Parenthood: Week 342 – This Is Six

As I carried the basket of clean laundry up to our bedroom, I tried to be as quiet as possible. I had just gotten Ethan to sleep and Diana had finished reading to Ollie. The hallway was dark and I walked carefully walked trying not to bump the sides of the laundry basket against the walls.

I angled the laundry basket just right to fit through the door frame when I heard faint singing. I put the laundry down and approached Ollie’s door. I listened at his door and heard his soft singing. I couldn’t name the tune, but it was peaceful and gentle. Sometimes Ollie borderline screams when he sings along with his favorite songs. This was different. It was contemplative, gentle, and warm.

I slowly entered the room and Ollie continued to sing as I sat down on his bed. Ollie smiled at me and stopped his song.

“Hey Buddy, what are you doing?”

“I’m singing…”

“Is this helping you go to sleep?”

“Yes.”

I explained, “There’s different ways to go to sleep. Sometimes we read a book, other times we think about things that we are looking forward to, or people that we love. Sometimes we sing ourselves to sleep. It’s a really nice thing to sing ourselves to sleep, do you want to sing a song with me?”

Ollie nodded yes, and I crawled into bed with him. We sang together our special lullaby, which I sang to him when he was a baby. It’s to the tune of “Edelweiss,” from The Sound Of Music.

Ollie bear, Ollie bear,
You’re my cutey patootey.
You’re a cutey, and a patootey
And I love you soooo much.

You are my beautiful Ollie bear,
and I love you so much.

Ollie bear, Ollie bear,
You’re my special little guy.

Ollie giggled as I sang and joined me for some of the song. “If you want to keep singing when I leave, that’s okay, but don’t sing for too long, you need to get some rest for school tomorrow.”

We gave each other kisses and shared a hug. I told him that I loved him and I walked out his room quietly. I closed his door gently.

I stood there for a moment smiling to myself and after a couple seconds Ollie started singing to himself again, and I walked away into the dark hall with the sound of my special little guy’s voice making our house feel like a home.

Overlooking Buffy

I’ve always known that Buffy was a good dog.

From the day I met her, she has enriched our lives with meaning and joy. She’s a family member, a partner and one of the most important living creatures in my life.

Sometimes we take the people in our lives for granted. When people do great things for us everyday we get used to these things. While it’s good to expect great things out of the people around us, we can’t forget to show gratitude for who they are and their presence in our life.

Like with other people in life, there are times that I have overlooked great things that Buffy has done. Especially in the past year with Diana’s pregnancy and Ollie entering our lives, Buffy's greatness has sometimes been overlooked.

Even when she didn’t get as long walks as she should or wasn't played with as much as she deserved, she was always there with us and for us through the past year. This was clearly displayed over and over again on our recent trip to visit my parents in Seattle.

We took Buffy and Ollie with us to visit my family in Seattle for the week of New Years. With all of the stress of taking a baby on a plane, Buffy did exactly what we needed her to do. In the past she has had issues being settled during take off and landing. Also, right before going to the airport sometimes she didn’t understand that she really had to do her business because she wouldn’t get another chance for hours. All of these issues that we had with her on past plane flights weren’t there. Somehow she knew that we needed to focus on Ollie.


Buffy continued to be great with Ollie when we were at my parents’ house. Now that Ollie is scooting around he moves towards Buffy, grabs handfuls of hair and often swats at her. Buffy is very patient with him and lets him do this and when she is tired of him, instead of growling she simply walks away. What I didn’t expect is how great Buffy was with my niece.

My niece is about one and half, so when the idea came up that she would walk Buffy I wasn’t sure how this would go. Buffy in general does a great job walking on a leash but if there’s a squirrel or another dog, she will let you know that she wants to move in that direction. So I was a little nervous when this toddler held Buffy’s leash and started walking down the street.

I had walked down this street previously with Buffy and knew there were spots that she liked to sniff but she ignored them as this little girl held her leash. Buffy perfectly matched her pace and when she dropped the leash (which happened a couple times), Buffy simply stood there and waited for her to pick it up again.

Buffy was being completely selfless and patient with my niece. I’ll never forget the smile my niece had on her face when she held Buffy’s leash and I’ll never forget the way that Buffy stood there like a mother looking after her puppies. 

Buffy is amazing every day but this moment reminded me of this in a way that I never thought about before.

My mom always told me that it was important to fill my life with people that I admire, people that I want to be like. I admire Buffy and one day when I grow up I want to be just like her. Buffy is smart and caring. She is giving but she’s not a doormat. She stands up for herself and lets you know what she’s thinking. Buffy believes that every person or dog has the same warmth that she does. She’s amazing with children and lives only to bring comfort into people’s lives.

I hesitate to tell people that Buffy is my dog, because she’s so much more than an animal I own. I don’t even know how to describe what she means to be me because no label fits.

Buffy is and always will be one of the most beautiful souls I've been blessed to share my life with.