our other child

luckily for buddy, this is NOT
his strangled body after he woke us
up at 3:30am due to storm anxiety.

when you have an infant, you sort of expect sleep to be in short supply. we got pretty lucky with john, who slept early and well, and with the exceptions of some spotty issues here and there we've slept pretty well in our house since he was born.

in fact, more sleep disruption probably happens in our house because of one culprit: buddy the dog. he's a great dog, don't get me wrong. and he's come a LOOOOOOONG way since he came to live with us around a year ago. but he is still utterly neurotic and nuts. he is afraid of his own shadow. he's afraid of loud noises. he's afraid of my husband about 25% of the time, strange men about 99% of the time (that 1% is my cousin ben, who buddy oddly loves). 

he doesn't pee when he's scared anymore. which is good - i spend MUCH less time mopping up dog pee.

but he does freak out at thunderstorms. and if you live in south louisiana, there are traditionally a lot of them.

like last night. buddy woke us up with his barking at 3:30 a.m. and nothing we could do would appease him - nothing. we never did make it back to sleep. he calmed down when he was in our room and resting, but he still would get up and whimper when there was a big thunderclap. or when he saw lightning outside. or when his superdog-spidey senses told him there MIGHT be a big thunderclap or lightning.

"but john's mom," you might be saying, "isn't that what the thundershirt buddy's wearing in that picture is for?"

"why, yes," i would say. "if only the velcro wasn't shot from being washed too many times and if only the new one(s) had already been ordered and shipped to our house."

instead, i gave my dog a benadryl. does that make me a bad doggy mommy? maybe. but buddy's mom works, and she had to get a LITTLE rest.

tired of my ranting? look at this instead:  

an oldy but a goody:
john's first mohawk. that's MY child for sure.