Our First Child

No blog of mine would be complete without mention of our first child: Chipper. When we first brought him home, Chipper looked something like this:

He weighed all of 2 1/2 pounds, and could not even get up our one brick fireplace. Josh and I had decided we wanted our first anniversary present to each other to be an expansion of our brood. Not ready for children, we began to scour the classifieds looking for cockapoo puppies (somehow Josh had decided that would be a good breed for us, although I am still unsure of why). With the summer winding down, we were getting anxious about finding a puppy in time to train it before school started, so we finally found one out in Roanoke (about 6 hours away for you non-Virginians) that we were set to adopt. The only problem was that puppy would not be adoptable (8 weeks old) until the end of summer, but we were just so happy to have found our guy. As Josh prepared to mail the deposit check in, we looked in the local classifieds one more time, and lo and behold, there were 2 cockapoo puppies listed locally. I told Josh it was worth it to at least inquire and possibly save a cross-state trek, so he called, and the people informed us there was only one puppy left (Josh and I often speculate as to why Chipper was the last one left of his 8 brothers and sisters?!?). They were from Newport News, so to save us the bridge tunnel experience, they said they would meet us in a mall parking lot with the puppy to look at.

The entire way to the mall Josh kept reminding me that we were only going to look, and that if we happened to like the puppy, we would go over to Newport News in the coming days to see the breeder, check the conditions, all the responsible things you are supposed to do when adopting a puppy. Well, you see that top picture, right? As soon as that nice couple picked our little Chipper out of the car, it was a done deal. Josh gave them $400 and we came home with a puppy.

Chipper was our first foray into parenting, and let me tell you, he has been and continues to be quite a challenge. We like to say he has spunk, but that is probably an understatement; this dog gets in the shower with you, climbs through the kitchen window to get Colton's bottle pieces, eats entire rolls of toilet paper in seconds, destroys countless pairs of flip flops while gloating, and may very well be half cat. But at the same time, there is no one more excited to see you when you get to our house, no one that could have been a better cuddle partner on sleepless pregnant nights, and no one that completes our family quite like this adorable, fun, loving dog.

Everyone warned us that having a child would negate the dog's status in the family. Well, Chipper still stands tall as a prized member of this family. Yes, his afternoon walks have been sacrificed, and if he could talk, I am sure he would complain of less attention, but I can honestly say my love for our dog has not decreased one iota since Colton entered our world. Chipper was, and always will be, our first child, and every day I am thankful that I was able to convince Josh to sit in a mall parking lot to meet him!