So over the past few months Murphy has had a little bit of everything - gift giving, meeting new people and lolling about the house.

Murphy as always was spoiled at Christmas. Above we have one of the many gifts my parents got for him this year. That place mat was one I'd been looking at for him for nearly a year, but they used to only have a bigger size, one that wouldn't have fit in our kitchen.My mother found this smaller one while she and my father were down in Texas visiting Allie's in laws for American Thanksgiving. It's great as it doesn't show all the slobbery mess that Murphy leaves around his dish!

Murphy has a great time this Christmas, enjoying opening all his gifts with just a little help from me. Above on the left we have Murphy nosing open one of his many gifts. On the left and below we have him digging into the bag of treats I gave him for Christmas:

I figured he really only loves his Patches toy, so there was no point in buying him more stuffed animals. So here we have a variety of treats. I had to hunt all over to find wheat free food for him. But I managed to find treats at Three Dog Bakery, Big Dog Little Dog Bakery and Natural Plus. The cookies were flavoured with apples, pumpkin and peanut butter, and in the centre are a couple of doggie ice creams. Murphy is still munching on all these goodies in February.

On to the non-edible gifts. My parents got him all sorts of stuff this year. After opening each gift Murphy would grab it and parade around the house with it. These gifts include:

But of course no Christmas would be complete without Murphy getting into mischief. Below we have a Christmas ornament I made in something like grade 3 out of dough. It was a little diamond shape ornament decorated with paint with a face and edging made out of silver sparkly paint. See if you can decipher it's shape after Murphy put his little stamp on it:

Who knows if the paints were toxic. I wouldn't be surprised, since this was made in 1983! But as you can see I managed to wrestle the majority out of Murph's mouth.

Below we have two similar portraits of Murphy. On the left is Murphy with one of our stuffed ornaments in his mouth. Murphy seems to think that anything that is stuffed is a toy for him, so he plucked this one right off the tree for himself. On the right is Murphy with a more appropriate mouthful - his stuffed Santa toy.

So that was Christmas! Since then things have slowed down around the house, and so has Murph. Below is Murphy sleeping in his bed, with his blanket and his caterpillar (Patches must have been upstairs). Murphy never liked this bed much until I plopped it behind a chair in the family room. Now it's his little den, and sleeps back there quite regularly if we're hanging out in this room.

Next is Murphy snuggling on the pillows on my bed (or rather, his bed upon which he tolerates me sleeping). Sometimes he likes to go upstairs even when everyone else is downstairs, and snooze on the pillows.

Below is a new place Murphy has claimed as a sleeping spot - his toy box. It's now tucked between a wall and a bookshelf, creating a little nook. And it's so stuffed with toys that he can jump up onto it and be level with the top of the box. Add a blanket and, to him at least, it's quite a nice bed.

For a final sleeping portrait we have the 2 boys together - Murphy and my Dad. It was a sow weekend afternoon, so Murphy decided to join my Dad on the couch for a nap.

But of course Murphy is never still and angelic for long. Below I've captured just a few shots of the trouble he gets into if we're not actively engaging him in play:

Above is Murphy trying to get at what must be delicious encyclopedias hidden behind a couple of chairs in the basement. He wedged himself right in and started trying to consume 50 year old volumes!

When I banned him from consuming the written work he decided he'd check other potential areas of mischief in the room. First he went into the closet and tangled himself in the wrapping over some old clothing. Then he decided electronics presented a much better opportunity for tangling, so he went for my computer.

And a few days later Murphy decided to investigate the hall closet, but couldn't get himself back out. He'd disappeared a few moments earlier, and I could still hear his tags jangling, but couldn't see him. He didn't come when called, so I headed out to find him, only to see him stuck in the closet. I opened up the doors a bit to snap a picture, he posed compliantly, then paraded out with his tail waggling appreciatively.

In January my friend Wendy, for whom I am a bridesmaid in May, invited Murphy and me over to her home to help out with the preparations for her wedding. She and I labeled over a hundred water bottles for her guests at the wedding and at the events around the wedding. Below you can she Wendy posing with her fiance Trevor, and Murphy. Murphy was so excited to see them that this was the best picture I was able to snap of the three of them in the first couple hours we were there. At least I managed to capture 2 out of three with their eyes open!

Murphy had of course met Wendy before, she's known him since he was just a baby, but he'd never met Trevor. Well, he took quite a liking to Trevor right away! Below we have Murphy demanding attention from Trevor, while Trevor was on the phone.

Murphy didn't settle for quite a while, insisting on investigating their whole home. He ran around the hallways, in all the rooms, jumped on the bed and of course the couches:

I'd taken over Patches to keep Murphy occupied, as well as his Roll-a-Ball, but Wendy also gave him a little stuffed bunny to play with while he was there:

So that's all the pictures for this update! I've just gotten a full time line at St. Paul's Hospital, so with my casual booked shifts at Vancouver General Hospital I'm scheduled to work 20 shifts in March (13 is full time). So don't be expecting another update anytime soon!

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: June 2005
Here's the link to the previous update: November 2004

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