Our lives are like a three ring circus ever since we got Sadie. I'm sure you can imagine why, but don't worry I'll elaborate. 😜
Sadie Sue Graff
Dallin flew to Oklahoma, met the lady at baggage claim, got her and immediately flew back. He said that she just slept in her crate the whole time and didn't make a peep. This was the first night he brought her home. We definitely overestimated the impact it would have. I think we were just so depressed that getting a new puppy gave us too much hope that it would make things better. So that made the first few days with her hard. She has these giant shoes to fill because we loved Jojo so much, and we're still not over that loss. We thought Cooper would have some kind of reaction but he didn't seem to even notice that she existed. We thought Jake would be happy but he made it immediately clear that he HATED HER GUTS. So since we thought we were getting this dog for Jake to have a buddy and pull him out of the dumps, that was extremely disappointing. Jake was already hard core grieving (howling, avoiding everyone, refusing to eat or play with us) and getting Sadie made it worse. Anytime she approached him he would growl and bolt away. Even though it was irrational there was a part of both of us that hoped we suddenly would feel better once we got her too. So we were both really let down and really missing Jojo even more once we got Sadie. I thought I would feel obsessed with her, overcome by her cuteness, and super into playing with her. But I just wasn't. So because that excitement wasn't there it made the typical puppy-phase-behaviors much more difficult to handle. Just like every puppy, she nips, doesn't come when she's called, pees and poos inside, chews on things she's not supposed to, etc. So it's really not fair for her because we weren't (or maybe still aren't) very emotionally available. She probably felt like she got separated from her home and family to go to a new one where no one likes her and she gets in trouble a lot. So she didn't even have a name for the first few days because I was just crying and overwhelmed a lot. And yes, the worst did happen-
One time Sadie pooped in the house and Cooper crawled through it. So when it say it's hard I definitely mean it's hard. I have never done so much laundry in my life.
But just like Dallin predicted it all got better with time.
This was the first night we met her. That little cage thing didn't last long because we figured out she could scale the walls of it and get out.
For the first few days she wanted to be held constantly. If she wasn't held she was crying. She wasn't eating and so we got her to eat by mixing a little doggy formula in. So I thought it was funny that we ended up with baby formula and dog formula on the counter for a week or so.
This was me using my new Josie mug while feeding cooper in the morning. The mornings can be crazy for me now. Coop requires more attention and often likes to take a huge dump right before we need to leave so it's hard to get ready myself and do all of that.
I'm not sure if this pic already went into the last blog or not. But we're still doing bachelor night every week and it's soooooo fun. I'm so glad we do it. We also got together last night us girls and tina and went to Barrio queen so that was really nice. I like that we're back to being social again because I feel like my friends are everything to me. But this was Cooper's reaction to me being gone one night lol I guess he missed me.
He still loves baths. The only problem is that our upstairs bathroom is leaking so whenever we give him a bath the downstairs floods. So that will probably be expensive.
Both cooper and sadie loved going outside and watching the bubbles. That was the only way we survived the first few days was just staying outside all the time. (We're lucky we live in paradise and the weather was perfect.) We can't trust her inside and we can't trust him outside. So there isn't any down time ever. She would cry in her crate non stop at first so we couldn't figure out what to do.
Sadie would try to sit by all of us, but at first Cooper just didn't notice her at all and Jake would run away like he was scared or something.
Cooper Alexander Graff
He's so freaking cute. He likes to take selfies. As soon as he can see himself he smiles.
We hung up the Kobe picture that Dallin got for Christmas on the 1 year anniversary of the day Kobe died. This was Dallin explaining to Cooper who Kobe Bryant was and why he was amazing. I love the way it looks on the wall.
Pokemon
Dallin is still hustlin' hard with the pokemon side gig. Sometimes I feel like our lives are run by his pokemon schedule. lol we are trying to keep the house clean, eat healthy, workout, be social, go on weekly dates, keep up with work, the pokemon stuff, and it's a lot. So far we're surviving but it's difficult.
