Out with 2010

Out with 2010, the year of the dogs, at least in our house.  In February, we acquired two new puppies, a Jack Russell and a Black Lab.  We named them Dyson and Eureka, our new vacuum cleaners.  Here are the doggie numbers, by best estimate...

• 20 sippies eaten (I stopped buying them, or it would have been more)
• 30 unwanted stuffed animals eaten
• 3 wanted stuffed animals eaten
• 18,983,002 small plastic toys dismembered
• 492 piles of doo doo cleaned up by the kids
• 2 piles cleaned up by me (hey, I told them...Mommy's not cleaning up after the dogs!)
• 684 puddles of pee cleaned up by the kids
• 0 puddles of pee cleaned up by me
• 36 loose dog occurrences, resulting in running all over town shouting vacuum brands
• 300 lost hours of sleep, all mine.  Yay.  Who knew that a puppy is worse than a newborn?  And now that they sleep in my bed, I'm still losing sleep for them!
• 15 unwanted lip kisses.  Blech.
• 293 pounds of leftovers eaten
• 12 half-eaten pairs of shoes or boots.  They never go after the same victim twice.
• 1 giant bite out of the car seat liner.  WHY?
• 7,632 hours of love

Had to do over again...I'd probably do the same exact thing.  And yes, Anthony, you were right.  Labradors are the single most destructive force on the planet.  Their second super power is mesmerizing their owner with their puppy dog eyes, however, which is how they stay alive, I am convinced.

As the year comes to a close, I realize that we have been successful at potty and house training these two.  Kind of.  Well, the potty training is good.  Neither of them will potty inside any more unless WE forget to let them out for a long time.  And if house trained means they live their lives inside with us and outside with us, then we have succeeded.  If it means we can guarantee that anything in this house will not be eaten, then we have failed abysmally. 

And with this post, I bid adieu to the year of the dogs.  We're keeping the dogs, but I am dubbing 2011 the year of ditching the diapers for good!  Yay!!