Happy 8 Month Birthday!

8 Things for 8 Months

1.  He gets so excited when I rotate his toys and he gets to play with a toy he hasn't seen in a little while.  He acts like it is a brand new toy.
2.  He loves to rest his head on things: the coffee table, the bed, the couch, a chair, the window sill.  Even if it is below head height he will lower his neck and stand really awkwardly so he can rest his head on it.
3.  He wakes me up by coming to cuddle on the bed in the morning.
4.  He seems to enjoy riding in the car now.
5.  He has been settling down by himself in the evenings this past week
6.  He realized he could slide on the wood floors at my parents house, so now he will be playing with a toy and then run and slide with his front feet until he is laying down all sprawled out on the floor.
7.  He loves to play...all the time.
8. He has the best facial expressions, and really shows his emotions.

For his 8 month birthday I got him this interactive toy called the Dog Tornado.

It is a bone shaped toy that has little compartments for food and there are three levels that rotate and block the compartments of the level below.  The dog has to rotate each level to uncover the food in the levels below.  I gave it to Levi a little before his birthday so he could use it while we've been at home this week.  He caught on really quickly and has gotten better each time we've used it.  There are different ways that you can make it harder when it gets too easy for them so hopefully it should provide some mental work for him for a little while.  I somehow deleted the video off my camera that I took of Levi using it so it'll be a couple days before I post a video of it.

Today was a cold rainy day so we weren't able to go for a walk.  Instead we played a long game of hide-and-seek inside.  I was impressed with how well Levi did at "finding" me.  I even used some of my best hiding spots and he found me like it was no problem.  It just amazes me how smart he is!

Tomorrow morning we drive home to Davis but then we'll be back home for Christmas break in only 2 weeks.  I just have to make it through a week of classes and 3 days of finals!

Levi at Home

Levi and I have been going for long walks pretty much every day since we've been home and it is amazing what a difference it makes when he gets a good walk during the day.  He has been so well behaved in the evenings lately, and has been settling down all by himself.  This is something that he has still been learning how to do so it was so nice the other evening when we were watching a movie and he just laid down and slept the whole time.  It probably also helps that he is awake all day playing with various family members or following us around rather than sleeping most of the day.

Some of our recent walks while we've been at home have included a walk around the Atascadero Lake and several walks around downtown Atascadero and the Sunken Gardens which is a grassy area with a fountain in the middle and paths around the outside.  It's not anywhere near as nice as walking in Davis, but we find places to go.

Atascadero Lake

Sunken Gardens

Happy Thanksgiving!

Levi has been quite busy helping mom prepare the turkey.

He got bored though when she wouldn't let him do anything.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  

from me and Levi

Visiting Cal Poly

Today Levi and I went for a walk around Cal Poly with my mom.

"Levi, give kisses later, we're supposed to be taking a picture."

That's better

Mom twisted her ankle shortly into the walk so we walked her back to her office and then Levi and I kept going.  It is so flat in Davis so it was nice to get to go up a few hills at Cal Poly. We walked up the big hill to the horse unit where I spent MANY hours in undergrad.  There I got to go say hi to my favorite stud "Einstein" that I used to take care of.  I pointed out "Herdsman Hall" to him which is an on-campus house that I lived in for a year when I worked at the horse unit.   

Then we headed back down the hill and walked by the baseball and softball fields.  One time while living at "Herdsman" (as it was referred to) I was walking Kobe by the baseball fields and I found a soft baseball that I guess they use for batting practice.  That ball ended up being one of Kobe's favorite toys.  He loved to just lay and chew on it since it was soft enough that he could squish it but gave more resistance than a tennis ball. 

We didn't find any baseballs today, but we did get to go down to the intramural baseball fields where Levi got to run around off-leash which he really loved!

That was the end of our outing for today.  Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving Break

Bringing the holiday cheer to our house is this adorable little reindeer on the left.  These were Kobe's antlers (on the right) that I found when unpacking my Christmas stuff.  (I know it's not Christmas yet but we only get to spend a week and a half in our Davis house after Thanksgiving so we started decorating early so it would be Christmas-y when we got back from Thanksgiving break).

(Levi 7.5 months old, Kobe 8 months old)

Levi, Gypsy, and I made the journey home to Templeton on Sunday and we get to stay for a whole week!   We do miss our beautiful green belt when we're at home, but we find places to walk here.

Yesterday my dad got home from a business trip and guess what he brought home for Levi?  A souvenir!  Read the story about souvenirs here.  It is a cute stuffed lion that he got when he was in Washington.  Levi has really been enjoying it.

 

Study Break

Last week after our Pathology exam a few of us went to lunch at Dos Coyotes, a mexican restaurant in Davis.  I had Levi with me at school that day so he got to come along.  He did great and just laid next to the table (although he did try to eat one of the plants on the patio).  :-)

This Sunday we are headed back home to Templeton for a whole week break!

Levi's a Calendar Model

As a fundraiser last year for my vet school class our vice presidents came up with the idea of making a calendar with our pets' photos and selling them to our family and friends.  This year they expanded it so they accepted photos from the first and third year classes as well (in hopes that it would sell more calendars).  This meant that each vet school class would get 4 big pictures in the calendar.

Last year I entered a puppy picture that I had of Kobe, but it just got a small picture at the bottom of one of the months.  We didn't have a digital camera back when he was a puppy so I had to scan the photo.  There were a couple pictures that I liked better but they had dates on the front so I couldn't enter them.  Here was Kobe's calendar picture in January of last year's calendar.

This year I wanted to find a picture of Levi that I thought could win a full size picture in the calendar.  I finally picked one from my puppy visit when the puppies were 6 weeks old.  It is of Ronan on the left (purple boy at the time) and Levi on the right.  My mom and sister got to come meet the puppies for the first time this day, and my sister took this photo.

It turns out that the judges thought that they were cute too and they picked them to have one of the "month" pictures.  I might end up leaving the calendar on Levi's month the whole year. :-)

A Thanksgiving Surprise on Our Walk

On our evening walk Saturday through the green belt we came across a huge flock of wild turkeys.  There were over 20 of them! 

They let us get pretty close but then most of them flew up into the trees.  Levi thought they were pretty exciting.