Wiley had to deal with a lot of newness over the holiday, from a houseful of overnight guests to piles of tempting presents with tempting tissue paper just begging to be eaten. However, the thing I was most anxious about was him meeting Carrie and her family for the first time.
I've talked about Carrie before on the blog; our friendship began in 3rd grade and still remains today as one of the things I cherish most in my life. However, given that she and her family spend a significant amount of time overseas doing missionary work, our times together are too few and far between.
Not only that, but it's not too easy to load a family of 7, with children aged 1 year to 14 years, into the van for a trip to Aunt Mara's house. Therefore, once we settled on a date we thought would work, I began to stress myself out over so many things. Would they see the sweet Wiley I see and love and blather on and on about, or a wild neurotic Wiley who would drive them crazy?
Moreover, how the heck would Wiley respond to a house full of kids, Thomas, Maggie, Scoty, Georgia Kate, and a BABY, Charlie Jo? He's never even seen one before. The youngest child he's been around was 4. Now we were going to introduce a baby who has recently become quite ambulatory in that goofy toddling way, who isn't entirely used to dogs, and who would be competing for attention with him.
Oh, and did I mention she had open-heart surgery when she was born? She is a healthy robust child now, but that doesn't mean the adults in her life can let go of that over-protectiveness that accompanies a sick child.
Well, in case you couldn't tell from the pictures, it went really well. I guess God wanted this get-together to go as smoothly as we did.
Wiley always has to get his ball when any company arrives.
That way he can both have it in his mouth as a comfort and pester the guests to throw it for him at the same time. Of course, I hadn't anticipated little Charlie Jo wanting to get her hands on the balls too.
Imagine my surprise that Wiley was kind enough to share! He was very gentle with Charlie, and if she took one of his balls he went and got another.
I never would have predicted he would have handled her this way. In fact, in the picture below you can see that she is sitting on the floor playing with the ball, and he is walking away from her!
Usually when anyone sits on the floor he is completely fascinated and climbs all over them, but not with Charlie. He just took a different ball and went elsewhere. In this case to the next person he thought he could con into throwing it for him.
I was amazed that he wasn't even jealous when Chad held Charlie. Usually we can't hug or hold anyone.
Wiley just went about business as usual.
Overall I'm comfortable calling the day a success! Now, what did Charlie Jo think? Well, she has a favorite face she likes to make, called her "snooty face." Here you can see her and Uncle Chad snooting at each other.
I hope that's not indicative of how she felt the day went. Ahh, just look at them. They are way too cute not to be having fun.
Just in case you had any doubt, click on the picture below to watch an adorable video of Charlie and Wiley trying to come to an agreement about whose turn it is to have the balls.
I have a new batch of your rescue stories to get started on, so if you've been waiting to share your pets' story with me now is a great time. Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com, and don't forget to check out the blog on social media.
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