I've been planning to post these Ender updates at the beginning of each month since we brought him home on February 2, but like last time, I have some professional photos of him--and he's growing and changing so fast that I already barely even recognize the puppy in our family photos!

So I'm here again with new photos and a list of updated stats. Thanks for humoring me while I share these--I know I'm going to love looking back on all of them after our first few months together.

• Weighs 30 pounds.
• Has lost all of his front puppy teeth, both on the top and the bottom.
• Tries to bring mulch into the apartment after every trip outside.
• Managed to destroy a seat belt in our car and will now travel exclusively in his crate.
• Wakes up at 7:30 every morning and immediately tries to get in bed with Rob.
• Is completely obsessed with birds.
• Regularly throws himself on the ground and wriggles around on his back like he's having the time of his life. 
• Thinks a Kong full of peanut butter is the most amazing thing in the world.
• Is best friends with Daisy, my in-laws' golden retriever. Has also become friends with dogs named Roger, Murphy, Lyla, and Beefcake.
• Falls asleep next to me on the couch every evening and melts my heart.

Photos by Sarah Gatrell.

Last month, HP sent me my very own Sprout, and I've been having so much fun messing around and getting to know it a little more each day.

I picked up some awesome tulips at the grocery store last week and thought it would be really cool to use them to create a new, springy background for my phone. I took some photos of the flowers and then hand-wrote something from one of my favorite E.E. Cummings poems, which I've included below. I read it almost weekly during the spring time.

“in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it’s
spring
and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee”

— E.E. Cummings, [in Just-]

This post is sponsored by HP. Thank you so much for your support as I continue to work with advertisers!

Photos by Joshua Vasko for Freckled Italian.

Happy Monday! This weekend was a slow one at home and we really needed it. We didn't make any plans, so everything we did all weekend was pretty spontaneous, which made it really fun. Rob and Ender and I walked to our first Food Truck Friday for dinner after work; and on Saturday afternoon we had some neighbor friends over for a glass of wine, which was really fun. I went to barre and we did some grocery shopping at a farmers market and ate every meal outside.

I made iced coffee and wore skirts and tried really hard to take in the magic that is Charlotte in the springtime.

We slept in on Sunday--which means Ender woke me up at 7:30 but once we went out he jumped into bed with us and we all slept again until 10:00, which was amazing. And then, of course, we ended the weekend with the first episode of season 5 of Game of Thrones! I'm so happy it's back (and so glad to see Tyrion with a beard).

After a few crazy weeks of busyness and travel and the possiblity of even more travel in the future, a quiet weekend at home was exactly what I had been longing for.

I hope you got everything you needed, as well.