Margot is 12 weeks-old today! Before I get into her progress report, though, I kind of wanted to apologize for yesterday’s super depressing blog post. I’m happy to report, however, that I’m feeling a little better today. My overall situation hasn’t changed, unfortunately, but it’s rare that I will stay as upset as I was yesterday for more than just a day or two. If I allow myself a whole day to just wallow in self-pity and bawl my eyes out, eventually I’ll reach the point where I simply can’t stand feeling so down anymore, and I’ll find a way to pull myself out of it.
Yesterday evening, Margot helped greatly in that endeavor. Justin was spending the evening with some friends and Ashley was visiting her family in Ohio, so I asked Zach and Kristy if I could bring Margot over to their place because I really didn’t want to spend the evening at home alone. I’m so glad that I went over there, too, because I spent the entire evening talking about wedding plans with Kristy and playing ball with Margot for the first time. In fact, I felt like last night was the first time that Margot had ever REALLY played with me, like interactively. She plays all the time, of course, but usually I just sit on the floor cross-legged and let her flop into my lap as she chews on one of her toys. I’ve tried playing ball with her once or twice before, but she couldn’t seem to figure out that she’s supposed to retrieve the ball after I roll it across the room and then bring it back to me.
Last night at Zach and Kristy’s, though, Margot finally grasped the concept of how to play ball! She especially loved it when I would grip the ball while it was still in her mouth and kind of “whip” her back and forth until the ball wiggled free from her grasp. Sometimes, after retrieving the ball, she’d start making that back-and-forth motion on her own before I even had the chance to do it to her! (I had Kristy take a video of this because it’s hard to explain, and I also wanted Justin to see it when he got home.)
My other favorite part about playing ball with Margot was when she’d sort of hide on the opposite side of the coffee table and peek at me under the table with her butt still up in the air. I would then assume the same position to peek back at her, and she would quickly “hide” behind one of the table legs. We would play this little game of Hide-and-Seek for a few minutes until she’d finally dart past me in hopes that I would try to grab the ball from her as she ran by. She would run past me several times like this before finally stopping and allowing me to grip the ball so that I could whip her back and forth again.
As I’m writing this, I realize that I’m describing our little game in such detail that one might think that I actually believed Margot and I invented the entire concept of “playing ball” last night. Haha! I’m sorry. I’m just excited about it because, like I said, it was the first time Margot had ever played an actual interactive game with me, and it was so much fun! It was great exercise for her, too.
Okay, so I guess that learning how to play ball should be a part of Margot’s 12-week progress report. Unfortunately, because we spent all last week at the beach, I don’t have much else to add in terms of specific milestones or achievements. I will say that Margot is now able to crawl up onto the couch all by herself (and it’s the cutest thing to watch), she seems to be in the early teething phase, and she’s able to “hold it” for longer periods of time when she’s in her crate. The biggest thing I’ve noticed about Margot this week, however, is something that I also mentioned in yesterday’s blog, which is how well-behaved Margot is for her age. When she plays, most of the time she just lays on her doggy bed in the living room and chews on her stuffed animals or her bones. Every now and then she’ll get up and wander around the house looking for something new to get into (mostly shoes or some type of paper), but as soon as we tell her “no” and take that item away from her, she just goes right back to playing with her toys. If she decides she wants to join me and/or Justin on the couch, all we have to do is hold the Nylabone for her, and she is perfectly content just lying there beside us, chewing on her bone while we watch TV. Quite often, we will catch her watching TV with us while she’s gnawing on her bone, which always cracks me up.
Unfortunately, we’re still working on the housebreaking, as Margot still doesn’t clearly indicate when she needs to use the bathroom. I know I shouldn’t consider this “progress,” but I’m actually kind of thankful that at least she’s started having her accidents in the kitchen instead of on the carpet because they’re much easier to clean up! I would also like to think that the reason why she’s having her accidents in the kitchen now is because she is at least attempting to go outside on her own. We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing, though, and hopefully she’ll eventually start whining or something when she sees that the kitchen door is shut instead of just having an accident.
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