New Kid In The House!

I can't believe how fast those almost 9 weeks went by!

Yesterday was another big day for us, we have a new family member!

We went to get "Tarriq's Aaron" after lunch.

The drive home was quite okay, Hasi sat in the back seat with him and gave him some guidance.

He was only "singing" for about 10 - 15 minutes, then he was sleeping the rest of the drive (little over one hour).

Cleo was also in the car, traveling right next to me in the passenger seat.

From the beginning she tried to ignore him as much as she could, throwing asking glances at us...

"What the heck does that mean? Is he really going home with us??? Does he HAVE TO make all this noise?"

Here's a collage I made for Hasi's desktop PC.

It shows Aaron from only 2 days old up to 7 weeks.

When we got Aaron in the house Missy and Mika were both downstairs sleeping. Missy on the sofa and Mika on his tower.

The introduction did NOT go too well, Missy ended up almost trowing the printer from it's table right next to the PC, together with Mika who was sitting on it! Missy's exaggerated reaction gave Mika an extra scare that would not have been necessary, especially since Aaron got all scared too and...
started screaming! That didn't help either as you can imagine.

So when Missy went upstairs (she was quite in a hurry!) I picked up Mika and tried to calm him down. That did work a little and when he was relaxing a bit I took him to the staircase so he could go up too, for a time out.

The afternoon and evening were quite pleasant. Aaron was very busy exploring his new home and was sniffing all around the house.

That was Mika yesterday, later in the afternoon.

I had to go upstairs to get him a couple of times, to show him that it was not so much of a deal.

I got him to sit on his tower for a while, where he was looking at the little one very suspicious and following every one of his movements.

Also in the hope that Aaron would not see him up there... always ready to depart - you can see that on his bud sticking up and out of the basket! *lol*

Aaron already started using the big blue "Snuffel Wuffel" Basket that we purchase for Barry a couple of years back. He appreciates it as much as Barry did.

AND he's playing with all the toys too, the first one he took was Cleo's "Froggy" that she got from Auntie MJ at xmas.

Cleo didn't really agree with that and it didn't take long for her to take it away from him.

She loved to growl at him from the first moment on and if she does that, he's barking back at her.

He loves to tease her already, when he barks at her he gets a lot of attention and reactions from her and that is GREAT! He's such a smart boy!

Unfortunately it's no fun to have them both barking and growling at each other - so guidance is necessary ALL THE TIME to let them know that it is not ok.

Our strategy is DIVERSION. We keep Aaron busy with toys and sounds and that is working well.

Another good thing is that he is getting tired real easy, so after playing and all those wonderful new impressions, he fell asleep really fast.

In the evening Aaron had his first visitor, Auntie Carola came by to welcome the new kid in the house. We drank a cup of tea and had some cake to celebrate the homecoming of our little man.

The first night went quite well, I slept in the bedroom with Cleo while Hasi stayed on the Sofa in the living room with Aaron right next to her on the floor.

We have a bench set up in the living room where he spent the first two hours of the night. He did sleep a bit, but he wasn't too happy so Ingrid let him out of it (after he settled down for a moment and when he in a stage of acceptance) around 1am.

She took him outside for a pee and decided to not lock him up again.

He slept quite good through the rest of the night, waking up every now and then searching for Ingrid's hand and comfort.

I am sure those are the moments where he misses his brother and sisters the most.

Other then that he's very happy and playful.

Mika spend the night upstairs which is understandable. When I went up this morning he met me in the middle of the staircase, I took him on my arm and cuddled him for a while.

He's now sitting on the windowsill here in the living room and seems to be adjusting to the new situation quite fast.

When Aaron is locked in his bench (him and us need time out periods!), Mika is walking around the room using the "stealthy indian walk" technique.

That is a very funny picture, let me tell you that! *lol*

Somehow I have the feeling that this will be a very long, but fun Saturday!

:)))

...to be continued!