The Crazy Lady Down The Street

I was having such a great time with Rafi and Izzy tonight. Rafi has learned to throw the ball to Izzy and Iz will run and get it and bring it back to her. After they got tired with that Rafi would crawl around and Izzy would chase her and she would just crack up laughing. At dinner,  Rafi was eating her animal crackers and was very good about sharing, "One for me, one for Izzy."

I think it is wonderful that they get along so well. Then I remembered that this didn't just happen overnight. In fact, this all started before Rafi was even born. I was worried about bringing a baby into the house. Izzy is so incredibly spoiled and I was not sure how she would react to the fact that she was not going to be getting all the attention. Plus she is huge and clumsy- not a good combination.

So, one day I decided to do some research about how to get dog ready for baby. One of the recommendations was that you get a baby doll and treat it as if it was your baby. This idea made sense to me for some odd reason so I decided that would be the way to do it. No trainers or classes, that all sounded wayyyy too weird for me.

I went all out with this idea. I would carry the baby around the house and talk to it. (The research said that you talk to babies and dogs the same so Izzy needed to realize I was not always talking to her) I would carry it in a sling so Izzy could get used to not jumping when I had it on. I would even put the doll in the crib that was already set up in the nursery and make Izzy wait outside while the "baby" was in the room.

The one challenge that I knew would be the hardest was the stroller. Izzy was terrified of them. So I had to practice pushing the stroller and walking Izzy. None of this seemed like a problem until my first stroll out. I decided to just push the stroller- no baby. Oooohhh the looks I got from my neighbors. So many sympathy looks like I had some traumatic experience happen to me that I just could not recover from. 

To help myself out, I decided the next time I would put the "baby" in the stroller. I wrapped a blanket around it and headed out, confident that this was a better idea. Up until another stroller was passing by with an ACTUAL baby and the wind blew my blanket off, to reveal my very FAKE baby. I made a mental note not to make eye contact with that mom ever again.

Not to be defeated, my next time out was sure to be a success.
Stroller- check
Baby- Check
Blankets wrapped tight enough to not be blown off by the wind-CHECK

Made a full loop in the neighborhood and was just about home when I decided to check the mail. I received a package with some gifts for Rafi so I just tossed em into the stroller so I could wheel it to the house. Somehow I forgot about my doll that laying there all wrapped up. That was until I looked up to see another neighbor with a look of horror on their face. I tried to explain how I was trying to get the dog acclimated to the new baby coming... and stroller... but, really that just ended up sounding totally insane. I said "have a nice day" and took off back home.

Tonight I was able to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Sure none of my neighbors will talk to me, but there always has to be that "one lady" on every street right?!?