As I type this, I have a little (rambunctious!) puppy curled up in my lap, chewing on the fringe of my blanket! Our little Rosie joined our family last week, and honestly our world has been turned upside down but in all good ways. There is nothing more FUN than seeing this little face every day. And yes, she is crazy - oh how her personality is coming out! This pup knows how to play. But no matter what she does, she is probably the cutest puppy I have ever ever ever eveeeer seen and I love her so much.

We had wanted a puppy for a long time, and it was never really a discussion to explore other breeds than a golden retriever. We were attracted by their cheerfulness, high activity levels, sociability and chillness (is that a word?). Rosie is the chillest dog! But she certainly has her crazy, insane moments. When we continually struck out at local breeders, we had in a sense given up, accepting that another time would be better. We knew we wanted a pup in the summer, to help her train outside and such. When we went to LBI this summer, we met many salty dogs (!!) and one of the dogs we met was a golden named Louie. We spoke with their owners who gave us more ideas on where to search. My mom actually found the breeder where we got Rosie, and the rest is history. Who knew it would be such a serendipitous moment!

When Rosie was plopped into my hands, with her floppy ears and clumsy legs, I fell in love. So did S! And here we are, with our little nugget. We know she will grow so fast, too too fast. But her sweetness is eternal and I already love her so much. Her being here is the best for us, and her addition to our home is the best decision we could have ever made!

Littlest Tidbits About Our Rosie (at 8 weeks)

• Rosie loves to lounge on the dark new ceramic tile kitchen floor. It was cool on her little body! We got her during the week of the summer’s worst heat wave - for three or four days straight, it felt like it was over 100 degrees. She was a champ, but that kitchen floor was her place to cool down!

• She weighed in this week at 8.6 lbs. :)

• She has a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with her collar and leash. Hopefully she gets used to the leash soon because she is getting VERY comfortable and confident around the yard!

• She loves to be held :)

• When I hold her, I scoop her up and she makes the sweetest noise. I can’t quite explain what it is - like a faint murmuring suckling, in between a whimper and content breathing. It is so quiet and sweet.

• Her hiccups are the absolute cutest, and she gets them all the time. After sleeping, after eating, just running around….

• She loved to hang out under the coffee table, where it is nice and enclosed. Honeycomb hideout!

• We do this little game to tucker her out, which I call yipee/yummy/yahoo. I just horse around with her, basically, in a playful way, and she gets right on her back and kicks her little legs up!

• I just dabbed her down with a cold towel to give her sort of a sponge bath - oh my goodness, she LOVED that!

• She likes to sniff out (and try to eat!) dead bugs.

• Her favorite toy is her little fox squeaker, Rusty!

• She has met ALL of our family members and 2 out of the 3 family dogs, and she was a star. She is everyone’s newest best friend. And she was so chilled out, even blasé, around the dogs. The dogs (Scout and Georgia) were more nervous than she was! Even at the vet this week, she met many dogs, and was so good around them all.