jennanddave.com

How would you all like a Henry story that has absolutely no point? I thought you would.

Remember how I mentioned that we've managed to train Henry to get the dog food out of the cabinet when it's time to feed Flash? It's now officially one of his top ten favorite things to do, and is also directly related to another item on that list which is "Watching Flash eat". At first I was all "Wow, he's already helping out with chores. Having a kid is totally paying off way sooner than I thought it was going to!" but now it's started to backfire a bit. (Also, I should confess that having a kid started paying off a few months before Henry could eat stuff other than cereal and pureed fruits and veggies because once in a while at the deli counter when they'd ask if Henry would like a piece of cheese, I'd say yes, then eat it myself.)

Last night, about an hour after we fed Flash, Henry came into the kitchen, picked up her dog dish and handed it to me, saying "Uh-uh-uh-uh!". He had apparently noticed that I always clean the bowl before putting food in it so his "Uh-uh-uh-uh" came across as "Here's the bowl. Can you clean it so we can feed the dog, please?" I took the dish then explained to him that we only feed Flash twice a day and that since we'd already fed her dinner we would have to wait until tomorrow morning before giving her food again. He waited patiently for me to stop talking then walked over to the cabinet and pulled out our giant bag of dog food, a sound that piqued Flash's interest, demonstrated by the fact that she propelled herself with such force from the couch that she skidded all the way into the kitchen from the living room. I took the bag from Henry then ran through the whole "can't feed her until morning" explanation again, then put it up on the counter. He watched me intently for a while. So did Flash. I briefly thought about how I was actively disappointing both my dog and my kid all at the same time and whether or not that's a marketable skill, then turned back to the sink to continue washing some pots and pans. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him head over to Flash's water dish. I turned and said "No!" just as he picked it up. Then he turned it over. Water went everywhere and right in the middle of a massive puddle was my kid. He looked around at the wet floor and his wet feet, then he handed the bowl to me, said "Uh-uh-uh-uh!", and walked over to where the bag of food was on the counter. Although I spent the next few minutes drying him and the floor off instead of feeding the dog, I think he scored major points with Flash just for giving it a shot.