First off... we'll apologize for the long pause between posts. It's all Thatcher's fault and that's all there is to say about that (that's my failsafe excuse).
Thatcher is now in his teenage years and has the attitude to prove it. He's become quite the little diva (since he's a boy would it be divo? Whatever.)
A couple of weeks ago I went to the commissary and bought a few items and I thought, "Oh... I better get Thatch some treats, he's almost out." Now, usually he eats puparoni treats, but this time I decided to get puparoni and ALSO get the doggy bacon strips. Let's just say that didn't go over too well. I fed him one bacon strip and he ate it because he thought it came from the puparoni bag... then i tried to feed him another one and the little brat turned his nose up at it, snorted, and walked off! Umm, excuse me!!! When you start paying the grocery bills THEN you can be picky, Thatcher.
Isn't is strange how over time you morph into your parents... it's almost a smooth transition and before you know it the transition is near completion and you're deciding it's appropriate to say things like, "Oh, you wanna cry?! I'll give you something to cry about!" ... yeah, I've said that to Thatcher on more than one occasion... so what!? Is this a foreshadowing of my "real" parenting abilities when I have children without fur?! Dear Jesus... help me!
And speaking of teenage years... does anybody remember when you were a teenager and it became totally unacceptable for your parents to pick out your school clothes anymore. Yeah, well... I think we've reached that point. This photo is the last one taken of Thatch in his cute little sweater and I can only think of 2 reasons...
1)He purposefully ate too much so he outgrew it, and
2)He thinks it looks like a baby gap sweater (which, to be fair, it kinda does). To be totally fair, I didn't even pick this sweater out, Thatcher's mimi did. So I guess it's not just clothes our parents picked out, but clothes our grandparents picked out as well. Sorry for being such a terror mom!
Thatcher has been hurt recently and I'm not quite sure how it happened... but everytime he tries to jump on the bed (which he LOVES to do) he yelps in pain (mama's poor angel). Maybe he pulled a chest muscle going up and down the stairs (he is pretty buff now... time to lay off the 'roids honey). :/ Oh... P.S. I just found out last night that he's been faking it the last few days. Last night he thought I was asleep in the bed and he wanted to play so he just jumped up on the bed (yelp free) and started romping around and throwing my covers off. HAHA... caught red handed once again. He's not as sly as he likes to think he is.
Thatch fancies himself as a gardener and just adores helping me re-pot the tree in the informal dining room. He also trims all the grass with his mouth and "waters" EVERY tree and or pole in the neighborhood. He does have his favorite pole though on the opposite side of the neighborhood and when he's behaving badly on the leash I'm a mean mama and I forbid him to pee on his favorite pole... I mean "water" it... Anyway, our little old neighbor lady is the most precious thing ever. She bought some dog treats at Wal-Mart for Thatcher because she always sees him out in the yard playing (her words, not mine). Anyway, remember the part about Thatcher being a treat snob?? Well I was kinda horrified at the thought of her giving him a treat and him turning his nose up at it and walking off... wouldn't that be mortifying as a parent... to witness your child being a huge brat to someone who is attempting an act of random kindness!? Well, to my relief, Thatch thought it was a payment for something so I guess the only thing he could think of getting paid for from our neighbor would be for tearing up her grass with his talons! So she gives him one treat and he takes it and darts off... grass flying everywhere... it actually reminded me from a scene from Edward Scissor Hands. Anyway, back to reality, She gives Thatch the 2nd treat (and he hadn't even eaten the first) and he drops them on the ground and sits on them like any good mother hen would do. Then he jumps around some more (to demonstrate his appreciation towards her) and then he finally lays in the grass and eats the treats.... whooo a sigh of relief for him not being a DVIA for once!!!
*Look at the guilty look on his face!*
Thatch got a few new toy and one of them is this Alligator with like 1000 squeaky things in it. He is totally jealous that his new baby gator had perfectly straight teeth so you can see the results of that meet up... And this was just the start of it. Now his gator has absolutely no teeth and he needs a few surgeries on his torso and some reconstructive facial surgery wouldn't hurt either. :(
*It used to have teeth on top AND bottom...* 
Thatch can't seem to make any friends in the neighborhood because
A)He's the bully, or
B)He's being bullied. Our neighbors a few houses down have the cutest little white dog and it always wants to run up to Thatchy and play, but of course, Thatch has to act like a psycho first... but believe it or not, the little white dog will buck up and dart at Thatch and zigzag back and forth and then he runs to his dads arms for safety! Haha it's so funny to watch because then Thatcher thinks it's a game and tries to do it back but he just looks half crazy. BUT he did meet his first baby... up close and personal with Amelia Lehman! He was sooooo intrigued by her and her tiny movements. We separated them with the baby gate but Thatch wouldn't stop resting his big fat head on the gate and just staring at Amelia, trying to figure out exactly what she was! Too cute.
Oh, did I forget to mention that Thatcher carries his blankie EVERY WHERE. His new nickname shall be Linus Van Pelt! He also personalized it by adding a few signature marks... AKA holes and shreds throughout. See Thatcher, this is why we can't have anything nice! Oh, speaking of having nice things... I bought these fairly expensive blackout curtains (since I work night shift) and they're "spot clean only" so don'tcha know i just LOVED finding dried snout juice all over my new black curtains from where SOME ONE was attempting to look out the window!? Thatch knows just how to push my buttons. Guess the snout juice will hafta stay for a while because I don't think his window infatuation is over quite yet.
And while we're talking about ruining nice things... let's talk about Thatcher's knack for picking out my most expensive undies from the dirty clothes basket and making them look like dumpster drawers. Ohhhhhh noooo... God forbid he go for any of the $5/8pair Wal-mart granny panties... he goes straight for the Victoria's Secret panties that are $5/Pair. Little bastard. Oops... that last comment slipped out... but when I realized last night that I was unknowingly wearing a pair that had the slightest "Thatcher hand-crafted" or in this case "snout-crafted" defect I was totally pissed! Count another pair for the trashcan. I guess it went unnoticed because It was a tiny tear where the seam is... and it only grew the more I moved around throughout the night. Rats. Below is a photo of Thatcher getting punished for attempting to help "sort laundry" from the basket.
*Notice him pretending he can't hear me. Monster.*
About a month ago I was working on a few sewing projects and Thatchey decided he wanted to try his hand (paw, whatever) at sewing... Really all he ended up doing was eating all the forgotten thread ends that had been snipped away and had fallen to the floor. Thanks ThatchVacuum.
*If you look closely you can see a thread hanging from his mouth. Guilty as charged!* 
Hahahaha I almost forgot about this one morning when Thatcher wanted to wake me up and i guess I wasn't responding to his usual whining and putting his snout in my hand so he decided to get right up next to my face and steal all my air! Imagine my surprise when I woke up feeling like I was drowning and couldn't breath... then I see the culprit wagging his nubbin, happy to see my eyes open. I had to laugh because then he starts doing log jumps over me while i'm still trying to shake off the sleep. Somebody needs to teach this kid some morning time manners!
At least he's cute... or, that's what I keep telling myself anyway.
Until next time. :)