Sweet Sadie
She really wants to please and she seems very sweet. As time went on we figured out ways to handle the hard parts. She finally got over the crate thing and doesn't cry in that as much anymore which makes a big difference. We figured out we need to put her in her crate on our bed each night when we sleep because she will cry if she feels alone but we can't trust her on the bed because she will poop and pee in the night on the bed. We also gated off the entire back end of the house so that she can't get onto the carpet. She figured out the doggie door a little bit. She can be so cuddly when she's tired. And she is getting better with the potty training. Sometimes we'll be walking inside and she stops and turns around to go out for more potty. Times like that makes us think she is starting to understand the concept but there are still accidents. She is also able to hold it for longer now which helps a ton because the first night we were taking her out every hour and it was exhausting. So we do have more moments now where we're glad we have her. Obviously we're growing to love her and neither of us regret getting her at all. We just know it will take time for her to truly feel like a member of the family.
Valentines Day 2021
It's so weird to think that this was our 10th Valentine's day together. My dad and shelly came up for the weekend so it was good to see them again and they watched coop so we could go out. Tristan and Misha invited us to see him play with his band so went there first and that was cool because it was a really fun venue and it's only 5 minutes from our house!
It was cute when Huxley crawled up and smiled at his dad while he was playing.
After we went to Famous 48 and it was AMAZING. I loved this drink it was light and refreshing.
We ate fried chicken, mac and cheese, potatoes, corn bread, salad, cookie zookie, and more I just can't remember. This was obviously a cheat day on the diet. lol We made each other laugh and reflected on life and it was really nice.
More selfies with coop
Our first son
Poor Jakey made me so sad that a lot of the times I cry it's for him. I still miss Josie sooooooo much it hurts and I know he does too. He is slowly getting better each day and starting to tolerate Sadie more and more. I wonder if getting Sadie made it final somehow and he didn't want to accept that Jojo is gone. I understand completely because I still can't move any of her stuff from where it is in the house. I cried just the other night because I felt so lonely reading. I think that Jake's way of showing his loneliness is just disappearing and hiding under the bed or in his room. He will not let Sadie anywhere near his room. Sometimes he seems to want attention and cuddles but mostly he wants to be alone and he is still not himself. I wish there was a way I could bring her back. I got an urn necklace and I put a little bit of her hair in it that I cut out that night so she can be with me.
"Just Keep Swimming"
Swim lessons is getting more fun for Cooper every time because as he gets more and more used to it he's not as overstimulated. I don't love doing it as much just cuz it's expensive and just another thing on the to do list. But Dallin often reminds me that I need to make time for the moments not the list, because that's what's going to matter at the end of life. So I think that's the biggest thing we're gaining from swim lessons. Undivided time with him.
My Husband Is the Coolest
GUESS WHAT!?! Dallin is amazing and was picked as one of 3 of 1,100 people for employee of the year! I am so proud of him and so impressed. He works so hard and is so thoughtful of others. He helps out just because he wants to be helpful even when it's not something he has to do. So I really look up to him because I'm not always like that. Anyway the way they do it is that one winner gets "the trip of a lifetime" where they get to pick their destination and get a bigger trip and everyone else gets a week trip to Cabo in November. Everyone presents to the board on why they should win the big trip and then they decide who after that. So dallin is thinking about what to do for that, but either way we know we won a trip of some kind and that is really cool. (I told him it would be really funny if he did a little song and dance for his lol )
Anyway clearlink sent this box of cookies for him winning! (right after I got really hard core on my diet so that was challenging.)
"Have you ever seen a cuter boy?"
That's what Dallin is constantly asking me lol
This is the part where I melt your heart with adorable-ness
We started loving Sadie once we finally started seeing Cooper and Jakey playing with her. Now Cooper and Sadie love each other.
When the two of them are separated they both cry and stare at each other. (Do you like our ratchet looking way of detaining her? lol She's so tiny she could squeeze through the sides.)
Whenever Sadie cries in her crate cooper goes over to her and tries to help break her out lol
Her cute flower collar is to die for
He still sleeps like a stink bug with his bum in the air. He is a lot better at sleeping now. If he wakes up we just don't go get him and he cries through it and then falls back asleep. He has figured out how to move the camera around though so sometimes we can't see him. One time he was crying so Dallin looked in the camera on his phone and Cooper's face was inches away from it staring straight into the camera and he was whispering "dada dada dada" over and over again. hahahahaha
Cooper's monthly pics
He's growing up
He likes drinking out of a regular cup.
