Conan takes on the sofa.

When you are small, and there are larger things near you, and you are male, it seems that nature dictates that you must conquer that larger thing. I say this because Tuesday night, Little Dog decided it was time for the sofa to feel his superiority.

Usually next to the sofa, there is a small rocking chair that the boys use to climb up on the couch (and then jump off the back in an attempt to land their mother in an early grave) but I had moved this to a new location in my pre-guest cleaning frenzy. The new location was nice for the chair, but it left the sofa open for a fresh attack from little people.

Little Dog decided that it was his mission to climb up on the arm, unassisted, using the the strength in his upper body. Once was not enough, he had to haul himself up again and again.

I was downstairs when this started. All I heard was a loud thud followed by laughing and clapping, a pause, a loud thud more laughing and clapping. Rinse, repeat.

When I came up to see what the commotion was, Little Dog had taken off his shirt, and was grunting and groaning ala Monica Seles as he did repeatedly dominated the sofa. He was sweaty and exhausted, but would not give up. Frustrated with his own exhaustion, he'd shout "I can't do it!" then try his attack one more time with a power-lifter grunt. At this point, he was so tired, he couldn't do it and that was frustrating him even more, but he was still refusing any help. It was quite a sight.
To add to the action Big Dog followed him around the living room with his milk cup coaxing him to "drink some milk, come on", and we got a the feeling that as much as Little Dog was training to be a power lifter, Big Dog was training to be his manager and coach. Once big Dog had talked him down and got him to take a break, I thought we were finished. He had put the sofa in its place, no fear of being overtaken by the seating in our house.

Yesterday he started up again. Mr. Dog dubbed him Conan, and for some reason, this seems to fit. It is like a competitor from the World's Strongest Man Competition has come to stay for a while with his manly grunts of exertion as he goes about proving his strength. It is amusing, but I can only imagine how this will play out as years go on.