Laura and Andrew are pleased to announce the adoption of their first son! Born on October 13, 2011 and weighing in at 65 pounds, our little bundle of joy is working his way into the family nicely. 

A purebred Merle Great Dane, we named him "Dolan" about two hours after we met him. We wanted something strong, I liked Deacon, Andrew liked Bishop, we then moved up to Cardinal and settled on Dolan immediately. 

As fate would have it, that's no longer his name. Two hours after we christened him Dolan, Lucy was calling him to play and kept yelling, "Stone! Stone!" I pulled her aside and said, "Would you knock it off? That's not his name and you're going to confuse him." She replied, "Oh, that's definitely his name. He even looks like a stone, and I think he likes it more than Dolan." 

We started to consider calling him by the name our 5-year-old insisted on, and came up with the following points: 

• He does look like Stone.
• His head is full of rocks. 
• He spends most of the day lying on the floor like a boulder.  

So, "Stone" it is. Well, Dolan Stone. Because if we're going with a rock name, "Dolan Stone" and "Rollin' Stone" sound eerily similar.

Stone's first few days left me wondering what the heck we were thinking, adopting a 70 pound 5-month-old. He was just insane, and our house did suffer a bit as we struggled to find some way to keep everyone happy around here. Claire likes to be carried, but Stone required a lot of leash time, he tends to be a toddler-chewer, he was busting down gates and turning the place into a circus, he didn't know that this was actually his home, you get the picture. Complete chaos. 

And now, less than a week in, I am very pleased to report that Stone has calmed down and is figuring out all of this "family man" business. Stone's first 5 months were spent in a crate for about 12 hours during the day and another 10 at night. We're talking 2-3 hours a day out of his box. Coming into a big house full of people and kids was a little bit of a shock, but the way Stone has settled in in this first week is really encouraging. When I called the trainer on Monday I was frantic. I thought we had a massive problem on our hands to be sure. He was biting, having accidents, running like a madman, chewing everything, you name it. 

And then suddenly early Wednesday morning, something just seemed to click and Stone seems to have figured out the family living thing. It looks like he understand that this is his house now, and he really seems to be getting it. He is still confined to the dining, living room and kitchen, as we're trying to get his puppy habits under control, but we couldn't be happier with the potential we see in our sweet guy!