Boy parts, Camp funnies

Since Max turned 1, we can hardly keep up with his physical and intellectual development. Every morning we seem to wake up to a new little person.

Walking: While he has had the skills to walk since mid-June, he has chosen to continue crawling unless under duress (like being stranded in the yucky grass). Since Monday, he's gained the confidence to walk unassisted from one toy, parent or piece of furniture to another. Big silly grin, arms outstreched and waving around in the air...he looks like a goofy monkey. Sweetest thing ever.

Boy parts: Also Monday, we were in the backyard playing (naked) in the baby pool, when...schazzzamm!...he looked down and saw this thing hanging off his body. After several pulls, pinches, grabs and probes, he was delighted to learn that it was officially attached to himself and he could access it at will. He then started carefully draping things over it...such as tree leaves and cups. Later, I entered his room after a nap to find he had taken all his clothes off, including diaper, to investigate his new fun toy some more. Hmmmm....

Camp funnies: If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?! Yesterday, I had my first official working shift at Camp. I'll be doing two shifts a week (as will Barb and Deniece) to stay "in the know" with our day-to-day operations, etc. The rest of my work time will be spent marketing, etc. It was a like a Benny Hill skit. During my shift, the security alarm went off and I didn't have the shut-off code, I locked myself and a dog in the dog-wash area until I was rescued by an employee 20 minutes later, a little poodle named Lucky tried to bite me twice (I deserved it), then I got tangled in the shop-vac extension cord while running toward the lobby to greet a customer. By the end of the six-hour shift, my hair was wild, black mascara smeared, my clothes were filthy from top to bottom, and I had bruises on both knees from the extension-cord attack. Our $7.50/hr employees, on the other hand, were calm, clean and smirking. They can't wait to be around to watch my next Camp shift. Har-de-har-har.

Now Open

Today was our first day open to the public. We had two doggy interviews and we have appointments for another two tomorrow. Multiply that by 10, and we'll be on our way to breaking even for the day. :-) But, as Hubs likes to tell me, "Slow and steady wins the race," so I will try not to be impatient.

To all the prank callers (Joe), I'm on to you.

I spent the afternoon doing marketing visits at vet offices all over town. One in particular drives me nuts. Nice vet with a great facility, but his receptionist is a total bee-atch, plus she looks like Jabba the Hut (hmmm, maybe I'd be cranky too if I looked like that).

I haven't seen much of Max this week, but apparently he's being appropriately fed and watered by Grandma. Also, I missed Steph's book club meeting. Sorry.

By the looks of this picture, I need to get a little sun.

Parties

Max had two birthday parties this year...one in Cleveland and one here at home. Fun, fun, fun, but we are all glad the parties are over until next year. Now mommy has a gazillian thank-you notes to write. The nice thing is they will all be sincere, as so many people were very generous with their gifts, time and sentiments.

Special thanks and love to Auntie Allison and the Cleveland Casa, as well as my mom and Godmudder Stephanie.

Certificate of occupancy!

Today the city of Greeley granted us our Certificate of Occupancy for Camp Bow Wow. We will start our employee training Monday and will be open for business Thursday.

We signed our franchise agreement September 2005, so this has been a long haul.

Yahoo! Now the real work begins...right?

Woof woof

One Year

Today, at 3:31 a.m., begins my baby boy's first birthday.

Words cannot describe the feelings I have remembering the moment he was born nor the past 12 months of adventure with him. All I can say is he is my pride, joy and daily reminder that there is a God and he is good.

May you all be as blessed as we are.
Then...

Now!!

Ewwwwww

Sorry for the blogging hiatus. Let me catch you all up on the past week at Casa Herrera....

Thursday, June 28 -- Grandma Mary babysat Max while I did some work at CBWG in the afternoon and then attended a Chamber of Commerce "business after hours" event at the Harley Davidson dealership across the street from Camp. I schmoozed with the business folks for a few hours and was home by 7:30 p.m. I walk in to find Grandma Mary and Daddy Junkfood feeding my baby son Kentucky Fried Chicken original recipe with all the fixins'. Also, Max went swimming in the backyard that afternoon and apparently consumed a fair amount of pool water.

Friday, June 29, 6 a.m. -- I enter Max's room to find poop ALL OVER his crib, blankets, face, hair, inside his ears, and any other surface the poo could cling to.

The faucet-butt (pardon the graphic visual) diarrhea continued unabated for the next days. Sunday, in a moment of very poor judgement, we decided to risk getting out of the house and went to Red Robin for dinner. Five minutes after we ordered, Max looked at me and uttered a little grunt, then I heard a splash on the floor. I don't think I need to describe here what the next 20 minutes in the restaurant looked or smelled like...let's just say it was worse than the Pachyderm House at the zoo.

We did our best cleaning everything and everybody up and got the heck out of there. We went straight to Urgent Care, where the doctor told us he was basically fine, not dehydrated, looked good, and we just had to wait out whatever was going on.

Miraculously, and I do mean that, the problem stopped in time for the plane ride to Cleveland to visit the Herrera grandparents. Literally, Monday night he was still sick and Tuesday he was not. I honestly believe Adrian's and my guardian angels were at work, because I don't know how we were going to make it through air travel with a sick baby.

Long story short, Daddy Junkfood has learned his lesson and Grandma Mary isn't going to let him chug pool water anymore.

We are here in Cleveland and having many adventures. We'll be back Sunday.