Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

This posting is not entirely G-rated, so be forewarned and act accordingly.

My karate instructor is fostering a dog who is a pure-bred vanilla labrador. She is not spayed. One of the reasons she is being fostered right now is that she kept escaping from her previous owner. The karate instructor has an interested party for the dog, but is waiting for said party to build a fence.

Well, the lab went into heat a few weeks ago. I asked the karate instructor about getting her spayed, but she said as a "foster parent," she is reluctant to make that decision because the prospect may want to breed the dog. Anyway, to make a long story short, the dog "got out" and now has some "buns in the oven."

At the same time this is going on, Gwen suddenly took an interest in where babies came from (after overhearing something at the mall). I explained it to her in very high-level terms, the result of which, I am sure, is that she determined never to have kids because it is evidently too boring a process. We've also read a few National Geographics together at bedtime, but usually those are pretty tame.

Today we went to visit my brother and his family (thanks, Ez, Ginger and Chloe! We had a great time, and the kids can't wait to visit you guys again!) My sister-in-law is involved in her local Animal Rescue, so we discussed the karate instructor's dog's "delicate position." We discussed nothing in detail, but the kids seemed pretty distracted anyway -- TV at the restaurant, dollhouse and video games at the house -- so we thought we were safe.

Evidently, someone was leading us on, only pretending to be distracted. We came home, had a pleasant supper, got the kids to bed (late, as usual), and since they weren't at all tired, they had a disagreement which made Xavier sad. As I was trying to comfort him, I got a brown teddy bear Adam had gotten for me when I was pregnant (a story for another day) and handed it to him. I told Xavier, "Here, let Happy Nappy Bear cheer you up -- he always cheers me up."

Xavier looked at Happy Nappy Bear, then pulled Pink Bear out from under the covers. He pressed their noses together as if they were kissing, and turned to me with a smile. "Look, Mommy! Pink Bear and Happy Nappy Bear are mating!"

Gasp! "Um, Xavier, I don't think that's possible, and we probably ought to avoid discussing that in public."

"Of course it's possible, Mommy! Pink Bear is a boy, and Happy Nappy Bear is a girl and --" In the meantime, Gwen is giggling like a loon in her bed (if loons giggled, which, I guess, technically they do not.)

"Good night, Xavier!" Woo, boy.

Well, if Happy Nappy ends up in a "family way" and anyone wants baby teddy bears, let me know. If you are interested in puppies, I also know someone I can hook you up with.


By the way, we are looking forward to another major milestone in our house -- Gwen has her first (very) loose tooth. We'll keep you posted.