Sam's Black Eye

It's not a secret that I have had *ahhemm* "issues" with Sam. He was fun for about five days then he became a thorn in my side. He is constantly barking, shedding. stealing food, riling up the other dogs, chewing on my stuff, waking me up way too early, bringing me his food dish in the middle of the night and laying it on my pillow just in case I forget to feed him first thing in the morning, etc... I need to remind myself he is barely 8 months old and still a baby. A 24 pound baby. Yesterday Sam brought over a toy that has elastic attached to a rubber ball. The idea of the toy is the dog will chew on the ball and the person plays "tug" with the elastic end. Noah was on the couch with me when Sam brought it over and he started pulling on the ball end with the elastic end in Sam's mouth. I told Noah not to do that because it "will rip Sam's teeth out". Apparently Noah kept doing it after they both left me to go upstairs.
Noah is a drama queen (king?) when it comes to physical damage or pain. I am wondering if this comes from the fact that Ethan has all of the bad physical things happen to him, such as bloody noses that go on for 30 minutes or more, cat bite, biopsied growth, a wart that got scraped off and bled like there's no tomorrow, broken arm, etc... One night at supper Ethan and I were recollecting about our battle wounds when Noah says, "Remember when I broke my ankle?"
Me- "You bruised it."
Noah- "Oh yeah. Remember when I needed stitches on my knee?"
Me- "You never had stitches. You scraped your knee and it stopped bleeding within ten minutes."
Noah- "Oh. Remember when I had staples in my head?"
Me- "You never had stapes in your head!" So I wasn't too excited when Noah told me, as I was reading my book, "Mom, I gave Sam a black eye." I muttered a "mmuhuuhh ok" as I continued to read. Later that day I laid out in the sun to get the back of my legs tan to match the front and Sam licked both of my feet giving them a thorough bath, went in the house and took his afternoon nap, which I have found takes three hours. Even later when I was tucking Noah into bed, Sam jumped up to lay with him and I noticed his eye was swollen shut. "What's with Sam's eye?!" Noah reminded me that he "told me he gave Sam a black eye with the tug toy." Poor Sammy's eye was swollen shut. When I pried it open he cried and it was all red. This of course made me baby him and Sam was thinking, "Mama hasn't been this nice to me since I was three weeks old. I like new mama!" He was attached to my hip (this is different than any other time?) all night. I pet him and talked to him and gave him puppy Tylenol. I was certain he'd go blind, which would really suck because Abby can't see well and the vet says she has to quit driving, Max gets lost easily, so I was counting on Sam to be my seeing eye dog when these new corneas give out. When he woke me up this morning his eye was all better, but just to make sure I have been paying special attention to him all day. He actually is a really smart dog. Bringing me his food dish is actually pretty smart. Whenever I ask him where Abby is, he looks under the bed (where she always hides). When I ask if Ethan's in the well he barks at me, then I tell him to get Ethan out of the well and he'll go find Ethan. When he looks sad I'll say "bring me a toy" and he'll gladly bring me a toy to play fetch. He hasn't destroyed anything yet this week!- However, to be fair it IS only Thursday... I also taught him to "shake" and it only took 10 minutes! I don't think Sam's so bad, once you get past the barking, shedding, riling up of the other dogs and waking me up, Sam is turning into a good dog. Obviously my brain washing of "good dog..." has worked. Maybe it'll work with next year's students...