this is gonna be the best day of my life. [photos]

01/19/2014

josh has been off for a few days, and i have loved having him home. he accrued a bunch of hours for working extra over christmas, so it's going to be nice having him take a few random days off over the next month or so. it's nice to share sophie duty, and just have time to hang out and do the things we love together, like cooking, or just cuddling up watching a movie.
speaking of movies, i finally saw the wolf of wall street last week and it was fantastic. ultra-explicit, of course, but wonderful. just give leo his damn oscar already.
yesterday, we packed up the little one (seriously, food, toys, poop bags, dishes, the baby gate - i felt like i was packing a diaper bag) and headed down to my mom's. i was a little apprehensive/anxious, because my mom has a 100 lb bull mastiff who has been known not to be friendly with other dogs. i don't think she's aggressive, per se, i think that she gets very anxious. it's my parents' fault, in not socializing her well with other animals as a puppy. she has never hurt another dog, but she does bark at them, and will sometimes pull on her leash when you're walking her past another dog. so anyway, we weren't quite sure what to expect in introducing sophie, and we were all pleasantly surprised. i'm not sure they'll ever be "friends", but they were civil. we held them and let them sniff each other out, then put the baby gate up, keeping sophie in the kitchen/living room and giving dora the rest of the house. dora essentially wanted nothing to do with the puppy, and went and slept in her room. trust me, that was a victory. as the day went on, they met a few more times (always supervised) and fearless miss sophie went so far as to jump up on dora's head. by the end of the night, sophie was napping on one couch with my mom and dora was up on the other (8 feet away?) with my stepdad. i never thought i'd see the day.
sophie also got to go on a play date with brooks, my brother's girlfriend's dog. it was the cutest friggin' thing! i know that brooks is always good with other dogs, so i was very excited for them to meet. there is a trail plowed in one of the less-used parks that has become an unofficial off-leash park. we met kristen there, and i just let sophie go. she LOVED brooks! she wanted to be his best friend (and also to eat his tail). he wasn't too sure what to think of her, not that he disliked her, but that she was a puppy and he was like "what the hell am i supposed to do with this?". so mostly we walked the trail, brooks ran around, and sophie chased him. the whole way. kristen would throw a ball and brooks would catch it, then he'd put it down to "share" with sophie. she wanted nothing to do with the ball and would just turn and run after brooks again. it was just adorable, and i'm kicking myself for not videoing any of it.
nearing the end of the trail, sophie was so cold that my mom picked her up. soph just wanted to run and play but she was obviously shivering and her feet were frozen. mom was carrying her, when my brother steps in and says "you're not even warming her feet up right, give her here". and big, burly, bearded brother zips her into his coat, talks in a high-pitched sing-song voice about how he's the best uncle, and takes her off to warm up in his truck. he's so cute with her. it warms my heart for when we have actual kids.
you guys, i'm that person who writes entries about their dog, now. i'm sorry. but if you read this far you definitely deserve some pictures.


[dec 26 vs. jan 14]


[mommy's little psychopath in action, with her new toy and new collar]


[play time with brooks]


[meeting dora, who has never looked "big" to me before yesterday]


[warming up in the truck with "uncle alie" (his words, not mine)]