Andy's Baby

As I said in a couple of posts ago, Andy has a baby.  Not a real, live puppy but a baby to him nonetheless.  My favorite store, Kohl's, has $5 stuffed animal toys and books right by the checkout aisles.  100% of the net profits go to children's programs.  Since 2000, 231 million dollars have been donated.  I buy the toys and books as often as I can afford.  **disclaimer** No one at Kohl's knows me, no one there cares that I love their store, or gives me free things, other than the Kohl's cash any customer can get.  Last year one of the books was the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and of course the toy was a bear.  I brought home both, intending to put them in my "gifts" box in the closet. You know, that gift box I talked about several posts back.  Well, Andy saw that Brown Bear and claimed it as his.  
This is photo is of the baby after he has been well loved for a year or so and has lost his eyes.  Sometimes Andy plays a little rough with him. I assume the baby is a boy and you know how boys like to wrestle.
      That dog, Andy, was in love as soon as he saw Brown Bear sitting on the table, just out of reach.  He wanted that toy soooo bad!  There was no way I could look at those lovesick puppy dog eyes and keep Brown Bear from Andy.  I intended it for my granddaughter but, nope, Andy and Brown Bear connected in some unexplained way. From the moment I let him have it Andy treated that thing like a real live puppy. He carries it around in his mouth and takes it out the doggy door to let it take a nap in the sunshine.  He sometimes holds it up to the window so it can see outside.  He lets it rest on the porch.  He naps on the couch with it.

A couple of times he has propped his baby in the doggy door, half in and half out. I gather the baby needs some fresh air but it is too cold or too hot for him to actually be outside.  Sometimes he races from the bedroom and out the doggy door like oh my gosh, the baby can not hold it one more second, HE HAS GOT TO GO RIGHT NOW! PEOPLE, GET OUT OF THE WAY!  Occasionally  he drops the baby by the dog food bowls ---- obviously the baby is hungry or thirsty.   Andy loves to play in the snow.  Evidently the baby does too as Andy took him out in the snow fairly often last year.  As soon as it starts to get dark Andy gets frantic.  Andy runs around with his baby in his mouth, whining at the same time, because all of a sudden he has remembered his baby needs to go outside to do his business, he needs a bath,  he needs to get in bed, where shall he sleep???  Why he doesn't have one spot for the baby's "bed" I don't know. I have no idea what goes through Andy's little head.  Some nights he carries the baby around, whining all the while, for 30 minutes or more, trying to decide which people bed the baby will sleep in, or on Andy's favorite red blanket on the couch, or just where. Once he chooses a bed then the question is should the baby sleep on top of the comforter, under the sheet, on the pillow. It is such a problem for Andy.  I have no idea why.  One night this week we had our first freeze.  That night Andy made sure the baby was under the sheet and blankets, right next to my leg.  I guess it was too hot under there for Andy since he then curled up on top of the blankets.  When I saw this photo I thought maybe Andy saw Brown Bear's nose and thought to himself "hey, he has MY nose--must be my boy!"

I had a car wreck about this time last year, had some broken bones and my dominant hand was in a cast.  My son moved home with me for about 6 months to help me. Andy seemed to think my son should share parenting responsibilities with him.  My son often worked until way after dark and Andy would be frantic until my son got home and could help Andy get the baby in my son's bed.  That I would open my son's bedroom door and try to get Andy to put the baby to bed did not matter. He needed my son. As long as my son was here with us Andy let the baby sleep with him.  Andy would sleep with me.  You know, being a single parent is so stressful. Apparently Andy needed my son to take over and give him a break from that baby. When my daughter, who is really Andy's momma, comes over sometimes Andy runs around with the baby then decides my daughter needs to babysit awhile and he drops the baby in her lap.  Andy then takes off to take a nap somewhere else or to play outside. Andy also liked for my son to babysit whenever he was home.  Maybe the baby liked the music my son listened to, I don't know.  Andy loves me, but for some reason he does not want me, my grandkids or the other dogs messing with his baby.  He never brings it to me to babysit.  Andy doesn't snap at us or anything, ever, but if we look like we are going to touch his baby he watches us very carefully and then will get it in his mouth and run all over the house and yard until he figures out where he can safely set him down.  But the weird thing is, other days he will walk past the baby laying in the floor or wherever like he has never seen it before in his life.  I just don't know what Andy thinks.