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| Backyard picnic with Baxter |
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| Rainy Day Frisbee with Baxter |
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| Penelope Spinning Yarn |
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| Funny and Adorable Alpacas |
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| Butterfly the Sheep |
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| Waiting her turn to have her wool shorn off |
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| Running in the Woods |
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| Brickyard Pond |
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| Brickyard Pond |
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| Three Magical Lady's Slippers |
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| Busy in the Sand |
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| Penelope's Piggies |
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| Penelope walking along the shore |
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| Penelope and her Grandma |
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| Baxter digging |
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| Look! I found a shell! |
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| Beautiful Hunter |
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| These tears are all because her sister left to go push her doll stroller across the yard. |
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| Baxter Boy |
We spent all of last month at Baxter's house by the beach. We didn't have very good beach weather most of the time, but then our last week was perfect and we spent a lot of time in the sand and water. We enjoyed beach walks anyway during the first rainy 3 weeks, and walks in the woods too. Penelope and Violet both loved Baxter, and he loved them. He was Pen's constant companion, loyally following her around the yard, doing tricks at her command in exchange for bits of whatever snack she had in hand, chewing many of her little toys when she was busy with something other than him, and running through the forest or down the beach wildly with her. Violet won a special place in his heart by dropping everything she had to eat from her highchair. He sat faithfully beneath it and dined on avocado, vegan cheese, cereal, tofu, peas, pasta, lentils, and rice. I was reminded of how useful a dog can be at this stage of babyhood. I never had to clean the floor after a meal.
Although it was so good for Pen to have this big fuzzy dog for a friend, I was also constantly reminded that we won't be getting a dog of our own any time soon. We had a month full of thunder storms, and they terrified him, which meant hysterical barking that could not be shushed after babies had been put to bed. And the fireworks over the holiday weekend had the same effect on him. He was terrible with the chewing, although it was a good lessen for Pen about being responsible with her things and not leaving them on the floor. And there was also the raisin incident. While we were driving in the car with Baxter one morning Penelope told me that Baxter had eaten the bag of raisins she'd brought for a snack. Somewhere in the back of my mind I seemed to remember that they could be toxic to dogs, so when we got home I called the vet to make sure and was told to get him in right away. Several hours and $200 later we had him back home, no worse for the wear.
We have been home for a week now, and Penelope talks about him constantly. She misses her shaggy friend. Someday in the not too far future I will delight in getting my girl a dog of her own. I will love the whole experience as much as her, and it will be a very well loved dog, to be sure. But I want it to be a loved and cared for animal, not something that puts me over the edge. So we will wait until the time is right for us. In the meantime we will happily accept requests to stay with Baxter to get our doggie fix.
And now we are home. Back in Bristol, and at my favorite time of year. June, my birthday month, when the linden trees and the roses are so intoxicatingly fragrant. When the weather is warm and lovely, breezy and not humid yet. When I could just stay outside all day long. And the excitement of the 4th of July is building, the town getting ready for it's big parade, people getting their yards and gardens together, flags hung from every home. Soon the free concerts down by the water will begin, and the carnival will come - to the delight of a certain little somebody at this house- and then after parades and fireworks and concerts are over it will be time to prepare for my little girl's birthdays. They will be one and four this summer, as crazy as that is!
