in preparation for the arrival of a very special visit from auntie m, we’ve dressed up and as i’m innocently trying to get a picture of odin’s super snazzy zutano duds, when mauja decides he really wants to get in the picture. or so i think. really, mauja just seems to want to clean odin and he keeps trying to sneak in laying a big wet tongue on odin. mauja has a funny look on his face because he’s just sticking his tongue back his mouth and looking at me with his famous whaaaaaat-give-me-a-break-i’m-just-trying-to-clean-your-kid-so-get-off-my-case look.

as you can see, odin feels that mugging for the camera is very tiring work.

after discovering that we’re onto his tongue licking tricks, he still tries to sneak in a subtle tongue flick every so often. little odin is quite used to the malamute cleaning regime and generally puts up with it.

we’ve heard hearsay that malamutes were entrusted with helping to take care of inuit children; it’s probably just an legend, but given his nearly obsessive compulsive need to guard, care and clean odin, i’m inclined to believe there’s at least a nugget of truth to the story.

my sister is in michigan for thanksgiving, which is a special treat, since she normally hangs out in the northeast, which is where you’ll find most of the other members of the snowdeal tribe.

due to a odd twist of fate she was also in town for odin’s birth, but never had a chance to see him because she wasn’t on the nicu visitor short list ( sorry sis! 🙂 ). so this is the time she’s been able to see him after watching him grow for months via the internet.

she’s got that special ‘auntie’ touch and he seems quite enthralled with her. i think she’ll do just fine on babysitting duty for years to come. and now we’ve got the perfect bait to lure her away from the northeast! bwaaaahahahaa!