Test 1-2, Test 1-2-3 (yes, again)

Once again, testing something new.  Thanks to my good friend DJ, I was enlightened about a very convenient, technology-enabled blogger capability that is out there.  This one: Mail2Blogger.  Yes, assuming all goes well, this post you are reading was posted via an email. 

Picture Test: Kairo sniffing in the grass.  Yes, he loves to "track" smells.  Another post on that later. 


Again, assuming all goes well with the picture post, you guys may have the pleasure of viewing real-time picture posts as they happen!  Get excited!  I know I pretty much just made your Friday (again, assuming all goes well). 

Happy Friday everyone!  Enjoy the weekend!

<3
K$

Much Awaited Updates

1.  Doggie Daycare.  Two words.  It's. Awesome.  Week 2 of doggie daycare is officially complete and we are halfway through Week 3.  G$ and I couldn't be happier and frankly couldn't think of a better way to spend the money.  We have and plan to continue taking K-Man to daycare two days a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Last week he seemed to have a lot of fun, but had a few accidents over the weekend (hindsight, at least one may have been my fault), which led us to think that maybe daycare was a bad influence on the pup.  The daycare is a kennel/cage/crate-free facility where the dogs are free to roam/run/play with 20+ other dogs that are there.  So from a bathroom situation, they just go and then the workers either mop or scoop it up.  After a few accidents on Saturday, G$ and I again became more adamant about ringing the bell when we took Kairo out.  Then on Sunday evening - we had a breakthrough!  Kairo for the first time voluntarily, without G$'s or my encouragement, walked up to the bell and rang it.  We rejoiced and congratulated him, then quickly rushed to get him outside, you know, so he could make the connection we've been TRYING to make for him.  Bell = Outside for Potty.  He then did it a couple more times since then, so we think it's catching (finally!).  Because of the improvements in the bathroom, we opted to take him back to daycare  and so far, we have had very few (maybe one or two) accidents in the house.  Maybe a few in the hallway or by the elevator... maybe.  But that's still a "check" in the victory box in our eyes since it was not in our apartment.  And he just loves daycare.  And we love it, not only is it great for him socially, he also gets his energy out a couple days a week.  For example, last Thursday when I picked him up, I was told that he had curled up in the corner and was sleeping.  I'm thinking to myself - what?! We pay good money for him to play and he's sleeping.  He better not be wide awake when I get him home.  Well, he wasn't.  He slept for three straight hours.  It was great.  I was able to be productive watch some tv (sad, I know.  I'm embarrassed to say exactly what it is I'm watching.  All the seasons are available to stream on Netflix, which is dang-er-ous). 

2.  And he swims!  We had tried to get Kairo in the water early - taking him to the Potomac in Woodbridge with my parents' dogs and to the Potomac near Great Falls, but he avoided going in too far, you know, where he couldn't stand.  He did, however, LOVE to frolic in and out of the water while chasing sticks.  And also looooved digging in the sand at the Leesylvania State Park:

Well - last Saturday, after having a couple hour play date at my parents (Kairo just loves having access to a whole other set of toys!), we went over to G$'s parents house to swim.  G$ picked Kairo up, put him in the water, and he would swim to the steps!  He did this a couple of times and here is the photo-proof:

Checkin' things out

A little help

All by himself!

3. Oh and can he jump!  Yes, Kairo has figured out that those hind legs of his are pretty powerful.  Powerful enough to boost his body in the air.  Kairo now jumps on counters, tables, chairs, and can FINALLY get his cute little self onto the couch (if he has a little running start). 

Apologies for the reflections...

A few additional pictures to leave you with:

Difficult to see with the shadows, but he has a stick that's longer than he is!

Eying the new toy.  LOOOOOVE the wrinkles!

Oh - and when we first met with the daycare folks they were shocked that there was another Vizsla that went by Cairo.  We really thought they had just mixed up the fact that we spell it with a K.  What are the chances there are two dogs, of the same breed, with the a name like K/Cairo?!?  Well, the other day, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Cairo with a C.  He's a full grown Vizsla, so they weren't kidding and there was no mix up.  He does exist! 

Hope everyone is having a good week!

<3
K$

When I started putting this post together, I didn't think I had many Kairo pictures to post. Not only is that not the case, but this post is going to pretty much be a picture-dump.

We went to the vet last Friday - Kairo is officially 21 pounds! G$ did the math, and that means he grew on average 1/3 a pound each day between 8 weeks and 12 weeks. Crazy. According to our dog food chart, Kairo is supposed to be eating 3-4 cups of food a day. Also crazy.

