Lemmon Life: A boy and his dog

Ok, well technically it’s a boy and his grandma’s dog, but you wouldn’t know it by how happy Michael was to play with Mary, my parent’s dog. It was so cute!

Up until last week, every time Michael saw Mary, he would really freak out, start crying and trying to climb up me like a ladder, desperate to get away from the big scary dog. It made me sad, because Lily loved Mary as a baby and still does, and I really wanted Michael to like dogs too. So when I was up visiting my parents while Ben was in New Orleans I decided that by the time I left Michael was at least going to be comfortable with Mary being around him. I took him outside after his nap when I know he was in a good mood and let Mary come a little closer bit by bit. Michael was nervous, but started getting more and more comfortable.

I was still holding Michael, so soon I put him down in the grass and sat next to him while I played catch with Mary – that dog is obsessed with playing catch! Mary would come up to us and drop the ball and then back up a bit to wait for me to throw it. She’s very intensely focused on the ball and it gave Michael a chance to see that Mary wasn’t going to jump all over him. It didn’t take long for him to want to throw the ball himself (and try to eat it a few times – YUCK!) and soon he was even ok with Mary coming to drop the ball in his lap. Now he’s completely fearless and happy whenever he sees Mary and it makes me so happy!! I took sooooo many pictures of them playing together, I’ll show you some of my (many) favorites. :)

I got it!