Lucky Dog!

If you've ever been in our house, you know that we have a gate at the top of our stairs and one leading into the kitchen as well. These gates are for two distinct reasons: 1) they keep the kids contained, and 2) they keep Michael out of areas we don't want him in.

When Dylan started crawling we noticed she was picking up quite a bit of dog hair. Not just anywhere though; in her slobbery hands, in her mouth and stuck to her clothes. As new parents we were sure that being covered in dog hair was not a good thing, but eating it was worse. So the gates went up.

These gates assured us that once we gave the floor a good scrubbing, and the basement the once- or twice-over with the vacuum, Dylan was safe. And, soon after Dylan was walking, Isaac was on the floor so the gates stayed in place, the kids stayed contained and Michael was stuck wherever we wanted him to be.

Well, in the last week Todd and I have started to make some changes around the house. Each day poor Dylan wakes up to find that something new has happened in her home. Yesterday it was to find there was no more tv with breakfast (the tv was removed from the room) and today she went to open the gate to the kitchen, walked right through and then stopped and stared at where she just came from.

The gate was gone.

She looked at me with a puzzled frown, looked again where the gate was supposed to be, then climbed into her chair for breakfast. After those first few seconds of confusion she was fine and realized the freedom this entailed. No more asking mom and dad to open the gate. She could just go wherever she wanted (except through the gate at the top of the stairs).

We came back into the kitchen for lunch, and again the look of confusion before climbing into her chair.

That's when it happened.

You know those commercials or tv shows where the little kid is feeding the dog under the table?? That could have been filmed in our kitchen. Dylan decided she didn't want her chicken nuggets today for lunch and since Michael now has the same freedom as Dylan, he was the lucky recipient of not one, not two, not even three chicken nuggets. He got all five of them. And he got to lick Dylan's fingers!

For a dog that hasn't been allowed in the kitchen for almost two years, he sure made up for it today, and if I had to guess, will continue doing so as long as the kids can sneak food under the table.