A DOG'S TAIL

So, Kai is becoming a self propelled being as of this week. He's sitting up unsupported, grabbing at everything and anything he can, lunging at anything that looks interesting, and is doing a military crawl, but can only spin in circles at the moment.

You've got the picture. Basically he's starting to get himself in trouble.

I think I've told everyone about a million times about how I have a bouncy chair in the bathroom so I've got a place to put Kai while I do my business, shower, brush my teeth, etc... Now, Camille has this horrible tendency to use Kai's time in the bouncy chair as a moment to torture the baby while he's essentially a prisoner. Normally she'll walk over to Kai and slurp his face while Kai tries valiantly to defend himself from the dog's enormous tongue. Of course as soon as Camille even looks like she's going to begin this I intervene, but sometimes she sneak attacks and gets a few good licks in before I can chase her away. Once she's done with that, or if I've derailed her intentions before she can get to licking, she turns around and positions herself in such a way that her tail, while wagging profusely, whacks the baby across the head repetitively. This give Camille much satisfaction having been booted down the totem pole to being just a dog after spending the first 8 years of her life as my baby.

WELL. This morning everything changed. We went in to the bathroom to do what we do, and as usual, Camille followed us in. Kai, as if predicting the morning's halitosis onslaught, had grabbed his hand clapper toy and gave Camille a good WHAP across the nose, then laughed. Camille, stunned for an instant at the baby suddenly taking up self defense turned around to me with a look of "What do I do now?", and in doing so, positioned herself for stage 2 of her morning's baby torture. Now, I have cautiously allowed the 2 of them to interact since Kai was born, letting them both work out their boundaries and setting the rules as we've gone along, so I sat still and continued to watch, prepared to jump in if necessary, but rather fascinated at what happened next. As Camille stood, going "whap, whap, whap" with her tail across Kai's little head, Kai looked up at me cautiously as if to say, "Mommy, I know you may not like what I'm about to do, but it is necessary so take a deep breath and let me do what I have to do here." He raised up his little hand and slowly and grabbed Camille's tail. I held my breath as so wisely advised by my son. Camille, stunned by the baby's audacity turned. What happened then seemed like it took an eternity, but only lasted an instant in which I swear, I could read the psychic subtitles of thought exchanged between them. They began to stare at each other with such an intensity. No hostility. No aggression. They simply came to an agreement in that moment. Kai, very clearly told Camille, "Excuse me doggie. I love you very much, but you need to cut the crap, ok?" To which Camille replied, "Yeah, all right, but if you pull my tail any harder, we're going to have words about it." At which point Kai let go of Camille's tail, Camille walked over to me, laid down at my feet with a "Humph", and that was the end of that.