What do you want for your birthday, Mikey?

Last week we asked Mikey what he wanted for his birthday. He responded, "Presents!" (DUH! on us, I guess...) We did try to press him for something more ... descriptive. He finally said, "Foxy."

Foxy is Aunt Evie's dog - she's a chocolate Labrador retriever. We are planning to have the bounce house for the birthday, and dog claws and bounce house material are not - compatible. So we asked Aunt Evie to come over a week ahead of time, with Foxy. (Foxy lives in the condo - she has a small side patio but no yard and she loves Grandma's yard.)

So Foxy came over mid-day, and she chased Mikey all around the yard. I did some bubbles, but neither the dog nor the boy were interested. (However, David came out and chased bubbles for a good half hour!) We did get him to throw the ball to her a bit - she retrieves (she's a retriever, remember?) and you have to tell her to "Drop it" or she keeps the ball (or whatever) in her mouth.

Foxy loves water - later we got out squirt guns. The boys actually squirted each other - then both of them squirted the dog. The dog - who loves water - did not like this, so we stopped. Except David, who is hesitant around the dog, did use the squirt gun not to squirt her, but to get her to leave him alone.

Mikey went inside for a while to play on the computer, and came back out later. However, he had tired the dog out ... so they didn't play too much. We did try to get Foxy to give Mikey kisses before she left; Mikey would put his face forward but shy away and giggle before the actual kiss took place ...

We think he enjoyed his early present.

Mikey and Foxy

Earlier this week (I was at the boys' house, math tutoring), as I went to leave, Mom said, "Wait! I have something for Aunt Evie." It turns out that Mikey made a likeness of Foxy! in ceramics. He said it was Foxy and it was for Aunt Evie! The likeness was astonishingly good (if I can figure out how to post a pic, I will).

As it happened Evie was on the list of "to-do"s that day. She took off the bubble wrap, her curiosity piqued. I had already explained that it was a gift from Mikey. When she saw it, she gasped, "Foxy? He made FOXY?" and she was near tears. Even the stolid Uncle Jim was impressed.