Ryan -vs- The Bear

Last week, I had the pleasure of babysitting Ryan, a 6 month old little angel. I noticed that evening, that I was very relaxed and had a nice quiet evening. Man, taking care of Ryan is so much easier than taking care of Bear. I know that this won't last, and once Ryan starts to crawl and walk he will most likely give Lori a run for her money - but right now, he is such a pleasure to watch.

If you put Ryan down in one spot, 30 seconds later he is still in that spot. If you put Bear in one spot and tell him to stay, 30 seconds later he is nowhere to be found, and most likely has one of your belongings in his mouth.

When Ryan starts to cry, he either needs a diaper change or needs to be fed. Then he stops crying. When Bear barks at you, he maybe wants to go out or maybe wants to play - but most of the time he will continue to bark at you for no reason at all, for about a half hour until he gets tired.

If I leave a cell phone, sunglasses, remote control, keys on the table - Ryan doesn't care that they are there and will leave them alone for the most part. Bear can grab these items, not matter how far back on the counter or high you put them, and will take them out in the backyard and destroy them.

Ryan doesn't jump on the couch. Bear jumps on the couch, and even pushes you over if he thinks you are taking up too much of his space.

When you put Ryan to bed, he only takes a couple of minutes to fall asleep. When you put Bear to bed, you can hear him ripping up his bedding and his new thing is to pull the carpet up and away from the wall.

When Ryan has an accident, he has a diaper on and you just go change it. When Bear has an accident - which he was doing a lot when Scott left home, you have to clean up the carpet and eventually steam clean the thing.

When you go outside with Ryan, he sits in his carrier and enjoys his surroundings. When you go outside with Bear, you end up with muddy paw prints on your shirt and many holes in the backyard.

This list can go on and on - but overall, I think Ryan is the clear Low Maintenance Winner. Or could it be that we just ended up with Satan's spawn as a dog.