Charlie's Scary Escape

This morning we had a terrifying few minutes where we almost lost our sweet Charlie forever. He slipped out the front door while we were doing an early morning weather check (note to all: it's chilly here in Chicago!), and raced across the street chasing a cat.

As Steve ran after him (and I yelled "Charlie" like a maniac from the front porch while holding the baby), Charlie abandoned the cat and started running north toward a busy intersection. Fortunately for us, Charlie's nose got the better of him and he stopped to smell something and Steve was able to corner him. Steve carried home a very wiggly Charlie who was obviously proud of his little adventure. I was still shaking at the thought of losing our most loyal companion.

I've seen so many people give up their animals after they have children due to lack of time and inability to give their pet the attention they need. I now understand how this happens, as we definitely have been guilty of neglecting Charlie lately. We pour so much love and attention into Sadie that at the end of the day there doesn't seem to be any left for our first baby. I know that I need to get better at cuddling with Charlie the way I did pre-baby and giving him a lot more of my time.

But I do know that Charlie will be a part of our family for a very long time (assuming there are no more escapades around the neighborhood). We're definitely not letting him go anywhere! I'm excited that a big part of Sadie's early childhood will be shaped by having her four-legged friend at her side...she already stares at his big nose and wagging tail with such delight! And from the very beginning Charlie has shown his love for Sadie, bringing his prized possessions to her when she cries and giving her an endless amount of kisses.

So this post is dedicated to our favorite buddy Charlie - we love you!

Charlie & His Gang of Tuffy Friends

Charlie has two really good friends: on the left you have Lobster, and on the right is Kang. They are Charlie's best buddies and he could run around with them for hours on end. The best part is that they are from the "Tuffy" brand of toys and they are just that: tough.

Since he's a bit of an aggressive chewer, Charlie can't be trusted with most toys as he will rip them to pieces. But he's had Kang for 7 months now and Lobster for 5 months and they're both still hanging in there.



See how much Charlie loves them? However, when he does get a little too rough and starts chewing, we say "kisses." This means stop what you're doing and give Lobster or Kang a little lick. Yes, this actually works.


In perusing Amazon recently, I checked out the full range of Tuffy toys. Both Kang and Lobster were purchases when we were on vacations (i.e. we paid double the price at fancy pet stores for them because I knew Charlie needed them). Turns out Amazon has a huge selection of the Tuffy line at about half the price.

I love this alien. I think he would be a great partner in crime for Kang. And, he would be so much easier for Charlie to carry around (Kang's big head tends to cause some problems for Charlie).

{Source}

I don't know about you and your dog, but what toy collection is complete without a sheep? This guy's name is Sherman. I'm sure Charlie would adore him.

{Source}

Or what about Bevo the Bull? Love him and Charlie would love to swing him around by his horns.

{Source}

Now, Tuffy has toys that fall into just about every category. But obviously I am obsessed with the barnyard line. And it doesn't get any better than Tallulah the Turkey! I can't even handle the cuteness, and I wonder how Charlie's life has been complete without having a turkey.

I vow that by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, Charlie will be the proud owner of a turkey. I hope to have video to share his completely bliss when Tallulah makes her way into his life.

{Source}

Because, seriously, how could you deprive this face of anything?!

Charlie Plays Model

Steve has been encouraging me to start taking more pictures and get familiar with using a fancy camera. So he given me a fancy camera to play around with. Which basically means I move the dials around and around and hope that whatever I take looks somewhat decent. Super technical, huh?

Charlie seemed rather confused to see me and not Steve behind the camera, so he wiggled around and wouldn't sit still. Usually he's a much better model, but I had to use a lot of persuasion to get him to finally sit.


I did manage to get this great shot of Charlie and his friend Kang. Charlie has had Kang since February and so far has only made a few minor "modifications" to the top of Kang's head. In Charlie world, this is a vast improvement over his usual playing. Most fun toys don't make it a month in our house.


I don't plan on quitting my day job any time soon, but it's nice to have pictures that look better than what comes out of my point and shoot.

My Dog is a Nosy Neighbor

Charlie has recently discovered windows. With the set up of our condo, there is only one window that Charlie can look out of and actually see something interesting. Earlier this winter, he started putting his paws up on the window ledge and watched people and dogs go by.

In the past couple of weeks, he has started sitting on an ottoman that we have by the window. Yes, our dog makes himself at home on his little "chair" and spies people like a nosy neighbor. This morning while we were still asleep, he actually got up, left our bedroom and went to his window, apparently to see who was out and about at 5:30am.


Have any of your pets picked up any, err, odd habits lately?

Christmas Dinner

Yes, I realize it is January 16 (Steve's birthday, by the way!) and I'm just now blogging about our Christmas dinner. If you'll remember, I blogged about our Christmas dessert on December 28, with the best of intentions to share our dinner soon after that post. Sigh. Time just goes by too fast! But I couldn't let any more time pass without sharing this fabulous food.

