Barky the Dog

After being sequestered in the house for days with what appeared to be the flu, I decided last Tuesday I had to get out of the house and go.... to the mall. I mean, shopping is the universal cure, after all. Or, I thought it was, anyway. Turns out I have pneumonia, and that is cured by antibiotics, not the mall.

But, back to the mall. On Tuesday Peanut and I ventured out to window shop. And buy some new books, since being sick had exhausted my stash of books.

After the bookstore we decided to look around at Hallmark. Cute store, generally not kid friendly, but Peanut manages to stay out of trouble. I tell him not to touch anything and he sits quietly in his stroller looking around at all the fragile figurines.

We pass by a particularly precarious display of translucent hearts, and Peanut's little hand flies out with the speed of a Rattlesnake on Crack. Before I can stop him, my son has grabbed.... a colorful stuffed dog!

Peanut immediately clutches the stuffed dog to his chest and says, "What a cute puppy!"

Peanut is not usually even remotely attracted to anything resembling stuffed animals, but apparently he had a connection with this dog. Peanut named this dog "Barky the Dog," and it was clear we would not be leaving the store without Barky.

Now Barky eats, sleeps and plays with Paul. It is pretty cute, actually.