Watch Me Grow: 52 Weeks

Happy Birthday Rory!

Today is Rory's 1st birthday.  This is the last "Watch Me Grow" post for her.  I have had so much fun doing these posts.  It's been really fun to watch her grow from a tiny puppy into a 55 pound full grown dog.  

We had a little party for her tonight at home.  I made her a doggy cake (recipe here) and we gave her a box of milk bones for her present.  We love our Rory girl so much!  She has been such a great addition to our family.  She has brought both Bryce and I comfort in times of loneliness, happiness when we were sad, and she gave us a responsibility to take care of someone besides ourselves.  I made a video with pictures I've taken of her the past year that is posted below.  I made for us to watch during her party.  I don't really expect anyone else to watch the whole thing, but I'm glad it's documented on the family blog :).

Happy 1st birthday Rory girl!  We are so glad you are a part of our family and we look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you!

Watch Me Grow: 51 Weeks

  I'm a few days late posting Rory's weekly update, but I'm finally getting around to it!  She is now 51 weeks old.  In the picture above Rory is laying in one of her "spots".  She likes to have a clear view of the door but then she likes to turn her head backwards and watch me and Claire.

Whenever I lay Claire on a blanket on the floor Rory has to come cuddle up next to her.  It's really sweet.  I love seeing her pay more attention to Claire.  I think this is the beginning of a long friendship.
 Rory really likes the quilt Claire is laying on from Great-Grandma Mecham.  After Claire got tired I took her in to the nursery to rock and lay her down in her crib.  When I came back Rory had sprawled out on the quilt trying to stake her claim.  She looked so comfy.  I had a hard time kicking her off!  
 Rory is still the same size.  She hasn't grown in a few months, so she is done growing at this point.  She is very obedient and has matured so much now that she's almost a year old.  She loves cuddling an napping with me, and then loves to play with Bryce.  When Bryce gets home from school or work Rory won't leave him alone for at least an hour.  She will keep bugging him and make sure she gets her play time in.  I can't believe Rory will be one year old in exactly a week!  My little puppy is all grown up :(, which is a bittersweet thing.  I miss how cute and tiny she was but I don't miss the peeing, biting, jumping, and hyperness from the puppy stage.  It feels like a big accomplishment to reach her year mark and see how far she has come in her training.  It took an extreme amount of patience and diligence, but it was oh so worth it!

Watch Me Grow: 50 Weeks

    Rory turned 50 weeks old this past weekend.  She has been really cute with Claire lately.  She's been much more interested in her now that Claire is staying awake more and making more noise (lots of grunting and squeaking).  She does a good job staying calm around her.  It's such a relief to see her respond to Claire so well.  We are grateful to see that all of our preparation and training has paid off!   

Watch Me Grow: 49 Weeks

Rory is now 49 weeks old.  Her 1st birthday is in just a few weeks on February 28th.  She is still doing great with Claire but we are always extra careful and make sure to never leave Rory alone with her.  The picture above is probably the closest we've ever let her get and it was only for a few seconds.  Once I took the picture I made her back up off the blanket.  I doubt anything would happen but I'd rather be safe than sorry :).  We are excited for when Claire is older (&bigger) and they can interact more.  We think they are going to be best buddies!

Watch me Grow: 48 Weeks

Rory is 48 weeks old.  She finally met Claire when we came home from the hospital last Tuesday night.  She has been so good with her.  She just sniffs her and tries to lick her, but she hasn't tried to bother her at all.  She's been pretty calm and mellow too.  I think she can kind of read us and knows that she is supposed to be more calm around the baby.  She really hasn't paid her too much attention, and I think it's probably because Claire is such a quiet baby right now.  I think as Claire grows and when she is louder she will be more interested.  We are so happy to see how well she is transitioning with the baby!
Another thing to note is we started brushing Rory's teeth.  We bought a dog toothbrush & toothpaste a few weeks ago and Bryce finally got around to trying it a few nights ago.  Rory actually did better than I thought she would.  She just kept trying to eat the toothbrush and toothpaste.  She is a pretty spoiled dog.  I never thought I would be the person who brushed her dog's teeth!

Watch Me Grow: 47 Weeks

Rory is 47 weeks today!  We bought clippers today to try and learn to clip her ourselves.  We don't really want her groomed very fancy or anything we are just wanting to trim her every once in a while and possibly clip her short in the summer.  This picture is before we trimmed her.....haha let's just say we need some practice.  We only wanted to trim up the hair on her head and face a little, nothing extreme.  We used the longest attachment that came in the kit and let's just say Bryce and I have not laughed that hard in a long time.  She looks a little ridiculous.  The hair on her head is VERY short now.  We already ordered an attachment that will allow us to leave her hair a lot longer so hopefully in the future her hair cuts will turn out better.  We're not too worried about it though.  It is just hair, and hers grows very quickly.  But, I am waiting to take the 'after' pictures until next week so it can grow out a little :).  

One of Rory's favorite things to do when she wants to play is get out every single toy she has and leave them strewn all over the house.  Then she takes turns bringing different toys to us to throw for her.  Bryce says she is helping prepare us for when Claire is a toddler.

