Dog Doors, Toilets, and Remote Controls

Some of your favorite things to do right now:

1) Take your toys, balls, things from the pantry, dog collars, and put them outside through the dog door into the backyard.  Your mom calls them "Offerings to the Backyard Gods"

2) You like to splash in Emily's and Maggie's water bowl (although you don't splash at all when you are getting your bath...).  This fascination with water has extended to toilets, recently, so your mom and I have to be on our toes and close the bathroom doors if you are running around without us following you.  Also, you've been enjoying dropping things into the toilet, and recently dropped some of the "Flippy-Floppers" (dog frisbees) into the toilet at our house, and dropped a bunch of deodorant sticks, shampoo bottles and remote controls into the toilet at your grandparents' house here in California.

3) Speaking of remote controls, one of your favorite things to do is to grab our remote controls and run away.  You know we'll chase you, and you never really cry when we get them back.  You know it's a game, and I think you take delight in our laughter when the channel changes or the volume shuts off when we are watching a program together.  Your Grandmother Pagel gave us one of her remote controls, so we use it as a decoy for you to play with, but I think you are catching on that we don't chase you as hard when you have that one... 

4) You love to zoom around in your little bike that your mom got you for your birthday, but that we decided to let you have for Easter.  Your legs aren't long enough to peddle it, s we push you around, but you enjoy it whether we are inside or outside:

5) You really enjoy watching a show called "Little Einsteins" - in particular, an episode called "Brothers and Sisters to the Rescue."  You watch it all the time, and during the day, even when you are not here, the music plays in the back of my head, and I think of you...

6) You really love climbing the stairs.  You like to go up and down, and grab the dog dishes (yes - they eat on the stairway landing halfway up...) and climb to the top with them in your hands.  There have been several times where, if we weren't there to catch you, you would have tumbled all the way down and cracked your skull, I'm sure.  "Danger" is a very appropriate middle name for you.  Can't believe we've made it a whole year with all of your fingers and toes intact!

In short, being you is pretty exhausting.  You're constantly learning about the world around you, and teaching us how to be good parents.  

Good night, kiddo.  Sweet dreams.

-Dad