Baby proofing my house . . . again!

NO! I'm not pregnant! No! We are not adopting! (much to Geoff's dismay - who has talked of adopting since we married) We do have a new addition to the family though.

This little guy has been in the planning since we got our sweet Lady 2 years ago. I have always wanted a Shih Tsu and Geoff wanted a big lazy 'dawg'. I won! We were living at ASU East and a family - with kids! - moved in across the street. We became fast friends and spent many a day and night hanging out - movies, Wal-mart, in the street, etc. My kids were thrilled to have some friends their age move in across the street! One conversation led to another and we discovered that Julie's mom was a breeder of Shih Tsu puppies. I was determined to buy one and Geoff knew he couldn't back out now! :) We got Lady in March of 2006, just before Maddi turned 5 years old. I had always said I didn't want to 'raise' another 'kid' until my baby girl was going into school. I stuck by it and it was fate that my friends moved in just about that time.
(This is Lady at 3 months old - my fav pic of her!)
Lady has been the life and light of our lives for the past couple of years. Someone had said (not sure who, but would love to know now so I could tell them they were wrong! HA!) "You just wait. The newness will wear off and before long Lady will just fade into the background of your home." Well, she is still at the forefront and will always remain so! The kids love her, kiss her good night and play with her ALL the time. They argue who gets to hold her during movies, take her for walks, etc. They love when we take her to the groomers and she returns with cute bows in her hair too. The neighbors just adore her and all know her name. Kids come over just to say hi to Lady.

Well, we have wanted to breed too. Afraid of Lady's reaction to someone in her territory, we kept putting it off. Well, no longer. We got a boy Shih Tsu puppy this weekend and we are loving him! He is darker in color but looks as if he will be brindle with just a bit more black tipping than Lady. The kids have wanted a "Tramp" to go with our Lady but I refused. So, in honor of our neighbors puppy who died they have named him Duke. (We hope that is ok!) They really loved Duke W. who lived across the street and they think our Duke is just as playful and fun as he was. They came up with it on their own and they tell everyone that he is named after Duke W. who died. Dakota was heard saying . . . "they would've been good buddies". So sweet!


He is a handful, not like I remember Lady ever being. I'm not sure if it's because he's a boy or as with babies and toddlers, you forget how they get into EVERYTHING! Lady has not taken to him lightly. She runs from him, hides under the couch but knows that she is still the true "Lady" of the house. It will take some time but the kids, of course, are all over him. Currently Lady is on the couch next to me (she has figured out he cannot get on the couch yet) and Duke is laying on the tile sleeping. We love them both and hope that our home will return to 'normal' soon!!