Caleb & Super: Hide & Seek

For those of you who are just discovering our shop, or maybe the blog, we are a family business with a baby, Caleb, and a dog, Super. These days, family businesses are growing less common, but I wouldn't say they're uncommon (yet). However, we just live in an apartment in the back, so the line between family and business is sometimes a bit blurred. Caleb and Super are gradually reaching the most interesting point in their relationship that they're ever going to have - the one where they're about as smart as each other. Caleb is currently 17 months old, and Super turns 7 years old this March. I used to joke that Super was pretty dumb because it seemed like Caleb as a baby was smarter than Super, even though supposedly decently bright dogs are about as smart as a 2 or 3 year old. However, I retract that joke, because now I see what they're really talking about. If you've ever seen a dog and a toddler interact, you'll know it's pretty fascinating - I'm always watching to see what's going to happen next. Caleb and Super's relationship has changed so much over such a short time period, and this phase of being mutually dependent on each other is my favourite so far. For the most part, their relationship have evolved into Super discovers something but can't quite reach it, Caleb has opposable thumbs. For example, Super discovers there is possible food available on the kitchen table in a tupperware container, Caleb gets the tupperware and opens it. Recently, we've been playing a lot of hide & seek, which epitomizes their co-dependent relationship.   Super is very, very good at hide and seek. If you hide without him seeing you, which in itself is a very difficult task, he'll notice within seconds that you've gone missing, and he will go and start sniffing around in all the usual hiding places, then start sniffing around the perimeter of the apartment, tail wagging, nose to the floor. Super's only problem is that he can't open doors. Caleb, on the other hand, is pretty terrible at hide and seek. Once he notices you're missing, he'll stand in the middle of the room and yell, and then go to the bathroom and if you're not there, he'll stand and yell from the bathroom. At the very least, though, he's got opposable thumbs. Where Caleb comes in handy for Super is that Caleb can open closet doors and pull off blankets that are hiding suspicious lumps. Caleb has learned to watch Super and follow him around, and once Super barks with his tail wagging, Caleb beelines over. What a team.   They say with babes that the days are long, but the years are short. The months certainly have flown by, but some of these moments are really moments to treasure.

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In the shop, we're getting excited for the TWSBI AL-Green on their way. Maybe tomorrow if we have some magic, but otherwise, on Tuesday. TWSBI says that because of limited production on this colour, this shipment for most retailers will be their only shipment, so this will likely be all we'll be getting of this colour. I'll be announcing on the blog and Instagram and everywhere that we've got it - I'm definitely keeping one - a green 580 with brown ink is right up my alley. Spring in my pen roll. We're slowly making our way through our list of new products to be added online, including new Leuchtturm Dot Notebooks, and a few other things. We've got some calligraphy products also to be added online that I'm pretty excited about. I found these Wonder Grip toothbrushes, which I couldn't resist. I also found a chunk of banana inside Jon's pillow case, which I'm assuming Caleb left there. When I asked Caleb about it, he gave me his signature blank look and ran away. He's getting faster and faster these days. I guess the real mystery is why Super hadn't found it and eaten it before I could've discovered it.