I Have A Toddler Now

My only child is now three as of Friday the 10th. Of course, in doggie years he is a little bit older than that ;).

I always post this picture of us bringing him home because I love it...although it is very weird to see me with dark hair and bangs.....look at how cute he is as a puppy!!!!

I love this guy and the goofy sounds he makes when you scratch his ears, and the retarded way he sleeps, and the way he sits and stands so pretty and even the wimpy bark he has. He's my wittle guy....


Equally as weird as my brunette head is seeing this picture of Bacardi in our old backyard cuz it doesn't look anything like that now....but he reminds me of a big white polar bear sometimes because he stands out so white against everything.
All the neighborhood kids love him. When he is out front with me, I have a gang of kids ride their bikes and run down the street to come and toss his ball with him on the front lawn. He is so good-natured with kids and babies - I love it.

I believe that he can tell the difference between good people and 'bad' people. He loves to go greet people at the door and he is super friendly and even hyper with everyone who comes...but there has been two occasions where someone has come to the door and the hair on his back stood up and he growls and barks at that person like he knows something bad about them...and he was right. There are few occasions where that dog sounds mean and then I know something's up...so I am alright with his puppy bark that he has the rest of the time since I can rely on him in a way.

I also love that I can let him go out in the front and not have to worry about him. He stays out front and doesn't leave. He had that ingrained him from the very beginning. He ran after a dog once across the busy street...I cracked my whip (or rather a piece of hose) at that one and scared the living crud right out of him. He never leaves the yard (the exception being that my neighbors wanted to breed him to their female they've had for a while and when she was in heat they brought her over to see him - which made me mad - and then they backed out of it - which made me madder. I didn't need my dog introduced to a female for nothing, especially since he didn't pay her any attention before that. He has run to go see her twice when they had her out front but we now have that fixed). I'm really glad that he doesn't leave the yard because our gate was falling apart and last weekend I told Paul before we left the house that we really needed to get that fixed because pretty soon he was just going to figure out how to jump over it. When we came back two hours later, Bacardi was sitting pretty as can be right next to my 4-runner in the driveway. I had a moment of panic that we could have just lost our dog...but then I just feel proud that he wouldn't run away and he just waited for us to get home :)

And I really didn't mean to go on a story-telling spree, but now that I have written it, it's staying put.