I can say it now,
the next day, after watching the video a dozen times:
that really wasn't bad and JD really was being careful
and going for the noodles...
...however even
typing that sentence is insane to me because all the
adults at that table let that slip and honestly? I
blame me because I've grown up with dogs my entire
life and, DUH, you never let a dog eat something out
of a kid's hand. The diversion here was that each step
of the "Cuteness" was so subtle, it didn't even enter
my mind that we were to a point where a dog
THAT size would be eating a
SPAGHETTI NOODLE out of a 9 month old's
hand.
I started on
the other side of the table and our two dogs were
underneath her enjoying her spaghetti feast. It was
extremely cute and the dogs were digging the manna
from heaven. Then Karen said it was cute that LeeLoo
(the tiny one) was licking Vienna's hand, so
I came over to video tape it. This is a legit
warning to those who know. love or even remotely care
about Vienna: this video sucks... but she's completely
fine and didn't even have a MARK on her. I'm honestly
uploading it for other parents with dogs. You should
watch this. You should get a pit in your stomach and
you should let this sink in. However, and
I cannot make this clear enough (in fact new
paragraph time)...
Mom, do not watch
this video. Dad? You're probably ok - lol, but under
no circumstances should my mom hell... she shouldn't
even READ this. Everyone else, it's a great
lesson and let me again reiterate: not a scratch. In
fact JD was incredibly sweet even though he could've
eaten her hand off. Goddamn were we lucky
here...
JD was being
very calm, wagging his tail and simply wanting to
participate in the spaghetti that CeBe and LeeLoo were
enjoying. I was constantly watching his tail and
Vienna was in no position to annoy him and of course,
it happens. She moves her hand back and he goes to eat
the noodles off her hand. Talya says no and pushes him
away immediately, Karen jumps in with a loud NO as
I move closer and it looks like in trying
to get the noodles he gets her fingers. If he did? He
didn't break the skin.. Of course since we're not
accustomed to screaming in Vienna's face, she cries
and stops within 30 seconds. Maybe he caused her some
discomfort but within a minute it was like nothing had
happened... to her. Of course Talya and I have been
privately melting down ever since.
The interesting
part here is that the past 3 days for Vienna has been
the worst diaper rash plus her two front teeth
coming in and she has been in LEGIT pain. She
can't win. Poor sweetie. The interesting part being we
know very well what a pain cry is and she just
never had it with the spaghetti incident. And again on
watching and listening to the video multiple times,
she was just scared because everyone yelled and
jumped. We now know everything is fine and we move
onto what every parent knows: unbelievable
guilt.
We fucked up.
Like, this couuuuuuld have been super bad, and
considering how smart am about animals? How insane
I've been about never leaving her alone with ANY
animal - not even letting our dogs be CLOSER to her
than we are? This was just a massive, massive
screw-up. First of all, JD is too big to be
around kids. Nicest dog ever, but too big to be around
any kid under 7 or 8 years old. I don't give a shit
who disagrees with me, I don't want to hear from
pit-bull lovers about how nice they are, blah, blah
blah... JD being sweet with a baby could still
kill a baby. He's probably heavier than I am. We
have the ability to put him in the guesthouse when
we're outside, and of course we will from now on when
we have the kid with us.
Let me also
repeat, JD did nothing wrong - we did.
Watching the video again you can see how gentle he's
trying to be, we're just the dumbasses that thought it
was FUCKING CUTE to let a 9 month old have a
150 pound dog eat NOODLES off her hand. I rail on and
on about baby pictures with dogs where they put them
face to face and how incredibly stupid that shit is -
and I let that happen?!?!?!
UGGGGGGH.
As you hear in the
video I grabbed Vienna and immediately told
everyone "calm energy, everyone" so we could see if
she was really hurt or just freaking out 'cause others
were freaking out. Once she was alright I saw Talya
kinda processing everything and I told her to
just be cool until we got Vienna to bed (we also had a
bunch of golf peeps coming over right at that
moment) and we could lose our minds when all that was
done...
...and we kinda
did. I mean, in the way two really mellow people
lose their minds, but for several hours (until 1am) we
talked about it, hit every angle and cried a bit...
just processed it all. I knew that for me?
Because I had it on video? I would have to watch
it a bunch so I could desensitize my brain to it.
I had rewatched it once that day, it hurt my
stomach and I couldnt see it again... today
however? It wasn't that bad. Once I was far from
the incident the video was actually helpful. We were
able to settle on the one irrefutable truth: we were
able to learn an extremely valuable lesson,
feel ALL of the guilt and angst of this
mistake... and the baby doesn't have a scratch on her.
That's extremely fortunate. Extremely. Many parents
aren't this fortunate. They do something stupid (like
we all do) and the kid DIES. Or is permanently
injured or hell is even slightly injured! We got
alllllllllllllllll the experience (good and bad) with
NONE of the sacrifice. Whew.
Seriously, whew.
Talya and I will remember this (and the long
night of sick-to-our-stomachs) forever. As I went
to sleep last night I said to Talya: "Goodnight,
enjoy the nightmares". Heh. And now our biggest issue
is how to keep the balance between our kids respecting
dogs and not being scared shitless of them. It
shouldn't be a problem since Vienna will never
remember this but it's gonna take a lot of strength on
our part.
Whew. Cannot
believe I got that on video. LOL. Contrary to
popular belief I don't REALLY have a camera on at all
times.
