(not the most flattering picture of her, but only digital one I could find today)

David is learning new words every day! Today was a rougher day for us-- it was cold, rainy and windy! We got a lot of our chores done in the morning thankfully, but then David only wanted to sleep for 20 minutes despite waking up early and going to bed late. Towards the end of naptime I found out that Sally, my dog, died today. I picked her out just two weeks shy of 15 years ago. She was a delightful lab with the friendliest eyes and face. She was the most beautiful dog I've ever seen and a very good friend. I knew her time was coming soon, but was hoping to see her one more time. My wonderful parents and little brother were kind enough to take especially good care of her in her old age for which I am very thankful. She could not have had better or more loving care than they provided. I am glad she was not in a lot of pain, just too old and tired. She will be missed.

David loves this little walker-ride-on-car toy that was Daniel's. However, he does not like to push it around like most 'toddlers'. Perhaps some day he will join the realm of toddlers, but today was not that day...anyway... I hid it behind a side-table in the living room because I was a bit tired of pushing him around on it. This afternoon he discovered it and was trying to communicate that I should get it out and push him around. He started out with his usual communicative, positive-sounding grunting and finger-pointing. I eventually gave in and brought it out from behind the table, but told him to "walk like a big boy" - he looked very frustrated and carefully pointed at the seat and said "sit sit sit". How can you not give in to that?

So I did. We usually push him back and forth from the far end of the living room to the front door. When I started turning the car around to push it back towards the living room he started fussing and pointed to the front door. Then he picked up one of my shoes and said "shoes"...the little stinker wanted me to push him around the block on the sidewalk (I made the mistake of doing that on a sunny day last week. Today was not a sunny day.) I could not convince him, so I just left him there and he persisted in holding my shoes and alternating between fussing at the door and saying ''shoes" for about 15 minutes until it was time for his dinner. Needless to say, he went pretty much straight from dinner to bath to bedtime- hopefully he will wake up feeling a bit more refreshed!

He wouldn't want to miss out on any action, so he has revised his peekaboo game a little...

Helping dad eat some dinner