Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks; or, small victories

Our dog Mario was an "only child" for about 10 years before Tommy arrived.  He's a terrier in every sense of the word, and was awfully fond of ruling his kingdom (otherwise known as anything he lays eyes on).  When Tommy arrived, his world crashed down around his ears.  We've never felt comfortable with Mario too close to Tom's face, and certainly never left them unattended together, even for a second.  I'm thrilled to report that over the last 7 months, Mario seems to have mellowed out a bit and accepted Tommy into the pack.  I wouldn't use the term fond, but Mario more than tolerates Tommy's presence.  I'm guessing this is due in part to the presence of food on Tom's clothes, face, hands, and general vecinity.

Tommy is enthralled with his Mario.  When you ask Tom where his puppy is, he looks all around and grins from ear to ear when he spots the dog.  Tom especially likes it when I make Mario speak.

It's hard to capture on film, but Mario really seems to like his baby.  In pretty much every photo I've ever taken of our dog, he looks dejected.

Tommy is just starting to crawl and pull himself up. 

We try to feed Tom food at least once a day, never making a big deal of it, but trying notheless.  He's been very interested in what we eat.  Last Saturday Katie and I went to Arella's Pizza, and he actually ate a few small pieces of soft inner crust.  At first he'd spit them out until they were good and mushy, and then he'd "chew" them and swallow if I got them far enough into his mouth.  Then I pre-soaked a couple in water and he'd eat them straight down.

Tonight I got him to eat some white rice - not rice cereal, but cooked grains.  He was able to mash them up in his mouth pretty well and swallow them.

I'm wondering if maybe the texture of pureed food disagrees with Tom.  Is anyone surprised that my son is picky snobby particular about his food?  I'm hoping we've crossed some barriers and he'll start eating a bit more this week.

Tommy "cried it out" yesterday, twice, and fell asleep for a nap.  It took about 30 minutes each time, but this is a huge success.  We've had little success letting him cry and it's gone on for much (much, much) longer than 30 minutes before.

Tommy continues to get better at crawling.  He was moving along great tonight, but by the time I grabbed the camera he'd tired out a bit so I time-compressed this video for you.  It's not very exciting, but still kind of cute.

Katie and I continue to plug away at small projects around here.

We replaced a couple of wall sconces in Tom's room with these cute lantern-style sconces.

Home Depot (you can do it, we'll watch; you can do it, good luck; you can do it, because we don't know how) has a few bath vanities for sale right now, including countertops and mirror, for less than the typical price of a vanity countertop.

We picked one up to replace this beaut' in the basement bath, complete with gray porcelein sink.  We had actually planned to replace the top/sink, and refinish the cabinet, but for the price we couldn't say no.

With matching gray porcelein commode.  I can't find gray fixtures anywhere online, so I'm guessing these are worth a fortune...  Interested parties should contact me right away as I'm sure (praying) they'll go fast.  If not, they'll go in the trash.

Our clawfoot tub is close to install-ready.

We had the feet chromed.  There's some spots on the chrome from when I rinsed the scouring powder out of the tub, but they wipe off.

The porcelein is in great shape after nearly 100 years.  All we need now is the drain assembly and tub faucet and we'll be ready to lug it upstairs for Tommy's bathroom - stay tuned and pray the next posting isn't titled something like "My strained back; or my visit to the hospital".