Anyone want a dog?

Look at this cute face... don't you want him?! Grr........... that's me growling, not the dog, and I'm growling about the dog. Okay, we really do love him.. but he's about to be chained up until adulthood if his chewing doesn't stop soon. I don't know if I posted about the $300 in van repairs he costs us LAST WEEK when he chewed an O2 sensor out from under the van. We have only had the van back for one day.. and last night, on my way home from TayLee's (thanks for the good time guys!!) the transmission light came on. I started panicking.. but the van drove home just fine with no problems. Everything seemed in top working order.. no big deal. I mentioned it to clayton though. This morning he vanishes for a while, and then comes in while I'm on the phone with Leslie (Tyler has pink eye! poor little guy!) looking really PO'd and dirty and sweaty, carrying a weird little thing in his hand. You guessed it.. the O2 Sensor.. that the dog has chewed out.. AGAIN!!! AHHHHH!!! Clayton called my Dad (who does a lot of car work) and asked what we could do b/c we just cannot afford $600 in two weeks of van repairs! So he talked for a while and tried to install it back in again. We've yet to drive it though to see if it is working... oh man.. that dog better grow up to be the best dog in the entire world.. or he's getting bread and water to eat from now on! ;) Seriously though... this is why parents always flip out when kids want a new dog.. I never thought about how destructive one puppy could be! People that say kids are expensive never had a German Shephard puppy!

Carter and I had our first REAL fight of the wills this morning. He's become increasingly more mischevious since turning two, and lately a lot more disobedient. (to be expected at this age...) but this morning it seemed he was doing everything he could to make madison cry, and to make me want to strangle him. So, the last straw was when he got into the 'no no' cabinent under the sink that I keep the dishwashing liquid and such in. He got a bottle of diswashing liquid out and threw it down, looking me right in the eye the entire time. So I knelt down to him and said, "Carter, that's not for you, put this back please." and handed him the bottle. He took it from me and threw it again... and gave a little grunt that translates into "not gonna do it" for those that have never had 2 year olds. So, I sat him down in the kitchen floor... and basically wouldn't let him get up until he put the bottle back. I think it's time to start putting my foot down with him. I remember doing this same stuff with Madison. He is so much more compliant than she was though. After maybe 2 minutes of having to stay in the kitchen, he picked up the bottle, put it back, and ran to me all excited and proud of himself. He got tons of hugs and kisses and life went on. We'll see what the next battle of the wills will be. If he was only aware of the fact that there's not much he can pull that his sister hasn't already, and I now have an entire brain full of methods to deal with his craziness.