Obama dog knocks over toddler

Sunny, the Obamas’ new puppy, knocked down a 2-year-old girl Wednesday who was visiting the White House for the unveiling of the holiday decorations.

Sunny and Bo, the other Obama dog, were brought into the State Dining Room to visit children who were taking part in holiday crafts.

{mosads}The 1-year-old puppy tried to escape her handler, knocking down 2-year-old Ashtyn Gardner in the process.

The little girl got up quickly, and her dad, John, said she was fine.

Michelle Obama was present and helped Ashytn to her feet. The first lady later checked on the little girl again and gave her a hug.

Obama was unveiling the 2013 holiday decorations and had invited military families and their children to see them.

John Gardner, a member of the Navy from Mobile, Ala., was there with his wife and three kids.

The children were decorating ornaments, making Rudolf reindeers out of lunch bags and fashioning paper poinsettias when the incident occurred.

Both dogs stayed in the room and there were no further accidents.

The theme of this year’s White House holiday decorations is “Gather Around” and several ornaments on the 24 trees throughout the complex honor military families.

Nearly 70,000 visitors are expected to see the decorations, which include life-size replicas of Sunny and Bo plus a 300-lb. edible White House made out of gingerbread. There are also trees made out of books, which will be donated to book fairs after the holidays, and several of the decorations were recycled from previous holidays and remade into new items.

The first lady thanked service members and their families in her opening remarks in the East Room, welcoming them to the White House and noting not even President Obama had seen the decorations yet.

She then led the kids into the State Dining room for activities, telling the parents not to worry about them, saying “nothing can be broken that can’t be fixed.”

She then joked that if it can be broken, “my kids have broken it.”

This story was updated at 3:38 p.m.