I’m a mommy!

No, I don’t have to call the bridal shop to have the seamstress adjust my measurements. I’m still going the traditional route of love, marriage, then baby in the baby carriage.

The motherhood of which I speak refers to my role in raising a three-month-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Yes, it’s a mouthful.

I’ve had my eye on this breed for several years and recently, after about a year of talking about getting a dog together, BK and I realized we were finally up to the challenge. It hit us a few weeks ago that this was the right time.

We picked him up Monday night. Two minutes into the car ride home from the breeder’s house Bentley had my heart. Not just a piece of it — the whole thing.

My doe-eyed guy is so well-behaved (check back with me when he starts chewing shoe laces and ruining the toilet paper roll). He slept through his first night home in his very own crate and did not make a peep. I was expecting a sleepless night (or several) of puppy cries. That didn't happen. I didn’t sleep, but it was because I kept myself up, wondering why he wasn’t crying.

When we checked on him early in the morning, his crate was bone dry. No mess. He’s been going potty outside on the grass like a big boy, and so far I have no indoor accidents to report. Our newly finished hardwood floors are very appreciative.

Bentley represents the start of our family, the one we’re building together. And he is the perfect little addition. He'd known me for mere hours and he was softly whimpering for me to pick him up and hold him, cuddle him, love him. He followed me around as I got ready for work and would only eat his food out of my hand.

I wrap him in a blanket and hold him, and we rest on the couch. He burrows deeper into the blanket and nuzzles his cold, wet nose against mine as he gets comfortable. When he wakes up he flops himself on his back and stretches, sometimes hitting me in the face with his chubby paws, and I laugh at the lack of control he currently has over his limbs.

Our new puppy played slip and slide across the kitchen and living room floors as he attempted to explore his new home. He impressed us when he immediately sat on the rug and began watching TV. Bentley cocked his head to the side when I spoke to him in a high-pitched voice for the first time. During his first nap he made those bubbly noises dogs make, the kind that tell you they're having an exciting dream. And the first time he saw his own reflection in a full-length mirror he pounced at it, challenging his "litter mate" to come back at him. When I turned the mirror to face the wall, because I felt bad that the glass was fooling him, Bentley walked behind it, searching for the pup that looked just like him.

It's only a couple of days in, and I think I’ve created a cuddle monster. I watched him knock down my jacket, not to chew on the zipper or the string threaded through the hood, but to curl up on it, because I’d worn it during our three-hour snuggle sesh and it carried my scent.

We haven’t heard Bentley’s bark yet, and we don’t know what his favorite toy will be. We don’t know everything about him and he hasn’t figured out all there is to know about us. But I sure do look forward to all of the big memories, and every little moment in between.