We're Baaaaaaack! Ruff!

Hi!

     Boyohboyohboyohboy!! It's been realllly long since we wrote...my first Christmas and my first snow and my first winter vacation trip to Cape Cod and my first visit to Newport took up so much time! I read so many fun Christmas books with Allison and Rachel (including A Dog's Twas the Night Before Christmas) that I just couldn't pick which ones to share with you, my dear readers. Maybe by next year I'll have a list, rrruff! Oh oh oh! And Happy New Year!!!!! 

See? Here I am on my very first real snowy day! What was all that fluffy, wet white stuff? It fell from the sky and then it stuck to my paws and beard when I romped around. Definitely fun to practice being a snow-wolf, tracking icy pawprints and licking up the occasionally tongueful.

     Anyway, Allison just started taking a new class at school about kids' books. Her teacher gave her this big list of illustrators to check out. So I decided that we should do some of those books for our next entries! Woof! (Okayokay, Allison - that silly human - bribed me with biscuits...bacon-flavored...mmm...for me to help her with her schoolwork.)

      Let's arooooooooooooooo do it! After a cheerful day spent watching Allison and Jacob-Baby paint pictures with their fingers and play with noisy trucks, I am ready for action.

      Here's our first one:

   Meet...the Boss Baby.

This comical picturebook written and illustrated by Marla Frazee revolves around a little human-pup with a gigantic attitude. The title page sets a movie-like tone, the baby (dressed in what Allison calls a "business suit") glaring at his watch beneath a script pronouncing him the book's "star." The two-toothed baby arrives by taxi and soon is making demands - "many, many demands" -  of his "worker" parents. As the author-lady shows the funny similarities between the baby and a high-maintenance business human (his "spa" is a baby-sized bathtub), his parents get more and more tired trying to keep up. (Apparently this human-pup doesn't want to slow down and have a snuggle, silly silly!!)

Overall, I like the pictures, especially the baby's expressions and the details that show that the baby is just a baby (he just THINKS he's the boss). Other interesting details: the setting, clothes, and hairstyles depicted are from the 1950s, according to Allison, and the use of background lines give a sense of movement and energy. I agree about the energy - this book feels fast and busy. Just like the boss baby, who constantly wants attention! Arooooooo! Two up and a tail wag for this one, and great for small human-pups and their own tired parents (whom Allison says will appreciate the truth inherent in the book).

I'm falling asleep on Allison's foot now, so I guess we'll write some more later.

Maybe I can boss my humans around a bit...get a few extra cookies?

Maybe it'd be better to say please and look cute...

Sam I Am 

Salty Dog: Sam I Am Sees the Shining Sea

Hi!

     Today was a slow, lazy day. I did get to see Jacob for a bit this morning - and Jesse! You see, my humans and I missed him yesterday. He couldn't come over to play because he had to go get his human-pup shots. Arrooo! Not very fun! I was kind of worried about him (and I missed the little man), so I was glad to go say hi. We bounded around his yard for awhile, Jacob showed us his new swing set, and then Allison and Suz finally got to give him his birthday present. Jacob-baby's birthday was July 2, and now he's three years old. I hope that means he'll want to play three times as much! Ruff!

     Yesterday was my own almost-half birthday. I am now officially five months old! Allison says that I'm still a baby, her baby puppy, but I felt very excited anyways. To celebrate, my humans took me to a place called Jamestown...and I saw The Ocean. All of a sudden we pull up to this tall tower with a light on top. The light shone through the fog and onto a HUGE bunch of water. And the smells, oh the smells! Salty, misty, scratched-rock smells! Allison let me tug her all over these giagantic rocks, chasing after white, shrill birds Allison calls "gulls" or "sea chickens" and peering into dark and foamy water. I LOVED it!

Allison and I at Beavertail in Jamestown, RI.

A Wauzer enchanted by ocean waters! I love exploring!

Adventures on the rocks can get ruff. I had to stop to pant.

     Anyway, with my adventures through the fog and over ocean-wet rocks fresh in my puppy memory, Allison and I decided to read a book about another person's seaside adventure. This one also involves very little human-pup in honor of Jacob's birthday...

