Homebodies

Every morning, he's watching.  And waiting.

Morning: everybody is hungry and waiting for me to feed them.

The watering hole.

Someday Anikan will fall in. The giant goldfish will then commence eating his first cat.

Lazy Saturday morning, watching cartoons.

Lemon PoppySeed Muffins.

My seedlings, lining the windowsill.

Silly and Sweet.

Do you ever have the feeling that somehow, somewhere, a giant goldfish is watching you?

Dude.  This is one sad and hungry fish.  Considering goldfish antidepressants.

Giant Goldfish Mercury as Admiral Ackbar "It's a trap!"--Star Wars Reference provided by Derrick

It's a unicorn worm, handmade by Kloe

Tug of war with Jessy.

A Morning of EeWww

There is nothing quite like being woke up at 6:45 in the morning by a frantic, eight year old crying about a very bad smell in her room. 

A smell that she wants nothing to do with and so would you please do something about that please. 

A smell whose origins have everything to do with a furry little critter that she scrimped and saved for months to have. 

We had a true lesson on puppyhood (babyhood, really) this morning.  Took me back to the days of my own chillins' and the delights of waking up to a ripe diaper that didn't quite make it through the night, to the delight of a curious and artistic toddler.

Anyways, Jessy's crate was a stink fest this morning- obviously something didn't agree with her yesterday.  Getting the whole morning mess cleaned up was a three man job- Derrin gave her a bath, and Kloe and I cleaned the crate, gagging and tearing up the whole time.

Actually, Kloe was trying to back away from the door (as most people with a functioning olfactory system would be), and I was barking like a drill Sargent for her to get back in there and help me out because, by all that is holy, I am NOT going to be cleaning puppy-poo up all by myself at 6:45 in the morning!!!  Ah, it really was like a walk back in time into early parenthood.

Writing about this is way more fun that actually doing it in this case...

Talking about family pets, Derrin's black moor passed on yesterday.  Not 'Wolf', who died awhile ago, but 'Koakanee'.  RIP Koakanee.  And now his other fancy goldfish 'Granite' appears to be ailing, despite special salt baths and water cycling.  These 'special' goldfish are too hard to keep alive!  Give me a plain ol' goldfish anyday!  I'm pretty sure I could strip my floor with the amount  of ammonia in Mercury's (my giant regular goldfish) aquarium.  You'd have to run him though the washing machine before he kicked the bucket.

So, now that our exciting morning has calmed down, my day should be a fairly calm one.  It is GREY out there.  Looks nothing like what a July morning should look like; clouds are hanging low along the mountain, the grass is wet and it smells like rain.  It's been a stormy summer. 

Derrick already left for work, so I'm thinking I will unfold the treadmill and give that a whirl.  I've been trying a different running strategy- shorter runs (around 3 miles @ 30 minutes, plus warm up and down walking) every day instead of the 6 mile run every other day.  I can run harder with no walk breaks for the shorter distance.  I'm less achy with the shorter runs, and my brain functions better if I get out there every day.  I'm also thinking that a half hour on the treadmill won't be 'death by boredom' like a full hour would be.

When Derrick gets home, we'll be taking a trip into town to two of my very favorite places, the IRS building and Verizon.  As both places are patently reasonable and non-money grubbing, we shouldn't be there too long.

Summer Days

It is so hard to consistently write in here when it is so beautiful out side and there is so much to do.  If I lived some place always hot and beautiful, I might never write again.  Maybe winter and cold rainy days serve the purpose of causing the angst and discontentment needed to write.  I'd like to believe they do, in fact, serve some purpose. 

Since words are failing me, I'm just gonna post some pictures of summer.

After 2nd Convention Day
At the Pool (We had our District
Convention last weekend in Kennewick.)

Soaking up a little Sunshine.

 

Kiddos burning some energy up after
sitting and listening so well all day.

Big Beautiful Strawberries(from the little patch in my backyard)

My Little Vege Garden

Flowers and Herbs

Strawberry Patch

Kloe and Her Baby

Jessy

 



Jessy's Dog Momma, Gertie, right before we brought Jessy home.

 Kloe has been doing such a good job taking care of Jessy.  It hasn't been easy for her either!  Usually summer has a lot of sleep-in days for her, but since Jessy moved in, Kloe gets up a couple times a night to let her go outside and she has to get up early for potty/breakfast/puppy playtime.  Not that all of this has happened with zero whining, but it has been fairly minimal.  Like I said, she's doing a good job.

