Austen and Adler Become Pals

It's starting to happen. Austen is starting to recognize Adler like he recognizes his mom and dad. When we come home, he is so excited to see Adler and likewise when Adler surprises him when she gets to come with me to pick up Austen from daycare. The gleeful shrieks and the pumping of the arms and legs are just a few clues that let us know that Austen clearly enjoys his puppy and knows it's part of his world. These are moments that are enough to make your heart melt.

Of course there are some pitfalls too to having a dog and a baby. Austen has just started to crawl (well, his version of crawl where one leg is in crawl mode and the other helps to push him as he makes his way across the room), and thinks that Adler's waterbowl and food are fair game. Now, we've been successful at keeping Adler away from Austen's toys (actually there's only one toy now that Adler's interested in but we'll cover that in a future post), but what to do when your dog backs away from her bowl and looks at you puzzled as Austen plunges his hands into Adler's water and tries to pick up the bite-size morsels of her food?!

I guess it's good, that Adler isn't an agressive dog - especially around her food, which we all know she loves - but I'm thinking we're going to have to do something about the dog bowl. And something too about Adler thinking now that Austen is mobile, she can play with him. For example, yesterday Adler was playing with her toys and Austen was squealing with delight at Adler running around. Well, Adler takes her toy and nudges Austen with it signaling that she wants to play. Too bad Austen wasn't ready for the nudge or maybe Adler's 80 pounds compared to Austen's 21 was no match. Austen got pushed straight back and fell. Now, I'm sure it hurt, but I know it won't be the last time that Austen falls or that Adler accidentally makes him fall. I guess with dogs and kids, you're in for a few bumps and bruises. Good thing Adler gave him a few extra kisses and it looked like Austen forgave her as he was back to laughing at her in no time.