One of Suz's favorite books, Baby Boat by Betty Waterton, illustrated by Joanne Fitzgerald, tells the story of one woman's discovery by the sea. Sitting on the steps of the lighthouse where she lives, Mrs. Figg moans that she misses her babies (her human-pups are all grown up). So when she goes down to the shore and finds a boat full of human-pups, she happily spends the day taking care of them - with often comical results! You never know what you might find near the ocean, and Mrs. Figg finds both adventure and chaos! Finally the grown-up humans come to retrieve their pups and all ends well. Even Mrs. Figg smiles as they depart, sure of a friendship that will last. Best for little human pups up to kindergarten or second grade age, I give this book two paws up. The story is very special, and the gentle-colored illustrations (the human-pups going wild in the lighthouse's control room is my favorite) cleverly highlight the babies' mischief! It just goes to show that life is full of surprises, and that sometimes our wishes come true in funny ways! Woof!

  I'm off to dream of the sea (Allison promised me we would have more ocean adventures soon!) and of meeting more friends of the little human-pup sort. Good-night! Arooo!

With Oceans of Excitement,

Sam I Am

 

Of Human Pups and New Friends

Hi!

     Bow-WOW! Another tongue-lolling day outside! I just got back from a walk around the neighborhood with Allison, but now I think it's time to relax a bit. I've been thinking a lot about human-pups lately; I think they call them "babies." Every Friday morning my humans get up early to greet a human-pup called "Jacob-Baby," and everybody runs around calling his name. 

Here's Jacob.

       Well, when I first met Jacob I wasn't too sure about him. I was afraid my humans wouldn't remember me with the human pup in the house!  

I was even littler than I am now, and I stuck close to Allison at first.

      Once I got my courage up, I decided to show this new person I wanted to play. So I jumped up and up and up and licked his face. Then he started to yell, and I didn't understand.    

    

"You can't jump on Jacob," Rachel and Allison told me. "He's just a baby; you're scaring him!"

     

     This made me kind of sad. Why wouldn't he play with me? For awhile I stayed with Allison while Suz and Rachel played with Jacob. The Friday after that, my humans took Jacob and me to the park with the animals. I sniffed around and chased bugs, and Jacob went to go say hi to the emus (They smelled like yummy chicken to me, but Allison told me that I couldn't eat them.).

     Anyway, this past Friday Jacob came over, and my humans decided we could both play outside. Jacob made funny roaring noises at the big trucks across the street. I galloped back and forth hunting for squirrels. Then a wonderful thing happened! Allison sat down on the porch steps, and both Jacob and I wandered over to sit down next to her. I gave him a tentative lick, and to my delight, he gave me a snuggle and let me give him kisses! 

    "SCHNAUZAH!" he said. "Funny SamIAm!"

My humans think it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

      To help me understand better about babies, Allison read me a book called McDuff and the Baby by Rosemary Wells, illustrated by Susan Jeffers. It's about a little white dog (reminds me of my Westie dad!) who has a wonderful life with his humans - until a baby shows up and changes everything! The baby keeps everyone so busy that they don't have as much time for McDuff. Eventually McDuff's humans realize that McDuff feels sad and start doing things as a family.

     The ending shows McDuff and the baby starting to become friends - in a way that will make most little readers laugh. This Rosemary Wells human has written a great story about a tough life change and the bonds between family members. Making a change, meeting someone new, and sharing can be pretty hard. But making a new friend is worth it!

    Allison says that Susan Jeffers' illustrations are her favorite part of the book. She especially likes the page that shows McDuff's squinty-eyed glare at the happy, uncaring baby. McDuff is a lovable, fiesty canine character as depicted, and what Allison calls the "period" details (the radio, the humans' clothing, the cars, and even the wallpaper/furniture patterns) make the book interesting for parents as well as human-pups from babyhood on. 

    All in all, I liked McDuff and the Baby and give it two paws up. Allison told me we can read more of the McDuff books, like McDuff Moves In, McDuff Saves the Day, and McDuff Comes Home (and more!). Clearly this author is an animal lover (Allison says she also writes the Max bunny books), so I am a fan! RUFF!

  Rosemary Wells with a real-life McDuff dog!

     Well, I'm off to do some serious napping. Weather like this demands a cozy snooze under a kitchen chair. What can I say? All this learning makes a pup want to snuggle up!

                                                        Yours in babies & snuggles,

                                                                                 Sam I Am