He said it was the creepiest thing ever.
On our professional development day they did an entire thing on grammar and spelling. It was the biggest waste of time. Apparently they have had teachers sending out emails that have tons of grammatical errors. Because of that they sat us all down for a few hours to drone on and on about when to use a semi colon and whatnot. It came across as condescending and also made me think if they were to wasting a professional development day. Seriously, if you have to even make a slide that says this, you must be hiring idiots. lol this is our version of the "sharpen the saw" concept I guess...
Cooper thinks shadows are cool. Playdate with Liv
He likes to lick the windows now. And he can stand up and balance on his own but no steps yet.
February Decor
More Sadie Pics
Her and Coop share toys. I tried to keep them separated for a few hours but quickly realized that was going to be impossible so I just get over the germs part.
We love living in Arizona. The weather, the sunsets, the convenience of everything we have here.
Hungry Hungry Hippos
Dinner has always been stressful for me when I'm working. And then when you throw Sadie into the mix it's just outright impossible. So we got freshly and it has changed my life. Seriously I don't know if I can ever go without it now. (At least when I'm working. When I'm off I can totally cook, so we aren't doing it for summer or spring break because it's kindof spendy.) But anyway they send you pre-made meals that are all fresh with good organic ingredients. It's made by chefs and never frozen. And all you have to do is heat up your individual dinner in the microwave for 3 minutes. It makes it so much easier to track your calories and macro's, and they are all sooooo good! You can pick from tons of options on their app, and they arrive every Monday. I love it so much.
Cooper has stopped having pureed baby food and has moved on to real foods. We're trying to get him to eat lots of everything so that he doesn't become a picky eater. He eats so much. He's up to 4 chicken nuggets a day at Marni's house.
Once Sadie and Jake started playing together sometimes we were set. I don't worry about them anymore. At first I was worried he would never like her. And he still doesn't half the time. But the other half when he is playing with her, Sadie is soooo happy. She wants to be besties with Jake so badly.
We got a new bed and it was only like 500$ on amazon but it has really good reviews and it came so tiny in this box. It's amazing how much things have changed from how we used to do things. Now when we want anything we just go online. We hardly ever go to the store anymore. It was crazy though once we unwrapped the mattress it went "poof" and was like twice the size immediately. After that it took 72 hours before it was fully the correct size.
This kid keeps hitting his head
Poor thing. He gets goose eggs so often. But he is really good about shaking it off and carrying on. Not too dramatic about it.
Sadie and Luna are Puppy Friends
Lexi and Justin got a puppy who is the exact same age as Sadie and they got her about the same time as us. So they've been doing play dates because that's about all we can have her be around because she doesn't have all the shots yet. Because of Parvo we only have her around them and us. But they're so cute togheter because htey run and run and play so hard and then pass out at the same time and cuddle.
Work
We did the tap and salsa units at the same time so I was so happy because those are my favorites. Now we're doing hip hop and I used to hate hip hop but now I don't put as much pressure on myself to be perfect. And I make fun of myself for being uncool and just have fun with it. I had a student from each class learn from a tutorial and then teach the class and I learned with them. It was really fun! This is me in my tap shoes the first day of the tap unit. I was so happy I worked on it over the summer because I have so much fun doing it.
Love Languages Test
We both took it and this was our result
Super bowl!
We went over to Jessi and Wade's for a super bowl party. We had a lot of fun and got all the dogs together. Jake was so happy to be around anyone besides Sadie for once.
Play Day with Mia
He went over to Janine's one day. We had to take his temperature first. It was all new so he definitely wasn't himself around them I don't think. I think it was also stressful for them since they're used to only dealing with one baby. So two all day was hard. Within an hour of being there they had do do a bath, and throughout the day there were 3 outfit changes.
But he loved Mike and playing with a ball.
I have had to take so many covid tests it's getting really annoying. Every time any of us gets a tiny cold we have to test. Even then there are people that don't trust it and still won't be around us. It comes across as offensive because you're seen as a risk and not as a friend. Anyway I'm ready for the stupid covid thing to go away and our lives to go back to normal.
The other thing that stinks about covid is "maskne." Wearing a mask all day every day gives me major acne on my chin.
Hope you all are doing well!
