3/4 of a year..

Rece is 9 months old! As we speak he is thrashing around in his crib, struggling to get to get settled in to sleep, I believe because he has another tooth coming in. On that note, lets get right to the stats:

-He pulls himself to standing on anything and everything, including things that do not support him and tip, along that line, he had his first fat lip this past weekend. Went from sitting to face plant onto a toy. Ugh, as I know it is the first of many boo-boo's.
-He also tries to turn and get to the next item of support but can't quite coordinate the thought with the feet yet.
-He just started clapping his hands by himself. I think this is the cutest thing he does, it is so adorable.
-He crawls like a madman
-He has 4 full teeth and one that is just poking through. His two top front teeth are pretty far apart and we joke that he looks like Michael Strahan ;-)
-His hair is so long in front it is in his eyes and I can't bring myself to cut it
-He is close to dropping his late afternoon nap, and he goes to bed around 7:15 pm and sleeps until 6/6:30am (if we let him babble on the weekends, he will drift back off until 7 ;-)
-He clearly says Baba and Dada but not in the direction of those things. He also says GaGa and my favorite the AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, he stretches it out like when you take a drink after you have been really thirsty. He and I do this back and forth and he loves it, all smiles. He more or less combines all of his "words" into his own baby babble fest.
-He loves Emma, he squeals with delight whenever he sees her and tries to chase her, she runs away as fast as she can.
-He was almost 22 lbs, 28 3/4 inches long and his noggin grew from the 35 percentile to the 68th percentile.

All Dogs Go To Heaven...Especially Angel.

Even two weeks later, this is going to be a hard post to write for me. I have intentionally put it off. Probably doesn't help that it is 10 pm on Saturday night and I am sipping on my 3rd glass of Vino. (Don't judge)

Two weeks ago Jeremy and I had to put our 12 year old Rottweiler to sleep. As my brother put it "She had a lot of miles on her" - and she did, she had a great and long life. She just got old, and I am not going to focus on her ending - besides it is too hard to talk about.

I say "our" but she was always and will always be, Jeremy's "girl". Just over 12 years ago, one of Jeremy's college roommates had a litter of Rottie pups that were born in the house they were renting together. There was a runt. She was too small to nurse so she needed to be bottle fed, and that is when Jeremy and Angel met. (At least that is what I think the story is) Ever since that time, they have been pretty much inseparable. I entered the picture somewhere around 8 years ago and hence had also become quite attached to the ol' girl.

I could write pages about the "life and times" of Angel Rellinger. But what you really need to know is that Angel was a very very special dog. It is hard to describe really, and people reading this might think "Yeah, ok, it is a dog, I get it". No - You Don't Get It. (Sip of Wine)

This was not any other dog. Angel was the sweetest, most personable, most obedient, most loyal dog.....ever. She was known for her "drive by" licks - she loved to give kisses to everyone she could reach! She was loving and gentle and she was nearly human really...and she was a part of our family. She was Jeremy's....and my companion for the last decade and she will be missed.

That is MR. Yoda to you... ;-)

Some snapshots of Rece's first Halloween!

Yoda, deep in thought....

Concentrating...

Havin fun