I've gone to the Dark Side. (They have cloth nappies...)

Yup. After a few months of whining about how I'd go clothie when L was a bit older and things had settled down, we finally tried out our first cloth nappy a few weeks back. It was a Bubba J with a PUL cover. I was impressed with it and even Nic was excited. What a guy! He was actually excited over a diaper and asked when I was going to get more!

Well over the past few days, we've got FLUFFY MAIL!!!! Yippie!!!

THEY'RE GORGEOUS!!! Okay. Yeah. I know. Ultimately they're NAPPYS. They cover a babies bum and catch wee and poo. But if I'm going to spend the money I figure I might as well go for ones I think are cute. I'm still going to save oodles over buying disposables either way so... yeah, I don't quite qualify as a nappy junky yet... or at least not a hyena. Too much work! They are awful cute though! Blue butterflies (j' adoooorreee!) from Erica's Nappys, with the mint and yellow trim fleece cover, 2 blue/multicolor flower Cuddlebuns (I love the fabric!) and 2 lime-green and blue ones from Cute Tooshies because I love the lime-blue combo. We have at least 3 more on their way as well. (A rainbow one, a blue rocking horse one and a doggy pattern one.) Does this mean I'm doomed???

Today has actually been really great! I got to talk with Nic at lunch and had a nice chat and then my friend in the US called and I talked with her and my god-daughter. (Who is 5 years old and at a very silly stage atm so she was giggling up a storm!) Laurent went off easy as you please for a nap promptly at 10am and slept till noon! HOLY COW!!! I was whipping about cleaning for the first time in days, absolutely GIDDY with my nice clean tidy house! Wow... two whole hours to myself! Then at 3:00 he took a second nap and again, easy as you please, nice and long! I almost don't know what to do with myself! LOL Then when DH came home, we decided to go out for dinner instead of cooking. We don't do it too often as it's expensive but we decided if we split a main meal and just had salad and rice at home (leftovers) we could do so. We went to Cafe Morivia in Camberwell and had this lovely veal dish covered in home-made napoli sauce with spring onions and oregano plus a side salad with a light dressing. Plluss I went a little bit lux since we were splurging anyway and got myself a chai latte, with soy milk of course so there's no dairy to bug Laurent... but ohhh... yum personified! I *love* a good chai latte!



Sierra
Goal is to start to attach a cue to it and get the dog to offer the behaviour with minimal lag

Ten second warm up run 10x
Name the behaviour 10x
Rapid-fire name the behaviour from a different location 10x
Rapid-fire name the behaviour standing up 10x
Rapid-fire name the behaviour 1 peck method starting at 2 second eye contact 10x
Double starting at 1 second 10x (seemed a bit uncertain/impatient/antsy, was stomping her feet)
I'm still getting the antsy foot stomping thing where she'll sit, then stomp her feet and re-adjust, then sit, then move backwards, then lay down... technically she's doing it right but ick... so while naming the behaviour
Next 10x require 5 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Every time she moves, I glance away and wait for her to reset. Not achieved, several resets.
Next 10x require 5 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Not achieved, one movement.
Next 10x require 5 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Not achieved, one movement.
Next 10x require 2 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Success!
Next 10x require 3 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Success!
Next 10x require 5 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Success!
Next 10x require 10 seconds eye contact from a non-moving dog. Success! (NB: So cute, DH was in the kitchen and made some noise with what he was doing and her ears flickered back but her eyes stayed GLUED! Aww... my cute little girl behaved in the face of a distraction from the KITCHEN!)
We did a quick round of puppy push-ups just for fun. :-) Sit down sit stand down come sit etc.
We've got it on cue... now we just need to add duration and distractions and take this puppy on the road! Next goal: 30 seconds sustained eye contact on one cue!

Cade
10x of a 10 seconds continuous eye contact offered
1 peck warm up 10x
10x 10 seconds... actually no, 4 cookies into this I changed my mind... I want to get him to offer the behaviour much faster than he is now. Right now he's staring at the cookie or area they frequently are on the table, then staring at the clicker, then sniffing to see if he can smell any on me and THEN looking up... pfft. Enough of that little dog! Time is money, ya snooze ya loose!
Rapidfire rewarding for QUICK offering! 20x
Now I want to get it down to eye contact being offered 10 quick eye contacts under 30 seconds. Unfortunately I'm tired and my timing is starting to suck so I'm going to party and call it a night! We'll plan overnight and come back at it tomorrow!