Where My Dogs At

If Jeff and I were both drowning, and Alison could only save one of us, she would save Sam.

Alison loves dogs, like most toddlers, and I've heard that "dog" is a common first word, and it looks like that's where she's headed. She can be in the worst mood while we're on a walk, and if she suddenly perks up and starts pointing, sure enough you can follow her little finger and there will be a canine in that general direction, even if it's 500 yards away. She loves them all.

The nicest suprise of all of this how Sam has reacted to her clumsy and (I'm sure) painful attentions. Sam the Spazz just lies there and takes it, and if it gets to be too much, he pushes her hand away WITH HIS TONGUE (Jeff and I get the teeth in a similar situation) or just gets up and moves. She loves to play with his floppy ears, with his tail, and with his license tags. Sam is a warm, breathing, stinky, real-life Taggie blanket for her...and he licks her, which she thinks is just hilarious. We know she's done with her meal when she starts hanging over the side of her high chair to feed her leftovers to Sam, who is only too happy to accept them.

Alison can pick out dogs anywhere. The other day I was changing her and she grabbed her Coppertone sunscreen bottle, pointed at the dog on the front and crowed, "DAW!" She picks out the dogs on her baby-wash bottle, on the TV and in books.

Good thing we already have a dog...and good thing Jeff and I are already used to taking care of him!