Puppy Love

Chandler has a new best friend. His new friend is named Sawyer. No, not the Sawyer who was lost on an island for 6 years (actually I don’t think that’s how much time passed…it was all so confusing!). The only thing this Sawyer has in common with the Sawyer from LOST is she never wears a shirt either. But this Sawyer is a dog. No, I’m not making a rude statement about her looks. She is literally a dog and she belongs to Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt.

Chandler absolutely LOVES Sawyer. Whenever he sees her he gets a big smile and when she barks or runs around he giggles like a little school girl (hey, he’s just a baby, he doesn’t know how to laugh in a manly way and he sure isn’t going to learn from me). Often when we visit the G’Rents (I am so hip!) Sawyer will be sitting outside on the porch looking in through the glass sliding door. As soon as we set Chandler down he zips on over to the door to say hello. Chandler stands up at the door, and with his hands on the glass longingly looking at the puppy, the moment starts to look like a prison visitation scene.

After a while I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to let them play together. As you can see, Sawyer is not a little dog. But she is still a puppy and isn’t always perfectly behaved (kids…what are you gonna do? Right?). So any good self respecting mother would be a little nervous with an interaction between her little baby boy and a fanged beast like Sawyer. For the record, Ashley is a good and self respecting mother. I on the other hand throw caution to the wind and my son to the dogs.

Some kids are frightened by big animals with teeth lunging at their face. Not Chandler. He laughs in the face of danger. This is one of my new favorite things about Chandler. He really is fearless. I’ve joked before about how he sort of dives head first off of high places without any notion that he is leaping to his demise. It is said that ignorance is bliss. I guess ignorance is also courage.

Sawyer has never bitten Chandler, but in her attempts to lick and be playful, her teeth have come dangerously close to Chandler’s chewy little fingers. Ashley and I are always very close during these interactions and usually have a hand on Sawyer ready to restrain her if we need to (in other words, we’re being very safe, so you can cancel that call to child services). But I have been making a concerted effort to make sure Ashley and I mask our concern with excitement so that Chandler never has the sense that he should be worried.

This has worked out great. As Chandler cruises around the room Sawyer might come up and lick him on the hand or in the face. Chandler laughs with excitement and sometimes even reaches his hand out to touch Sawyer’s face. Chandler does this same thing to Ashley and I all the time and as far as we can tell it’s a sign of affection. Well…sometimes he’s just trying to pull your lip off.
I’m so glad that my son isn’t afraid of dogs. Now I have to worry about him liking dogs so much that he’ll want one of his own.