We (my then-boyfriend/now-husband and I) noticed not long after we got our puppy, Amani, that she Reacted Strongly to any hugging or affection we showed each other. In fact, she would jump up on her hind legs, bark, and appear to want to be a part of it all. Sort of strange, but reassuring in that the strongest reactions were to relatively benign, vertical hugging. This was in 1997, 8, 9. Eventually she either got used to it, or we dramatically decreased our affection to one another, or she got older, or Whatever.
Fast forward to 2008. I have some tension-related back, neck, and shoulder pain, and my dear husband has been willing to give me some much-needed back kneading. On demand. In the kitchen, when I am cooking dinner, in particular. Unfortunately, our little verging-on-two-year-old is Having None of It. She will emerge from Wherever she is, Whatever she is doing, to dramatically and emotionally protest this hand-on-shoulder contact between her father and mother. She manuevers herself around me to threaten her dad with chubby balled-up fists. It's a little bizarre.
I am at the point with NEEDING MASSAGE that I am like, "I don't care if she screams, Husband. Keep your Hands Moving On My Shoulders, or ELSE."
Seriously, folks. How can you possibly foresee the complexity of parenthood? It's...Wow.
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