Gator adjusting to the baby

I have to start out by saying that I completely understand that I sound crazy for what I am about to write. I am so in love with our dog it is seriously pathetic, but here goes anyways.

I feel like I am having to prep our dog for this baby, much in the same way that a parent preps their older child. We talk about the baby, and he comes in the baby's room and helps me put stuff away, and he is SO protective of me since I have been pregnant. Sometimes we talk to him about how he should act once the baby comes -or things he should expect.  It is kind of ridiculous, but I swear he understands and is glad to know whats going on.

After the shower we started sorting through and putting all of the gifts away ( and both me and Sam just kept saying how blessed/spoiled we are to have such amazing friends and family. We were literally overwhelmed with gifts, and love, and support). So, Gator took his usual spot and watched us put things away and organize. He would get up and smell the bags or the clothes and try to see what exactly it was we were putting away, but pretty much kept to his usual spot in the door way. After a few minutes he got pretty brave and started putting his head in gift bags and checking things out before we pulled it out. As he was doing this he found a little rubber toy, it was a firetruck. He gently picked it up and tried to duck his head and walk out of the room- but he got caught. Sam told him no, and took the toy away. Sam put it into another bag while we kept working on things. A little while later- we saw him do the exact same thing. Firetruck in his mouth trying to make a break for it- he totally sniffed it out of the other bag. I caught him this time set the fire truck on the dresser. He sat and stared at that dresser for at least 5 minutes. He wanted that firetruck SO BAD! We got a really sweet toy basket and moved the firetruck into the basket with the other toys (after we sanitized it of course). Gator some how got into the toy basket and found it AGAIN! We took it away and closed the lid to the toy basket and put something on top of the lid.

I was pretty insistent on not letting him have- purely because we need to start teaching him that not every toy in our house belongs to him. Well, I was talking to my mom on the phone and telling her about what had happened and how funny he was being about this toy. My mom (who I think at times is more obsessed with Gator than we are) said I should just give it to him. I kept insisting not giving it to him- but that crazy mom of mine made me feel so guilty I ended up giving it to him.

He has LOVED it so much. He takes it with him everywhere and has been so gentle with it. He is so funny about it. He makes sure it is right by him when he goes to sleep and will take it with him outside. He greets me at the door with firetruck in tow. I literally haven't seen him without it since we caved. I think he knows he jacked it from Hayes, so he is taking extra good care of it. He is so funny.

I am worried we are going to have A LOT of screaming and fighting once Hayes gets big enough and Gator keeps stealing all of his toys. Hopefully Hayes will love books and other things that Gator isn't interested in.

To end, I must apologize to whoever gave Hayes that toy- I promise we will replace it for him, but if you could see how much that dog loves that firetruck, I think you would have given it to him too.

* You may think I staged these pictures, but I did not. This is honestly what he does with that toy.