Happy birthday, dear Livia! Happy birthday to you! May you always love small creatures, chocolate, your parents and Jesus (not in that order). We love you dearly, big five year old.

Hard to believe you were this small at one time. I’ve been getting teary today thinking of how blessed I am to be your mom. God gave us a huge task when he called us to be a family—He is good and has sustained us through the last five years of you!

We’ll love you forever and ever, Livia Raine. Happy birthday.

Love,
Mommy

Aren’t these eggs beautiful? They may remain eggs forever as their mother picked a very public spot for her nest and is forever flying away to avoid dogs and people and loud cars. I appreciate this location, however, because I can easily snap photos of these sweet robin eggs.

Now if only our neighborhood robins would quit singing loudly at 4:00am we might enjoy their presence a bit more…

Getting a puppy feels similar to adding a baby to our home. The dishes have piled up on the counter (even though my mom has washed them several times for me), the beds are unmade, toys are left all over the floor. But as with human babies, dog babies are freakishly adorable. And our pup is no exception. Shiloh’s sweet puppy face and silly puppy antics make up for the discomfort of disrupted routines and lack of housekeeping. He’s just so darn cute.

Internet, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Mucho doggies photos are in your future (which is why Jeremy added a Shiloh category for my blog posts).

Here are the five steps of The Child/Dog Meet-and-Greet.

1) Profound excitement at first glance.

2) Slight anxiety at crazy puppy antics.

3) “Whoa, there.” Mounting distress at crazy puppy antics.

4) Dog calms down.

5) Acceptance is given, love is exchanged, vows of lifelong petting and companionship are uttered.

The End.

That is, the end until tomorrow when I post more photos of Shiloh.

Liv is the kind of kid who chooses to play with pets over other kids. We’ll go to someone’s house to play and if she spies a cat or dog, forget her little buddies! It’s all about the furry creatures. Needless to say, she’s been asking to be a “pet owner” for a l-o-n-g time.

So we decided to get her a small critter for her birthday.

And after rotating through everything from Madagascar hissing cockroaches to rats, we settled on… a dog. We had two specifications in mind. 1) The dog had to be kid-friendly because s/he was going to get a lot of loving from an almost-five year old. 2) The dog needed to be as hypoallergenic as possible since several family members are allergic to pet dander.

Details of our plan fell together quickly this last week and it all culminated in a roadtrip yesterday to pick up our 10 week old Coton de Tulear named Shiloh. We told Livia that Daddy had the day off and we were planning to have a picnic and a few adventures. Halfway through our drive we handed her an early birthday gift. Here is her response:

Now taking it all in…

Sheer delight.

And finally, a Mommy-induced pose.

Livia had a wonderful surprise today in honor of her fifth birthday next week. As you can see, we’re already putting the newest Tredway to work in the yard.

When I get a chance, I’ll post more photos and blog the story of our day.