To decide what to make, we busted out our trusty Top Chef Cookbook. Since we're avid watchers of the show, it's been fun to thumb through this cookbook to read recipes of some of our favorite dishes from the show.

Since we've never worked with scallops before, we chose Dale Levitski's seared scallops with purslane and marinated grapes as a starter. We bought four big, fabulous scallops from Whole Foods and Steve seared them to perfection. We did have to substitute dandelion leaves for the purslane.

The grapes were marinated in EVOO, tarragon, rice wine vinegar and lemon zest...awesome.


For the entree, we landed on another of Dale's dishes - seared elk loin with cauliflower and fingerling potato mash, and pickled cauliflower. Turns out, Whole Foods doesn't sell elk, so we subbed in veal loin.

Dale makes great sauces, and Steve had fun with this one! It was originally a huckleberry-blackberry sauce, but since we couldn't find huckleberries we did blueberries and blackberries. I'm bummed this picture is out of focus, but you can still see the berry goodness.


I've always wanted a reason to buy star anise, and lucky for me we needed it for the sauce! Along with peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, cloves and bay leaves.


As the sauce cooked, it began to look and smell amazing.


The night before, Steve had put cauliflower florets with shallots, sherry vinegar, sugar and salt in a container so that it could pickle.

While making the sauce, he had made a cauliflower and potato mash that included goat cheese and dried cherries.

After searing the veal, he plated everything, topping the dish with toasted pecans. Everything turned out amazing, and it was the perfect winter dish - warm and comforting with great layers of flavor.


The Christmas festivities were a little bit too much for Charlie - he was passed out with his new toy while all of this cooking was happening!


Again, all I can say is "Mmmmmm." It was a perfect Christmas dinner for two!

New year, new bag

Right now, I'm at work and Charlie is at home lording it over my new work bag. He'd better be keeping his paws off!


My current work bag is pretty trashed, so I thought I'd treat myself to the Melie Bianco Candice, purchased from Piperlime.

Here's a better look without Charlie's big nose gettin' in the way:

{Source}

And, you know, since I was already browsing on the Gap/Banana/Old Navy/Piperlime site, I decide to pick up a few other lovelies to start the year off right, include this ruffle bib dress from Gap. I die it's so amazing. Seriously, for how cute it is and how hecka cheap I snagged it for, it's pretty darn amazing.

{Source}

I highly recommend you reward yourself as well for making it into another year!

I {secretly} Heart Tori

Yah, that's right. I'm a closet Tori & Dean watcher. You can feel free to go ahead and judge me, but I absolutely love her show (although, I can't support her choice in spouses). She has great fashion sense, a keen eye for design, and puts together some pretty amazing parties. And she named her little girl Stella - love it!

So I finally decided to make myself go in for a haircut right before Thanksgiving. I hadn't had one since June, which yes I realize was 6 months ago, which I also realize is a really long time to go between hair cuts, which I also realize is plenty of time to allow for a fresh crop of gray hair to descend on my head. I was fighting the gray hair off with tweezers, but that wasn't doing anything for my horrid excuse of a hairstyle.

Oh yah, so back to Tori. I loved the cute angled 'do Tori was sporting awhile back. It was styled without being too fussy and took off some of the length without being too short.


Since we were heading down to my parents' house for turkey day, I managed to get an appointment while we were in town with a friend from high school. Not only is she fabulous and does fabulous work (thanks Katie!), she is also much cheaper than Chicago stylists (extra thanks Katie!). So after Katie covered up my grays, I showed her my Tori inspiration pic before she started cutting.

I started with something like this:


And ended up with this:




I forgot how great a good haircut can make you feel! Especially a fun, sassy shorter cut that makes a super cute little pony tail or two super cute pigtails. Just sayin'.

Charlie, however, was seemingly unimpressed by the new hair. He'll be forgiven this time, but next time he'd better be wagging his tail in awe.

Charlie Learns to Swim!

Do you ever have any moments where you are so ridiculously proud of your pet that for a second you forget it's a fur baby you're cheering on, not an actual baby? Yep, that was me this weekend.

We took Charlie on his second trip to the dog beach. The first time Steve took him (without me) Charlie had a "What the...?!" moment when he got anywhere near the water. Running free on the beach was pure bliss, but actually go out into the water? No way.

When we arrived on Friday morning, there were already quite a few dogs there. As soon as Charlie was off of his leash, he took off. Let me tell you, all of that wide open space and dogs running around is terrifying at first. Charlie did his laps around the sand trying to start up a game of chase, but we finally grabbed him and coaxed him out into the water with us. He was not a fan.

I tossed his tennis ball and Steve encouraged him out into deeper water. Eventually, when his feet couldn't touch the ground, he started a little doggy paddle! It was seriously too cute. We spent the rest of our time playing fetch in the water and getting Charlie to swim further out. By the end he seemed really at home in the water.

Check out the pup in action:



I couldn't have been a prouder fur baby parent!

