Pics: 2011

 

Continued from “Pics: 2007-2010”

February 23, 2011: “Stand and be counted!”

As you can easily see, 99% of the pictures I’ve taken of Shayna are of her sitting, laying down, or doing something that puts her torso parallel to the ground. But few people have ever seen just how tall she is when she stands on her hind legs, as she does every time we visit the neighborhood pet supply store, and especially when she sees that Irene is behind the register (right). Regardless of who’s working, she knows that if she stands up on the counter, she’ll get a treat.

Now, the real size of my 75 lb monster can be seen from a very different perspective (click to enlarge):

 

Christmas 2011

This Christmas season holds special significance to me for three reasons: (1) Shayna is about to turn 10 years old on January 7; (2) Within a few days, I will have completed the first manuscript of the book I’m writing about our life together; (3) on April 7, we celebrate our 10th anniversary together. So I am being extra-nostalgic, and will probably be taking more pictures and videos than normal over the coming days and weeks.

Shayna’s Christmas Eve bath

As has become tradition now (see the pictures at the bottom of the page here), Shayna gets a bath on Christmas Eve. At first, she hates it… but then, about 90% of the way through, after she’s rinsed off and I’m giving her the blow-dry, she has this huge grin (left), as if to say… “Wow, you know what, Dad? This feels kinda-sorta… great!!!” And at right, after she was mostly dry, we went to a nearby playground so she could show off her shiny new coat, and play with her beloved tennis ball on the playpen.

Christmas morning

If you’ve explored our photos, you know that Santa Claus is very, very good to Shayna at Christmas. And this year was no different. She got a variety of toys and goodies and other things, as usual.

Shayna asking, “What’d Santa bring for me?”

One of Shayna’s new toys, “Porcupine”:

The day after Christmas

Shayna displaying the “wave” that she’s mastered: