on the carpet to eat that mouthful, all the while, leaving a trail of food from the bowl to wherever they decide to settle down to eat. There are three underlying problems with this. 1. They eat more that one mouthful. 2. They do not eat in the same spot on the carpet each time they get a different mouthful. 3. They don't clean up the trail of food they drop. These three problems combined lead to fifteen or so trails of food all over the kitchen and living room. Which brings me to my next foreseen problem... What if Baby G is crawling around and sticks a piece of food in his/her mouth?

4. Jack is a very jealous dog. He can't even let his daddy and me hug without whining. I just have a feeling he is going to HATE Baby G for taking up so much of our attention and time.

5. Alabama isn't so needy with our time, but she will come and get it when she is ready for it. She is very independent... and when she feels it necessary to be petted, she will come stick her head under your hand until she is finished with you petting her. If we have a baby in our hands, we won't have an extra one to pet her when she is ready to be petted.

6. They both have a tendency of jumping onto pieces of furniture without checking to see who or what is in their landing spot prior to jumping. Beds, couches, ottomans, there is no piece of furniture safe and no object safe. The hope of having more kids has been in jeopardy more than once with them flying onto the bed with Stephen still wrapped up (vulnerably) in the covers.

7. The dogs like to go in the car. We have been trying to train them to ride in the very back of the mom-car, but so far, Jack still likes to ride in the front seat, and Bama still likes to ride in the middle, sprawled out. No room for a car seat. Sorry Baby G, we might be strapping you on the top of the Jeep.

8. Dog Toys vs. Baby Toys... They are both colorful. They are both filled with stuffing. How do we teach the dogs the difference? Alabama and Jack both chew on our nephew's toys already... This won't be good.

So many people get rid of their animals when they have kids. I personally think that is HORRIBLE! How can you just dispose of an animal like that? If you bought animals prior to having kids... and KNEW at some point you wanted to have kids... I think you have no right to get rid of your animals. We will just have to figure out a way to make Jack and Bama that they are not people. MUCH easier said than done!