Puppy Natalie

To say Natalie loves dogs would be the biggest understatement I have ever uttered. She is obsessed. I thought it would pass, as her first word was 'doggy' (consistently saying that and 'kitty' before calling Matt and I momma and daddy), but her love for canines has not waned. It has grown. To see a dog and not pet it is the start of a world class meltdown. She waves her arms in front of her like she is petting a dog and says 'To pet? Puppy! To pet?'. She unlocks our backdoor and runs out to play with the neighbor dogs(ya, that's made life fun). One in particular, a Great Dane named Arthur is her best friend, even though he is like 3x bigger than her and has accidentally mauled her several times (he's still a puppy, and he's huge). 

Her latest is acting like a puppy. She'll fetch things off floors, eat out of bowls on the ground and lick everything in sight. It's pretty cute. Unhygienic and crazy, yes, but cute(picking up balloon sticks off the Old Navy floor or crawling behind the toilet at restaurants comes to mind). She doesn't really know how to crawl like a puppy, she shoots her arms forward at the same time then drags her knees behind her, more like a gallop. 

She needs a puppy. I need my sanity. It's a constant battle in my head.

She has also take to training us as dogs, and anyone what will play puppy with her. She pats our heads, and scratches under our chins then commands 'Sit!' 'Shake!' 'Down!' all rewarded with 'Good puppy!' and more head pats.