SUYL: Marley Phoenix

Anyone remember this little guy?

His name is Marley and every now and then I like to mention him because he was in fact our first born baby...our "practice" baby if you will. I got him one month before I met Ryan so it's like he has always been our baby. We did everything with Marley. Well, Marley did everything with us. He went on all trips that he could and if he couldn't he had very loving grandparents that would keep him. He is the sweetest little dog.

When I became pregnant I often wondered how Marley would do with a sibling. It was clear that Marley's world was going to be turned upside down, but I wasn't sure to what extent. He was so sweet during my entire pregnancy and even became my baby during those 9 months. He would lay with me and not his daddy which was a very rare occurance.

The day I had Wyatt we wrapped him up in a receiving blanket we had brought from home. That blanket soaked up all that newborn sweetness and we sent the blanket home with my parents who were keeping Marley until we came home from the hospital. Mom said Marley sniffed the blanket out of curiousity and ended up laying on it whenever he decided to lay down. I'm sure I cried over this when I heard about it.

When we brought Wyatt home Marley was there waiting for us...as soon as we set Wyatt down on the floor in his carseat to meet Marley his big brother eagerly ran up and gave him a big kiss on the mouth. It was seriously the sweetest thing. Minutes later when we got him on the couch I caught this on camera:

I then knew that Marley was going to be a great big brother.

As Wyatt gets older and much more curious about Marley you can see their little relationship blossoming. Wyatt gets so tickled at Marley and Marley...well, he tolerates Wyatt pulling on his ears and trying to eat him. Marley is never too far away from us when we are playing with the baby and still very willing to share some mouth kisses with Wyatt. I love our little dog...even if he is just that...a dog... and no longer our main love.