Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Waiting for Santa

No, not yet, big girl...6 more days...


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Bella says...What's all this white stuff?

I woke up last Thursday morning, and it was cooooold. And then all this white stuff started falling from the sky. What was that all about? By the time my mom got home from work, our house looked like this:


So we all went outside to play! I had a great time! The white stuff was a little cold on my paws and my nose, but it tasted pretty good and I had a lot of fun hopping around in it.



Dad made some snowballs and tossed them my way. I tried to fetch them, but it didn't really work. I like snow!


But you know what I liked the most? Curling up in front of the warm crackly-bright thing and snoozing afterward. Did I mention I get my own stocking? See - it says Bella! Mom says Santa Paws is coming to visit soon and bring me some toys. I can't wait! Happy Howl-idays to everyone!


Sunday, December 2, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bella celebrated her first Thanksgiving in style - she was allowed to come with us to B's parents' house for the family turkey extravaganza. There were about 24 people there, and Bella was a great girl! She had such a good day - she was calm, happy, and laid-back almost the entire time, which we thought was pretty great for a 3-month-old puppy. She especially liked to run around outside and play with the leaves.


("Are we there yet?")






We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

A Week in Pictures

Okay, maybe it's been more than a week. But here are some more photos of Bella.
You may recall Bella's floppy ears - her vet urged us to tape them for health reasons (he said her floppiness could cause cartilage problems as she got older, plus she was having ear infections that may have been related to the flop), so we did. After a week of the lovely chin-strap look, here's what we have - ta-da! Natural-floppy-eared Bella once again. She was SO happy when we took it off that she ran around the house shaking her head and watching her own ears flop for a good ten minutes straight. It was great.

Please, please ignore the person holding Bella. I look terrible. I mean, that's not me, the person holding Bella looks terrible...

She looooves her crate. And making her ears flop. And Mr. Monkey.

Weekly Weigh-In! Drumroll, please....48 pounds! For real! Large Marge, she is.


Oh, and here's B., our very own Dog Whisperer. We're also trying not to flunk the "sit" portion of Puppy Obedience (which, by the way, is going awesomely well).

Goodbye for now, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Bella says...I'm 3 months old today!

It's another reason to celebrate - today I turned 3 months old! I was born on August 8, 2007 (I'll be a year old on 8/8/08 - kinda funny, huh?). Here are some pictures of me from the first time my mom and dad met me, and some from now when I'm bigger. I was only 21 days old the day we met for the first time. I'm a lot bigger now, and much more mature. (Ha ha - that's a funny one!) I knew that I liked mom's lap back then, even though at the time, none of us knew we'd be a family someday. I don't really fit in her lap as well as I used to, but that's okay. I don't mind, and neither does she.

That's my sister trying to crawl up dad's shorts. It was pretty funny.


I crawled right into mom's lap and fell asleep. I might have snored then, too.


Here I am taking a snooze in my bed the first night at home...and now...
Speaking of snoozing, it's nap time. See you later!


Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Professional Snuggler

Bella is a part-time professional snuggler. Here are a few pictures of her at 12.5 weeks in snuggle-mode. She's up to a whopping 38 pounds now, which makes fitting into laps a little more challenging (but she doesn't let that stop her)!





("Hi up there, mom!")




("Can we please go to bed now?")

Monday, November 5, 2007

Football with Dad

On Sunday night I got to stay up and watch football with dad. It was really funny watching those big men run around chasing that little ball. It looks like the stuff I do with my toys! We did more playing than watching TV, though...





I love hugs!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Happy HOWL-oween!

Wednesday was Bella's first Halloween! The costume didn't exactly work out (I'd gotten a little set of orange pigtails with slots for her ears to poke through, but she's too big for it already! It wouldn't even velcro under her chin!) but that was okay - Bella and B weren't thrilled with the idea anyway. We did, however, get her a Haloween treat that she seemed to enjoy much more...





("Mom - seriously? Again with the camera?")

And after a long night of handing out candy and licking trick-or-treaters, there was only one casualty...

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Mischief

Sometimes Bella likes to create a little mischief around the house, just to keep us on our toes.

Saturday was a gorgeous day - warm and sunny, so we opened up the house to let in some fresh air. Bella was especially fond of the screen door, since she was able to better see, hear and smell what was going on outside. So she stood by the door, watching the people working in their yards and listening to the other dogs in the neighborhood...


