Look At Me, Mommy! I'm Inside.

I came home from work yesterday and Milton greeted me at the front door.

I brushed it off as my own forgetfulness - I must have somehow forgot to put him back into the yard after lunch.

This morning I let him out again and what do you know - 5 minutes later he was back in the house.

Put him out again and watched what he was up to.

Turns out he has finally worked out how to use the cat flap. Yes, we have a cat flap at home and Milton is small enough to squeeze through it. Only took him a year to figure out how to use it.

I suppose he is well-behaved enough to be trusted indoors even when we're not at home now... so I guess this was his way of letting us know he wants to be an indoor dog.

Lazy Evenings

Brought Milton to the Benalla skate park one very quiet evening.

Look at him winking! He does that very often - not sure if it's a Milton thing or a Cavalier thing.

P/S: We didn't really want to take a photo of our feet due to our unsightly pedicures. However, we took it anyway. Milton's paws included.

The days are long and warm this time of the year.

Brought Milton to the Benalla Rose Gardens. There's a playground there, where I chose to relive my youth. There's something about a swing that just begs me to get onto it.




It's quiet and we get the whole park to ourselves. Very serene. Exactly what country life should be.



I take the long way home. After all, what's the hurry? I have all the time in the world.

No. 43 - Try 50 New Recipes (19/50)

Just a week ago I was complaining that it was still too cold and will summer ever come?

Suddenly it's 34 degrees now and me and Milton are just languishing around the house, longing for cooler weather again.

Where did the days with 20+ go to?! I think we only got 2 of them and suddenly it was just straight up to the 30s. Am I asking for so much when I request for moderation?

Anyway, because of the extreme heat we decided to make a watermelon basket. By we I mean me, except I badgered my guy housemate to do all the initial hard work of getting the shape of the basket right and dicing all the fruit. Oh, and going to the grocery store to get the fruit. Then all I did was decorate the edges and dropped the blueberries in.

In my defense, I have been very sick for the past week, which is why everyone has been extra nice to me. I haven't even had the energy to fully unwrap and show you guys the latest additions to my kitchen and house. I will - later.




Isn't it pretty? I was so proud of it and wished we had a party so that more people could appreciate it. As it is, it's sitting in our refrigerator, where it will stay and keep us busy for the next couple of days.

Decided to mix it up a little and gave Milton some dog food called Meaty Snacks. I usually only give him a little because he likes it a bit too much but I decided, what the hey - I'll give him a little bit more this time.

Well.

I now have a hyperactive dog who's going crazy around the house.

I never thought that it could affect him so much! Back to Science Diet for the rest of his life, I say.

My Baby's All Grown Up

Milton just turned 1 this week, and I have taken some time to think about how he has impacted my life.

For the first 6 months there were times when I thought I couldn't do it. He chewed his way through so many things, refused to be housebroken, he kept waking me up at night because he had to go... I have no idea how I did it.

But I made it. And now he's the sweetest, cutest little thing and much more well behaved. Love him to bits. At least once a day I pick him up, squeeze him and say 'Milton, why are you so cute?!'

To mark his birthday, I baked him a cake. Well, baked myself a cake. It was a blueberry lemon cake.



Milton never gets human food but since it was his birthday, concessions were made. He got one tenth of a slice.



Mommy, why can't I have cake every day?

Milton during his afternoon snooze.

Milton: Did someone say chicken mince?? Did they?!?
Me: We said that so that you'd look at the camera.
Milton: Did someone say chicken mince??

He's not the brightest coin in the mint, but I love him so much. Love this photo too - probably one of my favourite shots of him.

Last night I woke up to the sound of deep rumbling.

Then I thought to myself - well thats' impossible - I'm the only one in the room!

Then I realized who it was. Milton. Snoring. Very loudly. Had to give him a few prods to get him to stop.



It's getting slightly out of hand.

Walk In The Park

Brought Milton to the Benalla Lake for a freezing winter evening's walk.



I feel guilty sometimes that he gets so little time with me.

Milton Has Claimed The Bath Mat

Me: Get off the bath mat Milton, it's mine.
Milton: Me? But... I like this bathmat!
Me: Sit up straight and stop slouching then.
Milton: Yes, mommy!

Milton is Home

After a week of exile at the kennels, Milton finally came back home.

And promptly vomited on my room's carpet.

That's okay - it was clear he was happy to be back. He's been following me around the house (even when I just move from the living room to my bedroom!) presumably because he fears abandonment.

Here he is frolicking in the backyard.

Gratification

After months and months and months and months of toilet training Milton, I have finally achieved the end result - him letting me know he wants to go out (jumping up at me and scratching the door) and me only having to open the back door, watch him leap off the deck onto his favourite spot in the garden, and coming straight back in.

I love him a lot more.

Mommy, I'm sleepyyy... why do you always point that square clicky thing at me?

Milton the Horse

My darling little Milton in his horse blanket made for dogs.



Going to miss him so much when he's kenneled for a week starting tomorrow!

Scavenger

Milton had this bad habit of going through the trash. He usually emerged unscatched, except for this instance:



Here he is with the Club Cheddar label stuck onto his head. He spent a good 10 minutes rolling on the ground, trying to get rid of it.

I would like to say that he stopped sniffing around the bins but the truth is I bought a rubbish bin with a lid to solve the problem. And solve it it did.

No. 97 - Buy a Dyson Vacuum Cleaner

Was vacuuming my room this morning and realized that nothing was actually happening. Sure, if I got down to my hands and knees and forcibly picked out strand after strand of my hair as well as Milton's, something was happening.

Went online, read a few reviews and 2 hours later I came home with this:



This is the dirt container after vacuuming half my room. That's about 4x2m. I kid you not. And this is after I had already vacuumed and did some manual hand picking.



Proceeded to vacuum the entire house with my new toy. In all I had to empty the container about 10 times - that's how much it was picking up. Even the stubborn carpet that I had that just could not be cleaned is now spanking new.

Totally worth the ridiculous price tag.

Could not go to sleep last night and decided to rearrange the furniture in my room. I do that every few months or so to keep my life interesting and supposedly change the 'chi' in my life. And if anytime is a good time to do that, I think now is.

Anyways, after I did that Milton went crazy - like I had just turned his world upside down and didn't know what he was supposed to do or where to be. He kept running around my bed looking puzzled and in the end settled down in his new designated place to sleep - on his blanket and pillow on the floor. Made a few feeble attempts to get onto the bed but was cut short.

I had promoted him to on-the-bed status not too long ago but have decided to kick him off again because let's face it - it's a single bed and he's getting a bit fat and lumpy. Sometimes he overtakes the whole bed and it's not cool. Also, I'm thinking of getting white 1000-count Egyptian sheets and I don't think dog and white sheets go. At all.

Autumn In Bright

The leaves were falling and I made my way back to Bright, officially my favourite town in North East Victoria.



Us in the park, looking downwards to prevent the formation of a pseudo double chin when taking this photo.




Milton enjoying the leaves.


Under a brilliantly red-leafed tree, enjoying our life as baby dentists. Or rather, our weekend away from being baby dentists.

Myrtleford

Haven't really had time to put up stuff about the places that I've visited since I've been up here. Shall start small at Myrtleford, a little town on the way to Bright. Stopped by there on the way home from Bright for a snack.


Milton - Tied up next to us while we waited for our meal and he proceeded to dig at the gravel.


Butter Factory - It claimed to be a butter factory but to be honest, didn't even see a pat of it.


Cheese Platter For Two - Yummy. Particularly like the orange colored condiment, which turned out to be Iranian Carrot Jam. Interesting.