His name is Angus; We got him from Micki and Beulahful Bulldogs in Middletown, NY. He’s currently 9 weeks old.

It’s a tough thing, choosing a dog. We, of course, are serial dog-owners. Notes and pictures about Roscoe are here on this site (somewhere). We loved him, and with the kids, were basically looking for a more-stranger-accepting, smaller version of him. We first decided we wanted a Bulldog; We thought about a Bulldog the first time, but Jenn wanted a dog that was a little more protective. (We sure got that with Roscoe!). Now, with the kids, we decided to get the Bulldog; a dog that’s sturdy enough to play hold up against the kids, has the “just ran into a wall” looks that always gets us, short-ish fur, etc.

Then, choosing the pup. We were 5th to choose from a litter of seven. (The family who chose Jimi wrote about their choice on his own blog.). So we had three pups to choose from. It’s hard to make such a long-term choice in a couple of visits of an hour or so, especially when your real choice is to find the pup who will do the best with a family with a 4, 6, and 8 year old, and all of their friends too. We want a pup who is on the submissive side, so he won’t be too apt to challenge the children for authority, but yet one who is confident enough to not be afraid of the children or new visitors.

That led us to Angus. The litter was named after Woodstock performers, and Angus was named after Edgar Winter, a reference kinda lost on me. (I got who Janis, Carlos, Arlo, and Jimi were named after right away). We spent a lot of family time (mainly in car rides to and from Christmas activities) trying to choose a name. We were thinking of TV character names, and I asked Aaron what MacGuyver’s first name was, since I remember we looked it up a few weeks ago. Aaron, of course, remembered it was Angus, and it stuck, with the MacGuyver reference, as well as the thought of a big slab of beef.

Angus seemed to be just right. He was clearly very interested in us people, he wasn’t scared of the kids, but he was also the one who seemed that he would be the least challenging. The other pups we chose would probably be great dogs as well, and I even liked their coloring, but would probably be a bit more challenging in one way or another with all that’s going on around our house.

He’s obviously already growing on us. He’s already found his favorite spots (he likes sleeping on a big red pillow on the floor in the living room), he’s figured out he can make it up the three steps into the back door, and he’s doing a lot of what puppies do all day, which is sleep.

I’ve got a few photos here, as well as a video:

Photos:

Video:

For Hanukkah, Jenn bought me a model rocket, and today (as it was 70 degrees in January), we went down to Jones Beach to launch it. It was pretty foggy (and a bit windy) when we got there. We launched three times, but the third time, we didn’t see where it landed; it turns out it landed about 1/3 mile away, in the next parking field.

Photos


Video

Michelle and Alex’s wedding was October 22.

Cousin Amanda’s Birthday

A turkey of an album

Best of 2006

See the whole album.

Aaron’s first bath was done solo, with no photographic evidence. (I had my hands full at the time, and wet, slippery babies and cameras don’t mix).

The second time around, just before Johanna’s birthday, Mom was there to capture the embarrasing shot we’ll someday show his girlfriends at an inopportune time (or, she’ll just come to the website).

Johanna actually had 2 birthday parties. One on Sunday, the day before her Birthday, for family, and one on her birthday with friends. A group effort (I colored in pictures on the computer, while my dad’s store put them on the cakes) led to Maisy cakes for both days. Johanna had a great couple of days.

In and around cake time

Some family pictures

After a long day, silly hats!

Then, party number two!

See the whole album.

Johanna’s Birthday is coming soon, so we should have lots of pictures of that (and also, Aaron’s second bath) to put on the site soon.

Here’s some pictures. And here is the whole album

Some portraits of Aaron:

Johanna and the water. (the pool, and watering a weed):

Aaron’s first bottle: