Sparten

We've added a new member to our family! His name is Sparten and he belongs to Josh & Julissa so I guess that makes him our granddog. He is a yellow lab and reminds all of us so much of Chip that he was easy to fall in love with. If you don't know who Chip was, you can read about him here and here.

Josh & Julissa (especially Julissa) have been wanting a dog but thought it was best to wait until they moved to their new house. Now that they are all settled in, they figured the time was right. They brought Sparten home about two weeks ago and we have all been getting to know him. He is in that adorable puppy stage and is cuteness through and through.

When I say that we all fell in love with him, that is not quite true. Josh and Julissa were anxious for their nieces and nephews to meet him and while the nieces adore him (well maybe not Hannah but she was pretty brave about him) the nephews are not so sure about  Sparten. I took Awstin to meet him the first Wednesday that they had him and he didn't even want to get out of the car. When I finally did persuade him to exit the car, he refused to go into the garage where Sparten was and when Julissa picked him up to bring him closer, Awstin ran away. Mark was not much better when he was introduced to him and cried whenever Sparten got too close to him.

Jay & Kristen's children met Sparten for the first time on Saturday. I was keeping them while Jay & Kristen went to a wedding and I invited Awstin to join us too. Jay wanted his children to meet Sparten, so Josh (Julissa was working) brought him along with him while he worked in the shop for a couple hours. Sparten was thrilled to have little children to play with and couldn't contain his excitement over his new playmates. He ran circles around them and his little tail wagged happily. Alexis & Lydia had a wonderful time with him. The boys eyed him warily and preferred to stay on their tricycles where they felt a little safer. Sparten thought the trikes looked like great fun and would run after them which upset the boys. Hannah did pretty good with him, but when Sparten knocked her over in his exuberance she wasn't too pleased. However, she wasn't really scared of him just a little uncertain. Eventually, Sparten left the tricycles alone and the boys got a little bolder around him. Julissa wanted some pictures and video of the children and Sparten playing together so I did my best. Here is my documentation of the children and dog playdate.

The girls loved him...

...although Hannah wasn't too pleased when Sparten tried to lick her face.

Peek-a-boo

Sitting on Josh's lap taking a breather.

Excited puppy.

"Hey! He licked me!"

Sparten steals the chocolate chip cookie container.

Just playing around

Fetch!

It feels good to have a dog in the family again. Obviously, he is not my dog and doesn't live here so it won't be like when Chip lived with us, but I'm sure that I will see him often and he is always welcome. I have the feeling that Mark and Awstin will learn to like him too.