Cats and Picnics

This has been a good week. I had an extra day off that I wasn't expecting, the weather has been absolutely wonderful, and and the children have all been pretty well behaved. That has made it a good week. Added to that is the fact that night time sleeping has been more or less good too. The boys have slept soundly (if not solidly through the night) and Hubby has stayed in our bed for nearly a week (one of the hazzards of my pregnancy is horribly loud snoring. My obstetrician said her husband had to move out of their room during her pregnancies too!).

With Hubby walking or biking to school with the weather as nice as it is, the Boy and Boy2 try to get us out the door early too. More often than not this week we've been out for our first walk/trike ride by seven thirty in the morning. Then we hit it again around ten, then again after nap time. Sometimes we even go for another one after supper with Hubby when he gets home. What started as an impromptu idea on Tuesday for a picnic snack on the front lawn has become what is to be expected. Picnic snack, picnic lunch, picnic snack, wanting to do a picnic supper. It's quite cute. Yesterday, waiting for lunch, the Boy brought out his little piano (you know, Fisher Price, only has five big colourful keys) and starting singing a Daddy song (I don't know, he just kept singing "Daddy, dad, dad, daddy" over and over) then Boy2 gets out a maraca and uses it as a microphone doing the same thing. After lunch is done, out come the trucks ( ambulance and firetruck) and they start racing down the driveway. Bless their hearts, I not once had to remind them to stay off of the road.

When we go for walks, it's never very far. Just around the half dozen little cul de sacs that make up our immediate neighbourhood. Tuesday, we hit the motherload of cats out and about. There's an orange tom at the very far end, a calico four houses down from that, and a couple of others within a six house radius. The calico and the marmalade are very friendly, but the others won't even come near. Again, the boys don't need to be reminded to stay on the sidewalk. The Boy just crouches down, claps his has gently to encourage them to come. Boy2 copies his brother. Since we can't have pet here, the only cats that they remember are from friends and family back in Alberta. No cat that they've come in contact with "talks" when they want affection. Where the tom is quiet and just rubs when he wants to be pet, the calico talks and talks and talks while trying to rub her head on your leg. I think it kinda scares the boys. They just don't know how to handle her. I tell them that it's okay and she's just talking and wants to be pet, but everytime her mouth opens, they back away.

After that, when we go for walks, we have to go on kitty hunts. This morning we saw the tom, but not the calico, and the Boy was asking where the talking kitty was. He also has been pretending that there are cats in the house. He pets them and puts them on the bed, brings then to me to pet, tries to take them out for a ride on his tricycle. We really need to find a place that will allow pets. Of course, when we win the lottery, we'll just buy a house and it will all be taken care of. In the meantime, imaginary cats and the promise of picnics will keep a couple of little boys very happy. We're going on a family picnic by the river on Saturday (or at least that's the current plan), so these short term goals are great. Hopefully we'l remember the camera!