Day 1

Last night was tiring, but easy.  We picked him up and had a good car ride home, and he slept through the night like a champ. 

This morning we realized that bringing a puppy home is exactly like having a second child.  I was glad that Maya slept in so that we could start the day by spending some quality time with Parker (ignore our sleep deprived appearances). 

(We're sitting in Parker's fenced off "safe" area in the living room.  We moved a couch and table into the "guest room" (or garage, as I like to call it) and cleared out a big section for him.)

When Maya woke up, we were psyched to bring in Parker.  She is delighted when she sees him, but seems to quickly forget he exists.  She obviously cares, though, because it took about 5 minutes for her to learn his name.  Now if you say "Maya, where's Parker?"  she looks at him with a big smile :)

Come back here, Parker!

Oh, doggie, you make me giggle :)

Someday we'll be best friends.  For now, we will sit at a distance.

We went to the park in the morning, just the 4 of us, and hung out as a bigger, better, more improved family :)

Parker's spent his life (until last night) in the comfort of a lovely home and big enclosed backyard, frolicking with his brothers and mom.  So, this morning when he encountered sidewalks, streets, traffic, bikes, strollers, dogs walking, etc he was a bit terrified.  But he's an amazingly quick learn, and by tonight he happily trotted along next to me while I pushed Maya in the stroller (yep, I took them both out all by myself!).  We took lots of breaks to practice sitting and Maya gave him little treats for being such a good dog.  Here are 2 pics from earlier in the day while he was on the leash (FYI, Dave was correcting him, we don't usually keep the leash so tight).

Despite some anxiety breakdowns (on my part, but that's a post for some other time when I have more energy) it's been a good day, and he's a really sweet dog :)