Sunday 4 January 2009

rocking

I usually read in the corner of the livingroom.

In a rocking recliner that has seen better days. Our first piece of new furniture after we married, it quickly became discolored and stained.

We had a baby. (Which did nothing for the staining and discoloring.) and after awhile, the seat started to rip. (Personally, I always thought it had something to do with the friction of my nightgowned bum shoving back into it at three in the morning.)

But it was still the most comfortable spot in the livingroom, so I found a nice cover for the torn part and we carried on.

We had another baby. She loved the swaying ka-thunk rhythm of the chair and snoozed a long part of her babyhood - day and night - (R was a horrible, horrible sleeper) away, often falling asleep to (yet another) Law And Order re-run.

The kids piled into the chair whenever we took pictures. They put a sheet over it and played fort, and tent, and marooned on a desert island. The old chair was a boat, a rocket, a bus ( sweet voices singing "The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round") a train, a sled and a stage.

Now-a-days, they use it for target practice, parachute practice, home base for hide and seek, and a time-out chair.

But no one really sits in it anymore. I read in it during the day sometimes, but as a chair, an actual well-loved and used chair? It's not used for that much anymore.


Well, not by a person, at least.

As soon as we head upstairs to go to bed, there's a thwack as the recliner rocks backwards and Jasper drags his weary bones up into the chair.

(He's not really allowed, but he pretty much operates on the 'They're not here, and what they don't know won't hurt them' policy.)

I do the requisite scolding and 'git-ting' if
we catch him slinking apologetically off the recliner in the morning, but it does my heart good

to see that someone still loves the old chair.

13 comments:

witchypoo said...

My grandfather's middle name was Jasper. Are we related?

Anonymous said...

We operate on a similar policy with our lab and furniture. The one exception being that she likes to get up on our bed when we leave the house and pretend she's the boss. She lays all over our pillows so we now shut the bedroom door when we leave.

Suzanne said...

Awww, Jasper just feels all the love that that chair has held in it's embrace.

jAMiE said...

What a beauty Jasper is...i love dogs and chocolate labs especially.

Away2me (Deanna) said...

Isn't it nice to know that lovely chair is appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Hasn't that chair served a long and wonderful life?! And that dog sure looks pretty content!

Yo-yo Mama said...

When our glider/rocker developed a wood on wood squeak, I was miffed. My mom was the first to tell me that is what helps babies fall asleep: that strange, rhythemic (sp) noise...and she was right.

Anonymous said...

Awwwwww.

I wish I had a chair for Poopy to sleep in...instead of between me and Mr. Hot all night long.

Hey, Poopy is 1/2 chocolate lab. Maybe WE'RE related. ;-)

Woman in a Window said...

Oh yes, keep it alive Jasper, you naughty, naughty dog!

alison said...

I have a chair just like that. My ex and I bought it when I was expecting Leah. It reclines, it rocks, and it's huge. We can still all squish ourselves in (with difficulty) and almost recreate pictures taken in that chair of me, Leah and Rae just home from the hospital.

Jasper obviously knows where the best seat in the house is.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it funny how an inanimate object can have life by the life that surrounds it? My chocolate lab loves any piece of furniture he can smell me on....

great site.

Anonymous said...

Jasper looks so warm and cozy I want to give him a hug.

MsCellania said...

That rotten dog doesn't even look apologetic in that photo!
He probably loves it because it smells like all of you. Smart boy!

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