She Did It! A New Puppy for Kloe

It was two and a half months ago (April 15th to be exact) that Kloe and her Daddy struck a deal that if she could save two hundred dollars, she could get a puppy.  Since that day, she has scrimped and saved and squirrelled away every penny she could beg, find, or work for.  She has borrowed every book about dogs from the library that she could find.  She has made our family watch every dog movie known to mankind.  She has never lost focus even for a second.

Her dad has been very impressed, which is impressive, as he is not easily impressed.  The two hundred dollar requirement was not really about the money, it was just to show how committed she was to having a dog.  Having a dog is a bit like having another kid in our family, it's a big deal. 

She will have one hundred dollars by the end of this week, and he decided that between the money saved and all of the work she did to educated herself about having a dog, she is ready.

We found a puppy right down the road from my dad's house.  She is a beauty:)

She is a six week old boxer.  We paid for her today, but they are going to hold her for us for the next ten days so we can pick her up after our convention.

A Happy Girl

The Tortures of Cleaning One's Room

For the love of PETE. 

Kloe has been in her room for FOUR HOURS, "cleaning".  Argh.  I was ready to jump in there are three and a half hours ago to do it myself, but then I got the 'She'll never learn to do it herself if you keep jumping in there to do it' speech from Derrick, so I withdrew.  Talk about torturing the both of us.  If I wasn't determined to clean her carpet tomorrow I would just give up. 

Not worth it. 

BUT, since giving up isn't an option for either of us at this point, and she only has thirty-five minutes left before bedtime, I've had to resort to threatening to keep her lizards in my room for a while.  I actually hear a lot more movement in her room, so maybe everything will be work out?  A lot of flinging and flouncing actually.  I'm definitely not on her 'top five parent list' at the moment.

Derrin's still working in his room too.  He's doing the finer details, like figuring out what to do with all the shoes lining his walls.  I think it only took him so long because I found a really cool fish tank for his room today, so he was moving his little bug-eye goldfish "Wolf" over to his new home and coaxing him to eat.

We bought Wolf yesterday at Walmart.  I'm hoping that he lives longer than any of the other fish I've bought from there.  Usually they only make it a week or two before floating belly up.  He (*as in DERRIN, not WOLF- thanks for calling me about that Renae-haha* :) was willing to go grocery shopping with me if I took him to Pet Smart, but then Pet Smart was closed.  He was one sad little guy.  Getting the fish at Walmart made the sad face go away.  Hopefully it's not back in a couple weeks.

While Derrin and I were out fish/grocery shopping, Derrick took Kloe to get a new bike- her feet were draggin on the ground on her old one. By their bike riding accounts, a good time was has by all (as in Kloe and Derrick- Derrin and I were on the aforementioned grocery shopping expedition).

Okay.  The moment of truth is coming up (13 extra minutes, hopefully spent well).  Time to go check out the rooms and then kiss some kids before sleepy time.  Hoping Kloe's lizards aren't coming into the Gramma Lizard's room.

~Dog Art~

It's not too hard to decipher what Kloe is thinking about these days.  With her laser like focus, she will have one of these guys before too long.


Looks like a Black Lab.



He will be protective.

Maybe a Yellow Lab?

Her dog will be very happy.

Words become Ideas become Actions

I'm reading a new book called "Today We Are Rich" by Tim Sanders (free on my Kindle!), and so far it is really good.  It reminds me a bit of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. In fact, Tim Sanders has used quotes from that book.  The author writes about lessons he learned from his wise ol' gramma Billye.  She believed in the power of thoughts, and was very deliberate about what she put in her brain, whether from books, tv, movies, or even friends conversations.  She was a believer in we are whatever our dominate thoughts are, and that thoughts can either hold us down or propel us forward.  I just finished reading these paragraphs (which I strongly need to apply): 

"When you sense you are about to feed your mind a bad memory, spit it out.  One way I do this is to see the negative memory as a headline on a whiteboard.  Then, with my mental eraser I wipe it off the board.  If it continues to try to present itself, I consciously say to myself, Delete, please.

We need to avoid the reintroduction of a bad memory that we've thought about before.  Often we continue to generate thoughts of regret by reliving our mistakes, and we become trapped in what Billye called the "woulda shoulda coulda" trap.  The more we chew on the painful past, the more details the subconscious coughs up, and the more it expands in our thinking.  Once we've learned a lesson from a mistake, we need to declare the details "useless memories" and discard them.  Store the insight, delete the details."

