Eddie & Laney

Dear Laney,

I moved to Los Angeles in 1998, and got my first "industry" job working as a page on the Paramount lot. On bad days, I gave tours of the studio. Weirdly, most of the tour groups were German and spoke little English and had seen almost no American television. "And here's where the Fonz rode his motorcycle in the opening credits of Happy Days!" I'd announce to blank German stares. Turns out, they were all there because Star Trek filmed on the lot, so I spent most of that summer marching around in starched khakkis, helping Hans and Fritz spot the Klingons.

On good days, I helped seat the audience for the sitcoms that filmed there, including Frasier. Between takes, the audience got to ask questions, and people always wanted to know about Eddie the Dog.

Eddie was played by a dog named Moose, and was trained by a sweet, tiny little French lady. When someone in the audience would ask her how she got Moose to do those complicated tricks, she would always explain that she'd teach him one small step at a time, and then slowly add new pieces to the trick. Go to the door. Go to the door and bark. Go to the door and bark and pretend to tinkle.

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You like to get up every morning at 5:14am. And when you wake up, you immediately want hot chocolate and cartoons and maybe a snack and you aren't shy about waking up everyone else in the house to let us know. I tried to tell you that it isn't nice to wake other people up. I tried to explain the word "selfish" to a 3 year-old. All I wanted in the world was to sleep 'til 7. So I thought for a long time about how to solve this problem. And then I remembered that French lady and Eddie/Moose and started working on it in steps...

The hardest part was waiting on you to develop the upper body strength to open the refrigerator on your own. After that, it came pretty easy: Open the fridge. Take the mug of chocolate milk. Climb the stool. Open the microwave. Press the snowman sticker covering the "30 SEC" button 3 times. Swirl the milk when it comes out so there are no hot spots. Find the iPod with cartoons on the couch. Settle in and hush. One month later, we've advanced to this:

Chocolate milk ready to go and make-your-own-cereal with a mini milk pitcher.

Yesterday, it all came together and you did it all by yourself and when I came down the stairs at 6:45am, you were in the best mood and SO proud of yourself.

MOM, WAS I SO, SO QUIET??

Yes.

Good Laney.

Love,
Mom