Eat-Sleep-Love | Maryland DC & Virginia Sleep Coach, Baby Planner, Maternity & Child Consultant

Maternity & Parenting Center

Miscellaneous Stories

by

Micah has truly become a picky eater. When he was first starting out with food, he seemed to love everything! I was so excited that he would eat veggies and a wide variety of food. Recently, however, we have not been so lucky. He will consistently eat cheese, bananas, pears, applesauce, crackers, and veggie burgers. He seems to hate pasta and any kind of melon. He will love something one meal, and then throw it on the floor the next time we give it to him. I cannot tell if he is disliking the food, or if this is a way of expressing a mood (like he isn’t feeling turkey burgers tonight). I sure hope it isn’t my fault – maybe I got lazy about giving him a wide variety of food? Recently, however, we might have discovered a “secret weapon” – marinara sauce. Apparently, everything tastes better (and is definitely messier) with marinara sauce. I’m thinking he might just prefer more seasoning on his food, so we are going to give that a try.

Micah is not walking yet. We’ve been so certain he has been on the verge of walking for so long, but now I’m not so certain. He cruises everywhere, and he can “walk” as long as he holds a hand or touches a piece of furniture. We have definitely been seeing him take a single step now and then for the last 6 weeks or so, but I don’t think this counts as walking. He has been standing up on his own (pushing up from the floor without holding on to furniture or people) since his first birthday. He seems to be strong enough to even hold and shake toys while he is standing, and he can bend over, pick something up off the floor and stand back up again without falling over. Part of me thinks he already can walk, he just hasn’t realized it yet. He has also recently fallen in love with his walker toy – I think he spends more time dragging it than anything else, but he keeps reminding me of the old ladies with the granny carts.

We’ve been working on getting Micah to use a sippy cup for about 6 months now. Back in July and August, he was doing really well. But then he got sick and stopped taking all sippy cups and bottles, and it has been a battle since then. We’ve tried all different kinds of sippy cups – soft tops, bottle tops, straw tops, hard tops…and all he’ll do is take a few sips and throw them on the floor. We’ve been trying to wean him off the bottle, but because his weight is so low, I’ve been afraid to cut him off the bottle cold turkey yet. Our little man is STUBBORN!!

Micah is not a boy of many teeth. He got his first 2 teeth back in October/November just before he turned 11 months old. A few weeks later, the doctor told us his top two teeth were on the verge of breaking through. All we know is that you can actually see the white teeth just below the gum, but they refuse to break through!! They’ve been sitting there for over 6 weeks now, and I’m not sure they (or any other teeth) intend to grow.

Micah has recently determined that everything is a phone. As my grandmother’s dementia worsened, she started to confuse the remote control and the phone. Every night, Grammy would call my mom up and tell her that the remote wasn’t working. My mom would explain to her that she had to point it at the tv, enter in the channel (she usually told her 24) and then wait for the channel to change. My grandmother would say “okay” and seconds later… you could hear the phone beeping and then my grandmother saying it hadn’t worked. My mom would again explain that she was using the phone not the remote, and half the nights my mom ended up driving over there to fix the tv. We even went so far as creating labels for the phone and tv … but it didn’t seem to help. I tell this story because I was hysterically laughing remembering all this stuff the first time Micah picked up the remote and held it to his ear like a telephone. We joked that he was taking after his great-grandmother. Since then, Micah likes to treat everything as a phone…puzzle pieces, remotes, toys…it really doesn’t matter. If you say to him “where is the phone” or “say hello” he grabs whatever he can and holds it to his ear. It is clearly adorable – and he obviously understands the concept of phone, he just hasn’t figured out that only certain things are phones.

Micah’s other favorite habit is drumming. He likes to bang/drum on EVERYTHING. My parents want to buy him a drum set…I think we are in BIG trouble!!

For his birthday, one of my friends bought him a singing donkey. He has loved this toy from the beginning, but he has recently figured out how to push the red button on the donkey’s leg and make it sing. He could spend all day turning it on and off.

