Why, o why, do I put up with these yammering humans?
Shove that stuffed animal in my face again and I may just... lean back and ignore you more.

 

Taking a page from the Beatles songbook, here is "A Day in the Life Of Eiley"

Yow, Sister is a monkey! (with a toy warthog in her hand) We played hard, good thing the Romper Room has lots of cushy things to bounce off.
It was a nice day, so I went outside and ate a plastic animal while Mom and Dad cleaned and cleaned and cleaned the romper room.

And then Sister and I both decided to set up our "beds" outside
on the lawn while Mom and Dad finished up lunch

It was a good day. Bad nap after that, but a good day :D

Kids and Cats: Or How Pancho/Fellini Learned to Love the Kid-Bomb

He left for 2 days and then returned: the prodigal (spayed) son. Now, he has to face the combined affectionate wrath of two kids under the age of four. He may survive.


Percy looks away - "the horror... the horror"

Is Percy a mouser? Oh, Yes!

This is Percy coming back after a routine sortie outside. Yeah! Of course, it was from the front yard, not the barn, but give it time, I sez.

 

Cats Cats Cats

We got cats again - we are in desperate need for a mouser out by the barn. Once we decided to do it, it seemed like options came pouring out of the woodwork. Holly found us a cat at the Petsmart, John/Jen's friend rescued strays from the streets of Troy, Don's dad had a cat that needed a home...

Ultimately, we decided to go to the shelter and found two. Yes, two. Cats not kittens. These names came from the shelter, they name them like we name hurricanes. No questions asked, please. We are trying to work in new names, but Bri is sorta set on them.

This is Fellini. 1 yr old, male, ready to mouse, I think. He took several swipes at the dogs to establish who is boss. Naia cowers behind us now. Mira wants to play. Caille doesn't know what to do when he starts growling at her. Yes, growling with his mouth closed. Sounds like a vacuum cleaner, resonating through the floor.


This is Percy, 3 yrs old, male, ready for your lap, but without the clawsy "making biscuits" thing. He is currently hiding under our bed, but he did enjoy hanging out on Bri's bed. Until I started shoveling out the food for the dogs. Apparently, he knows that sound.


I would have posted some more pics, but it was darkish in the house and the camera treats low light situations as a reason to go arty, blurry, out-of-focusey unless I use the flash. And neither cat likes the flash - "run away"!

This is the main area that we store kids' toys now. The bookcases were supposed to be for our overflowing book problem, but they got repurposed pretty darn quick to basket holders.

And they make pretty awesome towers for our "castle" - the dollhouse. The white shelf gives a flat surface for las ninas to climb up and reach the third floor. So much for using that third floor for hiding the "third floor choke-ables". At least no one has fallen down off of it yet. Yet.

NFL Ends "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day"

Eiley is an alligator, Brianna is a ghost - she chose that herself. Both were very scary! We went trick-or-treating at Jen and John's apartment down in Old Troy. Just the right number of folks answering doors. And the consensus was that our ghost and alligator were very very cute. We thought that too.

She likes letters now, Gromit! And the Magna-Doodle has never seen so much use as it has in the last month since Carol came up with the brilliant "Letter of the Day" strategy.

This one Bri wrote entirely by herself, with just coaching as to what letter was next. The strokes and order were hers alone. I am very scared... she is not even 3 1/2.

Eiley is getting in the act too - she likes to pick up the foam letters from the floor mat. Well, just the E and the F so far - but E is always "elephant", just like she heard Bri repeat. I am more sacred now.