Watching him grow

It seems our little "Jaxie" is growing up.  When he first came home I could play rough with him and I didn't really have to engage any arm muscles.  When he first came home it was easy to carry him up and down the stairs in one arm to get him outside to do his morning business, or up to his kennel at bedtime. This was necessary because he was terrified, and probably too small anyway, to get up and down the stairs on his own. Up until a month or so ago, in fact, it was easy for Nas to carry him with both arms! But those days are behind us.

Jax is 5 months old and he weighs 13 pounds and he seems to grow in length on a weekly basis. And I thought my babies grew up fast. Well yesterday I felt melancholy about our puppy growing up, because it's not enough to see my daughter eye-to-eye or realize that I can fit my son's shoes (and I don't have tiny feet!). To have yet another baby grow up in the house seems unreal especially because he's only been here a couple of months!

First I whine about the challenges of teething and potty training, now that we're past that I'm sad because he's growing up. You gotta love motherhood. But I must say, I'm a fan of older kids - even when it comes to puppies, I've learned. Growing up I was pretty independent fairly early on, so I'm not used to anyone being too needy for too long. I found the baby days with the kids to be extremely hard work because, well, they needed me all of the time! The same goes for Jax. When he first came home I felt like I needed to be close by virtually all of the time, so I was. Getting him potty trained required someone be home with their eyeballs on him virtually all of the time, that was my job. And once the kids became more independent, our daughter coming around much sooner than did our son, I felt like the hard work paid off and I could finally enjoy more of the fun that is being a Mom.

In the same way I'm enjoying playing more with Jax, letting him just hang out with us and not have to watch his every move for "signs" he has to go potty, and the kids are enjoying him more because he's not trying to teethe on them at every turn. It is probably also easier for me to let them play with him more because he's not so teeny tiny - 6 pounds isn't a lot to work with...13 pounds? We can have a great time at that weight!

Although I see his pictures from a mere few weeks ago and remember the challenges Jax presented and really just how absolutely adorable that teddy bear puppy was as a little bitty guy, I know we have a long life ahead with our Jax and I just need to enjoy this moment in time. Soon enough I'll miss THESE days!