Barley and the Babies

It's been interesting to watch Barley with the girls. I know everyone was worried about how he was going to react when we brought them home.....and quite honestly I was worried about it, too. We would bring their laundry bag home during their hospital stay and we always let him smell the blankets. He was interested and sometimes he would lay outside the laundry room door because he knew those blankets are in there. (Never mind that when he was able to get to the blankets, he would take
them with his mouth and drag them off somewhere.......I refused to think about THAT symbolism!)

After we brought the girls home, we realized pretty quickly that he was going to adapt just fine to their being in "his house." We have the occasional worry about him taking over one of their toys but for the most part, he leaves their things alone. He does sit and stare intently when we're playing with one of their toys, but that's all he does.

The funniest thing, though, about Barley was at first how he didn't want the girls touching him. We would be sitting on the couch holding them and if Barley was laying next to us and a baby's foot fell on him, he would get up. We tried a couple of times to take the cute picture with the baby propped up on Barley as he was curled up and sleeping and we saw that he couldn't get up quick enough. And for a lazy dog like ours, that's quite a feat!! He would get nervous if they cried and he didn't want them touching him. Gradually, though, he has started coming around. Now when they cry, he'll go to wherever they are and will sit or lay next to them. If they're laying on the floor or in the bouncy seat, he'll lick their feet in what appears to be an attempt to calm them down. He still doesn't like it very much if they're really crying, but hey - I don't like it either!!!

As you can see from these pictures, he's REALLY coming around!!!! He's perfectly fine laying next to the girls and, since they are starting to notice him and can reach for him, he lets them. We're still very careful with his being in close contact with them but come on......how cute is that!!!!!!!!! (Sofia in the picture above; Olivia in the picture below).