Happy Valentine's Day and All Done

Here is the news of the day just for Burgh Baby's Mom: It's Valentine's Day! If you don't get something sweet from your sweet, you get to give him an earful!

I hope you all have lovely Valentine's Days. We don't really celebrate it ourselves. Londo has this thing were he calls it a made-up holiday by Hallmark in which they try to guilt bad significant others into doing something nice for their partners. He does nice things for me all the time, and therefore is annoyed that Hallmark tries to tell him he has to do something on THIS day. I have no problem with that, because he really does do nice things for me all the time. Like two nights ago when we went out on a date? He first bought me flowers and candy. And this isn't unusual. He will randomly bring me home flowers or candy or other little thoughtful gifts. So how can I argue with him?

But I also understand that if someone's partner does not normally think of these things, they really should be reminded and if it takes a made-up holiday to remind them, than Valentine's Day serves a useful purpose.

Okay, moving on... I wanted to relate a cute little story, but it requires a little set up.

We have a beagle. She is super cute, and very sweet. But she, like all beagles, is crazy for food. We thought that she would really love the Pumpkin once she was in a highchair and dropping food on the floor. And she does. But she tries to love her a little TOO much, and really is loving the food. After a couple times of the beagle trying to jump up and get something out of the baby's hand, we had to take a new tact with the dog.

We now make the beagle sit at the edge of the kitchen and wait there until the baby is done eating before she can come in and clean the floors for us. We have to use a squirt bottle in order to keep her there, and she will eventually start whining if there is something good on the floor or it's taking too long. Also, she tries to come in the kitchen anytime anyone walks into it, out of it or across it--as if that signifies that it's okay for her to now enter, which it isn't. It can be very frustrating, and she is so stubborn!

Well, as I've mentioned before, we are trying to teach the Pumpkin some sign language, including "all done" when she finishes something. So at the end of the meal, we ask the Pumpkin, "All done?" And she sometimes shakes her jazz hands as the sign for all done, and sometimes she keeps eating, and sometimes she just laughs at us. She's still not stellar with the sign language yet (although she is still a supergenius). When she is done, we push back the highchair, wipe her face off and let the dog in the kitchen for clean up duty.

The other day, Londo and I noticed that the Pumpkin seemed to be pretty much done eating. We asked her, "All done?" At that point, the beagle jumped up and hurried into the kitchen! Apparently, she now understand that "all done" means we are about to let her in. She did jump the gun a bit, and we had to send her back out. But Londo looked at me and said, "At least someone is learning the sign language!"

The beagle may be stubborn, but she is also very smart and a quick learner. I guess she is a supergenius dog.