Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday to our favorite puppy in the world!

While he doesn't look too happy in these pics, you know he was loving wearing this awesome Thomas the Train hat (in honor of his favorite nephew, Elijah).

The pup spent the morning (2/11) chewing on a birthday bone, along with enjoying some of our bathroom trash, while we were at work. Then off to doggie daycare for the weekend while we enjoyed an awesome few days in Chicago for Valentine's Day!

Noodles, it has been quite a year (or 10 months since we adopted you). You started out as a fun-loving, cute, LITTLE pup who loved his bear toy and had a broken/scrawny front leg. Now, you're a crazy, wild, high energy, LARGE pup who still hates it when we leave and gets soo excited when we come home. We tried to change your name, but nothing fit you like Noodles does. You're tall, lanky and still slightly awkward. We were told you were a black lab/terrier mix. Come to find out, you're half giant (aka great dane). You've made many a mess on our carpet, ruined three pairs of shoes, chewed up a few cords and destroyed/loved on too many toys to count. You used to be scared of the water, but now you love it (except baths). You're always up for snuggling, which often turns into rough-housing. And your large size has helped you acquire many nicknames - monster, beast, horse, Noodley-Doodley, Mr. Noodles, Mr. Noo-Noos and Noody. I can hardly remember a time when my carpet wasn't covered in dog hair and my kitchen floor didn't have small puddles of water. You have tried our patience, you have shown us we have no patience and you have taught us how to learn patience. You're not exactly the most calm or obedient dog, but that's probably our fault - we never got around to obedience school (still on the to-do list) or really any substantial/dedicated training. But you do know a few tricks - sit, down, come, turn, speak, shake, up and we're working on settle (aka "calm down, you crazy dog!"). You ate through one kennel, outgrew another, and now we leave you free to roam the apartment, hoping everyday that we don't come home to a mess. You're trustworthy about half the time. There have been many days when we've wondered what we got ourselves into, but now, when we leave for a weekend, we worry about how you're sleeping at night, if you got enough food and if the other dogs are being nice to you. (Oh man, how in the world are we going to handle children??)

You grew from this:

to this:

and ten months ago, I hated big dogs.