Lori, I am so amazed by how much Kuma and Chile resemble each other. We should totally get them together sometime so that they can be aloof towards each other together. Or something like that.

Living Bookends!

It amazes me to see dogs (or cats--Zorro will let kids maul him and carry him in ways he will not accept from adults) with kids. How do they KNOW?

Old people, too! It's kinda awesome.

How do they KNOW?

No idea. Our chocolate lab, Jake, was the most patient creature on the planet when the kids were babies-- they both learned how to walk hanging onto his back while he took very small, careful steps. The bigger they got, the more exuberant he got with them.

How do they KNOW?

When Dallas was a four pound puppy the very first time we encountered another dog on her walk (an enormous yellow lab) she sort of FREAKED.

The lab sat down and ignored her. Like, did that looking obviously in the other direction making that "I'm ignoring you" face. Eventually, Dallas came closer and wound up clambering around on the big dog's back. Slooooowly, the dog started to pay attention to her.

To this day when a pupppy or small child gets freaked out by my dog she does EXACTLY the same thing. It always warms my grinchy little heart.

did that looking obviously in the other direction making that "I'm ignoring you" face. Eventually, Dallas came closer and wound up clambering around on the big dog's back. Slooooowly, the dog started to pay attention to her.

AWWWWWW. Good puppy!

It was so sweet, Juliana.

ION, I read that home birth article that Hil mentioned. Only one part freaked me out:

... And because women giving birth at home sometimes want to surround themselves with a doula and a cadre of other supportive women — mother, sister, best friends — along with a husband or partner, a one-bedroom apartment, much of it given over to a giant inflatable tub, can quickly come to seem oppressively small.

and then

...And then there is the perennial issue of space. Before the onset of her labor, Mrs. Scharback, who in recent years has worked as a doula, worried about whether there would be enough seating in her 800-square-foot apartment for all the people who would be there: a midwife, a doula, her mother, her sister and her husband, along with a reporter and a photographer. “We thought maybe we should get some floor cushions,” she said.

Oh HELLS no.

Me. Partner. Midwife. Doula (Once I figure out what the hell a Doula is. They're like the Dramaturges of the childbirth world -- I've seen a billion definitions and no two match)

AND THAT IS IT

Oh, and I don't care WHERE the hell they sit. They can hang from their knees off curtain rods for all I care. I am not hosting a party and your comfort is not my priority. Dude.

DUDE.

In 1961, my mother went into labor with my brothers, and was surprised to be wheeled into an operating room so a bunch of eager young interns could observe a multiple birth....

How do they KNOW?

Maybe kids and puppies and old people smell the same?

They're like the Dramaturges of the childbirth world

Hee!