He talks about his gramma's morning routine- she'd get up early, make coffee, read her bible for fifteen minutes, then read something else inspirational, then write about her thoughts and what she'd read, then call her best friend who had a similar routine so they could discuss what they'd learned that morning.  I love her routine!  I want that!!  It sounds like what I've always wanted and yet haven't done- I blame it on my comfortable bed. Feeling very inspired to make changes.

Talking about the power of thoughts, here is an update on Kloe's dog project:  She has now saved thirty dollars.  She's been folding laundry- I found out yesterday that Derrick is paying her two dollars a basket.  We went to the library yesterday and she checked out three books about dogs, and one video (Dogs for Dummies) which we watched last night.  We've been watching every dog movie known to mankind on Netflicks.  I feel like we should all be receiving some sort of Canine degree or diploma, we have been that educated.  The little girl is focused and very committed.  This would be a good time of year to adopt of puppy; we'd have all summer for potty training and playing outside.  I've never been a dog person, but Kloe's enthusiasm is contagious and I'm excited too.

The house is a wreck- stacks of laundry still await to be folded- should have kept Kloe home from school for that! heh.  We have our C.O. visit this week, so there is more on the agenda then usual. I need to make a choice to either fold laundry and clean the house, or go running.  I'm pretty sure I know what choice will win out.  It is bee-uu-teee-ful out there.  Laundry will wait.

Two hours later... 
The laundry and dirty didn't wait.  It grabbed me as I tried to make my way from the house, and just MADE me wash and clean it.  No run today.

What exactly IS everything a dog needs?

Yesterday Kloe came bounding in to my to announce, "Daddy said I can get a DOG!!!"

Hmmm.  Didn't seem like something he would say.  So I said nothing, and let her keep talking.

"He said that if I save up all my money to get everything that a dog needs, I can get a dog!!!  So I'm going to save all my money, and buy a bunch of dog food, a collar, toys..."

Fifteen minutes later, we are in the car on our way to meeting and she is still talking,"...do you like dalmatians, Momma?  "Cuz I like dalmatians.  Or what kind of puppy did Brandon and Lyndsay get, the one they named Zea? (doberman) I like that kind of dog too, except I don't like the bandages on their ears....."

Ten minutes later, a lot of dog talk in between...

"....I like retrievers too!  Do you like retrievers Momma?  I'd like a brown retriever, but yellow and golden ones are good too...."

Two hours later we are in the car again.  And again the subject was.... yep.

This morning  she comes running into my bedroom to ask for two more cents because that would make her have six whole dollars in her dog fund.

As soon as she got home for school she told me about all of the names she'd been thinking about for her dog, about how that was all she thought about ALL day (Except for during math.  She made sure she paid attention to math.) Then she asked if we could go to the store so she could buy her first bag of dog food with her six dollars to start gathering the aforementioned "everything that a dog needs" requirement to actually get the dog.

I'd say her heart is set on this in a very big way.  I have deliberately kept myself out of the equation, choosing instead the supportive role of "dream listener" which is no small task when the one you are listening to is an eight year old who is capable of talking enthusiastically  non-stop for hours at amazing speeds.  I was not in on the original conversation. 

So, I guess that I'm going to have to say to be continued....

While the kids are gone...

My plan this morning involved cleaning the carpets in both the kids' rooms since they would have time to dry before the kids got home on Sunday. I went into Kloe's room and discovered that somehow in the 12 hours between when it was last cleaned and we left (most of which were spent sleeping), somehow a rock bomb went off in there. Seriously, there is rubble everywhere. What can I say? My girl loves rocks passionately- she has hundreds in her room, stored away in boxes in her closet, and sometimes she sets them free. Another thing she is passionate about are her lizards. The other day she was showing me a big size tic-tac container filled with white flaky stuff. Turns out she saves her lizards skin when they shed. Yeah, a little... um, eccentric? I asked her why she wanted to save the skins, and she said "to remember them!" I guess it isn't any weirder than saving your baby's first hair cut, right? :)
So, tomorrow includes cleaning up the rubble, and getting the kid's rooms mom-clean before they get back.

Squirrels vs. ME and a cat

.Every time we are about to leave town for any amount of time, something always seems to happen to make the going a little more interesting and difficult. This has previously shown up in the form of crayons in the dryer while trying to finish laundry before a trip. This has shown up in the form of pickles and sick little girl before a trip. This time it involved squirrels and a cat... before a trip.

