Spring cleaning

So our sweet little Mia puppy has been in desperate need of a spring cleaning.  I'm simply not a small dog person.  I love our little puppy but as far as proper grooming and hair care, I've always been pretty awful at keeping her presentable.  It's amazing how quick that long hair can get tangled and ratty!  During the winter, I mostly just hack at the hair around her face so that we can see her eyes.  See that little tuft there sticking up on top of her head?  Yeah, that would be my fault.  So anyway, Jason pretty much told me last time I cut her hair that I made her look like she had some strange hair loss disease.  Oh well.  It was free and our budget needs that these days!

Well it's been a while since I hacked away at Mia's hair, and it had really gotten out of hand.  So, it must be done, I decided.  Mia didn't agree, but I didn't give her much choice...

And can I just say, that somewhat like my youngest child, this dog is impossible to get a picture of!  None of these before shots really do the mess that was her hair justice.  But maybe you get the idea...

(yeah, like I said, I hack at her hair...)

So knowing I had quite a job on my hands,  I decided what better time to tackle said job than when I am home alone with my almost 2 year old with no help and no distractions for her..  Seriously though, this was a calculated (and somewhat selfish) decision.  See my days as a mom of 4 require careful calculation.  If I am to get any time to myself to plan meals, catch up on email, shower (?!) I have to carefully plan the timing of Anabelle's nap so that she is actually down for a nap a good hour before the older girls get home from school.  Very selfishly, I did not want my hour of "quiet me time" to be spent locked in the bathroom grooming my mangy precious dog.  

So there.  I decided to tackle Mia's hair issues with my little helper close by...

And such a helper she was!  Until she decided that she was not a huge fan of the bathroom door being closed (a necessity to keep sweet Mia from bolting), and I'm pretty sure she figured out rather quickly that she now had free reign of the house.  So she destroyed the rest of the house played while I groomed.

(this is Anabelle the day before, by the way, when I left her to herself for about 2 minutes...)  Just wanted some milk, mom...

So why I thought it was a good idea to clean Mia while AB was awake?..  Well, I already told you.  Calculated decision.  It might have taken twice as long because I had to pause 84 times to make sure she was playing and not destroying, but it still got done and I had my hour of free time later that day.  I think after AB figured out how to make water come out of our water cooler is about the time I decided maybe she'd like to watch Toy Story while I finished grooming.  Another great (and calculated) decision.  This indecisive girl was on a roll!  

Anyway, back to Mia.  I got as much of her long hair clipped as I could (as evenly as possible) and then I started working on the tangles closer to her skin.  This is where the "strange skin and/or hair disease" phenomenon usually enters in.  I HAVE to get rid of those massive tangles and some of them are just so close to her skin, but I can't cut all of her hair that short.  It's happened before- went something like this.

Fast forward several hours and Mia puppy is clean and (somewhat) presentable.  I have continued throughout the week to hack away at hair that is obviously longer than everything around it.  I got her face pretty well shaped but Jason pointed out that I neglected the whiskers and she looks sort of "old man-ish".  Oh well.  

 I'll hack away at those whiskers soon enough but I don't think she looks TOO bad...