On Dogs and Children

  Everyone knows I love dogs. They are wonderful compainions, better that people in most instances. MOST instances. Everyone also knows that I love my children. They are a wonder to behold, and they leave me wondering alot.
   There comes a point where life with dogs and life with children merge into some kind of weird similarity. The dogs take on the kids traits and vice versa. It's creepy and funny all at the same time.
   Take my puppies, please (in my best Rodney Dangerfield). They usually get fed when I get up in the mornings, which is usually around 5 AM. Ester, the fluffly puppy, decided at about 2 AM that she needed to eat, NOW.  She began a campaign of whining, barking, and stomping (mostly on me) to get me to get up. First I though she needed to go out. No Problem. I get up, she doesn't follow me to the door. She stops at the kitchen and looks expectantly. I sigh and go back to bed, get almost asleep....wash, rinse, repeat. The similariltes to having a baby where not lost on me. Finally I resorted to something you can not do with a baby, I put her butt outside and left her there.
  Dogs are known to get lazy over time. It gets harder and harder to get them off the couch,bed, out from underfoot. Basically anywhere that is comfortable, they park it there and stick like ticks on a dog (ba-dump-dump-dum). Teen boys are equally lazy.
   Take my son, please (Rodney again). Getting him out of bed in the morning is like trying get a politician to part with money. This morning we resorted to being annoying, which was fun on our part. After all, do parents not live to annoy their children? We started with a simple song, I forget where we got it from. It was on a childrens channel as a filler and we got it off iTunes.

Needless to say, we put it on loop and cranked it up. He came stomping, snarling and barking out of his room a short time later. Cell phone in hand.
Him: "Mom, I have a cell phone with all kinds of alarms on it. I don't need this!"
Me: "You never here your alarms go off, we are just helping in a constructive way."
He stomps off with a groan (think Creeper from Scooby Doo) and goes straight to Dad. Like that's gonna help.
Him: " I have a phone with all kinds of alarms to get me up in the morning. I don't need your help!"
Dad:  " Then why are you standing in the kitchen still in your PJs?"
He stomps away again. His father and I snicker while cranking up the song even louder.
Parenting has is finer points, sometimes.