About a week ago we added a couple new members to our family (given to us by our friends Alta and Kevin)- a couple of degus squirrels (http://www.erodent.co.uk/DeguInfo.htm) by the name of Mike and ChiChi. The are cute little critters, although Mike is the only one the kids really want to hold as ChiChi has a reputation for being a biter. We all like them, but one of our family has gone beyond "liking" them. Anikan, our cat, has REALLY taken to them. He watches them like the food network. He lays there for hours- it's really a little disturbing to see him transform into such a heavy breathing stalker. Thankfully their cage (aquarium style) has a screen on the top, so any ideas of squirrel kitty snacks have not been attainable up to this point.

I noticed yesterday that the side of the screen had a small hole in it. This did not surprise me at all since Anikan has taken to laying on their cage to peer down at them and salivate at any opportunity (which is whenever we aren't around to scold him). Very naughty kitty. Most of the time my first indication he was laying on the cage would be Mike squeaking indignantly at him. Anikan has gotten extra fat this winter, so that also probably added some extra strain to the screen. The final straw happened last night. I missed the whole drama- for once I was the heavy sleeper, and Derrick was the one being annoyed by the cat. He said he heard crashing around in the kitchen, and Anikan making crazy noises. When he went into the kitchen, Ani had broken through the screen finally and was looking for his midnight snack. Derrick foiled his plot at the last second, I'm sure much to Anikan's chagrin.

This morning I found Mike and ChiChi safe in my bathroom with a large book and my bathroom scale on top of their cage to keep them in. The screen is pretty much toast. I figured they were pretty safe in the bathroom, so I left them in there. I got the kids up and ready for school, and then did my hour on the treadmill. When I walked through my bedroom to my bathroom, I noticed a little movement out from the corner of my eye. It was Mike, creeping into my closet.

I freaked out a little- Alta and Kevin had warned us about the Degus skill at chewing through pretty much anything. I had visions of returning from Maui to a closet of chewed up clothes and dead squirrels. To add to the stress of the situation, I was already running late for work and this was sure to put me over the time limit. I checked the cage in the bathroom- sure enough, ChiChi was also missing. Mike was actually pretty easy to catch, but ChiChi was IMPOSSIBLE. She was under the bed, then behind my shelf, the behind the dresser. I chased her around and around. I found a longish stick, so I started poking it at her, trying to herd her towards a corner. It was me versus squirrel, and the squirrel was winning. Then she disappeared. I continued poking around with my stick, under the bed, behind the dresser for another five minutes or so before deciding to try to take a quick shower and also her to feel safe again before another game of pursuit. When I went into the bathroom, there she was waiting by her cage. I am hoping that when I get home from work they haven't escaped again and found there was into our heating duct or crawl space.

OK. So, before we leave tomorrow, add trying to find a cage strong enough to keep our massive cat away from our escape artist squirrels. We'll figure out something- one way or the other we are OUTTA HERE (To Maui!!!)!!!

The Forty Dollar Goldfish

So, I was reading through some old blogs of mine, when I noticed the one about when my goldfish Fred died. I had just bought him a goldfish wife, who we hadn't named yet. She got the unfortunate name of "Fred's Widow" when he died within days of her purchase. I am sure she didn't care though.

What she might have cared about is the fact that by early winter I still had not taken her out of our little front yard pond. I would peek in now and then and say such things as,"I hope that little fish is okay!" or, "Hmm. I am afraid her chances INSIDE are much worse than this ice encrusted pond". I, after all, had unintentially murdered at least six of her goldfish brethren the winter before in an attempt to keep them alive inside. My lesson was learned. Rachel is a fish killer. But an apologetic one.

My brother Danny heard about my poor little fish one day when I was wondering out loud how long a fish can be frozen solid and yet still come back to life at Spring. Danny is good with fish. He manages to keep them alive for long periods of time. Clearly not a family trait. He volunteered to take my little goldfish into his fishtank, where he gave Fred's widow a lovely home for many months.

About a month ago she wore out her welcome. She grew ENORMOUSLY under his loving care. She is the size of an edible perch. Not only that, but she had taken to the charming habit of eating Danny's other fish. As snacks. It was time for Fred's Widow to come home.

