Elia and the dogs

Every morning in California, the first thing Elia would go do is find all the dogs and say hello to each one.  The one who was probably most receptive to her is Bella.  Sometimes Elia would accidentally call her Koda.  They kind of look alike.



A few days after we got back from Cali, Gianna told Elia how much she missed California.  Elia said me too!  I miss the dogs.  Elia is helping Chris wear me down more and more to get one!

California: Easter

We flew to California Holy Saturday, so Easter was spent in Napa with the grandparents!  They dyed eggs the day before Easter and then the Easter Bunny hid them for the girls to find.

Loved!

 In between the Easter Bunny and the family going to church, Jax got out and ate some of the eggs hidden in the yard. We had to "recycle" some eggs. Once someone found an egg and put it in the bowl, an uncle or aunt would take it out and re-hide it. No one seemed to notice! Easter was a total success.

Eat Your Bone

That is Elia's latest sentence. It is so stinking cute when she says it too! We watched Koda this weekend and Elia LOVED every second. We had a ham for Easter brunch and so Koda got the bone and gnawed on it for a good 2 hours. Anytime Elia went near her she would stop and say eat your bone eat your bone. Saturday night, after sneaking Koda a little bit of her dinner, she said "I love you dog." So sweet. Gianna still took a while to warm up as usual. Elia was kissing her and hugging her and giving her all kinds of love.

Tonight I caught them doing this:

And later, this:

Poor dog. I bet the girls would have tried to dress her up if they could. She is a dang good dog to put up with it!

18 month check up and Koda

Today was Elia's 18 month checkup. She won't be18 months till next Saturday, but I still can't believe how big she is! She weighed in at 26 lbs. We also weighed Gianna, and she weighs 29.6 lbs. Elia is going to catch up with her! Her weight puts her at the 77%. She is 35.5 inches tall which puts her at the 100%. I can tell she is pretty tall anyway because a lot of her 18 month pants are too short. Such a sweetie girl though. The doctor counted 5 teeth coming in right now. So with the 8 she already has, that will make 13 pretty soon(fingers crossed). No shots this time around, so the visit was quick and painless. A couple of cute things she has been doing lately:

Chris taught her to stick her hands up in the air when you poke her stomach and say "stick em' up!"

When you ask her to be a gorilla, she beats her little fists on her chest and goes aahhhh-a-aaaahhh Tarzan style. So cute!

I took these pics the other day when the girls were playing with Koda. We finally had a successful walk this morning without Chris. She is really strong and has been knocking over Elia almost every time I get the leash out because she is so excited. Knocking down Elia= no walk for Koda. I tend to get a little mama bear on Koda when it involves one of the girls getting hurt. I know the more Koda exercises, the better she will behave for me, so I am trying!

Look how excited Elia is! So cute!

The Great Dog Experiment

This week, we are dog-sitting for Weinpel. Her name is Koda, and she is a sweet dog. She is part Great Dane, so she is really tall, but otherwise she is mostly a black lab.

After a few days of having her around the house, I have come to a few realizations about having a dog.

1) Having a dog around is not that bad.

2) Dog poop is gross. So is dog breath. And doggie licks.

3) We will NOT get a puppy. We will adopt or do some sort of rescue program.

4) They provide great built-in exercise. Saturday we spent a few hours at the hiking park with her, and we are taking lots of walks. Here is a pic of the fam at the park.

Elia absolutely loves Koda. She laughs and squeals at her, lets her lick her and tries to feed her food that she doesn't like. Gianna is a little more apprehensive. The first day or so she would run away from her or get up on the couch away from her. Now she is still a little nervous but LOVES to boss her around. We have her until Saturday, so I will probably post again about any other doggie-related adventures.