I think one of the most important lessons I've learned during Fraser's first year of life is that I pretty much need to abandon the use of the phrases "I'll always" or "I'll never" where Fraser is concerned. For example, "I'll always make sure Fraser eats only healthy organic snacks" or "I'll never let Fraser eat goldfish off the carpet." So, in the interest of full confession and disclosure, here is Fraser eating non-organic snacks off the floor in the playroom. Shortly after this picture was taken I let Dharma in and Fraser kindly shared his snack with her using the "one for you, one for me" approach. Generally I would find this sharing very cute, but Dharma is a poop eater, and watching Fraser stick is hand in his own mouth after getting licked by Dharma was a little gross. Still, he was amused, and it doesn't seem to have done any lasting damage.

Fraser has also decided that this is his new very favorite place to hang out in the house. Yes, that is a dog bed. He'll get a few toys, crawl over to the dog bed and settle down happily. Should this concern me from a hygiene perspective? Hey, I've already said I let my son share food with our feces obsessed dog. You think a little thing like copious amounts of pet fur is really going to freak me out?

Speaking of pets, in our continuing effort to Fraser-proof our house I decided we needed to move the cat litter from the second floor hallway to the basement. This was always the eventual plan, but the timing was stepped up when I found Fraser munching on some cat litter the cats had kicked out into the hallway the other day. (We use the recycled paper litter which is made up of little nuggets of compressed paper, the perfect size to seize between little fingers and stuff into one's mouth, but difficult for mommy to retrieve after some one's little jaws have been pried open.) I know, fur and dog saliva doesn't bother me but litter does? Hey, everyone has their limits.

So now the cat door has been installed and the only hurdle remaining is to teach the cats to actually use the damn thing. I started by putting all four cats in the basement and shaking a pouch of wet cat food on the other side of the door. This action is normally guaranteed to bring cats running. As you can see from the picture below, they came running, but just couldn't quite figure out how to actually get through the cat door. The brightest pets they are not. Fraser, on the other hand, figured out how to use the cat door immediately, and delights in sticking his hands through and yelling down the stairs. He hasn't started feeding his toys to the cat door yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time. I will never, however, allow him to get his head stuck in the cat door....