Arf! Arf!

My friend gave Rachel a little stuffed dog, along with some cute dresses and some pyjamas, that her daughter was no longer interested in playing with. I thought it was a nice gesture, but since we're planning on moving and it's kind of large, I was planning on just passing it on to the next person. So I put it back in the plastic garbage bag ready to be given away.

Unfortunately when Rachel woke up from her nap she noticed the garbage bag tucked away in the corner and crawled straight for it. The first thing she pulled out was the dog and I knew we had to keep it when she gave it a big hug and kiss...and then played with it for the next fifteen minutes. It's now often one of the first toys she goes for in the morning. She loves it when we make it bark and jump up and down for her.

About a week ago we were sitting on the floor reading Let's go Walking. We were making the animal noises for each animal we found. First we saw a black cat: meow! Next we saw a brown horse: neigh! Then a red cow: moo! And since I don't want to give away the whole book, we'll skip to the part where we see a yellow dog.

I started to bark. My dog bark is more of a yip, really. It's rather high pitched and fast.

"Arf! Arf! Arf!" I yipped.

Rachel looked up at me and smiled. Then she climbed off my lap, crawled over to the bookshelf, grabbed her stuffed dog and lugged it back over to me and tenderly placed it in my lap.

She's so smart!

I picked up the dog and started yipping at her and making the dog give her kisses all over her face. Rachel laughed so hard that she got the hiccups. After she had a chance to catch her breath for a bit that silly dog started jumping all over her again, which she found just as hilarious as the first time.

I'm not sure we ever finished the story that morning.