And some video of Micah “playing catch” and showing off a few other tricks:

The Blizzard and Morning Sickness

by

On December 18, two major storms hit me simultaneously – the Blizzard of 2009 and morning sickness. I have to say, it has been a crazy week. After Micah’s birthday party tanked, he stayed sick all week. We did a little celebration at home in honor of his birthday, but then I actually left for Kansas for work from December 15-16. I flew home late on the 16th, not feeling so hot. I thought it was just my susceptibility to motion sickness while pregnant – the flight back did not make me feel too well. We woke up early on the 17th to make our doctor’s appointment to have Micah’s skull examined, and then had an insanely crazy day. I threw up on and off all day, and knew I was in for another round of morning sickness. I had a really rough night on Thursday (and Micah was not sleeping great all week because his cough kept waking him up), and I woke up early on Friday feeling sick.

That should have been my clue I was in for trouble. We were preparing for the blizzard and trying to get a whole bunch of things done. I started throwing up early that morning, and couldn’t keep anything down. I tried eating, I tried not eating. I tried drinking water, I tried sleeping. Every couple of hours, I was throwing up again. They were having a potluck party at Micah’s daycare at 5:00 pm, and I had to make something for the event. Luckily, we had a ton of leftover cupcakes from the birthday party that wasn’t, so I was able to quickly ice those and bring them with us. I took a phenergan in the afternoon, hoping it would help with the nausea.

At Micah’s daycare, I just felt worse and worse. I had to excuse myself to go throw up, and then I just did not think I would be able to function any more. We finally went home, and it just got worse. I threw up a few more times, and I knew I had nothing left in my system. I tried lying down while Elliot took Micah out to services, but that didn’t help either. I threw up a few more times before they made it home. Elliot went upstairs to put Micah to bed, and he disappeared for a few more hours. I was very unhappy with him – I was just miserable as I was throwing up nonstop for the next few hours. He finally made it downstairs (my mom called and he brought me the phone), and he decided to run out before the weather was awful and pick up my phenergan. He disappeared for far too long, and I was a mess. When he finally came back, I took another pill…and promptly threw it up. We called the midwives, and they said that they’d normally tell me to go to the hospital, but the roads were already too dangerous to drive.

We spent the next few hours trying to get enough medicine in me and get creative about ways to make me keep it down. Finally, around 1:00 in the morning I stopped throwing up. I tried drinking water around 4:00 am, but threw that up. Saturday, the snow was going strong all day, so I just pretty much lay low, took my pills, and couldn’t eat or drink anything. On Sunday, we called the midwives again, and they called in a prescription for Zofran. Sunday was actually a miserable day for me. Elliot went down to volunteer at Martha’s Table where we normally cook and serve hot meals the Sunday before Christmas, but I was too sick to go and we had no babysitter for Micah because of the weather. Elliot went anyway, and left me home, by myself, to take care of an infant while I was throwing up. It was an AWFUL day. At least he picked up the prescription for Zofran on the way home, but he was gone from 11-6. I was not a happy camper. Finally, a few hours after I took the 2 Zofran, I started feeling some better. By 10:00 pm, I was able to drink water!! I quickly graduated to vegetable broth, and for breakfast on Monday morning, I got quite bold and ate rice. I managed to keep most everything down, but it has been miserable. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Despite my complete misery, we did manage to take Micah out for some fun in the snow. I took him out by myself on Sunday (for about 10 minutes). Poor little guy – I think it took us 30 minutes to get ready, and he really didn’t feel like staying and playing too long! Here are our snow pictures:









Snow videos:

The Birthday Party That Wasn’t

by

Last week was an insanely busy week. We spent a lot of it prepping for Micah’s birthday party – buying supplies and decorations, planning and purchasing food for the menu, making the birthday cake, etc. We were expecting about 15-20 people for Micah’s “playgroup” party, and then another 30-40 people for our Chanukah/birthday party. I purchased tuna fish and egg salad, we had over 20 lbs of potatoes for making potato latkes, and enough cake baked to feed an army! Our plan was to have cupcakes (decorated like Elmo) for the playgroup party. We baked about 3 dozen cupcakes for that. We also had a huge 2 layer cake for the “main event.” My nieces were in town for a few days before the party, so we were a bit crazy all week. We took them to a few music classes and had a great time with them. Anyway, Saturday morning rolled around…and Micah woke up with a 102 degree fever. And a cough. The cough started to get worse as the day went along, so we decided to take him to the hospital. We were actually hoping that he had an ear infection – a couple doses of antibiotics and we thought things would be back on track!

Unfortunately, we learned Micah had a viral case of bronchitis, and would likely be contagious to children. When we came home from the hospital, we sent out a note and canceled the playgroup party. We then sent out a note to all of our other friends and family, letting them know that Micah had a virus and could possibly be contagious. On Sunday, Micah woke up fever-free, but still coughing. We decided to go ahead with the afternoon party, but naturally, nearly everyone declined to come. My parents, my brother, sister-in-law and my two nieces (who had already been around Micah while he was sick), my cousin and her two children, and one of my best friends were the only people in attendance. Despite the poor turnout, we still had a great time!

Here are some pictures and video from the event:
















Micah also got SOOO many wonderful presents. My parents bought him a play gym – it has a slide, a ladder and a basketball hoop. Jen and Jeremy bought him an outfit, a dump truck, and a tool bench toy. My cousin Michelle brought him a mega blocks set, and Heather bought him some clothing, some books, and this adorable singing donkey (it sings “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch”), and Ken and Erica dropped off a baseball toy, and Ellen gave him a singing Chanukah bear. My parents’ friends Diane & Joey, Sheila & Les, and Suzette & Joel also sent him a wonderful storage bench before his birthday. We were so lucky to have such wonderful presents!

Micah’s First Haircut!

by

Well, we did it! We finally took Micah in for his first haircut. He was SUCH a good boy, and totally adorable. We brought in one of those portable plastic booster seats and strapped him into the cutting chair. He was sweet and smiling the entire time. I brought him to the woman who has been cutting my hair since I was a small child – Willy. Willy did an amazing job. Naturally, we captured the moment with video and pictures. The haircut took approximately 12 minutes, and most of it was probably not all that interesting to most of you. But, we’re proud parents, so we filmed every second of it! Isn’t my baby cute? He looks so grown up now :(.

I’ll start out by showing you the “video essay” of Micah’s haircut – photos courtesy of his Daddy.


















When we got home, Micah was quite adorable – he felt the need to crawl into his toy basket and play. He was so cute, I just had to snap a few photos.



Here is the video if you feel like watching. The blog wouldn’t let me load it up as all one video, so you will have to watch it in four parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And for good measure, here is a late video of Micah at Kidville on Halloween.

Craziness

by

All I can say is “What a week.” On Thursday, Micah and I went to our gym class. There is a part of the class where we have the babies all stand up, and we let go. Micah stood on his own for 15 seconds!! He sat down, and looked a little scared afterwards, but I was amazed – that is the longest I’ve seen him hold a stand on his own so far. I’m pretty sure he’ll be walking before he is one year old.

Lately, Micah is obsessed with his Daddy. He howls and runs to the door and bangs on the screen door screaming “Dad” or “Dada” when he steps out. It is kind of adorable. He also has a new trick – he likes to feed mommy food from his tray and he laughs hysterically as I “gobble” it up. We tried catching it tonight, but Micah tends to find the camera a bit of a distraction and prefers to “mug” for the camera.

Here is another recent video of a few of Micah’s “tricks”:
And Micah playing peek-a-boo:

So…onto the crazy part. Micah and Elliot had a private night together on Friday – while I went out for a girls’ night for my friend Stacy’s birthday. I made her a cake – we bought her a mah jongg set for her birthday, so mah jongg was the theme! We went out to an Indian restaurant that was more like a Moroccan restaurant. They had a Bollywood/belly dancer, and we sat on cushions low to the floor and shared big plates of food (with no silverware). We had so much fun!


On Saturday, we were supposed to go to a birthday party, but the weather was lousy and it was canceled. Saturday night, we went out to our friends Hirsch and Lisa’s annual Sahmain Soiree – a “Black tie potluck” event. We got all dressed up, and my parents came to sit with Micah for an hour or two while we went out. When we got home, my Dad was complaining that he had the chills. I took his temperature, and it said 101. I immediately suspected he had swine flu, and I sent them off to the hospital. Needless to say, I was worried for him and for Micah. After a long wait, and a CT scan of his sinuses and a chest xray, they decided he had pneumonia. No cough at all, just fever and chills. They admitted him to the hospital and put him on IV antibiotics. Unfortunately, he does not seem to be responding, so they added more antibiotics – he is now on 3 of them. I’m hoping he starts to respond better by tomorrow. If all is well with the bloodwork tomorrow, they’ll release him.

