I used to think Artie was pretty smart for a dog. At least when it came to food and walks, it seemed Artie’s intelligence skyrocketed to impressive heights. Like most dogs, he knows the word “walk” and can hear you utter it from any room in the house in a magnitude of decible levels. We only use “walk” when we are 100% sure it’s going to happen. It’s the only humane approach really. It just isn’t fair to say, “hey, Kev, you wanna take Artie for a walk now or after lunch?” All Artie hears is “blah blah blah Artie blah walk” which is enough. He’s off the sofa like a shot, bounding around the room, raring to go. How do you explain to him that you were merely contemplating a walk? So we use “walk” to mean “leaving for a walk right now” and we use “W-A-L-K” to discuss a walk in the general sense.

Up until yesterday, this method served us well seeing as how Artie has yet to learn to spell.

Unlike some other small beings in our household.

Lately, after dinner, Kevin will take the dog out for a stroll. If it isn’t raining and above 30 degrees outside, he’ll toss Leina in her baby backpack and take her along too. We’ve been having an unseasonably warm winter here so almost every evening, he’s packed up Leina, hooked up the dog, and headed out. So the other night, after dinner, Kevin asked me, “think it’s warm enough for me to take Leina on the W-A-L-K?”

Artie lay on the sofa, unmoved by this remark.

Leina, however, looked up from putting a fresh diaper on her Elmo dolly and declared, “Walk?” She then toddled over to the closet where her backpack is kept and began pounding the door saying, “open….packpack….open…packpack…WALK!”

This was more than enough for Artie who leapt from the couch and began to hurl his body in twenty different directions to show his joy at the thought of a walk. Kevin and I looked at eachother in disbelief.

Leina is learning how to spell.

And it’s not just “walk”. Oh no, she now understands “E-L-M-O” as well. I’m telling you, Kevin and I are going to have to start brushing up on our French and Spanish if we hope to stay one step ahead of this kid. She’s absolutely amazing.