Riley and Avery

Riley and Little Sweetheart!


Little Sweetheart after her bath. She didn't mind it at all. We have allergy-reducing shampoo and Little Sweetheart has not started grooming herself yet. Totally washed her in a sink of water and she didn't care one bit.


And, I spoke too soon. Little Sweetheart started grooming herself today. This is the look she gave me when she realized I was taking pictures of her licking her butt.

Little Sweetheart is in the playful kitten stage. She's also managed to get into the guinea pig cage on a couple of occasions. Usually we catch her early in the game, but today I was watching a recorded episode of Reno 911 and I see her jump out of the cage. I don't know how long she'd been in there, but no one seemed to mind. The guinea pigs are curious about her, but that's about it. The aforementioned lack of fear of water also translates to a lack of fear of the spray bottle. I sprayed her for climbing the guinea pig cage and she hardly noticed. There goes that.

So, Riley's been running with the neighborhood pack of boys and having a lot of fun. On Thursday we went to playgroup (thank goodness Matthew's mom had a doctor's appointment and wasn't home or we never would have been able to go!) and when we came home three of the boys, including Matthew, were riding bikes and got so excited when our car pulled into the complex. They all started riding alongside shouting "Riley! Riley! Riley's home!" It was really nice. She's finally making friends (courtesy of Zoloft).

I feel kind of bad that we never "go anywhere" but Riley is outside literally all day long lately. I hardly get to read to her anymore, or spend any time whatsoever with her. Glad I made all those Montessori activities for nothing. She often comes in too tired to even eat dinner (at 7 or 8pm). The other day she was protesting dinner and crawled under the table and pouted. So I let her work it out. When I checked on her she was sound asleep. Anyway, back to never going anywhere. At least, I guess, she is able to entertain herself and doesn't have to be constantly externally stimulated (a trait of Rudi's that absolutely drives me crazy! The inability to entertain himself). Enjoyment in the simple days of summer, I suppose. That's what childhood is about, right?

But the belated development of friendships has also caused problems. First, she doesn't want to do anything without her friends, or more specifically, Matthew. Getting her to eat is a battle. And she is downright cruel to all other kids. She is so protective and jealous of Matthew. If anyone is around them she gets right in their face and shouts "I don't even like you! You are not my friend and I don't want you here! Get out of here! Go away! We want to be left alone, don't we Matthew?" "Yes." This is her first time navigating the social world and as a result she hasn't learned the social cues that other children usually have learned by now. We're working on it. Hard.

So Matthew has been over our house quite a bit and that's great. But having a new kitten means that we have a steady influx of older kids in here too. All the time. That's annoying. And I really can't afford to feed the whole neighborhood for much longer.

Avery is getting a lot of Mommy time as a result of all this, which she really needs. She also enjoys getting pushed around the neighborhood on her tricycle. A lot. Oh, she said something cute the other day. Little Sweetheart was looking at her and she says "Ours cat is lookin' at me because I'm so cute!" She also likes to put Little Sweetheart in time-out under and upturned basket when her kittenish antics get too much for her. And then I have to rescue the poor kitty.

So today Riley was running the 'hood and I had to go look for her to make sure she was okay, and she was so I went back home. A bit later she comes in the front door bawling because she couldn't find her way back home. I felt soooooo bad! So I guess I'll get the ID bracelet I've been pondering for a while. And take her for a detailed tour of the neighborhood so that she learns her way back home.