Doggy Days

I never should have laughed at my son when he started eating like a dog. But is was so darn cute and funny. And it was getting him to eat something.

I don't know how many times, out of frustration with D's not eating anything, that I thought of Judy Blume's Fudge books - how the mother said "Eat it or wear it" (if I'm remembering that correctly) and Fudge ended up wearing his food... of course I would never do such a thing, but boy have I thought about it ;) maybe even muttered it to myself while trying to get him to eat something.

I have been reminded again of the Fudge books by my son's behavior. For the past couple of months he has been mimicking the behaviors of the dogs. Sally, the weiner dog, shakes her ears, D shakes his head. Sally eats a piece of cereal off the floor, D throws a piece of cereal on the floor and eats it. He shares his chips (on the floor) with Sally. Sally wags her tail, D wags his little booty. Sally runs into the kitchen, D gets on all fours and runs to the kitchen. Sally gets under foot, two minutes later I step on D who is now under foot.

I have tried not to promote this kind of behavior. It can be quite frustrating and embarassing. A couple of weeks ago, in a room full of family - they said hi to him, and what did he do? Got down from his chair, got on all fours and started wagging his booty. Last week I was running late to pick up M from school, and I could not get D to stand up and walk to the car. He refuses to walk up the stairs for naps and bedtime. He crawls through the hall to the bedroom.

Last night I couldn't get him to pick up his toys. Out of frustration I told him that good little puppies pick up their toys. It did the trick, he immediately started picking up his toys---with his mouth!! It was awful and funny at the same time - it was so hard not to laugh, but I didn't want to laugh because I really want him to quit behaving as such. But it seems that he's taken it to a new level.

That was when I was reminded again of the Fudge books. In the first one, "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing," Fudge went around acting like a dog for a while. For some reason I was thinking that Fudge was older than my D (yes, I do know it's a work of fiction) - so I was thinking that D was just too young to be going through this as a phase - but in reading through some reviews of the book Fudge was also a 2 year old. I guess he's right on track ;)

I'm wondering if I should be worried about his behavior. I keep telling him he's a big boy, and big boys walk - but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. I suppose, as in Fudge's case he will eventually outgrow this behavior?