Thank You

I just wanted to write a quick thank you to everybody who has written us such nice notes about Leo. It seems so many people have a story of a dog they have loved, too. After reading my post about the other day, I noticed that I had written that it was the hardest day ever for us. And it really was. But Sean and I talked later that night about how incredibly lucky we are that the day we lost our dog was the hardest day ever. We are so blessed in every way that we haven't had to experience anything worse than that when so many people have such bigger struggles. Right now we think of Leo and cry, but pretty soon we'll just have lots of smiles remembering our buddy and thinking of him playing up in dog heaven.

Goodbye Leo

Today has been probably the hardest day ever for Sean and me. We made the incredibly difficult decision to have our beloved dog, Leo, put to sleep this morning. While he was such a wonderful dog 99% of the time, he had an underlying aggression towards other dogs while on a leash that had us very concerned. A couple times last year before G was born, Leo bit me on the leg while on a walk when another dog was near us. It was pretty scary and we tried several behavior modifications to try to avoid this ever happening again. We really though we had everything under control. He was always excellent around George and around the house, we never had any aggression issues at home at all.

Unfortunately, a couple weeks ago, Leo got out of the yard and bit another dog and sent him to the vet for stitches. Then just yesterday, George and Leo and I were on a walk and another dog walked by and Leo lashed out at him and bit me pretty hard on the leg. As soon as it happened, I knew that there had to be a major decision made. Since he is a biter, the Dumb Friends League wouldn't take him, and we just couldn't bear the thought of our sweet Leo in a city shelter, not being adopted because of his history, then being put down without anyone around that loves him.



So after a lot of thought, Sean and I decided it would be best for us to put him to sleep. This morning we took him for a nice walk and I took him in to the vet and said goodbye. We're both heartbroken over this since we loved him so much. So instead of remembering the few times that he wasn't at his best, I thought I would make a list of some of the things we loved about him.

He was such a great cuddler. He especially loved to cuddle with Sean on the bed in the morning.

He loved George. He was always so calm and gentle around him, letting him crawl over him, grab his ears, take his toys, and pull his hair. He always wanted to be wherever George was.

I loved how excited he would get when we got home. It didn't matter if we were gone 5 minutes or 5 hours, nobody ever missed us like Leo.

He could hear Sean's car turn on to our street and he'd sprint to the door, sit and wag his tail as hard as he could, and jump up on Sean to welcome him home.

One of my favorite parts of my days at home were when I would nurse George in the glider and Leo would lay down right next to us and rest. It was such a quiet, peaceful time for all of us.

He could always make us laugh. With his galloping through the house, his crooked ear, trying to weasel his way onto the couch with us, laying his body across my lap when I was playing on the floor with G so I'd have no choice but to pet him - we really loved him.

Here are a few pictures and a short video to say goodbye to our friend.

Happy Father's Day!

For Sean's first Father's Day, the three of us went on a hike outside of Castle Rock. George enjoyed his sun shade on the backpack and we enjoyed the nice weather. The trail was pretty crowded, we were not the only ones to plan a hike for Father's Day, but it was still a nice outing for the O'Reillys. We took a break down by a creek... What a handsome father and son!

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there, especially our own!

9 Months Old!

George has now doubled his existence: nine months in, nine months out! Here's the scoop on the G-man:

• Yesterday he discovered the tupperware drawer and fell madly in love with it. He especially liked putting the breastpump parts up to his mouth and yelling into it to hear his echo. It was pretty hilarious!
• Pulling up on anything and everything is all he wants to do. It even outshines his desire to crawl. If he could climb on top of things, that would be even better.
• George decided this month that he is over nursing during the day. I thought it would only last a couple days, but it has lasted a few weeks now and it has made any attempt at a feeding schedule out of the question. It has been a frustrating few weeks for both of us trying to figure out a way to get him to eat during the day so that he isn't up all night wanting to eat (he's pulled many nights this month that resemble a newborn's). So I decided to try a bottle or two of formula during the day and that seems to have helped. It was very sad for me to start the formula since I had hoped that we would never have to use it, but he still nurses before bed and when he wakes up in the morning, so it's not a cold-turkey weaning process.
• I can see why people hire professional babyproofers. George has found things around the house that I wouldn't have even thought of as tempting for a baby. He is constantly finding new ways to get into a little mischief.
• He is hilarious and smart and brave and sweet and curious and opinionated and is a complete joy in our lives. Happy 9 months, George!

Lovin' Some Canteloupe

George tried canteloupe yesterday for the first time and he thoroughly enjoyed it. This first picture is the face I got when I said, "Smile!" You can barely see the top tooth that just broke through a couple days ago.
Delicious!
On a side note, this is George's new favorite thing to do: crawl to the front door and bang on the window. He loves to be outside and this is his way of letting me know that it's time to get out of the house! (p.s. This picture inspired me to clean that window, baby hands and dog noses make for a very grimy view)

Our First Hike

Today George and I went hiking for the first time up near Boulder. We went with Katy and James and some of their friends with babies. It was a perfect day - not too hot and all the kids did a great job. George liked being in the backpack, never really complaining at all. At one resting stop, I put him down and saw that he had grabbed a leaf off a tree while we were walking (quite a grab) and was happily chewing on it. As you can see, he was completely wiped out for the walk back down the path... what a cutie!

Off He Goes...

It's a whole new ball game now! On Friday morning, it's like a light bulb went off in his head and he had figured it out. It's so fun to watch him go - we're so proud of our little man!

A Few of His Favorite Things

Since I have nothing major to report this week (it's been a pretty boring week, actually) here are some pictures of George enjoying some of his favorite things:

He loves the birdhouse that Trish Buckley gave him (thanks Trish!). He just figured out how to reach in the hole and take the birds out:

He LOVES feeding himself! Feeding him with the spoon is getting harder and harder since he just wants to do it all himself! Here he is enjoying a tray of yummy avocado! Still no crawling but I cannot wait until he figures it out. He is getting so frustrated not being able to get where he wants to be. He can easily get from sitting to the crawling position and back again over and over, but can't seem to figure out how to move those darn knees and hands to move forward. It won't be long, though! He also loves to pull himself up on anything he can, especially the coffee table and my legs or try to crawl into my lap - it's pretty darn cute. Have a great weekend!