b Papa Dog's Blog: Dadding Compulsively

Papa Dog's Blog

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Friday, September 16, 2005

Dadding Compulsively

It occurred to me today that obsessive-compulsive behaviour which has previously seemed something of a detriment or at least a slight embarrassment is actually an advantage in raising a child. Because I can be reliably counted on to repeatedly do this exactly the same damn way, I’ve helped her learn. When I read story A and come to the page with the cat on it, I would invariably say “See the kittycat? Meow!” After a while, Baby Dog would pre-emptively meow when we came to that page. We’ve developed all manner of little rituals together, and they’ve all helped her learn things. Odd.

In an almost entirely unrelated matter, she did her best walking yet this morning. I held her hands over her head and she took steps all the way across the living room to greet her very thrilled Mummy on the couch. Baby Dog seemed pleased with all the lavish praise and applause, but I don’t think she really knew what all the fuss was about. I get the feeling she could have done this weeks ago if it had occurred to us to try. We’ll practice every day now (compulsively). I think she’ll be walking on her own very soon. Which, having seen Baby Pirate’s early attempts at bipedal locomotion, scares the bejeezus out of me.

1 Comments:

Blogger Judy said...

Learning to walk can be compared to learning to walk a tight-rope - that's about what they look like for the first couple of months!

7:02 AM  

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