Well, it happened - two weeks and one day after the discovery, Walker finally lost his first tooth.
He's so grown up!
He was outside helping Erik cut firewood and said to Erik, "Hey dad, look at this!" and he proceeded to push his tooth out with his tongue onto his bottom lip. Erik responded with, "Well, if you can do that, it's time to pull it." He grabbed the tooth, and it came right out. Walker is very proud to have lost a tooth and was very excited to find what the tooth fairy would bring him. (she brought him a note about brushing his teeth and how proud that he was cavity free - and three dollars in quarters).
To celebrate, I decided to take Walker out on a date - we had to run an errand to Sam's club first, then ate at one of Walker's new favorite restaurants - Long John Silvers. He was very concerned about eating without his tooth, but I convinced him that it was easy - just like eating with a tooth. He really enjoyed his fish and I even allowed him to have Dr. Pepper with his meal. He told me, "It tastes just like Dad's Cherry Coke."
After our glamourous fish dinner, we went to the Mall cinema to see "Marley and Me." Walker found all of the dog shenannigans very comical and I loved hearing his little laughs. For those of you who have not seen the movie and don't want to know the end, stop reading now. At the end of the movie, when Marley is in the vet's office and John is preparing to put him down, Walker began to understand that something was wrong with Marley, and asked me about what was going on - I told him that Marley was very sick and the Doctor was going to try to make him better. He didn't say anything more until the part where the family is saying goodbye to Marley at the gravesite - then he looked at me with tears welling in his eyes, "Momma? Is Marley dead?" As I nodded yes, crocodile tears dripped from his big brown eyes. I felt horrible taking him to see that movie, but as we gathered our stuff to leave, he reassured me that Marley had had a great life and just like our dogs, Marley's family loved him very much, and maybe they could get a puppy now. I told him that I thought since they loved dogs so much they probably got a new puppy too and that really made him happy.
His favorite part of the movie? The fact that Marley got to sleep in bed with one of the boys. It was a 15 second scene. Think he's trying to tell me something? We've tried having our dogs inside. Chloe is too jittery, she prances and follows you everywhere and is always under MY feet. Maverick likes to be inside to sleep, but is getting older and with his hip dysplasia, he is wary of the kids climbing on him while he sleeps. He has never nipped at the children, but I don't want to put him in the position where he injures one of the children because he is reacting to them hurting him accidentally. Rocco - well, get real! He's GINORMOUS and would not be content in the house. Plus, his barking drives me nuts from outside - how would I deal with it in the house? Dudley has been adopted by a neighboring family - he comes home occasionally, but really prefers their house - they have pre-teen aged children that play with him daily. Plus, I think they do allow him in the house all the time! This is sad for Erik, but he has always said he doesn't want a dog that doesn't want him. Dudley is an affection and attention seeker, and really resents the fact he has so many others vying for his attention. He is better off where he can be played with more regularly and be the only dog being paid attention. So that's our dog story. I'm sure a puppy will be in our future as the kids get older and can take more care of it. We'd love to rescue a dog, but because we do allow our dogs to live outside, we doubt we will be selected as an appropriate candidate.
Our next dog I would prefer something smaller than what we have now. A welsh-corgi comes to mind, but I'm open to suggestions.
