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Sunday, April 9, 2017

Luci Diaries {10 Weeks Old}

I know I'm going to look back and laugh at myself for writing these posts, but I want to remember everything about Luci as a puppy. She is our first "baby" and Andy and I basically feel like we are raising one ;-) 

Luci was born on January 24, 2017 so she was 9 weeks old on the day we got her. She turned 10 weeks old last Tuesday. Now that we've had her for a week, I wanted to jot down some things we've learned about our girl. I'll also share the hundreds of pictures I've already taken ha ha


The breeder told us that Luci had never been outside before we got her. All she had known was the garage where she was born. It was fun to see her walk on grass for the first time. She kind of pranced through it :-)

Since she hadn't been outside, this also meant we were starting at ground zero with potty training. Thankfully, she is already having less accidents than she did on day one. We've learned her signals and when she usually has to go. We also have to watch her like. a. HAWK. !!!! We still have a long ways to go, but we're seeing a little, tiny progress.

We are crate training and we had no clue how night one would go. We had Luci's crate in our living room, just outside of our bedroom. She walked around and sniffed her crate many times throughout the evening, but when it came time for her to go to bed she hadn't walked in by herself. We had to give her a push to go in and she barked, whined, and scratched for about 5 minutes straight. We moved her into our room and thankfully she calmed down and went to sleep. She woke up once around 3:00am and needed to potty. Andy ended up having to lay on the floor with her to get her back to sleep and he placed her into the crate once she was asleep.

Andy began to lay on the floor with Luci each night until she fell asleep and put her in her crate. This avoided the barking and whining and she walked into the crate on her own on Wednesday night! She still does not like going in when we leave, but that's understandable.

Every night has been different but Luci usually wakes up once sometime between 1-4am to go potty. If she doesn't wake up between 1-4, she is up by 5:45 and Andy will take her to the couch and lay with her until we get up at 6:30am. 

Luci had her first bath on Monday. She is SO soft and it made her even softer :-) She didn't' seem to mind the water and she just laid her head on my chest while I rinsed her. She smelled like lavender afterwards and it was the best! 



I hosted my bible study on Tuesday night, so that is when Luci had her first house guests. She seemed pretty stressed at first, but thankfully she calmed down quickly. She also LOVED playing with my friends' little girls who are 2 and 3. They wore. her. out. and she passed out in the kitchen when it was all over Ha ha


Andy's parents and Eric came over yesterday to meet Luci, so they were her second house guests!

Like any puppy, the girl LOVES to chew. Oh my word. If she is awake, she is looking for something to bite or chew. All the things! She has 6 toys that she loves, but she'd rather chew on shoes, furniture, towels, etc. We probably say "no bite" 500 times a day ;-)

Luci learned to climb stairs around the middle of the week. When we first got her, she wouldn't climb the stairs that lead up to our front door.  Yesterday, she began climbing our stairs inside. We don't want her going upstairs, so we also get to tell her "no" when she tries to go upstairs a hundred times a day too Haha

She calms down for the day around 8 and she is SO snuggly then. She will lay her head on our shoulders, cuddle into our necks, and just relax. She is known to lay at our feet while we cook and she loves laying under the table while we eat.



When she naps during the day (about 30 minutes at a time), she changes positions about a million times. It's so funny to watch.





Our sweet neighbor, who has named herself Granny ;-), is helping us SO much by letting Luci out during work hours. Right now, she goes out right before we leave at 7:30 and then she also goes out around 9:30 and noon. I get home around 3:30. We could not do it without her and it is so nice to get updates throughout the day on how our girl is doing. 




Well this post turned out to be super long! I also noticed that most of the pictures I have of Luci are when she is sleeping. She has a vet appointment this week, so hopefully we learn she's a healthy, thriving pup! :-) I think that wraps up our first week with St. Luci B. It's been a fun, challenging, hard, exciting time so far!

We love you Luci!



Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Meet Luci

Andy and I are so excited to introduce our newest family member…

Luci


What a weekend we had!!!

I found out about the breeder who had Luci from my friend Grace, who was in my sorority. She posted a picture of her new puppy and he looked JUST like the type of dog Andy and I were looking for. We had discussed not getting a pup until the summer, so that I could be home to train her, but it just felt right when the breeder let me know that she had ONE girl left in her current litter. 

Andy and I traveled down to Mocksville, NC to meet Luci on Friday night, March 31st. On the way to meet her we found out some absolutely wonderful news regarding Andy's job and we saw a rainbow. It was such a happy and exciting evening!
"The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago." Lamentations 2:17a


After about 5 minutes of spending time with "the last girl in the litter," Andy and I knew she had to be ours! We went ahead and bought her and promised to come back and get her on Sunday at noon. That way, she could go home to our house first.



We spent the rest of the weekend in Charlotte. Most of my family happened to be out of town - Mom, Phil, and the girls were at my Grandaddy's and my Dad was in Greensboro with his basketball team. We crashed at my Mom's Friday night and then we headed to Amy and Tyler's on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day!! We spent time in downtown Waxhaw, grilled steaks, and watched UNC in the final 4. It was such a good time, and it was our last night as a family of two :-)



We arrived at the breeder's house at 11:30 on Sunday and we got our girl!!! Anna and Faith followed us there so they got to meet her too. We had already decided on the name Luci, which is after our beloved honeymoon spot, St Lucia. When we left, we got to meet Marc and Mindy at a nearby park to visit and have lunch. It was the perfect way for Luci to get some energy out and we were so happy to see our friends. 





We headed home around 1:30. It was about a 3.5 hour drive and Luci was a ROCKSTAR in the car!! She laid in my lap the whole way and she didn't get sick or make a peep. She even had to ride in the passenger seat of Andy's car on the last leg, since I had met him in Beckley on Friday, and she just laid there and slept. 



Andy had youth group once we got home so I spent the night getting Luci acclimated to her new home. She promptly pooped in the floor as soon as she stepped in the house ;-) And so began potty training!

We are already so in love with our sweet girl. She is just a baby, so we have a lot to learn and a lot of work ahead to train her. 

Welcome home, Luci girl!