D: Dog

This is a part of my ABCs of (my) Parenting series.

Definitely not as "deep" as the previous letters have been, but it's an important part of our family nonetheless.

We have a 5 year old dog (she turns 5 today- Happy Birthday, Coco!) named Coco (if you didn't catch that- ha). She's a Cairn Terrier and has enough personality to fill a room. She's a lazy little sucker and wants nothing to do but lay around and be doted upon. If you can manage to get her outside, she'll lay her chubby butt down in the grass and begin sunbathing. Now, she does have the occasional hyper streak where she goes nuts. An example would be after she gets a bath. She goes absolutely crazy. She's basically a super fun dog who loves to cuddle.

There was some concern about bringing a tot into this world of Coco (as she sees it, of course). She's always been a little hesitant around small children. Things are going great, thank goodness. She's not super lovey on Jeffrey, but it's obvious that she cares a great deal for him. When he's upset, she's upset. She'll run to wherever he is and make sure that we're taking care of the situation. I'll never forget the look of death she gave me when Jeffrey was crying really hard a few days after we brought him home (he had to have his diaper changed before eating. Not what he wanted at all). She doesn't let people just come up and see him until given proper approval by myself or Jony. She also likes to make sure that we bring him home when we come back from going somewhere. There is definitely some progress on the best friend attachment that we know will form between those two, albeit slow. They'll lay next to each other now (until Jeffrey reaches or crawls towards her...), and she's started bringing her toys over to him to play. When she's feeling really nice/brave, she lets him pet her. Nothing makes Jeffrey happier than that moment when he's petting her fur. Nothing else can go wrong on those days, haha!

It's so much fun watching them interact, and I love seeing the bond grow between them. Coco is still getting used to the mobility, but I can tell that she's really enjoying having Jeffrey around.

Jeffrey and Coco. Best Friends since 11.19.09...