He *needs* a sibling... a human one!

A selection of stories from the past week or so.

1.) The sound of La playing in the hall has gone suspiciously quiet. Quiet is NEVER ever a good thing. I walk past my dining room and notice on my dining room table is perched my toddler, in the middle, with the dogs treat jar. Below him, politely sitting are three furry bums, neatly parked. Laurent's hand dips in the jar. One for you. Dips in the jar. One for me.
"LA! Yuck, what are you DOING?!?"
He looks at me, clearly not seeing the problem... sheesh mum, haven't you ever see a kid eat before?

2.) Laurent toddles up to me holding and shaking an unopened pack of dog-treats.
"Mum?"
"Yes La?"
"Sisi 's goo gurl?"
"Yes Sisi is a good girl."
"Mum?"
"Yes La?"
"Yum yum?", shaking the bag for emphasis.
"Yes La, Sierra does think those are very yummy. Do you want to give her one?" (Heh. At this point I'm entirely wary of his motives. He does like to give them treats but he also likes to EAT them himself.)
He nods. "Sisi, goo gurl!"
So I open the bag and hand him one. "La, this is for Sisi you understand?"
I catch a glint in his eye. "Sierra's yum yum, not La's."
He stares at me, eyeballs the treat, eyeballs me, grins and.... *chomp* (SIGH.)

3.) Hope has a little quirk, in that when she gets a ball or stuffed toy she likes to show it off and goes, "Awwooo woo woo!" howling muffledly with the toy in her mouth while parading around. It's cute and we all laugh when she does. Laurent eyeballed her, picked up one of his plastic ball pit balls, stuck it firmly in his mouth, tossed his head back and went "Awwoooo woo wooooo!"

4.) I'm brushing the dogs and have my combs and slicker brush laid out on the floor, dogs sprawled across my lap in various states of limp bliss, getting rolled (yes, rolled... I just kind of grab a leg and flip) at intervals when I finish brushing one section. La is watching the process intently and picks up a slicker brush. He starts brushing Sierra.
"Sisi goo gurl." he praises her.
"Yes Sisi is a good girl. Are you brushing her nicely La? See how she likes it when you brush her? Make sure you use the brush very soft okay?"
Intent upon his mission, he merely continues. At length, he deems his job finished and starts brushing Hope.
"Very nice, Hope likes being brushed to hmm?"
After a period of brushing her in random patterns, he deems her done. He turns to me, brush in hand.
"Mum?" he asks, holding the brush up.
"Yes La? What do you want?"
"He stands up, puts his left hand on me, standing on my legs and reaches up to brush my hair.
"Goo gurl." (SIGH. It seems I also need to explain to him daddy and I are not dogs either.)

5.) We're playing with the tennis ball inside, gently throwing it in the back room. *chuck* it goes to Hope, *chuck* it goes toward Sierra who chases it but lets Hope actually fetch it, *chuck* it goes to Hope again. *chuck* it goes... into the hall, past my craft room. La toddles after it and I hear his feet pitter-pattering back down the hall toward us, then pause. I peek my head around and he's gone into my craft room. He's standing at the edge of my desk, holding the tennis ball in throwing position.
"Mum?" he asks, eyeballing the aquarium on my desk where my Siamese Fighting Fish is front and center in his tank hoping for food, "FISH?"
"No dear. The fish can't play fetch."

6.) PS After 18 months (!) of breastfeeding, the girls have an official cute pet name! They are "bibi". We'd figured we might get "didi" since that seems popular but nope, we gotta be a little bit unique!

Last but not least, a non-La story, in which I amuse myself (but only myself) at Freestyle class. In my current class we have another red merle Aussie (Jaffa) and Jaffa's mum is talking about competing in teams (ie. instead of just tripping over myself and my dog, I trip over another handler and their dog too... for even more Australia's Funniest Home video material) and jokes how she'd been thinking the two gorgeous red merle Aussies should do a team! Now Jaffa has a gorgeous heel... backwards, forwards, speed changes, sideways, these nifty little back-turns... gosh it's nice! Sierra's heeling by comparison is muck. She forges forward, to the side, angles her bum at a curve and crabs. So I said, "Are you kidding? Have you SEEN Sierra!?" She says, "Well, there's always hope!" And I said, "Yeah but she's a black tri!" Unfortunately it was across the room and she didn't hear me. Figures. One time I say something kinda clever (vs thinking of it 10 minutes after the person walks away) and no one hears it! :-p