The Puppies Are Eleven Weeks Old, and They Have Evicted Me From My Bedroom

This "pupdate" is a couple of days behind schedule because I've been just plain exhausted from dealing with these puppies! Even though they've completely taken over my bedroom, to the point where I can leave them alone for 20 minutes and not worry too much that things are going to get noticeably worse in there while I'm gone, the puppies are more frenetic and maddening than ever. If my family weren't planning to keep everybody more or less together (just in different houses, with different family members), now would be when the puppies would be going to their new homes for other people to deal with. In other words, the chaos that goes along with the phrase "I just got a new puppy" has only begun. 

The following pictures start right after the puppies' 9-week birthday, and end two days ago on their 11-week birthday.

See Spot:

His name is Joey now. He's the most puppy-like of the puppies, with fluffy, rabbit-soft fur and a waggy-waggy little tail.

See Brownie:

Her name is Lizzie now. She has fur that is coarse but soft, like a cotton ball (although it is getting smoother). She looks like a smaller, browner version of her mom.

See Blackie:

His name is Maxwell, or Max now. He is bigger than his siblings and has amazing velvety fur and strong muscles. Picking him up feels completely different than picking up his brother and sister. It's possible that he has a different father than Lizzie and Joey. (Supposedly they could all have different dads!)

In the picture below, everyone wants a cookie. (I discovered by accident that the puppies love the healthy cookies (basically rice cakes for dogs) that Ginger (the puppies' mom) rejected.):

More begging:

This picture came out well. I didn't stage it (the puppies aren't exactly "stageable"). She just happened to be sitting there, mercifully still:

Rare, exquisite stillness!:

I can't decide if this one is better than the other one or not:

I think this picture captures Max well. He's a fine, handsome, grownup-looking dog:

Even more than cookies, the puppies love chicken jerky. At first I gave them a brand made in China, but now they eat the American stuff, which costs a small fortune. When I open the bag, they lose their minds:

This would have been a great picture if Lizzie hadn't heard a sound in the hall just as the shutter snapped:

"What?! We didn't do nuthin'!":

Good snuggles (they tore the inside corner of the box themselves):

I had a less blurry version of this next one, but it didn't quite capture their relaxed attitude:

Sometimes the puppies just look at me like, "What fun stuff are we gonna do now, Diana?" They neither read nor drink tea, so don't always know what to do with them. (Notice how I can't get all three puppies in focus at once.):

Every time I leave the room, the puppies try to sneak out with me. About 1/4 of the time, at least one will succeed. They're very persistent. We really need a baby gate:

They also try to get out when I come back in (it's actually harder to get into the room because you can't distract them away from the door when you're on the wrong side of it):

They used to just run around in the living room and fight over the socks my roommate leaves by her easy chair. Now they go all the way to the kitchen and the back door:

Back in bed. Good snuggles:

All the puppies like my camera and come running up when they see it (making it harder to take their pictures), but Max is especially aware of it and loves to pose:

Lizzie and Joey trying to tear up one of my dad's old shirts:

Scritch-a-scratch:

In this one, Joey has his paw out and he's saying, "Give me that camera!":

This is neat--for once Lizzie's face is in focus while her body is blurry:

All the puppies like to stand on the basin that covers the heater cord so they can look over the heater at what's going on around the room. Max is shaking a knotted up strip of an old t-shirt, the puppies' favorite kind of toy:

The puppies have been chewing on their bed box (the box they were born in) for as long as they've had teeth. They've made a lot more progress since I took these pictures, but this ought to give you some idea of it:

Joey, sitting on my sister's lap. I was going to leave these out because they are blurry, but my mom said "Aww!" when she saw them:

(Poor Joey got his right ear chewed on overnight a couple nights ago and now it folds the wrong way. These may be the last pictures of him looking absolutely perfect. I separated him from his brother and sister at nap times for a couple of days so he could heal, but then he started crying for them, so I let everybody sleep together overnight.)

The puppies are staying up longer and napping less these days (maybe up 2 1/2 hours, down 1 1/2 hours), but when they crash, they crash:

Often together:

Back in bed. My little heart always melts when I walk in to get my coat or my toothbrush and see Joey's soft pink tummy sticking out. (Sometimes I'll give it a little tickle, and he'll give me a look that says, "You woke me up... for this?"):

One morning, I came back from making my coffee and found Max parading around the room with one of the metal vents from my mattress in his mouth. I've had to move the bed out of the room. Now my bedroom is the puppies' room entirely (except that all my clothes are still there in the dresser and the closet):

I had thought that when the puppies went under my comforter they were merely tugging on the sheets and nipping at bit at the embroidery on the mattress. I didn't realize they were tearing all the way into the mattress. Here's Joey chewing on the hole where the vent used to be:

This is another of the vents, to show what I'm talking about:

The puppies look up at me with annoyed sleepy faces whenever I wake them up by trying to take a picture of them sleeping:

It's hard to sneak in and get the shot:

See? My second attempt woke up Max (pink tummies!!!):

Here the puppies are playing with their mom in the nice clean (for a little while) empty spot where my bed used to be. They needed more room to play, after all:

Although it also ends up being more floor to destroy. Somehow the puppies ate this little patch of carpet without me noticing (car key shown for scale):

Another time when I left just long enough to make some coffee, Ginger or Max managed to get the roll of toilet paper I use to clean up the puppies' messes off the top of Ginger's travel crate. Luckily, it was almost gone because they shredded it and scattered the bits all around the room:

Ah, what fun. For them. But it's all worth it when that soft little puppy looks into your eyes as if to say, "I love you the mostest of everybody, People Mommy!" And then licks your eyeball. Twice.