Vacation of Unbearable Cuteness (Part 2)

My niece is too smart for her own good, and she's only eight months old. For example, she finds eating boring. In order to sit still and actually eat the baby food my sister skillfully shoves into her mouth, she requires an array of distractions. She needs to have at least one and preferably several things she can play with. She likes to conduct gravity experiments with these toys: she drops them off the side of her chair and watches to make sure that they hit the ground. She has created a circle in which she drops an item, the nearest adult picks it up and gives it back to her, she waves it around for a few seconds, and then she drops it again. Repeat process, repeat process, repeat process... you get the picture.

She also needs a show. At various points through the week, my father, my mother, and I have found ourselves singing and dancing to entertain her while she eats. I've pulled out all the stops, bringing back old showchoir routines, complete with choreography, to hold her attention. I've caught my father, a usually-dignified law professor, waving his arms and singing "Master of the House" from Les Miserables. Even my mother, a very self-contained southern woman, has been seen singing old church camp songs. But perhaps my favorite moment was when I came in from the porch to find my entire family gathered around the baby making up new lyrics to "The Sound of Music" while a delighted Hannah giggled and devoured her mushed peas. This is truly the sort of thing that brings a family together.

My puppy, Charlie, is ecstatic about the attention he's getting and delighted by the presence of so many people for such prolonged periods. He is constantly wandering around the room, trying to get every person to pet him. He's also trying to pick out the weak link, the person most likely to share their food with him, and begging with all the cuteness he can muster. Fortunately, no one in my family is easily moved, so he is still a no-people-food puppy. But it's not from lack of trying on his part. And it's not just people from whom Charlie seeks attention. When we went walking the other day, Charlie tried to make friends with the ducks. He didn't bark or act in any way menacing, he simply ran toward them in a sniffing posture. The ducks ran away. I told him that ducks are jerks and he wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway, but he still seemed hurt. Poor puppy.

So, each day we take turns entertaining the baby so she'll eat, playing with the puppy so he doesn't feel left out, and appreciating the incredible cuteness of it all. As soon as I get pictures uploaded, I'll share that cuteness with you, too!