It's spring!  Hard to believe since there is still a big pile of dirty snow in the mall parking lot.  With the weather getting somewhat warmer, I've been able to hike up East Rock Park a few times in the last couple of weeks.  I took Murphy with me today and wore him out pretty good, so I thought this afternoon would be a good one to try something I haven't been brave enough to do for a while...take Murphy to the dog park.

Murphy running a lure course, 2009

Murphy has had a few bad dog park experiences, stemming, I believe, from the time about 3 years ago that he tried to play with a tiny jack russell puppy and the puppy's owner went berserk yelling that Murphy was attacking the little thing.  Ever since that time, Murphy has obsessed over puppies and small/anxious dogs.  Let me be clear, my dog is not aggressive and has never hurt another dog, but he plays rough and tries to pin anxious dogs to the ground while growling. This doesn't always go over well with the owners. 

I am always very attentive of Murphy around other dogs, correcting him if he even LOOKS at another dog the wrong way.  Today was wonderful, though.  The four dogs in the park took turns introducing themselves to Murphy, he had a few good games of chase, and then after about 5 minutes, we left.  Why?  I think it's important for him to leave with a positive experience...maybe that will make them more likely in the future.

So I noticed that I wore the same shirt today as I did in my post two weeks back.  Here's the side-by-side comparison:

14 Weeks

16 Weeks

I'm very excited that I can now say I'm four months pregnant.  When people ask how far along I am and I respond in weeks, I can always see their brains working to figure it out in months anyway.  And four months seems like a lot- almost halfway to term- yay! 

Arizona update:  it looks like we will be moving into a 3 bedroom house on the campus of Arizona Polytechnic in late June/early July.  It's not that pretty but it sure is very convenient, functional, and a bargain.

 Happy Belated Easter everybody!