Big Brother

Since in my previous post about Petey I wasn't very nice I thought I should take the time to write a post about how he has been so good overall since Donovan was born. Many people ask how Petey is with Donovan and the answer is "Fine. He could care less." Which is the truth. When we brought Donovan home, we placed the car seat on the floor. Petey approached it cautiously, sniffed it and then continued on with his life. Until Donovan was about 3 weeks old that was about all the interaction there was between the two. Then at about 3 weeks Petey decided "Hey, I think this thing is staying. Maybe I should pay attention to it". And with that, one morning in bed he spent about 20 seconds liking Donovan on the head as if to say "Ok, you are alright kid". From then on he has licked him about a handful of times, very randomly, on his head, hands and feet. It is pretty cute and we encourage the interaction as we want Donovan and Petey to grow up enjoying each other and not avoiding or hating each other. I have two favorite stories involving the two that show just how clueless Petey is though.

The first one was just one morning that all 4 of us were laying in bed together. Tom and I were on the outsides and Petey and Donovan were in the middle of the family sandwich. As a side note, Petey always keeps me company when I get up in the middle of the night to feed Donovan. That being said, he spends more time sleeping now as he thinks this breastfeeding is hard work and since it keeps him up such late hours. Anyhow, this morning that we were all in bed Donovan was kicking and flailing his arms up a storm. Petey was right next to him and totally sacked out. Now Donovan is shockingly strong and during several of his kicks he managed to kick Petey pretty hard, and during everyone of the kicks, Petey never moved. Same thing with the punches and doggie hair pulls, he was too tired to move. So I took that as a good sign that Petey will be able to tolerate a feisty toddler Donovan in the future (we will not encourage doggie abuse of course but it is nice to know if it happens Petey will not over-react). Since that time Petey and Donovan have spent many a time laying next to each other in bed, which generally is composed of Donovan in the crook of my arms, and Petey laying so close to Donovan on Daddy's pillow, that he is basically sitting on the back of Donovan's head. It's pretty funny because a lot of the time Petey's tail hair lays across Donovan's hair like a toupe. Unfortunately I have yet to get a picture of this as my arm is stuck under Donovan during these times.

My other favorite Petey story is from one morning when my parents were in town. This was before we started sleeping in our bed, so Donovan, Petey and I spent a lot of time sleeping on the couch. Well one morning Petey wanted to snuggle extra close to me, and decided that the perfect place was on the lump in front of me. Well that lump was Donovan's torso. It was so cute. Petey was going up and down with every breath Donovan would take. After my mom snapped a few pictures we moved Petey as I didn't think a newborn should have to work to lift an 8 lb dog every time he wanted to breathe. It obviously did not bother Donovan as he slept through the entire thing. The following is a picture from the event.


This next picture is a little blurry but it is so cute I just had to include it. It is from a random weekday that I was taking pics of Donovan and I just happened to catch Petey sniffing Donovan and Donovan checking Petey out. They are going to be partners in crime, I can tell!