Operation Dog: Success!

The kids have been wanting a dog for quite some time, and so we got our hampster Renegade in January to satisfy their need for a pet.

At the park last week, they decided that they REALLY REALLY wanted a dog, so when we got home from our walk, they went upstairs and prepared a persuasive presentation on why they needed a dog in their life.  They spent almost an hour on it, and they were so nervous and excited when they were doing the presentation.  I will say their teachers have done a great job with teaching the persuasive writing, Brad was on board straight away.  I took a few more days to come around, but I caved eventually.  how could I not when they were RELENTLESS about it!!!

So, introducing: ARCHIE SCHEINER.  He is a cockerpoo puppy born on 2 March 2020.  We collected him from Ilford yesterday (30 April).  He is SOOOOO cute and happy and they kids are beyond thrilled.  I haven't seen them so happy in quite some time.  We are still working on the potty training and crate training but hopefully that will come with time.

First night home, Lauren and I slept on an air mattress in the kitchen.  He fell asleep in Lauren's arms several times and we attempted to put him in the crate to sleep, but he was not having that at all.  He was missing his mom and his siblings.  After a few bits of crying and escaping, we decided to let him sleep with us.  He curled up next to Lauren and slept until 6:15.

Week 6.......

It is week 6 of being on lockdown and the wariness on all of our parts is starting to set in.  The kids are getting harder and harder to wangle into doing school work.  Lauren is getting up around lunchtime.  All three of them are spending WAY more time on electronics than the should be.  It is hard to convince them to do much else.  I will say that Drew has been outside playing football quite a bit, although today is a rubbish day weather wise.  Alison is of course doing her gymnastics all the time.  She has been good about doing her conditioning twice a week, although not without a bit of coaxing.

As for me, I have been working from home my three days a week (with the exception of the 2 week Easter holiday), which makes things a bit more challenging with trying to get the kids occupied.  I have exercised every day in April so far.  It has been very helpful to have my local fitness company who is doing 11 online classes per week so I am able to do some HIIT, Pilates/Yoga, strength training and circuits amongst my runs.  I have also been doing a lot of reading as well as doing my new favourite type of puzzle, the codefinder.  I bought a small book and I have nearly finished it!  I also have weekly pub quizzes on-line with my quiz team: I enjoy having something to look forward to every Tuesday night at 8 PM.

As a family, we have played some Scattergories, which is fun with the kids and we are almost the entire way through Season 4 of Modern Family.