Cat Update

A day and a half after the start of the great cat experiment, Alyssa walked in from a visit to the garage and announced, “Orville loves me again.”

I asked her, “You didn’t hold him, did you?”

“Of course I did,” she replied. “He wanted me to.”

I shook my head. I knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out for two whole days. But even a day and a half helped her see that Orville is a brat who runs from her because she’s too affectionate and he’s too sure of her love.

But she can’t bring herself to ignore him completely, not for two whole days, even if she does see the brattiness of his behavior toward her.

So, we’re modifying the experiment. Instead of playing hard to get, she’s playing a little harder but not impossible to get. She won’t run out and be all, “Ohh, Orville, you’re so sweet. Dad, isn’t he so cute?”

Instead, she’ll got out, feed Orville, give him fresh water, pet his head and walk away and when he wraps himself around her feet, she’ll pick him up, give him some love and everyone, both human and feline, is happy.

In other news, Olivia woke me up this morning at 4:00. She was running a fever. I got up, got her some ibuprofen and tucked her back in bed. She sat up ten minutes later and declared she needed to take her pull up off. She proceeded to take of not just the pull up but also her pajamas. Once she was completely nude, she pulled the blankets back up and told me her arms hurt and presented them to me, in all their naked glory, for rubbing.

After I rubbed both her arms, she sat up again and told me she needed a tissue.

After the tissue had been used on one corner and wadded into a ball, she handed it back to me and told me she needed a warm washcloth instead, thank you very much.

She wiped her face with the washcloth, handed it to me and rolled over, presenting me with her back, which she said was itchy.

Sick kids can be so demanding. Whatever happened to the child who just sleeps off a fever? Is that a mythical creature or am I doing something wrong over here?