She talks too much!

Not really….

But my wife and I have been commenting lately on how much our two year old daughter is talking. She’s been talking forever, don’t get me wrong. But lately she’s been putting together “grown up sentences” and all that. And her powers of observation are very keen too. She notices most everything that’s going on. Just this afternoon we were walking down a sidewalk and she blurts out, “I hear an owl! Hoo Hoo Hoo!”, and sure enough, I could hear an owl a few blocks away somewhere.

But this morning I knew I was in for it. I did my usual morning routine. Get up; get the kid up; let the dogs out; feed them; eat breakfast ourselves; then I was going back in the kitchen to let the dogs out again. The puppy will poop in the floor after breakfast if you don’t watch out. So we went in the kitchen, but no dogs. Only an open kitchen door. The door I’d left propped open from earlier.

So I rush out, calling for the dogs, “Saaaaaaaaaaaaleeeeeeeeeeeee! Buuuuuuuuuuuurkleeeeeeeeeeee.” Clap-Clap-Clap! “Saaaaaaaaaaaaleeeeeeeeeeeee! Buuuuuuuuuuuurkleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” But no sign of them. So I grab some shoes and throw a shirt on the kid and go get in the car. The wife is out for a morning run, so she doesn’t know about this. That’s a good thing.

I begin driving and know where to go. Sally used to walk off sometimes and cross over a really busy road a few blocks away and go into some other neighborhoods and just wander around having a good ole time. I figured that’s where I should head. But Burkley had never been out of the yard before. I was half expecting to see a little black and red lump squashed on the road. But as I crossed the road I didn’t notice anything in either direction.

So I go into the other neighborhood, and there they are, a few houses down, just standing in a front yard watching me drive down the street. Almost as if they were waiting on me. I pull over, call for them, and they come running and hop in the car. My daughter is happy to see them (she knew the dogs had run away). We go back home and I jump in the shower to get ready for work. She plays with some toys in the bathroom floor while I finish up in the shower.

I knew she’d probably relay the details of our search & rescue to my wife. But I didn’t tell her not to tell mom. But that was literally the first things she said to her mom. “Sally and Berkley runned away! We had to find them!”

All I could do was grin…