Smart Dog

German Shepherds are known to be smart dogs. Our 11-week old puppy is proving that he is one smart pooch. Not only has he learned all the standard tricks like sit, down, come, shake, and stay, he managed to turn on my son's Nintendo DS that was lying on the floor AND open the sliding door using his leash. I thought I was being brilliant by attaching his leash to the handle while I went into the other room. He figured out that if he moved the bird cage and dragged the leash, he could open the door. When I arrived in the room a few minutes later, he was sticking his nose out the door.

The dog even knows to go into his crate when he's tired. He opens the door and plops himself down on the blanket.

"Mom," my daughter commented after watching the pooch tuck himself in, "That dog is smarter than me. I'd be staying up all night!"

Spaghetti Head

This evening, my children an I were gathered around the dinner table eating a plate of spaghetti.

"Mom," my daughter blurted, "Wouldn't it be great if people had spaghetti hair?"

I didn't say anything. I just looked at her while chewing a mouthful of spaghetti.

"Yeah, and the sauce could be a hat," my son chimed in. "Like this..."

"Don't even think about it," I said as I wisked a spaghetti noodle out of his hand.

Where do kids come up with these things?

Shoes?

"Where are my shoes?" I griped this morning as I attempted to go outside to get the newspaper.

They weren't in my usual spot. I'm usually pretty good about putting my stuff where it belongs (unlike the other members of my family).

I looked in the laundry room. I looked in the kitchen. I looked in the front hall. I looked in the family room. Let me tell you, I was getting pretty upset about not finding my shoes.

Then my nine-year-old daughter came in from taking the dog outside. Guess what were on her feet?

MY SHOES!

Jigson Club

My kids and the neighborhood kids have this new club. It's called the Jigson Club.

"Mom, come see our club," my daughter called.

I bundled up and headed out into the woods. The kids had made a nice little fort with fallen branches, and covered it with an old sheet.

"Nice," I said.

"Look at our price list," my daughter said as she shoved a stack of papers at me.

"What?"

"We're selling things."

There were an assortment of pet rocks, pom-pom pets, and other creative doo-dads and what-nots. Leave it to my entrepreneurial daughter to make it a business. I knew I was getting suckered into this one.

I now have a lovely pet rock sitting on the counter in my kitchen. Guess how much it cost? $3.00. What a deal!

X-Box

What is it with guys and X-Box? Even the puppy seems to like X-Box. The first thing he does when he's feeling particularly frisky, is run in the family room and grab the X-Box control in his mouth.

It must be genetic.

Dog Boy

As I was walking down the hall, I spotted a strange-looking creature. It looked a little like a boy, but it was walking on all fours with a towel hanging out of its mouth.

I observed this creature for a while. I watched it pick up a rubber snake with its mouth. Then it poked its head under some blankets and curled up in a ball.

"Odd," I thought. I didn't say anything.

I went to another room for a while and came back to the hall. In the middle of the floor was the creature curled up on a pillow.

"Um, what exactly are you"" I asked the creature.

"Dog boy. Woof, Woof!"

Silence

Silence. Now that's something I don't get much of. This evening I got some. The kids were gone. The grandparents were gone. The husband was gone. And the dog was sound asleep in his crate.

Ahhh. What a wonderful thing!