The other day, we had a family over to our house with two little girls. The oldest was about 10, and the youngest was 5. While the older one enjoyed playing with my sisters, the little one loved playing with Pippin. I had him do his tricks for them both, which are; BANG! (that is, flop over and play dead after I “shoot” him with my finger), Shake, High-five (self-explanatory those), and “Over”. “Over” has come to mean; Jump-over/through-anything-I-tell-you-to-jump, though at first I was only working towards getting him to jump through my arms. It was this trick that delighted the little girl the most. She loved to drop to her knees and touch her forehead to the floor and say “Over! Pip, over!” I would motion and say the command, and Pippin would go flying across her little back. Then she would get up and stretch her arms into a circle and say “Over! Hey, Pivot! Over!” (for some reason, at first she thought his name was Pivot, even though she knew his nick-name was Pip. Cute name though, isn’t it?). The problem was, she was wearing a wind-breaker, and her arms were tiny. Therefore, when she leaned over to make the biggest circle she could, the jacket puffed out and filled her tiny circle, so Pippin couldn’t see it! There was nothing to jump over as far Pippin could see. As a result, he didn’t do it. I tried to tell her about her jacket, but I’m not sure I did a good job… I was trying to tell her kindly, but I wanted to laugh. It was so funny! 

And so, a few days later, the family was going to stop by again. When they got there, the Mother told us what the little girl had been saying. “When are we going to Pippin’s house, Mommy? Are we going soon? Are we going to Pippin’s house?” LOL LOL LOL! ROFL!