Cats don't eat peanuts!

While visiting my parents’ house for Thanksgiving this year, their pets were constantly trailed by a very eager friend. Dogs love children; they relate to children. Cats, on the other hand, understand the chaotic nature of children and seem to generally steer clear of the certain torture they would undergo by associating with something below their sophistication level. Don’t get me wrong, I love cats, I just understand their need for safe boundaries. My parents’ cat Little Bit is no exception to this generalization but was brave enough to hang around within eyeshot of Abigail, much to Abigail’s delight and constant entertainment. Not knowing what to do with a cat, it seems as though Abigail settled on the main goal of trying to feed her. Here is Little Bit with an offering of play food cupcake:

Notice also the jar of peanuts behind Little Bit. When the play cupcake wasn’t eaten, Abigail decided that cats probably preferred to eat peanuts. One evening we were sitting down to dinner and noticed that Little Bit was sleeping in one of the chairs with about 10 peanuts laid out in front of her. Nice try Abigail!

(talking to Grandma about the cat)

Is style learned or innate?

Abigail picked out her clothes this morning. What do you think? Double layer of pajamas for a "high of 71" day?

Our cute cousins

I have to brag and show some pictures from Halloween of Abigail's cousins! Oh, and one crazy uncle :).

Okay, so I don't think these guys will appreciate being called cute. This is the one time of year they aren't so cute, it seems! The grow up so fast. One year, Buzz Lightyear, the next, scary skeleton or Jack-o-Lantern

New Photographer

Abigail and I had a little picnic in our back yard one fine afternoon in November. I wanted to get a picture of us and Abigail is not a fan of the camera these days (who can blame her with the momarazzi hanging around), but she did look in the right direction! Aren't we cute?

I have a remote release for my camera, which is cleverly hidden in the picture above. When we were done with lunch, Abigail wanted a turn taking a picture. She walked over to the camera and said, 'Smile Mommy!" I thought this was hilarious. You had to be there. Anyway, I was a little nervous about Abigail's abilities to press the button and keep the camera upright on the tripod, so I gave her the remote release to use. She thought this was the best thing since sliceable play food bread! (yes, I think I’m funny). She took around 50 pictures of me (clicking, looking at the result and imitating whatever face I had made) before she finally got comfortable to get in front of the camera herself. She would click the remote while looking intently in the camera and then run around to see what it looked like. It was so funny! Here are a few of the pictures:

Potty Time, Excellent! (with reference to Wayne's World)

So sorry about the delay in update. I will write more very soon, but I wanted to start off with: Abigail is potty trained!! YEA! She even wants to go all by herself, in typical two year old fashion. If I try to stay in the bathroom with her, she says 'MOOK MOMMY!' We have a short discussion and then she says, 'Please Mommy please mook. Out.' She is still hooked on treats for going potty, but I don't mind because we are finally dwindling the ever-growing candy bowl that sits around. Sometimes fruit snacks are still the treat, but she has learned that she sometimes prefers chocolate and suckers.