Since Asa’s arrival home I have considered our relationship as I am the teacher and he is the student.  But it dawned on me that I could learn a thing or two from Asa.  Case in point, stealing socks.  I LOVE socks!  Who can resist the way they smell, how tasty they are to chew on, and how fun it is to play keep away from Mom and Dad when they try to get it back!  It is a shame they don’t readily share them with us.  Over the years my sock stealing technique has evolved into the grab and run.  I will run into the bathroom, grab one from the laundry bag, and then run downstairs with reckless abandonment as fast as I can to enjoy my ill-gotten toy.  Only to have Mom or Dad chase after me to retrieve it.  Sadly I always cave when it comes to the “drop it” command.  As much as I love socks, I love treats more.

One day though, while I was lazily napping in the sunshine, I noticed Asa had a sock.  What intrigued me was despite being a few feet away from him, Dad didn’t notice.  Ok, so his face was buried in his iPhone as usual, but still I was intrigued.  The sock was eventually noticed and removed, but not until he had it for quite some time.  So I started paying attention to the little bandit, and realized he had developed sock stealing into an art form!  First, he would wait until everyone was distracted.  Next, he would ever so slowly creep his way towards the laundry bag so as not to attract attention to himself.  Finally, once the sock was safely in his mouth, Asa would nonchalantly walk to a quiet spot to enjoy it.  Who would have guessed that behind that fuzzy little face lurked the brains of a criminal mastermind?

Clearly my first mistake was my fast movement that alerted Mom and Dad that I was up to something.  Followed by the fact I always run downstairs to my bed to enjoy it.  How could I hide the stolen goods if they knew in advance exactly where I’d take it?!  Well played Asa!  Now I just need to discipline myself to follow his example, but don’t tell him that!