Dogs

I have learned my lesson. I will not hold Jenna down to the dog's level next time we have an opportunity to see a dog up close. I think I'm just overzealous in trying to avoid passing on a dog phobia to Jenna. It's not that I want her to want one or think all dogs are friendly (since, hey, there are some mean doggies out there), I just would like her to not be afraid of them. And it's just too early...and dogs are too unpredictable. She doesn't understand licking and sniffing and she got really scared and started bawling. Yeah, dumb on my part...but I'm not that familiar with dogs either, and I thought this one seemed pretty well-behaved. There was no way I could have predicted that, but next time we'll watch from a distance, or *I* will pet the dog. She's just too little. Man, I really felt badly. My intentions were nothing but good, but it went all wrong. Luckily, she was fine a few minutes later and then when we got back inside the house, I googled "dog", and she proved that she was not overly traumatized (phew!) by getting all excited at the pictures and saying, "dog!" (whereas a minute after the incident, when I said "dog" a couple of times, trying to explain that the dog was just saying hello, she started crying again)

It's a good thing little kids give us parents a second chance when we screw up!