So this update focuses on another visit to Seattle/Poulsbo. In fact, all but the very first and last pictures were taken down there. Above we have Murphy panting after a good long walk. It's a head shot I took of him for the online cocker group I belong to. I thought it captured his "I'm tired but happy" face very well.

On to Poulsbo! Owen is getting bigger and bigger, but he and Murphy are still getting along great. The next four pictures depict the little scene that the two of them act out every time they're on opposite sides of the baby gate. First Murphy waggles back and forth, trying to figure out a way into the kitchen:

Owen is trying to kiss Murphy through the gate. The screen on my camera is small enough that I didn't realise what I'd caught 'til I started doing this update, but how cute is that?

Now Owen wasn't only interested in Murphy, he was fascinated by Murphy's leash. I'd hooked it around the banister in the kitchen to create a spot that Murphy could be tethered to while Owen was eating. Well Owen had to check what this was about:

He understood that the far, metal end was for hooking on to Murphy, but he kept trying to hook it onto himself, so I helped him out:

He'd walk away, then come to the end of the leash, then look at me like I'd tricked him...then when I released him he'd want to hook it on again. This continued throughout the visit, any time he could spot the leash. Below on the left you have him hooked to it again, as he'd found it in the laundry room and brought it out to me.

Above to the right you have Owen taking me on a walk, as by then he'd moved on to leashing others. He was foiled by his inability to open the door on his own. But the next day he was all ready to go again, and had even figured out that it was Murphy who should be connected to the leash:

And here are the both of them, waiting for someone with a strong wide hand with opposable thumbs to get that damned door open for them!

We headed out for a walk in a local park on Bainbridge Island. It was a mild day, but as is the case around here, it was cool under the canopy:

Below you have everyone but me enjoying a peek at a local farm, with horses in the background. Well, Allie wasn't enjoying this particular moment, but she did enjoy the rest of the walk.

Later that visit Owen wanted to try out the cameras, so here are his very first shots. Should he grow up to be a famous photographer I'll be set for life! This one is a self portrait:

Of course, after a busy day, a bath is always a soothing experience. Murphy, who doesn't care for baths himself, loves to oversee anyone else taking a soak, so he was right in there the whole time:

Allie asked me two favours when it came to this series: 1) That nothing below the navel is showing and 2) That I explain that it's oatmeal, and not the scum off her child, that's turned the bath water beige. Done!

Murphy was very intrigued by all the toys Owen has in his bath. Owen is learning all his letters, and clearly believes in the "Learn one, do one, teach one" rule, as below we have him teaching Murphy the letter "W":

So by the end of the visit Murphy was getting sick and tired of all my attention being focused on Owen, so he came up with a scheme to draw my attention back to himself. Murphy is clearly a believer in the "There's no such thing as bad attention" philosophy. One night, after Owen had gone to bed, Murphy calmly walked over to Owen's toys, then made a beeline for the kitchen. I followed him in there to see what he was up to and found this:

He was standing in the dark, slowly waggling, with Owen's wooden spoon, that is uses on the musical toys, in his mouth. The angle that it's sticking out of his mouth struck me as incredibly funny, so I just laughed at him, and walked out of the room. Murphy slowly followed me.

On my way home from Poulsbo I stopped in to visit Krista and Luc again. Krista had just written me, asking when we could get together again, as Luc had really enjoyed Murphy's previous visit. In her words:

What a fun visit that was. I have to tell you that ever since Murphy came to visit Luc he has been all about dogs!!! As soon has he sees one he starts smiling and talking, he says "pup, pup, pup....", he runs to them, if the owner lets us he pets them (he loves their noses), he is all about them. Then when the visit is over he has a fit like a 2 year old because he wants to stay (or else he chases them down the street!) We took him to a dog show this weekend in Seattle (just a community kind of show, nothing formal) and he had so much fun!!!!! Many of the owners let him at their dogs, what a riot!

So of course how could we *not* stop in for another visit? In just those couple of months Luc had gone from baby to toddler, as you can see in these pictures, and he was a little bolder with Murphy too. First we have the two of us on either side of Murphy, getting used to him:

And then we headed for home! A few days later we woke up to the fire alarm ringing, and I very quickly remembered it was the day they were retesting our smoke detectors. Every year this sends Murphy into a panic. Below you can see his strategy for avoiding the incessant ringing:

It's actually a very smart move on his part - he's the furthest away you can get from the noise, in a sheltered corner. My only worry is that if we were to really have a fire he would be hard to find for the firefighters! But the door to this room is closed when I'm out of the house, and I'm not leaving the condo without him if there's a fire, so that's really a moot point.

That's it for June! I went through the last 90 pictures on my camera for these two most recent updates, so it's going to be a while before I have enough for the next one.

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: July 2008
Here's the link to the previous update: May 2008

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