We’re still working on turning pages gently, but at least Nolan has stopped gnawing the corners out of all his books for the moment!

Here he was very busily carrying the legos onto sofa one by one and arranging them on the windowsill in a row. When all the blocks were up, he proceeded to toss them all back onto the floor and do it all over again. Whatever uses up that energy, right? He has been playing with the legos a lot now that he can stack them himself.

I uncovered our super-old laptop from its burial beneath the couch, and Nolan adores it, although he has sort of forgotten how to open the case by himself. He’s sitting within grabbing range of Daddy here so that he can use Daddy’s hand to push the button when necessary.

Puppy wrestling! Nolan loves rough-housing and always seems to push his noggin against our faces like he literally wants to butt heads. Most of the time he wrestles and does flips with Daddy, but Freyja caught his eye this time. Good thing she is so patient with Nolan. Just after these photos, he tried to give her a kiss and got more than he bargained for—her tongue is about the size of his face.

Paw comparison!

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some old friends from Willamette. Since Nolan has decided in the past two weeks to turn on the terrible-two attitude full-bore, this was at times challenging to our patience, but it was still pretty fun on the whole. I think the fish and ducks were still more interesting to him than the rest of the animals, but most of the time he just wanted in and out of the stroller, refused the petting zoo like last year, and took off like a shot anytime we set him down (then threw fits when we tried to hold his hand or guide his direction). We tried for a long time to get him to interact with these lion statues the way several other kids were, but he just fussed and clung to Daddy. (this photo is consequently a bit misleading, since he appears to be having fun; it was also the only one that didn’t look like we were torturing him.)

It was a nice cool day for the zoo, upper 60′s in August if you can believe it, so many of the animals were active. Our own little animal was so active that we didn’t get many photos of the zoo critters, but I did take time to snap a few of the lions, a new exhibit since our last visit.

Thought this was a funny shot of Jeremy and his posse. Usually when Jeremy tries to lay on the couch with Nolan playing or cuddling on his chest, it weirds Freyja out, like her alpha male is being dominated; she comes to me for reassurance and tries to climb in my lap. This time around she climbed on the sofa with Jeremy and physically tried to protect him from Nolan, just by insinuating herself between them.

Here Nolan was watching an episode of Sesame Street when Jeremy came in and found him lounging in the chair sideways. I love the way he stuffed his fave monkey behind his back for a pillow.

Here I came to check on Nolan because he was being a little too quiet. Turns out he was helping himself to an apple off the bowl on the table, and had already eaten about half of it. He was so proud of himself! The only way we know when Nolan is hungry is when he starts trying to graze—but usually he goes for cereal or dry pasta from the pantry, so the apple was a bit of a pleasant surprise.

We were invited over to Aunt Marty’s house for a lunch part in honor of my cousin Kim graduating from Navy boot camp and recovering from heart surgery. Nolan had a great time exploring and giving everyone kisses. Here he was playing on an exercise ball with a little assistance from my Aunt Stacy.

Our little guy is now nearly 19 months old, and he’s making all kinds of strides, physically and developmentally. He’s still a string bean—55th percentile for height and head circumference, 3rd percentile for weight—and so active I’m thinking we’re never going to get him fattened up now. We finally got him used to his stiff tennis shoes (he used to stand stock still and cry when we put them on, and then walked very slowly like Frankenstein, clinging to everything). While the weather held up, we went for loads of trips to the park and just walks outside; Nolan can walk around on the sidewalk for a good 90 minutes without letting up (or making much forward progress for that matter—I’d love to know what that kid is thinking sometimes when he’s wandering around).

Here he wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to finish getting his jammies on. It’s hard to tell from a still photo, but he was running through the house at top speed, holding a shoe, and squealing with delight at his escape.

Another top-speed photo, this time fully dressed. Note that the 18-mo pants, which I had to belt onto him over his cloth diapers, are still making their way down.

A rare still moment, courtesy of a new toy. Nolan seems to be very mechanically inclined, and loves figuring out how things work and come apart. This latch board was right up his alley, but he loves anything with moving parts or pieces that come apart and fit together. He actually figured out how to take a pen apart a few weeks ago, the ball-point sort that screws together in the middle.

