Love/Hate

I've mentioned recently Ben's love of dogs. Wherever we go, if he sees someone with a dog he will go up to the owner and ask if he can pet it and ask what kind of dog it is. If we're driving in the car and happen to see a dog while at a stop light or something he'll put his window down and yell out -- "WHAT KIND OF DOG IS THAT??" (Or "IS THAT A MALTESE??")

Becca, unfortunately, hates dogs. She seems to like them from far away -- that is, if she sees one down the street or out the car window she'll point excitedly and say "Doggie! Doggie!" But if one comes within, say, 15 feet of her, she'll start to fuss and ask to be picked up and bury her head in my shoulder and whimper "doggie... doggie..." And if the dog comes within 5 feet she'll go into outright hysterics. Sometimes you can fool her if it's a very, very small dog. The other day we met two chihuahas on our walk and she was mostly okay with those.

Becca is now beginning to be able to express verbally her feelings about things she doesn't like, at least a little bit. A recent "conversation" went like this:

ME: Look - a doggie!
BECCA: DOGGIE! Doggie! Doggie!
ME: Do you like doggies?
BECCA: No!
ME: Do you like kitties?
BECCA: KITTY!!
ME: Do you like Daddy?
BECCA: DADDY!!
ME: Do you like doggies?
BECCA: NO!!