The Splash Pad

 Hooray! We are at the Splash Park!

 Disney World does not have anything on this place and its FREE! Well at least for now that is the truth.  Colin is in love with the new splash pad at one of the parks here.  Lucky for me, one of my mom friends at library class told me about it and we went to check it out the next day.  I could barely set Colin down and he was running! I have never seen him so excited for anything.  All the other kids his age were really timid, didn't want to go in the water, and sticking very close to their parents.  Colin on the other hand was cracking up laughing, running directly into the sprinklers, and running as fast as he could away from me :) 

 The place has several different types of sprinklers including some that come up from the ground and others that are above your head.  Not all the sprinklers work at the same time so you really have to watch yourself or you may get soaked by accident. 

For some reason, Colin likes drains.  If we are not careful he will pull the drain cover off the shower and he loves to watch water go down the drain in both the sinks and bath tub.  You can imagine a place with this many drains was beyond awesome for him.  I have to admit that I also had a little fun with this because there were several times that Colin went to check out a drain that did not have any water coming out and BAM water right in the face haha.  I know I am mean but he has got to learn right?  I stopped laughing when he found the enormous drain in the middle of the park and proceeded to bend down like a dog and take a big old drink. Yuck! Everyone else in the park thought it was pretty funny though.

 When we were at the splash park on Friday there were some older kids there for a softball tournament.  Colin thought they were doing some great stuff and decided to chase them around and copy what they were doing.  One of the big kids said "Get away little kid".  My motherly instinct wanted to go tell that kid where he could go but of course Colin didn't care what he had to say so instead of embarrassing myself I let Colin keep bothering him :) Eventually the older kids thought it was funny to splash Colin with the water and Colin loved it so it all worked out.

 Another great thing about this splash park is that it is connected to another normal park.  Instead of wood chips, it has that new soft foam under the playground equipment and a park especially for kids Colin's size.  So Colin ran from splash pad to park for a total of 2 hours.  I was exhausted after our field trip.  So was Colin.  He took a 3 1/2 hour nap and still slept pretty good that night. 

In honor of  this weekends opening of the very last Harry Potter movie, I had to share this photo.  If you look very closely Colin was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone! I knew he was like me a little.  I have been reading the books and watching the movies for 10 years now.  I am excited and a little sad about finally getting to see the last movie.  I am very lucky that I will get to relive them all through Colin's eyes as I fully intend of reading the books to him when he is old enough.   

Our Furry Friend

 This is our Furry Friend Tracker!

 Tracker is a 100 pound Rhodesian Ridgeback.  He turned 4 years old last week. I am sure if he could talk he would say he feels much older.  We got Tracker in August 2007.  At that time he was the "only child".  Brian was still in the Marine Corp getting ready to deploy to Iraq.  We were very excited about our new puppy and spoiled him to death.  He got to ride on our laps in the car (unfortuneatly he kept trying to do this even after he reached about 40 lbs), frequent trips to the "spa", Saturday morning biscuits and gravy (bad I know), afternoon naps with mommy on the weekends, bones and toys galore, and of course he got to sleep in the bed at night.  Basically Tracker helped me keep my sanity during the hardest 7 months of my life and therefore, I treated him like a prince. He was even more spoiled once Brian came home.  I guess you could say Tracker was "living the life". Then about 17 months ago that all changed.  Tracker went from being the "only child" to the dog. 

Tracker went from sleeping in the bed and spa treatments, to a comfy pillow on the floor and the occasional trip to the groomer for a bath ( No way I am going to attempt to give this horse a bath).  I will admit he has done very well and as you will see from the pictures, puts up with a lot from Colin.  Sometimes they are the best of friends and other times they antagonize each other to the extreme.  It is actually a lot of fun to watch their relationship progress.  I will never forget those first few nights that Colin was home and screaming at 2 in the morning and looking over at Tracker with his head UNDER his pillow.  He never was a big fan of the crying. We always try to look for ways to include Tracker in what we are doing and always try to let Colin be involved with Tracker as well.  For Tracker's birthday we let Colin give him his bone.  Colin of course thought it was for him and did not want to give it to Tracker.  They had a power struggle which of course, Tracker won.  Despite his loss, Colin did not give up and continued to sneak up on Tracker throughout the day and would steal the bone back.  This of course sent Tracker into panic mode.  It really reminded me of the commercial where the dog keeps looking for places to hide his bone.  This is not new for us.  I have found bones behind the toilet, under my pillow, under the dirty clothes in the closet, etc.  Usually he hides it and he is done but not this time.  He frantically ran about the house putting it places, thinking about it for a few minutes and then moving it again.  This continues for about 30 minutes.  He even tried to "dig up " the carpet in hopes of burying the bone.  Finally, he settled for under the couch cushion :)  .

This is a rare photo of Tracker alone with the bone.

Now I have said sometime they are the best of friends.  This is usually around breakfast, lunch and dinner time.  Imagine that :)  Tracker can hear the peal of a banana from anywhere and he can tell when I have opened the cabinet with the peanut butter.  The dog loves food.  He has quickly learned that Colin loves to share.  He spends lots of time sitting under Colin's high chair praying for the next flying piece of food.  Colin loves the attention from Tracker and is ever so willing to oblige.  I have to admit there have been time when I have been really glad Tracker is there ,particulary on a green bean night because there tends to be less for me to clean up afterwards.

Tracker really does put up with a lot.  You can see him giving me the devil eyes while I stood cracking up at the two of them.  Colin loved dressing up Tracker.  This is just one of the many examples when I look at Tracker and say "Good boy".  These moments are often followed by cookies which is the reason I really think he puts up with it.

Now if you take a good look at this picture you will see that Colin is wearing Tracker's collar. You can really see he loves his "Best Friend". He is also holding a lion that he is calling "Oggy!" which means Doggy. Pretty much anything with 4 legs is an Oggy! right now. In fact pretty much anything other than a human. We went to petco a couple of weeks ago and the fish, mice, and birds were Oggies to.  Just so you can see how far we have come in 4 years, here are some pictures of Tracker when we first got him.