The Island of Misfit Toys

A couple of months ago, I thought that Coco was getting a little out of control with her toys, so I used one of the baskets that I had from Christmas goodies, to put her toys in. I leave it out, by the fireplace so that she can get to them if she wants, but when she isn't playing with them - they can be put up.

It's a nice thought, isn't it?

It doesn't exactly work like that. Much to my dismay, she watches me pick up all the toys (day in and day out), and then waits a few minutes and goes to the basket and starts dragging them all out.

I feel like we live on The Island of Misfit Toys.

This is what our living room looks like, most every evening. You can see the almost empty basket in the corner!

This one USED to have stuffing!

This one USED to have an arm, an un-broken neck and a little Santa hat!

*Just a side note, the little Santa hat mysteriously disappeared and then reappeared a couple of days later inside Darren's shoe!*

This one USED to have a nose!

Much to Coco's dismay - this one is still in one piece. You can tell she's been hard at work though!

This is her newest toy. I picked it up for her on Saturday since we're getting into Spring and close to Easter. I thought it was cute! About 2 minutes after I gave it to her, she had it pinned down and it's whole beak in her mouth so I don't think this one stands a chance! It will be right at home on The Island!

Christmas

I didn't get a picture of Clay in his new outfit, because it didn't make it in time. Which makes me very mad, since I paid for expedited shipping. I told Bridgett that she would have to put him in it and pretend that it was Christmas, and take a picture so that we would have it. That outfit is too cute to go to waste!

Although we decided not to exchange gifts, we did purchase a special edition Keurig single cup coffee/tea/cocoa maker for the house. I'm horrible about not using gift cards that people give me. I looked in my wallet the other day and realized that I had $125 in Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards that I haven't used. So, with my trusty 20% off coupon and the gift cards, D and I both picked out travel mugs, he got a box of coffee and I got a box of cocoa and we paid about $20 for our "Christmas" gift. Can't beat that because that machine is $139.99! Coco was really spoiled this Christmas! She got doggie treats and a dog bone shaped cookie cutter on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas day - she loaded up! She received two stockings full of toys (each stocking had 6 Christmas toys), then she got 2 more toys under the tree, some homemade dog treats, some gourmet dog cookies, a bag of treats, a Christmas card full of treats and a new Christmas collar with little wreaths and rhinestones. Needless to say, she is one spoiled pooch!

This is last night, right before bed time - making sure all of her toys were ok.

She couldn't decide which one she wanted to play with.

So she took turns playing with them all! Someone is going to be occupied for awhile!

There's a New Fish In Town

Apparently, not even non-plush toys are safe in our house. Seriously -its like Coco is on a mission to single handedly destroy everything that we give her! You know these mean little kids at school, or on the playground that you can tell are deliberately trying to tear stuff up - we have that kid. She is so sweet, when it comes to everything except her toys! Last night, I was on the couch using the laptop to work on some Pampered Chef stuff, when Coco rang the bell to go outside. I get up and let her out and come back into the living room, to see this:

This used to be a hot pink canvas bone.

She managed to rip the canvas apart and completely shred it. Then she got the inner casing busted open and started tearing the fuzz out of it! She managed to strow those little strings all over the living room.

It took me about half an hour to get all of those damn little strings! I finally got everything cleaned up and let her back in, and went to throw all of her mess away. When I came back to the living room, this is what I saw:

So sweet, isn't she? It makes it really hard to be mad at her, for long!

So, I made a trip to the pet store (yes, the practically know us by name in there), and picked something else up for her.

There were so many cute toys, but practically all of them are filled with something. Since those don't seem to fare well in our house, I picked up the only thing that I could find that might have a fighting chance:

Howdy folks, there's a new fish in town! He has a tennis ball body and his fin is just canvas, and not stuffed with anything.

Is this not the saddest little face? It's almost like he knows something about his destiny!

Poor, Poor Piggy!

Pork doesn't last long around this house - no matter what form it comes in!

I know this because this is Piggy's current (and final) state:

Her arms and legs have been busted open and all of the fuzz was pulled out, and her head has been ripped off and is still MIA.

Poor, poor Piggy!

She's At It Again!

Last week, Darren ran and got dog food and brought Coco back a new toy (remember last time). It's a cute little pink pig. It has a tennis ball body and plush arms, legs and head. It's so cute! Or should I say, it was! Our little one immediately loved it. She will throw it up and catch it, drag it around the house, take it outside to play with it and she even rests her head on it, when she goes to sleep. Sounds so cute doesn't it? I hate to spoil that serene little image, but I must when I tell you what she preceeded to do next. When she was holding her little piggy, I like to think she was snuggling it. On closer inspection I realized that she was holding it down and pulling as hard as she could, to pull its hair out. In the midst of all of this - she managed to rip both of it's eyeballs off! We have such a sweet one, don't we.

