April 20, 2015 7 weeks old!

I can't believe the babies are already 7 weeks old. They have just gotten cuter and sweeter and more adorable each day. They are eating very well and sometimes sleep in the water dish (usually they've paddled all of the water out but not all.)
It started off kind of rainy today but they weren't ready to come inside so we played outside and then had a nap in the playhouse. It was pretty windy today and one of the tunnels kept blowing into the fence and making a big racket. None of them were the sightest bit concerned. Good puppies!
I expanded their pen to the final size today, too. It cuts off Jack's retriieving area some but the babies need the space. Then I played with them individaully a little bit in the pen mostly on sitting and crating. They seemed to enjoy it. Problem was the big dogs wanted in on the clicker time so I had to abort one session and close the doors to the pen for the other puppies.
It eventually got really gusty so I brought the puppies inside for their late afternoon nap. Several of today's new toys make noise and are animated. I had to take the Christmas stocking singing reindeer off the side of the pen because they were pulling on it so hard that the ex pen was getting all whomperjawed. They still have other things that make noises plus the old standby vtech piano. They love that thing.
They've graduated to not needing a feeding as often so I am doing last call and going to sleep instead of getting up to do it in the middle of the night. It does get daylight earlier, too but we are working on closer to 7 than 6.
I love the way that they sit to wait for me to approach the pen. They always seem so happy to see me whether it's in the pen or the yard but they are getting better at holding the group sit to be lifted out of the pen or fed or whatever might be going to happen. They don't have as much patience when I've lifted one of the other puppies up to carry outside but they pretty well manage to get back into a sit as I come back over for the next one. As you can well imagine, it's awfully cute.
They are doing well with crate time. I haven't started individual crating yet but there's plenty of time left for that. Baby steps since they are indeed babies. I think I'll get a little more cuddle time (and puppy breath) before we sing the 3 songs and say Nighty, nighty, nighty