I also think I have a sinus infection – so sickness seems to be going around. My mom’s friend Mona was in town today, so she came by to see Micah. We went for a long walk, and I was exhausted. I crashed for an hour, but then Micah woke up, and I was back to mommy duty.

Just wanted to say, feel better, Daddy!
ETA – I decided to take myself to the hospital tonight, too. I seem to have developed a case of bronchitis, and I thought I should hurry up and get antibiotics. Mostly, I was starting to worry it could be the same pneumonia my dad had, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. After the doctor was incredibly rude to me (and informed me that they don’t treat bronchitis with antibiotics – they just call it h1n1 and give people Tamiflu), she finally wrote me the script for antibiotics (and a prescription for Tamiflu). I mean, seriously? I’ll take the Tamiflu if I develop flu symptoms – but I just have a low-grade fever, my chest hurts, and I *know* that I have a sinus infection/bronchitis. It is the same thing that happens all the time to me. I had a mild cold last week, so a secondary infection following a cold is par for the course for me. Ridiculous! Oh, and according to this lovely doctor, they no longer prescribe antibiotics for bronchitis or sinus infections. Um, hello – maybe they wait a few weeks for most people, but that is NOT a good idea with asthmatics and people with chronic sinusitis. She didn’t look up my nose, or at my throat or my ears, she didn’t listen to my chest, and she didn’t feel my glands. I found the whole experience annoying and off-putting – but I’m glad I have my antibiotics now.

Dance, Dance Dance!

by

I’m constantly amazed by what a “big boy” Micah has become. He definitely understands words, and he will also mimic me when I talk or do things. If you tell him “No” – he understands (but often chooses not to listen.” He loves to dance, so if you say to him “dancing, dancing, dancing” he’ll start bouncing and dancing! Here is some video proof:

He also loves to laugh – he laughs all the time, and he has the wonderful big belly laugh that just burbles up from deep inside. I melt each and every time I hear that wonderful sound. He sounds just like he did as a little infant – only louder. I caught a bit of video of him giggling because the dog was touching him. He LOVES interacting with her, and he squeals with delight any time she nuzzles or licks him.

Lately, his new game is to follow me around the house. He also will try and climb up the stairs every chance he gets. He climbs over, goes straight up the stairs, hangs a right around the railing, and usually heads straight to our bedroom to play with his toys. I chase after him multiple times a day – who needs a stairclimber? We have GOT to get those baby gates installed ASAP. We’ve started telling him it is time to go upstairs for bed or a bath and letting him climb up on his own. We tried to capture that on video tonight, but he was hamming it up for the camera. Here is the footage we did get:

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ at a friend’s house. Micah decided to head off on his own and go exploring – up their stairs. Here is some video of Micah in action:

For good measure, here are some pictures. We never made it in for his 9 month pictures – between my computer dying, Micah getting sick, and my business trips, it just didn’t happen this month :(. I might go this week for his 9 month pictures, and then go in 2-3 weeks for his 10 month pictures. Not quite accurate, but who cares!




Video Wednesday

by

Micah is doing a little better – antibiotics are a wonderful thing! His fever broke, he is no longer coughing, he seems to be sleeping better, and he was back to his playful self today. What a relief! I have to bring him back to the doctor in 10 days to get his ears and nose checked again, but we seem to be on the right path.

It has been a while, so I thought I’d post some recent video of Micah. He is getting so big and active! He plays with toys, he crawls, stands, cruises. Unbelievable!

Dog watching:

Reading:

Getting into trouble:

Look, Ma, no bib!

by

Micah has developed a new trick – he likes to pull off his bib. At times, I think he merely means to inform us that he is done eating. Other times, I think he is pronouncing that he is a big boy, and bibs are for babies. But mostly, I think he has his father’s sense of humor and he finds it funny. He grabs on to the bib with two hands and just yanks until he pulls the fastener off. We have slowly been dealing with this challenge – we bought bibs that go over the head instead of fastening, so try as he might, he can’t pull it off (and believe me, he tries). I am sure he will figure out how to pull it over his head soon enough.

Edited to add: Sure enough, the day after I wrote this post, Micah figured out how to pull the bib over his head. We are in BIG trouble!!

