As a a little girl, I was fascinated by Nana. She is the dog from Peter Pan. I thought it was a little ridiculous that Nana was in charge of cleaning up after the children, giving the children medicine, and in general watching the children. At a young age I realized that it wasn't exactly possible to train a dog to care for little children because, face it, they're dogs and don't have that higher level of thinking and reasoning that an adult human would have. I even now think about the movie and wonder what Mr and Mrs Darling were thinking leaving the dog to babysit the kids, but I digress...
So, much to my shock, I've come to realize that maybe caring for children doesn't exactly require so much reasoning and higher thinking. Not saying that it's always easy, but I've learned a few things from my very own "Nana" dogs.
A few weeks ago, the dogs were inside and Autumn was in her bouncy seat. I left the family room to go into the kitchen and do the dishes. Shelby got up from where she was sleeping, gave me a somewhat belittling look, as if she was saying, "Fine, I'll watch the baby while you're gone," and sat down next to Autumn. She then stayed right next to the baby until I was finished with my chores and when I came back into the family room, Shelby got up and returned to where she was sleeping.
A few times a week, I can get ready for the day before Autumn has woken up. I generally check on Autumn after my shower, but I know that if Autumn starts to cry, Shelby will come and get me by giving me the "You need to help our baby!" look and whimper.
Buick is in on this too. He'll happily lick off of Autumn's face any formula that has made it's way back from her stomach. It makes me crazy, but if I don't catch it soon enough, he's all over it!
One last one, today Autumn was in her Bumbo chair and fussing some. Shelby walked over to where Autumn was and licked her a few times on the head. Autumn settled down and all was well!
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