I picked her up last weekend, determined not to kill her after the love and attention my bro put into keeping her alive. It is again too cold to put her in the pond, and she is much too big for a bowl. I had to buy a tank. Equipped with filter and heater. Fred's Widow is now living large (for a fifty cent goldfish bought with the intent of keeping another goldfish company who died within DAYS of her purchase...). And that is how my fifty cent goldfish turned into a forty dollar goldfish.

Thought it was a Romance BUT...

...it was a tragedy...

Fred Fish was found belly up in the bottom of his home in the pond district late Friday night. His widow, Stripey Fish, was frantic and without words as to what caused her dear ones demise. An investagation is under way.

Fred was a loving husband and avid swimmer. He was 13 months old (31 goldfish years). He will always be remembered as "the one who got away" from the human woman because he managed to hide in the rocks from her to cleverly save his own life. He will be greatly missed.

Cards and donations can be sent to his widow at The Pond, In the Yard of Rachel, Montana.

transformers and big sunglasses

I am sitting here at 11:00 at night, drinking a glass of wine, watching Jay Leno (actually waiting for Conan O'Brien, my one true celebrity crush). Derrick is gone until Friday (in Whitefish again), the kids are sleeping, and Mom went home with Dad today. The house is oddly quiet. Actually the fact that I am awake to enjoy the quiet house is odd. But I am not ready to go to sleep yet.

It is 82 degrees in the house. I am hot. If I could break away from the computer perhaps I would open the windows and then cool air would rush in and cool me off. But you see, I have a myspace addiction which rarely gets the satisfaction of several hours of wasted time spent on it. I must indulge, regardless of the discomfort of the sweltering heat of this house. I will endure!!!! Viva myspace!!!

As I was reviewing this week in my mind, moments of discomfort filtered to the front part of my brain (where they like to reside), and I am prepared to share them with you. They have to do with watching television with my Mom and husband in the same room when I am the one holding the remote control. You know all of the commercials they have nowadays... the ones that are funny when you and your hubby are alone? The ones advertising "male enhancement" or the girly ones urging to call, and so forth. Now, if I am alone with either my mom OR alone with my husband, I do not care what commercial comes on. Why in the world to I get all embarrassed when I have a husband on one side and a Mom on the other? Do I turn the channel or not?!?

(Okay, the windows are open... couldn't type with sweat falling all over... Derrick usually is the one to open windows... funny the things you don't appreciate about a husband until they are gone.)

I have a goal for this week. I am going to get some big sunglasses. Nokomis has a picture of her in big ones and she looks hot! I want to also look hot in big sunglasses. And there has been encouragement to go to the dark side from Melissa (hehe-dark side-sunglasses...), and I am prepared to convert for the weekend.

I've been thinking about my poor cat Gary alot today.. I think it has finally sunk in that he has moved on to another family. He always was the traveling sort. He was the sort of cat who would love you with all he had, but he still had to move on and see more of the world. I will miss him, but I am glad he is out there living his dream.

Thinking about Gary also made me think about my fish. I only have two left in my little pond in the front yard. Last Fall I didn't know if goldfish could live if you just left them alone in the pond to be frozen. I caught six out of seven fish and brought them inside. Only Fred escaped, and therefore lived. I have somewhat of a killer thumb when it comes to fish. Poor little fellows only made it a couple months. But Fred is alive and strong. We bought him a little friend, Stripey this spring so he wouldn't feel so alone. I hope that Stripey is a little girl fish, and they are having a torrid love affair in our little pond. I hesitate to add any other fish as Fred and Stripey seem so contented. This fall I will leave them to their own defenses to the winter, as they seem to have a better idea as to their survival than I do.

And that is all I have for the evening. Sorry people, but Jay Leno has some pretty impressive things on tonight... something about a Tranformer movie pilot... oh my goodness... I LOVE TRANSFORMERS. I have to say goodnight:)

Kitty Evolutions at Midnight

It is currently 12:03 am, and my body (or mind, not sure which one) hates me and is refusing to let me sleep, yet again. I was lodged in bed between Derrick and Gary when I realized Gary and I had been having a silent staredown for quite some time and it was getting a little ridiculous for me to just lay there and be angry about not sleeping. Gary was thrilled when I got up because apparantly his gazing eyes had been trying (quite successfully) to send his mind signals into my brain that he needed to go outside to do his business.

