Day 19: The County Fair

This weekend, California came to the sudden realization that it should probably be HOT, because you know it's summer in California. And so after weeks of mild to almost cool weather, we peaked at 95 degrees in a blistering heatwave. And though most people are probably cringing and hissing at the sun and complaining on social media about how miserably hottttttt it isssssss, I for one see it as an opportunity to do summery stuff, since it's actually warm enough for one. 

So for the first half of the day, we were exclusively outside in the back yard, playing on the slip n slide and the kiddie/doggie pool and trying to convince Rebel that he is in fact a water dog (which, he doesn't dislike water, but he's not the type to just leap in face first either). Then the neighbor kids came outside with water balloons, and we got our own, and thus ensued a two hour water fight, fueled by cheddar popcorn and Otter pops. 

This summer brought to you by high fructose corn syrup and yellow #5. 

Ice cream in the pool!

Rebel somehow found a way to pick up, and carry, water balloons without bursting them

When 4 o'clock rolled around, we picked up Brad from work and headed out into town to enjoy the Sonoma Marin County Fair. 

"Enjoy" wasn't really the right word for the first hour, when the temperatures were at it's peak and you're walking on pavement. I "enjoyed" it as much as I enjoy walking on the surface of the sun. 

But, an hour and two watermelon lemonades later, and it started to cool down and we could really have fun. The heat luckily scared a lot of people away, so we burned through a bunch of rides without waiting in long lines. We walked through the animal barns (my favorite part) and watched part of a junior beef cattle show. We got to feed goats and a deer and then went on even more rides. 

It's a goat, on a goat!

Ride it like you stole it, Cam

By the time the sun went down, the entire county's worth of teenagers had arrived, and it was time to leave. The fair is always one of our favorite summer traditions here and once again we had a blast. 

Day 18: The Grand Finale, Poolside

VBS had it's last hoorah today, and we celebrated by a huge pool after-party. And while it was an absolute blast and loved working with all the kids, I was ready to have just one less thing off my plate. But really, what an incredibly rewarding week with these kids. 

Pool Par-tay!

Earlier in the day at VBS - making ships out of snacks

My VBS group making paddle boats!

Day 17: Who Needs The Toy When You Have The Box

We got Rebel this nice little cloth dog toy box thing for his plethora of toys. It even has a little dip in the front to stuff his little face in there and grab a toy. 

Of course, as we all know with toddlers, they don't want to play with the toys. They want to play with the box. 

And so, Rebel Scum purposefully dumped all the toys out of the box, dove in head first, and spent the next hour and a half growling, scratching, and yipping at the tiniest little "washing instructions" tag on the inside bottom of the box. 

Tags, it seems, infuriate Rebel. Later today he went ballistic on a tag attached to a wash cloth. 

Of course, I didn't intervene, I just sat on the floor and gleefully took video of our crazed little chocolate mousse cartwheeling in this box across the floor over and over and over, until at one point he stopped, climbed out, deliriously stumbled five steps and collapsed into a deep puppy sleep. 

Because everyone knows a tired dog is a good dog. 

I'm going to attach washing care tags to everything in this house. 

"Don't mind me just rearranging my toy box"

Day 16: He's Been Waiting All His Life

Since Calen could basically talk, he's wanted one our dogs to sleep on his bed. 

Juno probably would tolerate it, but we've always said no. She prefers to have her throne (the sofa) to herself once we go to bed at night anyways. 

When we got Sonic two years ago, who was supposed to be Calen's dog (but never took to kids, hence why she doesn't live here anymore), we tried, and tried, and TRIED, to get her to sleep on Calen's bed, and she absolutely would have none of it. 

So starting the very first night we brought Rebel home, we put him on Calen's bed at bedtime. And he's slept there every night since. 

Calen is in absolute heaven. He finally had "his" dog. 

Sleepy boys

Day 15: VBS

This week is Vacation Bible School at the chapel on base, and I volunteered to lead a group. 

I don't know why I thought I was going to have the time, or the energy, to do so, between training and housebreaking a new puppy (and being up half the night with said puppy, because he takes great joy in ripping a cardboard box into teeny tiny little pieces at 1:30 in the morning), and Junior Giants baseball camp, and hockey practice, and work. Sure, let's add one more thing!

It's fun, because Cam Bam is in my little group so I get to spend a lot of time with him this week, and I know most of the kids, so that makes it fun too. 

And then once VBS gets out at noon, we rush the whopping block and a half home to let Rebel outside, feed him (and the human kids) lunch, and continue our hard work to socialize him and train him. 

I'm TIRED you guys. 

Playing games with my VBS group!

Day 14: The Things You Say

In the car today. 

Calen: "Hey Mom, remember when we were at Disney World and those people were getting married and everyone was clapping?"

Me: "Well, they weren't getting married, but the man was asking the woman to get married."

Calen: "Why did they do that in the middle of Disney World then?"

Me: "Well usually when you ask a girl to marry you, you need to pick a really, REALLY special place, like her favorite place in the whole world."

Camden: "Like Chuck E Cheese!!!!!!"

