This year Gloria and Chuck came to visit us.  They arrived very late on Wednesday night; Buddy was still up and was excited to meet them.  The next day, on the holiday, we had a busy day.  We took Buddy for a walk in the morning, then all of us minus Buddy joined the neighborhood for the annual parade with the firetruck.  Afterward, we returned to the cabana for swimming and a bbq lunch.  This year the boys decided not to do the “coin dive"; thus when the event happened, the boys were content just watching other kids searching for coins.  Next was the famous “greased watermelon fight”.  To me, this event was quite violent, but the crowds including the boys loved watching it.  We were exhausted after few hours in the sun, so we took a break at home before we barbequed for dinner.  Before sunset, we headed out to the Almaden Lake park for the fireworks.  The show this year was great again.  There was a weird pause toward the end, but the finale did eventually come and did not disappoint.  The show definitely worth the walk we had to make to go to the park.  At the end of the day, we all had over 20K steps.

   The next two days, Gloria and Chuck just wanted to relax, so we just hung out near home.  We went for some shopping, made hotpot for dinner, and went swimming every day.  Logan and Connor spent some time drawing with Chuck as they are aware that he is an artist.  Gloria and Chuck also shared their experience about dogs with us and taught us some tips to help train Buddy too.  This was a nice weekend spending some time with Gloria and Chuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fja7QY0eGyc

    The four of us managed ok on our own the entire week while Stuart traveled to NYC for his work.  He left us early Sunday, so we spent the whole day entertaining ourselves.  We took walks with Buddy, and the boys had their tennis lesson.  We also went swimming in the afternoon.  The pool was quite quiet, so I swam and played with the boys for an hour in the water and we had fun.  They also played on their own for awhile with the water gun too.  We wrapped up the day with a movie night.

   During the week, we managed Buddy well in the morning and left to school / work punctual every day.  I came home to see Buddy at lunch and he has been doing an excellent job adapting to his new routine.  I often spent half an hour with him before Buddy going back to the crate, and he was always well behaved.  The evenings was relatively smooth but we had a couple more tiring days with Buddy.  Some nights Buddy was more energetic than others and sometimes I was just too tired to play with him again after our walks.  On Friday night, Buddy was naughty and was not listening as well.  By then I was just exhausted and could not wait for Stuart to be home.  Buddy and I ended up having our biggest fight that involved a water bottle too; at the end, neither of us was happy with each other.

    We were all counting down to the day Stuart would be home.  By the time he arrived home on late Friday night, the boys were sleeping already.  Only Buddy and I were up to welcome him home, and we both were so happy to see Stuart.  The next day, Buddy has returned to being very calm majority of the day.  Peace has been restored and we all are happy.

    Logan did not want a party and just wanted to spend his birthday with us.  He wanted both he and Connor be off from camp that day; I took the day off from work, but unfortunately Stuart still had to work.  During the week when Maxim found out that Logan would not be at camp, he asked if he could join us and Logan was fine with that.  So on Friday, Logan’s big day, the three boys stayed home in the morning with me to play games.  After a small earlier lunch, we headed out to watch Toy Story 4.  It was such a great movie, and all 4 of us loved it.  They hung out a bit longer at home before Maxim left home.  I then took the boys to Dave and Buster’s for Logan’s request, and Stuart was able to join us shortly after we arrived.  The boys played all sort of games and some of them Stuart and I could also join them.  The one that Connor was thrilled to see was Deal and No Deal which was the game we played often while on the cruise last year.  The lucky “11” from Logan had gotten us a couple of good wins of tickets from this game.  I normally did not care too much being at an arcade, but this time I enjoyed my time watching or playing with them.  We had dinner there as well and we let the boys played a bit more afterward.  At the end we looked for prizes with the tickets the boys won; Connor had more tickets and he used all of them to buy a stuffed animal for Logan, and Logan named him Buster.  Logan then got a bunch of candies for Connor with his tickets.  Everyone left home happy.

    Connor helped take out the cake and presents for Logan.  Logan was more than thrilled to see the many gifts / cards in front of him; he took his time looking through everything and was thankful with the varieties of gifts he received from everyone.  Logan definitely enjoyed this day very much and we now have a 11 year old.

   Puppy grows so fast; within 2 months, Buddy has grown taller, longer and heavier.  He has outgrown the crate we purchased before we adopted him, so now we had to buy a bigger one and we just went for an XL one to anticipate the full grown Buddy soon.  The boys referred the new one as a “hotel” vs Buddy’s old one as “motel.  Silly Connor had to go try them out too.

   We had an easy day on Father’s Day this year the way Stuart likes it.  We went for a walk with Buddy in the morning and we hung out at the pool in the afternoon.  Stuart was served a beer there to celebrate.

    We have been taking daily walks with Buddy now; Stuart and I take him on our own, but often we take the boys along too.  The walks could be good pace exercise but sometimes they are slow dragging Buddy along.  The boys are often not thrilled to take walks, but with Buddy, they seem more willing.  We are working with Buddy when he sees other walkers and doggies; he often gets very excited and jumpy. 

     Buddy is doing very well with potty training.  He is used to doing his business out in the backyard now and he would stand by the backyard door when he needs to go.  Stuart and I are also doing a good job working with Buddy.  We started with 3am to take Buddy out for a quick run overnight; we advanced by 30 mins weekly, and we are now up to 6:30am.  Buddy is very cooperative overnight; he quickly does his business and quickly returns to his crate to return to sleep.  Basically starting this week, we no longer need to wake up overnight.  This process has gone by more successfully and smoothly than we could imagine.

    Buddy is getting into routine for other things as well.  He would often sit in the kitchen with me in the morning and in the evening so that he would not miss any chances for his meal.  We used to feed him 3 times a day until this past week when we weaned him to only breakfast and dinner.  Buddy seems to adapt quite well to that.  Every evening by 9pm, Buddy is looking forward for Stuart and I to sit down to watch TV.  He would basically pass out completely on the couch with us until it was time for the last potty before bedtime.  Buddy would stare at us but refused to move, so we had to carry him to the backdoor.  He is so adorable especially during this moment, but likely we would not be able to pick him up later when he is bigger. 

   Buddy is now 39 lbs at the last vaccine appt Stuart took him to last week.  Buddy had grown 12 lbs since we adopted him over 6 weeks ago.  Next week it will be yet another milestone with Stuart going to work; we shall see how Buddy will adapt to the change.