that's not MY dog...

ryan was the star of the week at preschool last week. This is a BIG DEAL in the world of a 3 yr old. It was sort of a pain in the ass for me because he had to do this "all about me" poster. And because he is 3, it was not so much HIS homework as it was MINE. The hardest part was the oval in which he was supposed to put a picture of his 'pet'. Because, you know, normal people have 1 or 2 animals and we have like, 47 or something. OK...not 47...but we have several critters. We decided to leave off pictures of the fish (it is technically Justin's) and the pig (it is technically Hannah's) so in the oval we had to fit pictures of the 3 dogs and the cat. Not only do we not own 1 picture of all 4 together, our 2 oldest dogs haven't been photographed well for approximately 8 years. So I found so puppy-ish pictures of Shasta and Baxter and trimmed them up and fit them in the oval with Stanley & Pickles (don't ask) (Ryan named Pickles- because Pickles is the perfect name for a cat. Of course.) (like I said, don't ask)

ANYWAY... yesterday it was someone else's turn to take over star of the week position so Ry's teacher handed me back his poster. She stopped me as I turned to leave and said "Are those really your dogs?" I did a double (perhaps triple) take and said "uhhh, yes?? Why do you ask?" She said that Ryan had a chance to talk about all of the stuff on the poster and when she pointed to Shasta and Baxter he had not one clue who they were. I looked at my son like he was an alien and said, "Ryan...you know who these dogs are! Who is this?"(pointing to Shasta) He then looked at me like I was an alien- can't you just feel the love in our family- and said "I don't KNOW mom!" I told him he was silly because of course it was Shasta! He again rolled his eyes at his alien of a mother and said "No mom, Shasta has a white beard. This dog has a black one. You picked the wrong dog."

How to explain the aging dog to a 3 yr old? Poor Shasta and Baxter are apparently unrecognizable in their younger years to their own chiclets. I admit Baxter doesn't look a BIT like he did 8 yrs ago, but Shasta...I didn't think she had changed much. I guess she has.

In the end we all got a good laugh about the fact that it was the first time this year that a kid didn't recognize a pet on his own poster. Ryan gets to keep his one of a kind status :)

In her defense, Shasta has earned every single white in her 'beard'. She has the patience of a saint-dog. And 3 chiclets that make her earn her white the honest way.