More Cat Stories

As you might remember, Ishish has six ducky friends. The original three have been Dada, Ishish, and I for a long time but he'd never named the other three. After one of his naps he was playing with them. He held them up and said that they were Buddy, Maude, and Squeaky cat! I thought it was so sweet that he would make one Maude even though she died a year ago. Her picture is still above his changing table and she comes up in conversation regularly.

The picture below shows us sitting in the parking lot because "people coming over". Ishish added that the kitties are crying and sick. He also pointed out that Mama (reindeer ducky) is buckling Ishish (Devil ducky) into his carseat. When we have a house showing I refer to it as people coming over. He knows that means we take the cats in the car with us and drive somewhere. They really hate to be in the car and are sure to let us know!



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We celebrated Squeaky's birthday a few weeks ago. As Ishish is fond of birthdays, I decided to add a bit of fanfare. We went to the petstore and each picked out a new toy for her and a special can of cat food which, topped with treats, would be her cake. We also looked at all the pets that were for sale. When we were getting back into the car he said to me: "I want not just Squeaky Cat and Buddy Cat. I want another cat". I said, "I do, too." (pause) "But you will probably be a lot older when we get one." Ishish enjoyed Squeaky's birthday but seemed to think he'd get birthday cake too. So I started a new tradition that we have frozen custard (what we happened to have in the house) when it's her birthday!

Imitating Cats

Having cats in our household leads to a lot of interesting times. One morning we watched Buddy clean his face. I pointed out how Buddy licks his paw and then rubs it across his face to clean himself. After lunch Ishish started licking his hand and rubbing his face with it. Then he offered to wipe mine with his wet hand. I said, "It's true that the kitties clean each other like that but people don't!"

Lately Ishish has started standing on his stool at his sink and putting his head under the faucet to get a drink. He will tell me, in a very amused voice, "I drink like Squeaky!" (Yes, there is one faucet that we'll turn on for her, and no, she doesn't touch the faucet with her mouth.)

A while back Ishish and I were giving the cats some of their treats, which we hadn't done in a long time. After we handed some out Ishish came back to me and asked, "I have some?" I said sure, gave him the bag, and took it back after he had taken a couple out. Then I saw that instead of giving them to the cats he popped them in his mouth! Feeling very surprised and a tad frantic, I quickly explained that those were only for cats to eat! I asked, "Don't they taste funny?" and he said yes. Then he wandered off to drink a lot of water, and I scanned the bag for a list of ingredients. I was relieved that they didn't make him sick.

10,000 Questions

I hadn't noticed the number of questions that Ishish asks until one day a few weeks ago when I had much, much less patience than normal. Since then I've noticed that he asks questions continuously! If he hears anything or sees anything there has to be a question about it. And no matter what my answer is (or if I don't answer) there has to be a follow up question! I jotted down some of his questions a couple weeks ago:

What the song is?
What that noise?
What this one says? What sign says?
Do you see a motorcycle turning?
Where restaurant is?
What that bug doing there?
What my milk came from? (Best as I can tell he wants to know how things get from farm to farmer's market or store.)
What Daddy do? (while Daddy's driving)
We going way up high? (when he sees a highway overpass)
What's you make? (while I write up a shopping list)
What Daddy said? (he asks me instead of asking Daddy directly)
Why you put green washcloth there? (me: It's dry, so I'm taking it to the laundry room.) Why washcloth dry?
(me to Dada: Yup.) What you say? (me: I said, yup.) What yup is? (me: It's similar to yes.)
We having a busy day, Mommy? (me: Yes.) What that busy day?

Baby

Somehow the mention of a lullaby came up several weeks ago, and I sang Rock-a-bye Baby. Since then Ishish keeps lying across my lap and asking me to sing it to him. I always use his name at the end instead of baby. He gets this very content look on his face. Maybe he just likes snuggling.

Swim Lessons

Ishish finished his first swim lessons last week, and it was a very interesting time. He was the oldest student in our parent/child class. He was unhappy (to put it mildly) with going under water and avoided the instructors as much as possible. By the end he would let them hold him a little, but it also took me more effort to convince him to get in the water to begin with! We were fortunate to have a friend from his gym class there. She loved the water, and I was able to point out all the different things she tried.