46 Weeks - Doggie Says Woof, Morning Loves

This was a pretty awesome week for me.  Your mom might think it was pretty good, too.  But it was pretty awesome for me.  You have pretty much been a momma's girl since you were a few months old.  Before then I think you remembered that I was the guy who took care of you right after you were born (e.g. while we were in the hospital and your mom was recovering from surgery).  So my occasions for cuddling and quality time with you have been few and far between, especially since you started being mobile.  It was hard enough to hold you and cuddle you when you could just squirm around.  But when you could crawl? Forget about it!

So imagine my surprise when I was leaving for work and you were waving at me and I came back to get a kiss and you leaped from your mom's arms to give me a hug.  Your mom might dispute how that actually went down, but the fact that you gave me a hug was pretty amazing.  I enjoyed it so much that I went back for another one... and I got it!  I even got a third hug!  I was so happy about the love I was getting that I said I didn't want to go to work.  Your mom though I was kidding a little bit, but I was pretty serious.  It was so wonderful to get some love.  Even though I was asking for a kiss, you gave me three hugs that I didn't ask for.  I am running out of adjectives for how great it was.

And the love continued pretty much for the rest of the week.  Every morning, evening... whenever I asked for loves or a kiss I got great hugs and kisses from you.  It's nice to get some little token of love from you in appreciation for the hard work your mom and I do.  Even if you don't realize it is reward for our efforts, it still works.

The other surprise development this week was your barking like a dog!  We haven't really been working with you on animal sounds so imagine our surprise when you started saying "Woof woof" when reading your Doggy board-book.  Of course it really sounds more like "oof oof" to me.  Or even "woo woo" at times.  But never a full "Woof."  Eventually we could get you to do it almost on command.  But generally you do it like most things, when you want to.  Sometimes this is when you see a dog in a book or in person.  At other times this is completely random.  Seemingly as if you were daydreaming of a dog and decided to communicate to it.

I'm pretty sure that I got you to say "meow" for a kitty in a book, but I haven't heard that again.  Ever.  Some day you will have a full and complex vocabulary that you can employ at your discretion.  Until then, we will just pretend to understand and you will just pretend to listen.

That's a different kind of animal.
You and me on the motorcycle

And of course, this week was also the real Easter.  Nothing major to report that a few more pictures can't cover.

Your Easter basket in the morning.
Stuffed with all kinds of goodies!

Family photo op at Debbie's
where we had dinner.