When Kairo is stretched out (which he does pretty frequently, both while sleeping and stretching), he's over three feet long:



But he also could have a future as a gymnast - he is so flexible he can curl his three feet long body into a ball that's less than a foot across:



Apparently, dogs (or maybe it's just Kairo) gets blue eye - like humans get red eye. It's a shame, because his eyes are a BEAUTIFUL shade of green. A few folks we've run into say he has "human eyes" - whatever that means...they aren't brown...?

Other than his weight update, not too much other news out of the vet. He got Round #3 of puppy vaccinations, one of which was the Kennel Cough spray, which was required for him to start doggie daycare (more on that in a future post). We go back in another 4 weeks, and he gets the last round of vaccinations, including the rabies shot.

And now for the photo-dump...

Kairo curious about the fountain in our courtyard:



Kairo even more curious. He wasn't quite ready to jump in, but close:



Kairo with his football. Or rather, a football I was planning to give to goodwill, but it somehow didn't make it into the bag. Most of the time he picks up the football using the laces, but he tried and tried and tried, and finally was able to get a good grip on the end. And even more impressive, I was able to capture a picture:



Kairo liking to sleeping in the most random positions - wedged between pillows:



Today was Kairo's first day at doggie daycare, so I'll be back on with a post on that later.

<3
K$

Location:Mr. Kairo

4th of July Weekend Recap

At times, G$ and I had a busy weekend - but at other times, it was low-key (read: napping and me watching bad TV).

The weekend started by me taking Friday off (sweet!). I just love making long weekends even longer - it's like a mini vacation then. I had high hopes of being super productive, but of course, as I'm sure you could have guessed, I didn't check off quite as much as I had hoped, but I'm sure that's because I set the bar high. I did plan the Sunday brunch menu and bought all the ingredients as well as picked out pictures for our photo wall (more on that later) and went to Rite Aid to get them printed. That's about where my productiveness ended, and those were on the Must Do Before the Parents Come to the Apartment List, so I'm not surprised they got done.

Saturday was filled with some relaxing, cleaning, and cooking. Having people, especially parents over, is a great motivator to:
1. Dust
2. Organize
3. Finish unpacking (which we made progress on, but did not fully unpack the office)

So thanks parental units! :)

As far as cooking went, I planned the brunch menu so that ever thing (or almost everything) could be prepped in advance. I made two casseroles - a French Toast Bake and an Egg and Hash Brown Casserole with Ham and Bacon - and a fruit salad. G$ was awesome and offered to take Kairo to the park to play while I baked, so he would be out of my hair. Aww, it's really the little things that put the biggest smile on my face! By the time I finished cooking and cleaning, it was past 8pm, so I couldn't finish my last project of finally hanging the picture wall. That would just have to wait until the morning.

Sunday morning arrived. Kairo let us sleep until 8AM! Something we weren't expecting, but were sooo grateful! I of course, am running around until almost the last minute with the day-of prep work for the French Toast Bake, hanging pictures, and getting ready. Again, G$ was great and took care of Kairo while I was running around like a mad woman! Brunch was great! It was great having both our parents over to see the new place. And since the majority of the work on the food was done the night before, it was a piece of cake to host. And the best part - now I have some fresh flowers around the house! :) Thanks to a combination of Harris Teeter (who had a surprisingly great selection of flowers, including hydrangeas!) and G$'s mom (who brought more hydrangeas that coincidentally matched my flower color scheme! so I combined them into one arrangement). See:



In addition to forcing encouraging us to clean/organize - thanks for being such great parents and role models for G$ and I. Awww.

Monday morning, we went out to Leesylvania State Park on the Potomac with my parents and their two dogs to try to encourage Kairo to go swimming. We had tried to get him in G$'s parents' pool, but he wasn't quite going for it, so we figured having the gradual entry into water that a beach offers may help him as well as the fact that he could watch the big dogs going in to fetch toys. Well, Kairo didn't swim, per se, but did voluntarily walk into the water. He didn't like it when he couldn't stand, but the fact that he wasn't scared of it was great! We figure we'll try again in a month or so, when he's just a little big bigger. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of him in the water, but did take these of him digging in the sand:








Apologies for dropping the ball picture-wise for this post. I'll try to improve on that. Hope everyone else had a great 4th of July weekend!

<3
K$

Should We?

In keeping with the theme we have going, we were thinking of modifying the the hood of the Touareg to look like this:




Thoughts?!?

Yes, this was an actual car on the street outside our apartment... :)

<3
K$