orichalcum

Or, The Dog and Baby Show.

Puppy update: Eowyn has relapsed a little into her "accident"-prone, attention-seeking ways, especially when visitors are around. OTOH, she's become much less out-of-control when meeting visitors, which is terrific. I have also succeeded in teaching her the command "Jump," at least in the context of the playground, which we hope will be useful in overcoming her fear of getting in and out of cars.

Her particular silly ritual is that, even when she's very tired and wants to go to sleep, she won't go into her crate on her own. Instead, she'll stand a few feet in front of it and bark piteously until we come out and tell her, "Crate," at which point she'll happily bound in. But she'd never think of not obeying the pattern.

Baby update: Mac also likes rituals. In particular, he's gotten extremely good at the bedtime ritual wherein we feed him, read to him, sing to him, lay him down in the bassinet, turn off the light, and go out of the bedroom at about 6:45 PM. He rarely cries for more than a minute at most and then sleeps soundly until 10:45 PM, around about when we go to bed. At this point, he wakes up, rolls onto his stomach, inches himself into the corner of the bassinet nearest the bed, places his chin on the rail, touching the bed, and wails at the top of his lungs. Nothing will comfort him unless I get into bed and pull him into the bed for nursing and cuddling, while we try to go to sleep. There's then several hours of light sleeping and nursing, until it's morning and time to get up.

The really frustrating thing is that he assumes that the ritual includes us, and specifically me, not being in the bedroom. Thus, if I'm sick and want to go to bed earlier, I can't, because he won't fall asleep in the bassinet if I'm there. I just put him in the bassinet for a minute while I ran the puppy out, and left him alone in the middle of the day, and, a minute of crying later, he was sound asleep, butt sticking up in the air. (Yes, I know, and I _do_ lay him down on his back to sleep, but that rule doesn't apply once he can roll both ways quite happily.)

So yes. Rituals, and repetition, and regularity. Babies and golden retrievers should go join the army. Or the priesthood. :)

Dog and Baby Update: Eowyn and Mac are starting to actually interact with each other much more and more positively. Almost nothing can calm Mac down as quickly when he's fussy as watching Eowyn play fetch; I think it's the magic of the appearing and disappearing puppy and ball. Eowyn, meanwhile, after an initial terror of the high chair, thinks that Mac eating solid food is the best thing ever. She'll lay her head on my lap peacefully while I feed him, gloating in the knowledge that it's necessary to throw out baby food still in the serving container that Mac doesn't eat, because it contains bacteria from his mouth via the spoon, and that "throwing out" means "Puppy gets sweet potato glop!" The only problem I've had recently with them is Mac starting to stick his toes _into_ Eowyn's mouth, which I am trying to strongly discourage. She'd never bite him deliberately, but the potential for accidental harm is a little high. Not to mention, a wee bit unsanitary.