everyday life: now tiny's not so tiny

Did I ever mention the time we were on a hike a couple of months back? We were coming out of the woods and walking thru a campground to a playground to let the kids run around; our two big kids, Ryan with the dog on the leash and me with Remy in the baby backpack. Ryan and I were walking together and the kids had run up ahead.

A car was driving out of the campground and rolled to a stop (with their convertible top down) next to us.
"How old is your baby?", the woman proceeded to ask.
"Ten months", answered Ryan.
He was referring to the dog, not the real, actual baby we had with us.

And it was funny because without anyone even skipping a beat, I realized that's exactly who the couple was inquiring about... again, not the real, actual baby I was carrying, despite using the term "baby".
(They were all gaga over Clementine because they were a multiple Great Dane family.)
What was even funnier is that after they drove away I asked Ryan how he knew which "baby" they were asking about. He said, "oh! it didn't even dawn on me they might be asking about the baby... I kinda forgot about him!" HA!

Savannah told me this morning I'd be a sorry dog owner if I neglected to mention it's our Tiny girl's birthday today.
Clementine DOG Morrison: One year old today!
(that middle name is pronounced Diogee, by the way)
(and was the second runner up for her actual name)

One day we brought home the sweetest, most timid little puppy you've ever met

and here we are, about nine months and a hundred pounds later...

and she's still, honestly, the sweetest natured dog I know.

She's 34" tall (that's to her back)(in other words, she can rest her chin on our kitchen counters.)
and weighs right around 120lbs.
We're *hoping* she's about done growing... she's still quite a bit smaller than our neighbor (her BFF) who is only 4 months older, but they say this breed isn't really full grown until they're two or sometimes closer to three years old.

Clementine was in dire need of a new dog bed so we took a little outing last night to the pet store to pick up a few things... the kids were adamant about gifts for the birthday girl.
(They really wanted to make her a doggie cake too, but we disctracted them with ice cream sundaes for us!)
So we picked out a new, pretty collar, a couple of new toys and while we were there, Sawyer became convinced she needed a giant rawhide bone.

The kids presented her with her "presents" this morning before school (Sawyer actually tried to wrap his bone in wrapping paper before I thwarted that plan) and then requested I take birthday pictures. :)