Isaac & Puppy Crash & Burns

When Matt and I were first married, we bought a black lab puppy and named her Abigail Rose. She was our first baby, so she was good and spoiled. We did all the right puppy parenting things, including taking her to doggy obedience classes.

The instructor at the doggy school had a term for puppies and their propensity for intense play followed by an immediate need for a nap. He referred to the syndrome as "puppy crash and burn." So after Matt and I started having real kids, we found the same concept could easily be applied to them as well.

I don't recall any of our kids displaying the "puppy crash and burn" phenomenon to the degree to which Isaac has displayed it. Awhile back, I was making dinner and I asked the kids to check on Isaac. (Let me just say as a disclaimer--Isaac doesn't play on his own. He's always with someone in the family. I ask the question, "Where's Isaac?" about a dozen times per day. Ninety nine percent of the time I get, "Oh, he's o.k., he's with Liz," or "He's just fine. He's up in the school room (or in the basement) with Lydia and Joel.")

However, on this particular occasion no one could find Isaac. We frantically ran through the whole house and both the front and back yards calling for him. Finally one of the kids found him downstairs. He had climbed into the exersaucer (which we had moved down there for storage) and had fallen asleep.

We have found Isaac asleep in his high chair.

As well as the previously posted places of a chair and a stair.

Yesterday at lunch time, I sent the kids looking for Isaac and they found him asleep on his big brother's bed. I suppose with the amount of trouble this little guy is finding these days, his puppy crash and burn occurrences make sense. The world is Isaac's oyster and if he's caught in the act, he just bats those ridiculously long eye lashes and flashes his extra cutest smile in order to melt his would-be discipliner into a useless blob of puddy. His technique is quite insidious, but in a very delicious sort of way.