Papa Bear has been gone for the last seven days. He traveled far away across the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Germany. The second he walked into the house in his wool Bavarian Alpine hat they ran to greet him.  Welcome home Papa Bear! We all missed you!

He looked down at the dogs and said that in one week their legs had grown longer and their heads larger. For me, being around them all day every day, it is hard to see the changes. When I look back at pictures from their early puppy days they look so small. That stage did not last very long. I keep thinking that if these dogs are this big at 5 months old, how big are they going to get? They are already huge! If Summer wanted it to (though she is not allowed) she could put both front paws on the kitchen counter and look like she is standing there doing the dishes. When Koda sits up on the sofa and my daughter walks into the room, he turns his head in her direction. She says he looks like a person watching tv. These dogs are like two extra people living in our house. What happened to our little puppies? I must have stared too often at the pictures from the breeder of them as tiny puppies. These long legged tall fluffy dogs with the dripping beards are different that the teeny weenie babies in the pictures. Of course I knew they would grow, but this fast and this tall? It makes me laugh thinking how bad I am at estimating sizes, like the chandelier I ordered but had to send back because of how giant it was. Far too large for the area above my bathtub. Size on the computer screen can be decieving. It was hard to tell from the picture on the screen, but I am starting to think Summer and Koda’s birth father was a very tall standard poodle. These Aussiedoodles are big dogs!

Their soft furry coats and playful antics remind me that, yes, they are still puppies. Puppies in dog bodies. I am glad Papa Bear was not gone any longer than a week or he would not have recognized them.  Welcome home!