While I was laying there staring at my kitty, I started to think about how he is not half as irritating as he used to be. When we first got him (about 14 months ago) he loved to jump on the bed in the middle of the night, come right up to my face, and sneeze. He hardly ever does that anymore. So seldom does it happen that I have lost my gunshy flinch when I hear little kitty feet padding near my face. He also doesn't wander aimlessly at night, complaining loudly about his general unhappiness in life. Many nights spent in a cold garage have taught him to repress his emotions, just like the rest of us. Really he is pretty patient too, especially with the kids who haul him around all day like their hairy love child. Someday I am going to have to show Kloe the joy of dressing him in baby clothes. It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, and it will be especially funny with Gary. He is like a grumpy but tolerant old man who always gets an "oh crap" look on his face when the kids come alookin for him. I can just imagine his anxiety when the little onsies and jammies with holes cut out for the tail come at him... heheh...

Well, I had hoped I'd beable to prattle on for awhile longer until sleep overtook me, but I'm afraid that my mind IS tired, just not willing to sleep. Hope for me, my friends... hope for sweet sweet sleep to knock my brains out!

Sophie the motor lover

Last night was Halloween (as you may have been aware). As we do not celebrate halloween, our usual ploy is to avoid being home so as to not have to open the door over and over to the little trickortreaters (and we live in little kid suburbia here).

My sister Renae and her hubby Doug were in Missoula last night. The reason was that they were flying out to Florida early this morning to go on their super cruise to Jamaica (their 25th wedding anniversary present to theirselves) and a bunch of other islands. The reason I bring this up is because we chose to avoid our home by going out to dinner with them. Renae was soooo excited to go. I am soooo jealous. I wish I could have jumped into their luggage and went too, although this would certainly have ruined their romance. They have been gearing up to go all week. Renae must've called me half a dozen times looking for items that may have found their way to my house (shoes, formal gowns...). She started packing a week early. I admire that in her. She is one of the best trip preparer I've ever met. I am pretty much her opposite. More of a fly by the seat of my pants kinda gal. ANYWAYS, on one of the phone calls she only got out ,"Hey Rache", and then she was giggling and laughing and her voice was getting further from the phone (all I could hear at that point was "hang up!!!"). My point is they will have fun.

I don't know where I was really going with this except for Renae was talking about all of the weird cats I've had in my life. I do seem to have a way of picking them out. The first one I ever picked was a beauty who I named Sophie. I thought she was the most beautiful cat I had ever seen. She was pure white and had the clearest blue eyes. She had a very cute personality for many years, very playful. Until the accident.

One Sunday morning we were driving to meeting (church)in Plains coming from Paradise. Shaun and I were in the backseat (I think we were around 11 or 12). We were about half-way there when I just happened to look out the back window and see a ball of white fluff rolling down the road. I shouted at my dad to stop, we went back and sure enough it was Sophie. My poor stupid cat. In her defense, it was the middle of winter and the car motor was warm. But she really was hurt. We took her to the vet and he sewed her back up again. A couple of things changed about her though. For one, her eyes never had a very focused look to them ever again. For another, her tail died. Got STIFF as a board. She'd run around the house and that thing would wave from side to side like a board. It was pretty gross but it remained that way for some time. I think it was about a year until the next "accident". I think Sophie probably had too much brain damage from the first time to remember what had put her into her unfortunately circumstances because another winter day my Sophie went through another motor. She lived. However, the stiff tail was not so fortunate and a complete amputation happened that day. She went from unfocused to completely cross-eyed. She was, however, still a very good-natured and happy animal.

Anyways, I hereby raise my cup to Renae and Doug and hope them a happy voyage.

my children's prisoners

Yesterday we had the opportunity to take home derrin's class pets. They are fearful little critters by the name of Chester and Clyde. So far, all is mostly well. Kloe does have a special way with them though. Forced watchings of "Dora the Explorer" and "SpongeBob" while sitting baby-style on her lap probably will do no lasting harm.
Kloe has a way with animals. She loves them until they are insane with rage at her. Poor Chester who has been in a room full of kindergardeners for years and never had a mental break finally had enough yesterday and bit her finger (it really just hurt her feelings). Our kitty Gary feels Chester's pain. This is his method of dealing with her when she will not release him: 1) Meow lightly at child. Hope this gains her attention. 2)Squirm lightly. Hope this gains her attention. 3) Squirm wildly. Hope this makes the point. 4) Jump up, grab child's hair, pull child down to the floor and hold there until child's attention is gained and then stalk away happily.

His method works every time.