Speaking of eating, Micah is eating real table food now! And he had his last bottle of breast milk on Saturday morning. I’m still amazed by how “grown up” he is. We give him pureed food, too (especially since he STILL doesn’t have any teeth), but he has been eating small pieces of chicken, brisket, potatoes, carrots, mushroom barley soup, squash soup, broccoli stew, lentils, couscous, quinoa, rice, cheerios, bananas, melon, yogurt, macaroni and cheese…pretty much anything we eat, he is eating, too! For good measure, here is a video of him feeding himself scrambled egg yolk and cheerios:

Oh yes we’ve got Trouble, right here in Bethesda

by

Another week has passed and once again, I’m way behind on posting! Work has been crazy – a bunch of deadlines and our sitter has been MIA quite a few days. I am so excited to be starting Micah in daycare in a few weeks – the predictability should make my life a bit easier. Let’s start off with a cute picture of Micah:


Micah has been working on his troublemaking skills this week. He discovered how to shove his hand out of the crib and throw his pacifier on the floor, or grab things off of his nightstand. He got some paper off the nightstand, so I cleared off most of the odds and ends. One day when I went in to get him after his nap, I noticed that he grabbed the doggy Build-a-Bear from the nightstand that my father made for him. I guess the good news is he loves his Build-a-Bear.

Micah has also recently discovered that he loves power cords. He especially loves to grab hold, yank and chew. It is not a habit I find amusing. He also loves to pull all the paper stuff off the new coffee table. If left on his own, he will shred and/or eat the paper. He gets VERY angry when I keep the papers away from him. We just purchased baskets for under the coffee table – one for papers and another for his toys. I think he will spend most of his days emptying the contents of these baskets. Monday, he could not stop pulling out and playing with all of his toys (and he also decided to claim a few of the dog’s as well).

I also think that we may have crossed into “mobile” territory – Micah is rolling and army crawling all over the place. He is not quite crawling, but he does lean forward from a sit to all fours and attempt to crawl before flopping on to his belly and taking off. He is also trying to pull up on things now – if I stand him up, he can hold on and cruise, but even without my help, he is pretty close to pulling himself up to a stand. He manages to get into some interesting spots, and he pulls down any items within his grasp.

He really needs to be watched at all times – he likes to eat everything. Monday, he managed to get his hands on one of those little silica gel bead packets (for keeping things dry). I found him chewing on it – I’m just lucky he didn’t choke!

I am amazed how he manages to sneak all this stuff in his mouth WHILE we are monitoring and watching him! He is definitely trouble with a capital T.

Speaking of trouble, this hunger strike has been a real pain in the neck – he just has not been drinking enough milk. It has had me worried, but I’ve been trying to be patient. In the meantime, Micah does seem to LOVE solid foods. He is a bottomless pit, just like his father. We have been experimenting with pasta, and I finally successfully made some zucchini for Micah. He just loves his veggies! We are slowly eating thicker chunks of food, and he can easily eat pieces of pasta and other soft fruits and veggies. Nevertheless, he still seems to hate the mesh teether – this great contraption for delivering bigger chunks of table food. I think he just hates the texture of the mesh bag, but I wish he would use it! Even without the mesh contraption, he is doing really well with table food. We have tried Cheerios, and he seems to love those. I still think he has an easier time eating the puffs because they melt in his mouth, but it is good that we have a few more options! He also seems to be developing his pincher grasp – he can pick up the puffs, pasta and cheerios and put them in his own mouth! I am amazed everyday by how much he is growing.

Micah is a pooping machine. One day, he managed to make a big pooping mess, and then he peed in his hair while the babysitter was changing him. Twice. Yes, that is right, twice. He was soaked and we had to bathe him. I could not figure out how he managed to get THAT wet.

Last Wednesday was a fun day for us. Our sitter took the day off, so it was a Mommy & Micah day. We spent a few hours at playgroup, and I got a little work done in the morning and afternoon while Micah napped. At 5:00, we went to another one of those concerts – Micah just loves watching all the kids dance and the entertainers singing. Immediately after the concert, we went to a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s at a local diner. A friend of mine from high school will be running a marathon, and all the money he is raising will be donated to Alzheimer’s research.

