Trucking along

Well, we’ve made it 3 weeks as dog parents and so far we’re doing pretty well.  Sabrina still has the occasional accident in the house, but for the most part she does a good job.  She is learning not to chew on everything and hasn’t yet nipped at Ella, which is amazing.  She still isn’t much of a barker.  She only barks when she wants our attention (like if we’ve left her outside longer than she feels is necessary, or if she thinks it’s time for us to get out of bed and we’re still sound asleep) or when she’s around other dogs.  Other than that she’s pretty quiet.

All in all, Sabrina is a great addition to our family.  Joe and I are amazed at how a little 11 pound ball of fur just has a way of making everything better.  As crazy as it sounds, in a lot of ways she makes me feel like our family is complete (of course on the other hand she also makes me want another baby…then she wakes us up at 2 am to go outside and I’m glad we’re out of that phase of life).

Ella loves having a dog and Joe and I think it has been really good for her.  She takes a lot of responsibility with feeding Sabrina, and will discipline her if necessary.  Most of all, it’s shown Ella that the world doesn’t revolve around her.  It has been good for Joe and I to have someone else to tend to when Ella thinks we need to drop everything and help her.  It has also been a great distraction during bath time.  Sabrina spends the entire bath just sitting on the floor of the bathroom and if Ella starts crying she’ll go over and lick her fingers.  It’s really sweet.

Ella continues to be the awesome kid that she is.  She’s reading really well and only needs help on the big words.  During church she even tries to read the bulletin.  The only problem with that is that she hasn’t yet mastered the art of reading silently.  She still loves kindergarten and all that it has to offer.  Today I have her second Parent/Teacher conference.  While I’m confident that Ella is doing great and the teacher will have nothing but nice things to say about her, it’s hard not to be a little nervous.

Today marks the 100^th day of school for this year, so they are having a little celebration in class.  Ella has to bring 100 items to show her friends, so she chose to take 100 paper clips.  Ella has also prepared all of the Valentines to take her friends at school.  The school has pretty strict rules about not allowing candy into class rooms, so we opted for pencils.  Ella chose each one specifically for her friends, so I know they will enjoy them.

That’s really about it here in the Murray house.  Other than a horrible cold that we’ve been passing around, there isn’t too much happening.  I'll be sure to let you know if anything exciting happens.