Settling In

Rosie has settled in really well. She was a little upset when she left her mother yesterday and had a little cry for about half the journey home. She appeared scared leaving the house but soon cuddled into me and let me assure her on the car journey. By the time she reached home, she was a quiet but calm little pup. We gave her a bowl of her food and she didn't seem overly interested but was very keen to have a drink of water.

 The kids made a fuss of her immediately and she seems to have already formed a strong bond with Liam. She can be nippy with us all, but Liam seems to be getting the brunt of it. He also gets the majority of the licks and the waggy tail behaviour as well so Liam is more than a little confused by the puppy and what she actually wants.

Rosie is very quickly getting the hang of the command "No!".

Rosie is a 6 week old border collie cross, her mother was crossed with another gentle charactered dog and her dad was a pure collie.

We got her as being semi paper trained (meaning she will sometimes go to the toilet on paper) but she hasn't done that here yet. She has however, been to the toilet outside twice. Yesterday and last night she seemed terrified of being outside. But I've percevered today and took her out twice and got her playing with a football so she was enjoying herself. And both times, a toilet movement was made so we are already making progress in less than 24 hours of having her.

We were originally going to call her Poppy then I realised what a popular name it was for female dogs so we I went with our my second choice of Rosie. We I did want a particularly girly name since I am heavily outnumbered by males in this household.

Speaking of names, after 14 years of being top, Jack is no longer the most popular boys name in the UK. Oliver has overtaken as 2009's top name for baby boys. All I can say is that whilst James Jack and Liam Oliver are obviously amazing names, I think I did right having them as middle names rather than firsts. By 2018 it is estimated 1 in 5 boys in secondary schools will be named Jack or Oliver, I can see lots of those names on lists with surname initials next to them. Matthew is already Matthew T to not be confused with Matthew D at school, then there's Jack B, Jack P, Jack T and Jack Y that he went to pre-school with spread about between the two schools where we used to live. Not to mention any that may have been in other pre-schools that have been combined. It just seems strange. Similarly, Olivia is the most popular girls name.

Anyone interested in the full list can look here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/27/baby-names-children-oliver-olivia

Yesterday I finally got my haircut, I'm not 100% sure on it just yet. I don't hate it, but its taking a bit of getting used to.

It is nice to have a style again and to have a neck, I'm just going to have to get used to it over the next few days.

Liam still isn't walking but he is pulling himself up on absolutely everything and getting his balance. It must only be a matter of time now.