Mr. Smiley

just LOOK at that smile!!! Lately, it's been making me melt (gah I sound like a new mom does for her human baby)... but this IS my baby!

The last few weeks, Ben and I have felt like we were neglecting Harper. Not really neglect, but just not spending as much QUALITY time with him as we had before.... Our Excuses: Ben has been working late nearly every day, I have migraines some afternoons, it's SO hot outside, and many days we have come home to a yard full of destruction, so Harper gets in trouble and we don't "reward" him with playtime with us. But we miss it...

But this past weekend we had more than enough time to make up for it.... it was full of relaxation... Ben and I had "date night" Friday night... Sushi dinner and a movie! Then Saturday we watched movies and played with Harper all day! Sunday, after church and lunch, was devoted to TONS of MUCH NEEDED yard work, and Harper was with us each step of the way (eating plants/weeds, chasing the lawn mower, etc).

He is now 7 months and 2 weeks old!!! I love his sweet baby side... He is just SO cuddly... If you sit on the floor and call him over, he immediately dives head first into your lap, and lets the rest of his body snake down and curl and fit into your lap... it's really hilarious to watch... he just wags and wags and loves the scratches and attention... He could play ALL DAY LONG... I play fetch with him and I get tired WAY before he does.. He's just so much FUN! Ben messes with him all the time and gets him all riled up and running all over the house, knocking his head under the coffee table, slipping on the hardwood floors, etc etc.

As I alluded to earlier, he has been quite destructive in this puppy phase (which I hear will probably last until he's about 3!!!). We THOUGHT that we had gotten everything that he could destroy, either sprayed with Bitter Puppy Spray, Removed from the yard, or he'd already destroyed it... We have been wrong many times... We talked about how we remember Steele destroying many hoses, and we were lucky Harper hadn't done that yet... it was just a matter of time... Our great rolled hose now has multiple holes in it (patched with duct tape), and then the entire sprayer ripped completely off the hose (like a knife cut it). SO, we bought a new (cheaper) hose and sprayer... we had previously stacked all of our white plastic lawn chairs up (like 5 of them tall... which is pretty tall) so that Harper would quit dragging each one out in the middle of the yard and chew on them.... well when we got home from Lowe's, we set the bag with hose, etc atop the chairs... the next day, Lowe's bag, NEW hose (still in the packaging), and new sprayer... ALL ruined all over again... I know babies are a money pit, so is this dog!!!

OH, and not to mention at my parent's beach house... he is there with us all the times we are there, and also the weekend we went to Raleigh, NC they all babysat him down there... He has: eaten the house (YES, the siding, he ATE), eaten a chunk out of a flower pot, eaten/destroyed a huge plastic water bowl (he uses his paws and splashes all the water out of it, to lay in the water, but apparently got distracted by the cool plastic and started chewing there too), broke and ate another ceramic water bowl (which had been in the family forever), dug a huge hole pushing away all the gravel so he could find a cool spot under it to lay in the sand, chewed on a wooden bench... I mean just ANYTHING (and of course none of these things are "replaceable" for us to remedy the situation to my parents... SORRY momma and daddy and a huge THANK YOU!)

Let's see; his other destructions at home, include: another plant/tree, Ben's brand new leather-ish grill cover (since he had already destroyed an old plastic-ish one), all of the socket covers on the outside of our house (little plastic boxes), all grill brushes (he puts his front paws up and pulls them off the top of the grill... yeah he's TALL), and lots of holes in the flower beds.

But like I described at the beginning, he is still SUCH a GOOD (obedient) dog and such a joy... I can't imagine anymore not having my own puppy... Ben always says how he's waited 24 years to have HIM (ben didnt grow up having ANY pets)... Harper just does all this destruction when he is home alone all day and bored!!! I mean, come on, what can we expect? Any ideas on how to keep him entertained in the backyard all day while we're at work?

Anyway, enough of that (I know if ur still reading, ur bored, but just like a baby, I'm documenting Harper's behaviors along the way too). Can't wait to enjoy this weekend at the beach again!