I keep missing the money shot with the dog. Nolan loves his Freyja-dog so much: he’s always chasing her around, throwing toys for her to fetch, trying to feed her kibble, and cuddling with her. She is about as patient, gentle and aware of his presence as she could be, so much so that he can reach into her mouth and pull out her favorite toy with absolutely no resistance on her part. She does sometimes try to escape to another room when he smothers her with too much attention, however.

One of the biggest developments of the past month or two has been kisses. Nolan started giving us big bear-hugs first, and now he gives kisses constantly: Mom and Dad, Freyja, the knees of visitors, the phone, and most of his toys, all accompanied with a very clear “mmmwaaa” smacking sound. He’s also suddenly become very attached to his stuffed animals, and insists on having one or more to cuddle first thing in the morning—his monkey gets a kiss before I do. We’re still waiting for Nolan to really start talking, but he clearly demonstrates comprehension all the time. Here I asked him to give his monkey a kiss for the camera and he was happy to oblige.

One last note: I finally knitted something since the baby was born! (Blame it on our broken iMac.) Nolan had grown out of most of his socks, so I knitted him a new pair of cute little orange ones with a bit of a swashbuckler cuff, based on a pattern from Cat Bordhi’s book.

Just a few new pictures of our goofy little guy, being busy.

We’ve made quite a few trips to the playground this past week, and Nolan is starting to get the hang of it. He seems to be having fun, although he is always so solemn in new situations. He likes to watch the ground sliding back and forth under his feet in the swing.

His favorite activity at the playground has quickly become climbing up and down the stairs. They are nearly too big for him to climb without some assistance, but that doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

Daddy distracted the dog by playing fetch at top speed while I did some stair-climbing with Nolan. She played herself almost to exhaustion, and collapsed in the shade, while Nolan kept tabs on her. He is very fond of holding her leash from the stroller when we’re all out walking, and took the opportunity to wrangle her here too.

Nolan had his first haircut this past week, pretty much just a trim over his forehead and ears. He was looking really scruffy, and now we don’t have to constantly push his hair out of his eyes. Most of these pics are pre-trim, however. We finally found a finger food he is willing and able to pick up and eat all by himself: organic cinnamon-oatmeal alphabet cookie squares. He crunches at them with all those little teeth, and makes a pretty good mess of his face and hands. Keeps him busy while I’m making dinner. And yes, he still eats everything we offer him. This week was daddy’s birthday, so he got to try out braised lamb and German chocolate cake. We also finally got him to hold onto his bottle and feed himself, but so far it appears to have been a one-time deal.

This picture cracked us up because they almost seem to have the same expression. Our beautiful pup will be two years old in just over a week.

Freyja was one of a litter of 11 born on February 18, 2007 to Vom Holtzberg’s Ernie and Briya.

We brought her home on April 9th at the tender age of 7 weeks, with adorable floppy ears and an incessant whine, all of 12 pounds.

But she grew like a weed (and ate quite a few of them in our backyard for good measure).

Jeremy tried hard to take advantage of her lapdog size while it lasted, but she is much too active to hold still and cuddle for long!

Eventually her ears made an effort to stand up, but she was a good 4 months old before they stayed up for real.

Here she is discovering that the beach is a very fun place for puppies.

She also quickly discovered the joys of having a buddy to romp around with every so often. Freyja and Spencer are still the best of pals.

Before we knew it, our little girl wasn’t so little anymore. At 7 months old, she was already over 60 pounds.

It hasn’t stopped Jeremy from pretending she’s his little lapdog, however!

I’m not sure Freyja has quite come to terms with her grown-up size yet, either.

She still has a bit of filling out yet to do, but it is pretty obvious that she has grown up to be a smart, beautiful, affectionate, regal and very energetic young German shepherd dog. We couldn’t possibly ask for more. Happy birthday, Freyja!

Spencer has almost caught up with Freyja in height, but she is still longer, and I dare say heavier, than he is yet. I think she has an edge on him in speed too, but that could be because she has a stronger prey drive than he does, and really goes after those toys for all she’s worth. Spencer isn’t quite so invested in the chase.

Also, we noticed that Freyja gets really streamlined when she runs, with her ears back and her body all grounded, very graceful. Spencer is all limbs and flying ears and tongue somehow sticking straight forward—it’s adorable (and I swear every third shot we got of him was just like that!).

