Putting Dog Food in its Place

Raising a child usually involves small, almost imperceptible developmental steps. Abbie might be able to drink from her bottle a little quicker than the last meal, or walk a few inches farther than yesterday, or scream a little louder than her last diaper change. On rare occasions, Abbie will take a giant developmental step as she does something that seemed impossible just minutes earlier. The first time she pulled herself up to standing was a giant step. The first word is a giant step, or at least that’s what I’ve heard from parents of Talkers. Today, Abbie took another giant developmental step. This step was so big, so monumental, that I couldn’t be more proud of her if she suddenly wrote a doctoral dissertation on how the day’s outfit that I dressed her in is wrong on four different levels.

This site’s regular readers, or Abbieupdate’s Daily Audience Members, know that Abbie enjoys eating dog food, possibly more so than the dog. On this day, Abbie was playing on the floor near the dog’s cage while Ellie watched her so I could wash dishes. As Abbie roamed the living room searching for stray remote controls she found some stray dog food kibble on the floor near the dog food dish, so she picked up a few pieces. At this point, if I had been watching her, I would have knocked the kibble from her hand while scolding her then whisked her off to her room to read to her in an effort to stop her from crying. Ellie wanted to experiment with a different parenting style, or maybe she was just tired after a looooooong day at work, and decided to watch her and see what happens. Abbie took the dog food in her hand, and, now this is the magical part here, dropped it in the dog food dish. Ellie cheered so wildly that I rushed to her side thinking some wonderful sports moment, like LaTroy Hawkins being traded, had happened to warrant such enthusiastic cheering. Ellie explained what had happened. I thought it might be a fluke occurrence, like Hawkins pitching a 1-2-3 inning, and stayed to watch her. Abbie picked up some kibble, and dropped it in the dog food dish. “YAY!” Abbie again picked up more kibble, and dropped it in the dog food dish. “YAY!” Abbie once again picked up more kibble, and dropped it in her mouth. “ARGH! No, Abbie, that’s dog food, not baby food! No, Abbie, don’t cry!”

I couldn’t be more proud of her. First, Abbie realizes that vagrant dog food belongs in the dog food dish. Then she understands that she should put the dog food in its place. Then she discovers that she can lull her parents into complacency by correctly putting the dog food away before sneaking some in her mouth. Next I’m going to give her a pen and paper so she can write an exposition entitled “Mismatched Colors, Worn-out Fabric, Wrong Size, Wrong Gender: Why My Daddy Should Never Dress Me.”