My Daughter Thinks She's a DOG!

First off, I feel the need to start my post by saying I'm sorry for not publishing more blog posts in the last year.  My life has become a whirlwind of Working Mom, raising a child and tending to life's crazy curveballs, rather than reverting to my old ways of putting my feet up, drinking coffee in silence, while screwing around online and posting blogs...Trust me, I'm still "blogging" just my genius posts are being written in my head only and not converted into a digital format [sigh].

Anyways, so far some of the most fun adventures of Momhood that has brought snorting laughter into our living room (or CHORTLE-ing as Eleanor from Brave might say) has been watching Pennie infiltrate herself into our pack of two dogs.  It only took about a year and a half, but I think she has finally been sworn into the herd.  

So here we will begin our Top 5 Reasons we know Pennie believes she's a dog:

1.  She Wears Her Hair Like a Sheepdog:

Since Pennie was a wee lass, she has never been a fan of her hair being pulled back, tied up or even brushed for that matter.  Back in her bald days, this didn't much matter.  But since she has recently, accummulated more fluff on her mane, she refuses to let it be pulled out of her face.  I fought it for a while, trying to trick her into a hair tie, but she ended up just ripping her own hair out to get the ponytail off of her head.  Pennie Dog Wins.

2.  She Can't LIVE Without Her Hat with EARS:

Baby P never used to be a fan of hats.  Since she was born a fall-ish/winter baby, and I was a new Mother, we tried extra hard to keep her warm.  She'd be dressed in those furry bears suits or cozy sleepers all the time, but the trick to keeping her warm was making sure her head was covered.  We sure had a dickens of a time trying to keep a hat on her head. Once her brain figured out how to move that arm up to her head, all hats were off for Baby Pennie...until the BEAR HAT!  Seriously, we have exact hats with the same concept, furry fleece wrap-arounds that velcro under the chin.  She could give two craps about any of them, except the one with ears...she puts it on and literally chases the dogs around the living room.  Ha-Ha-LARIOUS. 

Photo Cred: Auntie Ev

3.  She LOVES Playing with Sticks:

In all forms.  Anything stick-like, this kid loves.  She'll drag it around the house, chew on it, sit on it and then start squealing if you try to take it away from her.  Broomsticks, Icescrapers, Curtain rods (don't ASK what our curtain rods were doing on the floor), Cardboard tubes (Yes. We save trash now, because our child would rather play with garbage than expensive toys.) and legit sticks.  I remember when I was little, my parents used to always tell me not to play with sticks...so I think I'm supposed to be concerned about her preference of toy, but to tell Pennie she can't play with sticks would require some sort of Come-To-Jesus with our furry animals in the house...

These "sticks" are a piece of our now broken fridge and an ice scraper...Girl knows how to improvise!

4. She Sleeps Better in a Dog Bed:

First off, don't judge me...we have a unique living arrangement in our home.  My youngest sis currently resides with us in our home.  Since she is living in our second bedroom, our bedroom is shared with Pennie.  We've been having sleep issues since she was born, but I've been chalking it up to the fact that her screaming body is five feet away from my face...so the whole CRY-IT-OUT crap, doesn't always work when Mom & Dad need to sleep.  So, the nights that Pennie has actually slept through the night (which we can probably count on one hand) are few and far between.  Recently, she has also Hulked up some serious muscle and has figured out how to climb OUT of her crib.  Having this motherly instinct to protect my child, it leads to many restless nights since every stir I hear I think she's escaping, so for the most part when Pennie goes down for the night, I'm usually pretty quick to follow. A few months ago we visited my Sister in Cincinnati.  We forgot to take our pack & play and had just planned on keeping Pennie in bed with us, but when Pennie snoozed out, Mom & Dad wanted to stay up and hang out...but we couldn't just sleep her on a bed without something to guard her....so her new Puppy Cousin Mulligan was kind enough to share her dog bed with Pennie.  Pennie nestled up in Mulli's dog bed was the best sleep of Pennie's life...she didn't wake up once!  Since that day, I have seriously contemplated spending the $60 on a microfoam dog bed for my child...Yes. I'm losing my mind.

Since I don't have a picture of Pennie in a dog bed, here's another pic of her with her ears...

5. Downward Facing DOG is her Favorite Yoga Pose:

Nuff Said.

6. She "BARKS" at Traffic or People When They go by our House:

Pictures also speaks for itself. 

7. Some of her FIRST FOODS were dog food:

The list could seriously go on and on:  Would rather cuddle with dogs than humans, plays with dog leashes instead of baby toys, chews on shoes instead of teething rings, starts growling when the dogs bark...Thankfully, our dogs, seem for the most part, to like her...or they have just learned to tolerate her.  But there couldn't be something cuter than her little pudgey baby-ness curling up with her buds.  LOVE IT!

Not Shown: Baby Sheldon (our other dog) - he is still unsure of whether or not he likes Pennie. Shown Above: Hurley & Pennie - His heart caved. So did mine :)