Dog Days of Summer

Today was a much lazier day than the last few. Patrick got caught up on sleep, as did I. My allergies are upset at the five dogs who trade off the spot in my lap, so I've been taking it easy today. Of course, that means I have more time to pay attention to the dogs, which only exacerbates the allergies. It's a vicious cycle. Either way, I enjoyed the quiet day. We only left the house once, for a Sonic fix. I think it must be a west Texas thing, this Sonic addiction. Matt's parents and grandparents insist on having Sonic (drinks especially) nearly every day. I've never understood the draw of Sonic drinks in particular. Yes, they have cool ice, and you can get some interesting combinations, like chocolate Coke or vanilla Dr. Pepper. But none of those combinations really appealed to me until getting here. Then I tried a limeade (Sprite with extra lime) the other night, and it hit the spot. At the hottest and driest part of the afternoon today, I had to have one. We left Patrick with his grandparents for a few minutes to satisfy my craving. I sucked down that route 44 in about fifteen minutes. I hope I can kick the addiction before it takes over my life. Maybe when we leave west Texas tomorrow, I'll leave the addiction behind.

It's been a lot of fun watching the dogs with Patrick again today. I've noticed the dynamics changing some with them. Matt's dog Leda is growing increasingly protective. She's always acted concerned every time he cried, but now she makes sure the other dogs aren't bothering him either. At one point today, I left our room at one end of the hallway to take him into the living room, and Leda chased off the dogs lying at the end of the hall to leave us a good path. She has clearly claimed Patrick as her baby based on the way she protects him, especially around the other dogs. I think I would feel completely safe knowing she's watching over him. Too bad she couldn't feed him or change his diaper; otherwise I'd have a great built-in baby-sitter once we got her back.

I downloaded pictures today and have lots of really good ones. Unfortunately they are currently on another computer that cannot connect to the Internet yet. I may keep tomorrow's post short and throw a bunch of pictures at you instead. We also downloaded some pictures from Gigi's camera, and there were some pictures there from Christmas. I love some of them, so I may put up some of those too. They may be outdated, but they're certainly cute. And you can see just how much he's grown in the past five months.