Freyja is showing a few alpha dog tendencies with Spencer, which is a new thing for her, as she has always done the “I’m such a harmless little puppy” submission thing around other dogs in the past. Her confidence level is definitely growing. Every single time she heard Spencer getting a drink of water, she had to go get some herself… good thing Spencer is good at sharing!

And now for some “happy dog” shots to finish off this picture-heavy post. Enjoy!

Everybody loves Spencer!

We found that Freyja was very keen on chasing her balls and frisbees (strong prey drive in that one!), while Spencer was more interested in chasing Freyja, so many of the photos involve Freyja running around with a toy in her mouth and Spence hot on her heels. The remaining photos involved Spencer rolling around on the ground getting love and tummy rubs from everybody, followed a few frames later by Freyja coming over to break up the party and find out what all the fuss was. Amazing how different their personalities are!

It’s been a while since we posted any photos of Freyja, so I thought I would write a short update to let you know that she’s still doing great, smart as a whip and growing like a weed at nearly 60 pounds. We just finished an obedience training course that lasted 7 weeks. Freyja was a bit young (just over 5 mos. old) when the class started and we were consequently told not to expect her to be at the top of the class; by the end, the instructors were telling us to expect more from her, and she really responded when we did. She has learned some commands better than others so far, and still needs regular practice, being an energetic puppy, but she is really doing great.

Now that Freyja is 6 months old, it was time to take her to the vet to be spayed, and that was taken care of nearly two weeks ago. She still has stitches in place (to be removed this weekend), so we are still trying to keep her from excessive running and jumping. With a German shepherd pup, though, that’s like trying to hold your breath underwater (it can be done, but not for very long)– especially now that she’s not in pain from the surgery. That doesn’t stop her from taking full advantage of Jeremy spoiling her like she’s still a sickie, and letting her cuddle up with him on the sofa, though.

Freyja’s entrance on the scene was the death knell for our carpets, which were already the worse for wear thanks to the machinations of 5 ferrets over the course of 6 years. Actually, the ferret smells in the carpet were giving Freyja some difficulty with housebreaking, and we finally had enough of scrubbing at puppy piddle marks. We decided to install laminate flooring in the front rooms of the house, so Jeremy pulled up the carpet in the corner to see what condition the subfloor was in. Turns out it was actually a pretty nice hardwood floor, in need of refinishing.

The discovery was an exciting one, and Jeremy could hardly wait to start ripping out carpet. It and its tacking strips came out without too many problems, though Freyja was not exactly pleased by this development. She lay down wherever there was a bit of carpet left, looking on forlornly.

Jeremy did all the work of the refinishing himself. I wanted to help, but about all I could manage was helping move furniture and dogsitting. We rented a random orbital sander to use for the main stripping/sanding work, which took Jeremy all of a Saturday to complete (and many boxes of sandpaper). The floors, under their previous coats of varnish, turned out to be (we believe) Douglas fir, which isn’t exactly the hardest hardwood flooring, but was very commonly used in this area because of proximity.

Then Jeremy cleaned the floors and applied coats of clear poly to seal the floor, right at the end of the day so they could dry overnight and allow us to leave our bedroom in the morning. He did that twice, a few days apart, with some scuffing of the first coat to adhere the second better. Then we let the poly cure for a week before replacing some of the furniture, protecting the floor with felt furniture pads underneath everything.

The verdict? The floors are so much better than the carpets, even though they already have some doggie scratch marks on them. The house smells better, and is cleaner because now we can really see every drift of dog hair gathering in the corners; plus, it reduces some of our flea problems, which I am loving. We purchased a gorgeous hand-tufted wool area rug for the home theater room, and are currently reimagining the arrangement of the front room, which is a rather awkward space. When we can afford it, we’ll get some more rugs so that Freyja isn’t sliding all over the place.

Actually, the sliding is a little funny, and she has adapted the way she runs in the house to suit it, slowing down well before she approaches a wall, or aiming to end up on a carpet where she can get some traction. She loves the fact that the front room is so big and empty right now—perfect for puppy play. Plus, the floors are cooler in the summertime for hot dogs.