Never Say Never

First of all, I'd like to say for the record that I partly blame my sister for what you are about to read. 

For Maddie's last birthday she bought her a book titled something like, "What All Girls Should Know" or some such nonsense.  It's a book of little tips and tricks for girls like how to trick someone into thinking they can lift you when you stand in a certain position and they can't.  Important things like how to blow the best bubbles.  It tells her...you know what, I honestly don't know what all this book told Maddie.  But she loved it.  And Tracy was kind enough to point out a specific page number and to read it carefully.

Maddie read it.  And she worked that page almost everyday in every angle she could.  She enlisted Jake's help.

This is the result:

This wasn't a little visit.  This little puppy is ours.  She will be coming home around February 14th.

In December Mike and I started to cave - each on our own - until one of us brought it up after her talking one night.  So we started doing some research; it's Mike's specialty.  We knew that if we ended up getting a dog we wanted one that was small, didn't shed and didn't really bark much.  We wanted one that was friendly but not too hyper.

 

One night Mike came across the breed of the Havanese.  He joked that we should look at this breed because it said that basically, for those uncertain of dog ownership, this dog would win hearts over easily.  The Havanese sounded perfect for us, but in further research we discovered that they are actually kind-of hard to find breeders for them.  When we finally got to a point where we wanted to actually meet some local breeders we realized that lists were long and it would be awhile. 

We tried looking at different breeds, but we really liked what we read about this breed.  And one day we happened upon a breeder who was going to have a litter in the spring and had a relatively short waiting list.  However, she had a friend who just had puppies through her lines and they were available in February. 

We started talking with these ladies and Mike and I set up a covert meeting with the owners.  We didn't want Maddie and Jake to know that we were thinking about dogs yet.  We didn't want to get their hopes up, or to have to tell them that we would get a dog, but with waiting lists, it would be anywhere from 4-10 months. 

It's a very nice family that bred their dog with the original owners' help and guidance.  They have four kids and they wanted their kids to see the process of puppies coming into the world.  The result was a litter of six adorable little puppies; three girls and three boys.  Two were black, two were white and two were brownish/carmel colored. 

 

Our puppies name is currently "Pecan".  All the puppies were named for types of pies.  We already started compiling a list of names.  Any suggestions are welcome.

They expect her to get around 12 pounds and to lose a lot of her brown color and turn mostly creamy colored.

One of the moments I looked forward to was getting to tell the kids that we were getting a dog.  The owner had taken a picture of Mike and I with Pecan using Mike's phone-camera.  The kids were with my parents and we had told everyone we had a meeting that morning.  When we got to my parents' house we had them sit together and Mike pulled out his phone.  I was videotaping and mentioned that we had this meeting with a lady this morning and we took pictures of something she had that we thought they would like.

Maddie looked at the pictures and immediately went, "Ooooooohhhh...it's so cute!  I wish we could have one of those."  Mike looked at me and I said, "Okay...she comes home with us around Valentine's Day." 

Jake's face scrunched up like he was trying to make sense out of what I just said.  Maddie made the same face and looked at the picture then at us and started screaming, "OMIGOSH!!  OMIGOSH!!!  WE ARE GOING TO GET ONE!  WE'RE GETTING ONE!"  She was jumping around and screaming.

My parents (who hadn't seen the picture yet) were beyond confused and Maddie finally screamed, "We are getting a dog!" 

And then my parents fell on the floor in a dead faint.

No...I kid.  But mom started whooping it up with Maddie, who by this point was crying.  Then mom started crying.  Then I got teary.  I looked at Jake and asked if he was excited and he slowly started to jump around and get a grin on his face.

I would show the video except it turns out that I didn't actually videotape it.  I had Maddie's camera and apprarently hadn't pushed the right buttons and when I went to download it, nothing existed.  I've already shed some tears over this, but you'll have to trust me: it was one of the most amazing parenting moments I've ever had. 

We don't believe every kid should get everything they want. 

But once in awhile...it sure is fun to give them the world.

And then send them out to pick up the poop.