P.S. This is Rory's last update as an only 'child' :).  Next week her update will be about her first time meeting Claire and how she has reacted to us bringing the baby home!

Watch Me Grow: 46 Weeks

Rory is 46 weeks old.  The big update for this week is that we've been leaving her crate door open at night.  We waited a long time to try this because I was paranoid she would get in to something while we were sleeping.  We decided to give it a try since I haven't really been sleeping I would hear her if she tried something.  I'm happy to report she has done awesome!  She sometimes comes in our bedroom with us for part of the night and then will go back to her crate for the rest.  She hasn't even tried any mischief, she just sleeps the whole night.  She really is turning out to be such a well behaved dog.  All of our hard work training her is paying off!  I'm sure we'll have more to work with her on once the baby comes but we are so thrilled with her progress up to this point!

Watch Me Grow: 42, 43, & 44 Weeks

42 Weeks:
   

43 Weeks:

44 Weeks:

I'm a little behind on posting Rory's weekly picture, things have been so busy lately!  Anyway, here are the last 3 weeks in one post. Rory is doing great!  She is 10 months old now and weighs 55 pounds.  She's basically full grown.  We recently got a training collar and it has worked amazingly well.  It has three different settings, shock, vibrate, and a beeping sound.  We mostly only use the beeping noise and have only had to use the shocking a few times when she is outside.  Don't worry, I made Bryce try the shock out on himself first before we used it on her.  After Bryce tried it he even convinced me to try it and it just feels like a little buzz with how low we have it on. We've been using it to teach her not to bark so much, not to jump on visitors, and to stay calm around people when we take her places.  She has responded so well!  It also probably helps that she is almost a year old.  She has outgrown a lot of her puppy habits and is turning into such a well mannered dog.  We aren't too worried about how she'll be around the baby anymore, we're just mostly excited to watch them grow up together and be best buddies.

Watch Me Grow: 39 Weeks

Rory is 39 Weeks old!  She's mostly trained and almost full grown so I don't have as much to update on her lately.  These little updates are probably going to be mostly pictures unless she hits a significant training milestone or grows more.  She has become much more obedient lately and has been listening really well though.  We are still working hard and trying to teach her to be calm for when the baby comes in less than two months!  She is doing great and we are happy to report she is making progress.

Watch Me Grow: 37 & 38 Weeks

I didn't get a chance to post Rory's update last week so here are weeks 37 & 38 combined.

37 Weeks:

 

38 Weeks:

Whenever I am on the couch lately Rory gets right in my face and won't leave me alone unless I pet her.  Sometimes it's cute, but when I'm trying to get work done on the computer or something it gets way annoying.

Bryce thought it would be funny to tease Rory and get in her crate with her on Sunday while she was napping.  At first she wasn't sure what to think....

Then she decided she didn't mind and cuddled up with him to finish her nap.  She's still the same size and still has the same behavior problems that we're still working on (so nothing new really).  But she is a cutie!

 

Watch Me Grow: 36 Weeks

      

It's time for Rory's 36 week update.  She now weighs 50 pounds so by Ron Swanson's standards she is no longer a cat.  I bought her a new toy today from the dollar aisle at Target.  I used her toy to bribe her to sit for some pictures.

 

After a few pictures she started to get impatient.  She barked vehemently to let me know she was rather annoyed.

 

I decided she finally had enough and handed it over.  She was so excited!  She sniffed and played with it on her own for a few minutes and than she kept bringing it to me to play fetch with her....for an hour and a half!!  I should be more selective when I buy toys for her in the future.

Watch Me Grow: 35 Weeks

  

Rory is 35 weeks old and officially turned 8 months old as of yesterday!  She has been loving all of the fall leaves.  It's been windy and stormy and all of the leaves have blown off our trees into the yard.  Rory is in heaven.  Rory would stay outside and play in them all day if I let her.  

We had her sleep in our room last weekend and both nights when I got up to pee around 3 a.m. she followed me out the bedroom door and went straight into her crate to sleep the rest of the night.  She is a big fan of her crate and apparently likes sleeping in there better than in our bedroom with us. 
 

Rory's new favorite spot to nap is under the crib.  Bryce and I were in there putting a few things away and Rory made herself at home, crawled under the crib, and took a little nap.  It was pretty cute.  I'm curious to see if this will continue, especially when the baby is here!

Watch Me Grow: 34 Weeks

Rory turned 34 weeks old this past weekend.  She and I have been going on lots of walks together lately.  She loves them and gets so excited when she sees me grab her leash.  She is a good motivator to get me outside, especially on the days when I'm feeling yucky.  She has been going through a weird phase recently.  She will be super mellow and calm all day long and then between 9 and 10 p.m. she gets these huge bursts of energy.  She starts sprinting around the house, jumping, barking, and gets overly hyper.  We usually have to grab her and put her in her crate until she calms down.  We're trying to take her on two walks a day to see if it helps.  So far....it hasn't made a difference but we're hoping it does soon!