Me: "........yeah.....maybe...."

Calen: "I think Disney World is a better place than Chuck E Cheese."

In Rebel news, we bought him a new toy bin for his ever growing toy collection, and he decided it was a great place to take a nap. On top of said toys. 

Day 13: The Fishing Hole

We got up especially early today. 

Who am I kidding. We've gotten up especially early for days, because certain tiny fluffs in the house like to get up early and poop. 

And since we were up especially early, and the morning fog hadn't rolled out yet, I decided to take advantage and set up Calen and his dog in another little photo shoot. 

This one was easy. Let's go fishing at the lake on base! What boy doesn't want to take his lab fishing, anyways? So I stuffed Calen in some knockoff (i.e. cheaper) Carhartt overalls, and had him walk his dog to the lake, chasing him along with the camera. 

This was also a great way to continue our "Rule of 12" in exposing Rebel to new things. The lake was a new place, there were geese, he was walking on leash, and met a couple new people.

And we went fishing. And I took pictures, and it was great. 

Disclaimer: I copied, or rather, modified, the first two photo poses from Pinterest. Because Pinterest is the best and the best ideas are ripped off from someone else. 

Day 14: The Rule of 12

Another post about this puppy. I know. But I mean he's completely engulfed all of our time, so what else am I going to write about?

So, the whole reason of picking this breed, this littler, and this puppy, was to have the most kid-friendly, adventurous, social dog possible. We want to take him everywhere, have him love everyone and every dog he meets, and not deal with the trouble we've had with previous dogs (disliking kids, dogs, cars, water, etc). 

My friend told me about when they got their puppy, they worked on this theory called the The Rule of 12 (link provided). The idea is that by the time the puppy is 12 weeks old (the critical age of socialization for dogs is between 8 and 12 weeks), it should have experienced at least 12 things in each of the categories (sounds, places, people, dogs, moving objects, surfaces to walk on, places to eat meals, rides in the car, etc etc etc). This helps build a confident, "desensitized" dog, and to me the theory makes perfect sense. And since Rebel seems to be a little cautious, at least, does not throw himself recklessly into new situations, I felt like we really needed to use this.

So, since the day we brought him home, we have been hammering at the Rule of 12 List, and adding in our own Rules of 12 that we knew would be part of his individual life (for example, I added an entire "Water" category, because I'm hell bent on having a water dog for the first time in my life!). He's watched us vacuum and open and close the garage door, climb stairs, taken rides in the car every day, had a field trip inside our market store (and met 1389 people who were giddy to pet him), and has eaten every meal in a new place, to name a few. He's also experienced water in various ways (sitting in the pool, checking out the slip in slide, drinking from the hose, etc). It's exhausting for us and really, truly hard work, but I'm confident it's going to really help turn him into the world's best doggo. 

Doorstops. New sounds! He found this fascinating

Pool time! He doesn't dislike water, but he isn't about to dive in head first for fun either. We are working on it.

Front yard time while kids play with boxes and loud trucks drive by. He loves the front yard!

Lunch on the slip n slide! in the back field! New surfaces/water. He's standing in a puddle and doesn't even care. Finally a dog that likes water!

Day 13: The Saga of the Toilet Paper Roll

When you go to change out the toilet paper roll, and the holder drops out of your hands, and in the blink of an eye a fuzzy retriever snatches the holder up and runs out of the room. 

Then, you go to retrieve said toilet paper roll holder from your retriever, and inso doing put the toilet paper on the ground next to you in order to pry his little jaws of life open. THEN, in a split second, the retriever leaps into the air and pounces onto the toilet paper, mouth first, and takes that away too. He then chews it up a bit, but as you try to rescue the toilet paper holder, he once again snatches it away. In the end, he got both, and I got neither.

Rebel Scum!!

Day 12: Rebel Scum

Rebel, as we all know, was named for Star Wars, as per the kids' request (actually, they wanted to name him Darth Vader, but I wasn't about to shout that out the back porch at night).

If we were to register him in the AKC (which we aren't, because it would have cost a kagillion dollars to purchase his AKC license -- we do have his Pedigree though), his registered name would have been Japatull's (breeder) Rebel Yell. Which isn't really Star Wars-esque but it's cute and I like it. 

But since we didn't register him, we don't have to always call him Rebel Yell and he can have two names. Like if he's being a complete shit and stealing all of our flip flops (which is a thing), we can go back to his Star Wars roots and call him Japatul's You Rebel Scum! 

Of course, since Rebel is named for Star Wars, just about everything involving him in the house is Star Wars. And since Petco has a Star Wars line, this was easy. (Do you hear that, Petco? I'm endorsing you! Give me a coupon or something?) His food and water bowls are Darth Vader and Chewbacca, respectively. Both his dog beds are Vader beds. His rope toy is a land speeder, and, today, we got him a Han Solo in carbonite doggie toy. 

Because why shouldn't a Han Solo in carbonite dog toy exist??

Rebel liked it, but really preferred yanking tiny Han Solo out of the carbonite and carrying him around like a dead mouse. 

You Rebel Scum, you.