I know I am pregnant with our first baby but I have had a child to practice on for seven years now! Her name is Sophie and she is the sweetest, smartest, cutest dog around. Lately, I have been practicing some new parenting techniques with her. For example, giving her choices so that she can be strong and independent, like I read about in the "Love and Logic" parenting book. "Do you want to be quiet and play in here or would you like to go play in your room?" Translation, "Get out of here, I can't stand to hear you anymore!" I've also been trying to establish a bed time routine for her so that she knows when it is time to settle down. That's what all the good parenting books tell you to do, you know.
Sophie has actually had the same bed time routine for awhile now. Every night we let her outside before we go upstairs to bed and every night without fail she looks at us through the back door and says, "Please don't leave me. Let me back inside!" We let her back in without her ever going potty (notice my child language). She then proceeds to hold it for the next 10 hours while I sleep. Once upstairs Sophie jumps right into bed and onto my pillow. I brush my teeth and then she begrudgingly scoots over so that I can lay in my spot. Of course, her next move is to Mark's pillow. When Mark finishes brushing his teeth and doing all that men do before going to bed, he then scoots her off his pillow and she finally finds the pillow that we have put on the bed especially for her. It's the craziest thing to me...the same exact thing happens every single night! It would be nice if she went to her pillow right away but maybe she thinks she is being nice by warming up our spots! So we would like to think about our sweet dog...
Well, last night Sophie did not follow her normal routine! For the first time ever, we get upstairs, ready for bed and in bed and Sophie is running around like a crazy lady! I finally determine that she needs to go outside. Who knew! I take her down the stairs and proceed to watch her as she prances around the back yard. She seems to think it's time to party. She finally does the deed and comes back upstairs with me. Mark and I are talking sleepily in bed and about to turn off the light when we realize Sophie is not with us. I look down at the side of the bed and she is standing staring at me with a ball sitting next to her!! She NEVER brings a toy upstairs, much less at bedtime! Mark and I being the bad, non-routine oriented parents that we are decided that the poor dog needed attention so we proceeded to get her all riled up. We played fetch with her for several minutes before we finally wore her out and turned out the light!
She has just been really funny lately...wanting to play all the time. This morning she brought Acorn, her stuffed squirrel upstairs to play. Below are some cute pictures of Sophie playing with Acorn. Even though being a parent will be much more difficult, I think having a dog really is good beginning practice! I just can't imagine all the love that will be there for a child, when I have this much love for Sophie. For goodness sake, I just wrote a stinking book about her here!
Mark practicing the baby hold = Sophie not excited!
Sophie and Acron playing together. Awww....
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