“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A
water logged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you're rich
or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll
give you his." - John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and love with the World's Worst Dog
I watched Marley & Me over the course of the past day, basically as Cree would allow. She's been really fussy over the past day and a half- I think she's going through a growth spurt and from what I hear weeks 6-8 are the fussiest for most babies and we're slap in the middle of that.
I realized as I was watching how similar (so far) our story is to the movie and currently we're living the part of adjusting to being a family of four instead of three, I think my relationship with Buddy has had the most adjustment since Cree was born. We've actually been a family of three since we got Buddy in November 2010. He and I have always been attached since the day I went to Jake and Stacey's apartment to meet him and see if we wanted him, I called J and said this is our dog. He was a fat little thing but so darn cute. He lived with me in my apartment before J and I got married. We've been through a lot, from wen he had stomach surgery because he ate his bandages from being neutered and almost died, I cried a ton as I watched him throw up all over the kitchen floor and there was nothing we could do. He used to go with us everywhere when he younger, he was so small in fact that he got to ride shot gun in my lap. It's hard to remember him ever being that small. When he cut his paw wide open two years ago and needed stitches I took him to the vet, J said if he were an actual kid we would pay for the stitches and all the medicine so to go ahead with the stitches so it'll heal properly because after all he's our kid since we had no human kids at the time. Now when J goes out of town he's the 'man of the house' and gets to sleep in the bed. Most people know that I adore Buddy, I mean check out my Instagrams I showed his picture to people like he was a human kid.
The first night we brought Cree home I had a freak out because he was so forceful in trying to figure out what she was, in watching the movie I felt like Jennifer Aniston when she told Owen Wilson to take Marley to 'the farm.' I think I literally said (while crying, because those postpartum hormones make you crazy for a few days or maybe that was the hydrocodone talking? Anyways...) to Jeremy, I now understand why people get rid of their dogs when they have kids. I couldn't believe I was saying that out loud mind you. He laughed at me and said we're not getting rid of Buddy and just remember this is an adjustment for him too. While still crying I told him I knew we weren't getting rid of him (This is something we had talked about a ton before Cree was born and I knew that and kept thinking about it but my very new protective mom mentality was severely kicking in) but that now I understood why, because when you bring home a newborn and your dog hits her very hard with his nose while smelling her you have a tendency to have a meltdown.
It's been a learning experience over the past 7 weeks for us. We've had to teach him to be gentle with her and to not lick her directly in the face, although he sneaks a few of those in every now and then on her head and lately on her hands. These days I find it way more endearing than I did in that first week. I've had to learn that he's not going to hurt her, he's just intrigued by her and that his job is to protect her now too. The other night he actually fell asleep with his head on her legs while Jeremy was putting her to sleep. He comes to check on Cree and I while I'm feeding her in the mornings and he sniffs her face while she's in her swing every time he comes downstairs just to make sure she's OK. He is WAY more protective than ever before, I feel bad for the people that have to deliver packages or mail to our house because he's pretty scary to see and hear when he goes into protection mode. I can tell that he misses when he was the center of our world when we were at home, especially when uses his nose and moves my hand to pet him when I'm feeding her or if I'm in the floor with her doing tummy time, it's almost like he's trying to remind me that he was here before she was and I can't say I blame him because I don't give him nearly the attention I used to.
I wouldn't change our little family for anything and our family includes Buddy, watching the movie really reminded me of that. I know that we are his whole world and now his world includes this little human that takes up a ton of J and I's time. He and Cree will be best friends as soon as she get mobile but for now Buddy will have to settle for licking her on occasion. Check out the transformation:
Cree and Buddy when Cree was 2 weeks old
Cree and Buddy when Cree was 7 weeks old (they both appear a lot happier :))
