Harri's Prayers Were Answered

Every night before bed we have a family prayer together.  Harri asked one night if he could say the prayer that night and during it he said 'please bless us that we will get a dog because it will comfort me and make me happy, and please bless that it will be a black labrador'.

He knew he was being funny and we were all cracking up laughing, and the next night he said the same thing.  At that stage I had already made the decision to get a dog, but was just waiting for our trips away to Melbourne and Sydney to get one so I hadn't told the boys we would be getting one.

Jay and Harri are both so happy about Milly and Kobe is slowly coming around, but he's still not really sure when he's around her.  He is learning to be more assertive with her and is excited when she listens to him.

Jay loves her a lot, but out of all three boys Harri is the most excited and spends the most time with her by far.

Harri wakes up as soon as he knows that Milly is awake and as soon as he's ready for school he asks to take her out in the backyard so he can play with her before school.  After school he can't wait to get home and wants to take her for a walk or play with her in the backyard.  It's so nice to look out the window and see Harri playing with her.

 Harri couldn't wait to take her to school to show his class.  He loved telling his class all about her. 

The next day I took Milly to Newstead Heights where I used to work to visit the kids.  Some of them were fascinated with her and others didn't care at all :)  It was so nice to visit and see the kids and staff who I miss very much, but I'm loving my new job.   Jack was so interested in her and kept reaching out to grab her, and when I would put her down he would drop his bottom lip as he wanted her back up again. 

 Milly also visited Kobe's Kinder class and the kids absolutely loved her.  They were all over her.

I'm not a dog person at all so even though I knew that it would hopefully be good for us as a family to get a dog, I wasn't sure on how it would go, especially as we've had no experience with dogs.  I grew up with dogs, but never really had much to do with them.

I was dreading the work that there would be in having to train a puppy, but I feel so lucky that we were able to get Milly.  Being five months old she is still a puppy, but has grown out of the young puppy stage.  She's the most placid little thing and has been trained a lot from the place that we got her from.   She sleeps all night and is 95% toilet trained.  She knows how to sit, and has lots of fun in the backyard retrieving toys that we throw to her.  The best thing is that she has a fleece coat so she doesn't shed at all. 

She's definitely not what I imagined when I thought about getting a puppy. It has been so much easier than I imagined so far.  I just hope we aren't in a honeymoon period, like when you bring a newborn home and they sleep all the time, but then they wake up and scream for three months solid ;)

It's so strange seeing a dog around the house.  Jay and I were laughing together last night, saying how strange it is that a few days ago all she knew was being around so many other dogs, and now she's very comfortable being inside a house with lots of noise.  She's so good at going to sit on her mat when we tell her to. Obviously she likes the Muppets!

Because I was never close to our family dogs growing up, it's so strange to have this little dog following me around all day.  She definitely listens to me more than the boys and wants to be wherever I am.  She loves to be cuddled and often just comes over to me and plonks her head on my leg to get a rub.   I guess I'm going to quickly become a dog person!

Milly has settled into our family so quickly. The boys loved putting a Hawks scarf on her tonight for Friday night footy. 
Harri keeps saying it feels like a dream and he keeps thinking that she has to go away again soon.  He's so happy that his prayers were answered.