Pup in the Night

A few months ago we officially ousted Charlie from sleeping in our bed. Not that he's isn't a great snuggle buddy, but his 35-pound frame likes to take over the entire bed. And, with two adults and a pup in a full sized bed...someone eventually falls off, and that someone is usually me.

Since we've kicked him out, Charlie has become a rather unusual sleeper. His favorite spot? He slides on his belly right under the bed. Most mornings when I get up, he's still hidden away under there...awesome plan for a sneak attack if anyone decides to rob us in the middle of the night.


Of course, we have a nice bed for him set up on the floor. In the morning after I take Charlie out and we eat our breakfasts, I put Charlie back to bed while I get ready for work. Talk about a lazy bum, right?


Charlie did not like the sneak attack picture on him sleeping. Some dogs are so touchy about their photos, eh?


Where does your pup curl up at night?

Our Little Hopscotch Champion

We may call our pup Charlie, Chuck, Monkey, Sir Monks-a-lot, Monkey Punk, Puppy, and everything in between, we also call him a hopscotch champion. Yes, you heard me correctly. As soon as we got our hopscotch rug from CB2, Charlie knew exactly what to do.




Ok, well maybe he hasn't quite figured out the "hopping" part, but if this was roll-scotch I'm pretty sure he could go pro.

Cute Animal Friday

What's better on a Friday than cute pictures of animals? Well, other than cake...I'd gladly take some cake over a picture of a puppy. Anyway. In lieu of cake I have some pretty stinkin' cute animal pictures to share.

Cute Animal #1:

For Christmas I always like to give Steve at least one gift that is some sort of charitable donation. I started this tradition our first Christmas together by adopting a penguin in his name at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Why a penguin? Steve loves them.

Not only do you get the warm fuzzies on the inside that you helped a penguin, but you get the warm fuzzies on the outside because they give you your very own penguin stuffed animal. We named ours Bertrand.

A couple of months ago my parents came to visit, and we went to, where else, the Lincoln Park Zoo. Steve couldn't join us, but I made sure to take a picture of the penguin I believed to be Bertrand. He may have been playing coy by completely ignoring me, but I'm sure deep down inside he was happy to see me.



Cute Animal #2:

Yes, of course I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to post yet another picture of Charlie on the blog. But really, can you blame me?!

Steve and Charlie went for a run together this morning. It's best that they go for runs when I'm not around because it's completely unfair that I still can't run. My stupid stress fracture in my right foot from A MONTH AGO is still hurting every now and then from using the elliptical at the gym. And if I can't elliptical pain-free, then I most likely can't run either. Sad face.

Anyway, the best way to get some peace and quiet during the day is to take Charlie for a run, as he looks like this after:


I'm sure he'll be snoozing for the rest of the day.

Happy Friday!

Doggy Dining

Charlie may look like such a sweetheart (and he is! What other dog will walk around with a towel on after his bath and even pose for a picture?), but he has his moments when we're walking him. You know, like thinking he's as tough as the big dogs, and his complete confidence that he can climb trees and catch those annoying squirrels that taunt him every day.

While I commend him on his optimistic attitude, I hate being dragged along for the ride. So, over the year and half that we've had him, Steve and I have never taken him to a restaurant with us while we dined outside.



Until, last weekend. Doesn't he look calm?


I won't lie, there were a lot of baby steps involved in achieving that calm picture. Charlie was really antsy until the waitress brought the bowl of water, which signaled to Charlie that we were there to stay for awhile. And, we still use a collar that allows us to buzz him (completely harmless, it just makes a noise) when he gets out of line. That helps keep him calm in a lot of different scenarios.

Despite a couple of road blocks, it was still SO exciting to sit outside and enjoy a meal with the pup at our feet. We always feel guilty about leaving him at home, so now we know we can take him out with us from time to time. Great way to start off the summer!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July weekend...I can't wait to share the cake I'm baking tomorrow - today I whipped up the white chocolate butter cream frosting for it, and it's ah-mazing!

Charlie Rocks His New 'Stache

This was our first Christmas with having Charlie as a part of the family. As silly as it may be, I was so excited to wrap up a present for him under the tree (a big bag o' bones, of course!).

But, of course, Charlie helped me with some of the Christmas wrapping for Steve. He's always happy to lend a paw.


But, never did I guess that my sister would complete out-do me and buy Charlie a way cooler present! He was presented with his very own handlebar mustache.

The mustache is actually a toy to play fetch with as it's attached to a rubber ball...so when Charlie grabs the ball, it looks like he grew a fancy schmancy mustache.

Unfortunately, our photo shoot with the mustache was a wee bit trying. Charlie would much rather try and chew on the ball than look at me like a goof. So we gave him a little extra help in the posing department!


Doesn't that mustache perfectly enhance Charlie's big foxhound shnaz?


We had such a fabulous, relaxing and snowy Christmas. I hope you had the happiest of holidays and that Santa brought you something just as fabulous as Charlie's mustache!