Poor fiends...

Well, it's official. The baby is getting the dogs into trouble. Sebastian has started handing stuff off, and thinks it's loads of fun to give us things and pass them back and forth. He also, apparently, thinks it's fun to do the same thing (or attempt to!) with the dogs.

Thing is, though, the dogs are not allowed to have anything to do with Sebastian's toys, lest the kid only have bits of mangled plastic and decapitated stuffed animals to play with. The dogs get in big trouble if they put any part of a baby toy in their mouths, complete with stern voices saying, "Dognamehere, LEAVE IT." Usually, Gandalf is the perpetrator. Ella is far too crafty to take any toys while we're anywhere nearby, and does it under cover of darkness or while we're otherwise occupied. Far too many Little People have already met their gnarly end in a dog's chompers, so we try to be really diligent about enforcing this rule.

Gandalf has a particular love for Sebastian's froggy friend pacifier. It's actually pretty cute, becuase he does not ever try to actually destroy it, rather will carry it around and put it next to him while he sleeps, cherishing it, if you will. Still, though, eww. The dog does not need to be lovin' on the baby's stuff with his drooly dog-mouth.

So imagine Gandalf's joy when Sebastian started willingly handing his froggy friend over! Sebastian sees Gandalf lying or sitting somewhere, or even just passing by, and pops the frog out of his mouth and passes it right over to Gandalf's waiting mouth. Then Gandalf gets in trouble for taking it. Poor fiend!

We think it's kind of hilarious, though, how Sebastian seems to totally anthropomorphize (yes, I totally used that word in my blog...I am a geek, after all!) the dogs. He tries to put toys/books/what-have-you in their "hands" while they're sleeping. He tried several times (with all four paws, in turn) to give Ella a toy once, finally giving up and putting it in her mouth instead. At which point the poor pup took it and promptly got reprimanded.

We try to tell Sebastian not to give his toys to the animals. But they are part of the family too, I guess, and in his mind, no different from us. I don't know if the animals should take that as a compliment, or if we human family members should be insulted. Hmm...