Looks sweet, doesn't she?

Our little sadist, in action!

And - the end result. Poor little piggy!

I think we should just stick with bones and balls - that girl is hell on toys!

Toy Update!

Ok, so my good sense finally came to me, and I took the toy away from Coco. I mean, what kind of "mother" would I be if I knowingly gave her a choking hazard. And when I say "I took the toy away from her", I clearly mean that I called my mom while I was at work, and I knew she would be stopping by my house to see her grand-dog, and got her to take it away from Coco. I mean, how could I just rip her favorite toy away from her, with no regard to her feelings?

A Toy Terror!

Normally, I run to Petsmart on my way home from work, to pick up Coco's food, and of course - I normally pick up a "surprise" while I'm there, because she is such a good girl. Well, last week we were running dangerously low on dog food, so Darren offered to run and pick some up before he went to work. He said "well, you buy her all kinds of stuff and I never get her anything, so I got her some toys while I was there". How sweet! He is such a good daddy! So, this is what dad brought her home:

He said that they had a three pack (pink, blue and a white one with flowers) for $9.99, so he thought he would see how she liked them. And oh, how she did! Darren gave her the white one first, Of course, like any "kid" it was her new favorite toy - she didn't play with any other ones. She took that thing everywhere with her! After a couple of days, I started noticing "fuzz" around the living room - and I realized that it was coming from her new little friend. Then a day or so later - I started seeing a LOT of fuzz. So, I took it away from her. Mysteriously, she wound up with it again, early in the week. She had taken it outside with her and must have been playing with it all morning, while her dad was inside. He apparently, just put her up when he went to work, and when I came home and let her outside, I saw fuzz ALL over the backyard. When I asked her what happened, this is the response I got:

She looks innocent, doesn't she? She is getting really good at that face, not that I believe it at all.

Maybe she thought if she stood in front of it, I wouldn't see it.

See her handy work? I told her to bring her toy to me. And she just dropped it and I know she was thinking "please, please don't take it away again"

Look at the poor thing! She has shown it no mercy!

This is where its back leg USED to be! She just about has this front leg off. You know, to match the other front leg she has ripped off. This one here - or the one that used to be here!

And this is its neck. Or lack there of, rather.

When I asked her "what did you do to this poor thing Coco?", she grabbed it and ran and laid down and got back to work!

I know I should probably take it away from her, but she loves it so much and she was so upset when I took it the last time. I don't know if she got it off the table or if her dad felt bad and gave it back to her. Either way, I think I will let her keep it. After all, she just got it "broken in"!

She's Not Spoiled - She's "Well Taken Care Of"

Darren and I don't have any children (yet), but wanted an addition to our family, so we decided to start with a puppy! I have had dogs all of my life, so when our family dog died a few years ago, I wanted another. Darren had just moved to Houston, and we were looking for an apartment together so we decided to wait. And since then - we have waited, and waited and waited! I told him a few months ago that I didn't want to wait any longer, that I was asking for a puppy for Christmas!

We found a breeder in Bonham, TX and we bought a black female Miniature Schanuzer. She was born on October 4th and we get to pick her up this weekend!! I am ecstatic! I can't wait. I have gotten a few things to prepare for her arrival. Everyone keeps teasing me that she is already so spoiled, but I like to think of her as being "well taken care of".

This is a picture from the breeder. She is 4 weeks and 1 day old.

We went and had a nametag made for her, with rhinestones, of course! My favorite color is red, so I am sure she will love it too. And, a girl has to have some bling!

I bought this toy to take with us when we pick her up! A girl has needs - even from a young age! Memaw bought her this cute pet bed, when she wants to lounge around in the living room.

Last night, I made her this fleece houndstooth blanket - after all, it's getting cold outside!

Memaw bought her, her first stocking! A little elf boot (with sequins, of course)!

Memaw also bought her a Gingerbread squeaky toy. (Memaw is excited about her, too). I bought her the green and red one, because it's cute - and it's Christmas!

And then I got her some stuff for her stocking! Those are gourmet yogurt-dipped canine cookies! How cute are they? So she got a couple of toys and a few goodies!

We are driving up (to North Texas) to pick her up, on Saturday and we are going to attempt to take Christmas pictures, with her, on Sunday - so I will try to post some more pictures of our little one next week!