On Friday, we went to a potluck at Micah’s new daycare center. We had a great time – we were able to meet his new teachers and a few of the other babies in his class. Micah will be a “Minnow” starting August 31, and I already have a good feeling about this center.

On Sunday, we were slightly…overbooked. I have a bad tendency to overcommit. We attended a first birthday party for my friend’s daughter at 2:00. We had agreed to go to a “Cousins” BBQ at 4 hosted by one of my cousins, and we had reservations at 6 at a new restaurant to celebrate my father’s birthday. We left the house at 12, and went to Target to pick up a present. While walking through the aisles, Micah saw Elmo. He has recently fallen in love with Elmo – he had one in the pack ‘n play with him at my friend’s house, and he couldn’t stop smiling and hugging Elmo. Ever since them, he shrieks with joy when he sees Elmo on Sesame Street. When he spotted Elmo, he smiled and reached for him. I thought it was so cute, so I grabbed Elmo and handed him to Micah. After we were finished in the aisle, I took Elmo and put him back on the shelf. Which led to Micah’s first tempertantrum. It started out slowly – first the bottom lip began to curl down in a pout. Then the whimpering started. Then the sobs and tears and back arching followed. I was stunned – I did not think Micah cared enough about any one particular thing right now. He immediately stopped when I handed him Elmo (I needed to test the theory), and then shrieked bloody murder when I promptly returned Elmo to the shelf, told him no, and headed off to the next aisle. I briefly considered just buying him Elmo on the spot, but I decided it would be a bad precedent to set. I will definitely go back and get him that Elmo soon – he really is too cute when he is hugging it! Who knew his love of Elmo would lead to his first tempertantrum? I did not see that one coming.

After Target, we ran a few other errands, then arrived at the party. It was a nice afternoon, and Micah had a great time. He even surprised us by ending his hunger strike – he drank 5 ozs of formula at the birthday party! At 4:00, we left the party to stop by the Cousins BBQ. We had fun hanging out with all the cousins. Elliot offered to do the grilling, and we stayed long enough to taste the marshmallow fluff and ice cream pie. Yes, that is right – graham cracker crust, 2 layers of ice cream, a layer of chocolate, a layer of marshmallow fluff, topped off with mini marshmallows, all lightly broiled to melt the marshmallows. At 6:00, we said our goodbyes and drove to family dinner.

Micah was a trooper – even without getting his afternoon nap! We tried out a new Italian restaurant, and the food was wonderful. We ordered the restaurant week special, and I think we were all stuffed before our entrees even arrived! At dinner, Micah drank another 3 ozs. He ate 2 jars of baby food (rice lentil dinner and banana peach oatmeal), and he spent most of dinner gnawing on a crusty chunk of bread. He was so cute at dinner – smiling and waving at the people sitting next to us and happily munching whatever he could grab.

After dinner, my brother and parents came back to the house for dessert. Naturally, I decided to make a cake. We (my brother, mom and I) decided to buy my father an ipod touch for his present, so I made him an ipod touch cake. Or rather, I attempted to make an ipod touch cake. You see, my edible image printer decided to stop cooperating. It was feeling rather…pink. Yes, I said pink, not blue. Apparently, the printhead is all clogged, and pink is the only color that can get through. Instead of a black screen with colorful icons, the image was…pink. Needless to say, the image did not look so good. Yes, I stuck the horrible image on the cake anyway – I was frustrated, out of town, and figured it was better to have an ugly cake than no cake at all. Clearly, the cake was a bit of a bust – tasted great, but not one of my success stories.

Monday we were without a babysitter (again). We think he might be saying “Hi” in addition to waving, and he might have said “mama” and “dada” today. I also thought he might have said “doggy” but it is pretty hard to tell. I did end up videotaping Micah being adorably cute all afternoon – I just couldn’t help it!

Tuesday we had our babysitter back, so I had a productive day – I got some work done and made and decorated a cake for a baby shower. Wednesday (today), we went to see a singer at a local mall with our playgroup, and the kids had fun! Our babysitter came back this afternoon, and I got a bit of work done. Tomorrow we have our babysitter again, and I think Friday we will be trying to get Micah’s 8 month photos done!

On another note, my dog is turning pure white. I am not sure if it is the new medicine she is taking, but overnight she seems to have gone from chocolate brown to white. My poor puppy!