And then she had enough and decided to be cute, lying in the sun chewing on her favorite frisbee...


And then, just when we thought she wasn't moving, and decided to do something other than give her our undivided attention for five seconds, we come back to this:


Someone had figured out how to slide open the screen door. Little turkey!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Bella says...I'm 11 weeks today!

Hi again! I'm 11 weeks old today! I'm getting much taller, and I weigh 26 pounds (or at least I did on Sunday) - that's 10 pounds in 4 weeks! Here are some pictures of what I've been up to lately. I love to hang out with my mom and dad, and I especially like belly rubs. I always have to know what's going on in the house, too. Luckily, I'm big enough now to see over the gate they put up, so I always know what's happening.









Hey - is that food I hear? Gotta go! See you later!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Ear ye, ear ye - an update

Thanks to Carol (as always - you're the best!) and Shannon, who sent us information on Bella's stray floppy ear. If anyone else out there reads this and wants more info, check out this link from Sixstar Danes breeder page (http://www.6stardanes.com/ears.html) or www.danesonline.com. From the other research we conducted, we found that it's also pretty common with other breeds (including German Shepherds and Yorkies) whose ears flop when teething, and usually go back to "normal" (whatever that is) once their adult teeth come in. Both of Bella's are flopping together now, so we've dubbed her "Origami Ears" for the time being. Taping is a solution, but we've decided just to see what happens, and if she grows up with ears in the Lotus position, then so be it. :-)

Bella got the in-house spa treatment this week! She had her first bath and got her first manicure - Carol, thanks for the tip on using a Dremel to do her nails! She really didn't mind too much, and she especially loved the bits of banana she got as a treat when it was all over. For more info on using a Dremel to do your dog's nails, head over to Gunther's page and look at the list on the right-hand side - there's a link to a great resource full of photos and tips.

I'll post some pictures tonight during her evening naptime. Have a great day, everybody!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Very Int"ear"esting

Here's something funny...we can't for the life of us figure out what's going on, so we need the advice of you smart, Dane-experienced people out there.

Here are Bella's ears at 9 weeks, last Wednesday:


Here are Bella's ears on Saturday:


And here are Bella's ears today at 10 weeks:


What's up with that right ear? It just started flopping over Monday night, for no apparent reason. She didn't take a tumble, it doesn't appear to be injured, she doesn't wince when we touch it. We even cleaned both ears last night thinking it may be irritated, but nope - just crooked. Any thoughts? Will it go back to flopping forward? Thanks, smart doggie people!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Life with Bella - Week Two

I swear, sometimes I think the girl grows overnight - she seems heavier when I pick her up to take her downstairs in the morning. I can't believe how fast she's growing.

Bella is starting to take on more of the typical Great Dane characteristics - her jaw is squaring up a bit, her ears have started to stand up (it's so funny), and when she's alert, she stands like a champion show dog - head up, chest out. Maybe now people won't mistake her for a Weimaraner on our walks. "No, she's a Great Dane," we say. And the number one response we get is, "Wow! Are you sure?" Yup, we're sure. ;-)

She's been getting better about her leash this week - less chewing, more walking. Housebreaking is coming along, too - we realized that we'd mistakenly taken on the "weekend" mentality. Humans break out of their Monday-Friday routine, so why not her, too? We found out quickly - breaking out of the routine = lots of accidents. We've learned our lesson, gotten more in tune to her schedule & her signals, and we've all been doing much better this week.

We'll post more pictures soon!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bella says...It's my birthday!

Well, sort of. I'm 9 weeks old today! I weigh 20 pounds, and I'm growing so fast! My vet says I'm going to be a big girl when I grow up.


I got a present on Monday from some nice ladies that mom works with - she says they like to look at pictures of me and hear how I'm doing. I like them already! Thanks for my present - mom and I have been learning to play fetch with my new tennis ball.
So far, some of my favorite things to do are eat, sleep, play, eat some more, play and sleep. Oh, and snore. I like to go for walks and to go watch my dad play soccer. I love vanilla yogurt and bananas (my mom hides my vitamins in there; she thinks I don't notice, but I play along to make her happy).
It's time for me to go play now. Arrrf - I mean, I'll see you later!