A couple of weeks back my son-in-law went out-of-town for the weekend and I told my daughter I’d take the grandchildren for the day.

My grandson is five.  He’s just getting into the video games and me, I’m a big fan of Mario, so I figured let’s see what he can do.  Turns out pairing a competitive player (me) with a kid who only wants to make his character run fast and burn his ass on lava isn’t a great combination.  Still I tried.

Me: Grandson we’re going into the castle now, do you have this?

He nods his little head.

Me: Let me hear it.

Grandson: I got this Mimi.

I can get pretty involved with Mario, so it’s probably not a good thing, kids + dogs + Mimi playing Mario.  We were all in the same room, so I figured it was okay.

Mostly my dogs just avoid the kids if they get too grabby or make them uncomfortable and I am right there explaining to the kids the best way to interact.

But I was distracted by Mario and the demon who kept throwing Luigi into the lava.

All of a sudden I heard “WOOF!” and my granddaughter started screaming.  I looked over, she was sitting on the floor in front of Delilah.

Jesus!  Please don’t let her have bit her was my first thought.

I snatched my granddaughter up and checked her over, no blood or marks.  Thank you Jesus!  I hugged her.  “What happened?”

She’s two and a half but can carry on a conversation, “Yiyah WOOF.”

“She barked in your face, huh? That scared you didn’t it?”

She nodded her little blond head. Then being the caring grandmother that I am I said, “What did you do to her?”

Blue eyes looked at me.  “Did you do something to her?”

“I pull tail.”

“Well there you go, she doesn’t like that.  You should never pull the doggie’s tail.”

See how I roll?

 

Actually, I think it’s highly doubtful that she actually PULLED her tail, I’m sure she reached for it, but Delilah has a thing about people coming at her feet and I suspect it was more of my granddaughter reaching and Delilah responding.

It was my fault.  I should have been watching my granddaughter instead of playing video games.  There are so many things that COULD have happened and I’m thankful they didn’t.

Still it was a good lesson for me.  Even if I’m right in the same room, I should never take my eyes off the prize.  The stakes are a lot higher than a burned ass.