Royanne & Her Cats

* * *

This might seem like a strange post to ya'll, but

Royanne is really getting into the thrilling fun of having

and enjoying her pets. At night, we bring the dogs on to the

mud porch and she says Gee-gee for Gilligan, and Pote for

Pokey. But what she really enjoys is the cats.

This is a picture of Brat and Abby. They were born about the

same time, and we brought Brat home very young.

I have a picture that is not on the computer of

Brat as a small kitten curled up on Abby when

I was babysitting her. They were both sound asleep.

When we adopted Blue in early 2006, Brat was not

very impressed. It took 6 months for them

to sleep near one another, Brat was so

very suspicious.

When we were preparing for the arrival of Royanne,

the cats were really curious about the paint, the

bedding, all the changes.

Blue was o.k. with her arrival. Brat was another

story. But they both have finally adjusted to

her sad cries, her high pitched shrieks of delight,

and her lightning fast movements!

October 2007 with Blue, the cuddler.

Feb 2008 with Blue, the curious one. He also is fine

with me putting him in the tub with her. He meows

a few times, jumps out and shakes his feet. No biggie

to him.

March 2008 napping butt to butt.

June 2008 petting Blue under the dining room

table. He meows & meows and really

encourages the petting. Sometimes she

gets excited and she gets a little rough.

September 2008

September 2008. They were nose to

nose before I took the picture.




It took Brat about 6 months to tolerate Blue
moving in. Now they sleep together. Ro calls
Brat "mean" and Abby and Liam call her
"the selfish cat"
because she always hides when they are here
and won't play with them like Blue does.




Brat is very pretty & very silky and Royanne
really wishes she'd be nice: she really wants to
be friends.





Brat

* * *

Late Christmas Pictures

Poor Royanne! Mimi wanted to be in both places with

both sets of kids, so we delayed Ro's rising and kept her

in her bedroom until the door bell rang!

As breakfast was being prepared, Royanne stood

on her tip-toes and knocked a knife off of the

island, and it nicked a few fingers. She cried and

surprisingly (to Mimi), I remained relatively

calm! Mimi patched her all up.

She squealed and ran around and was quite

excited to see all the old toys replaced with

another ELMO, clothes, a grocery

cart, a tea set, books, drawers for doll clothes, shelves

for her dishes and a water table, complete with

fountain. I, too, was excited and didn't get any

pictures until way after the fact. :(

While waiting for Mimi, I took pictures of Ro

in her flannel nightgown from last year with matching hat

(made by Mimi). Last year it was too big but

fits perfectly this year!

(Abby had a set last year too, but they didn't fit her

this year, like with Royanne).

Remembering Christmas 2007, with daddy.

2007



2007



2007, with Abby.

2007, with Abby.

* * *
2008

Cousins Bonner, Amanda, Liam

and Abby, with Royanne.

Kay's kiddos.

The girls!

Royanne getting lots of help with her

gifts.

Liam pulling Royanne in the back yard.......

......towards the fence.......

.......turning around........

..........FUN!

Taking a breather.
She's hoping for round 2.

She was a little short, but she got the idea!

Football fun!

Making Lemon Cookies

Volunteering to see if the lemons are up to

the challenge of being in the lemon chiller cookies.

She pronounces them stellar!







BEATERS!!

LOVING GLOVES

More than likely, Royanne will wake up with the

last thing we discussed the night before on her

mind. Sometimes it might be something new in

our bedtime prayer. It might be a talk about the

weather. Like this story I am about to tell:

Every night that we remember - and she has reminded

me when I have forgotten - we will go outside and look for

the moon to tell it goodnight. I know she doesn't understand

why sometimes it is in a different place, or why sometimes we

can't find it. I try and go out around 7 p. m. That way it will be

in the same place. But sometimes, it might be when we put the

dogs to bed, and then we remember we haven't told the

moon goodnight. (10 p.m.)

Anyhow, I say all of this to say that one night we didn't go out

and tell the moon goodnight because it was really cold. But I

did take the opportunity to talk about why one would wear

gloves or mittens. I found a purple pair of mittens she'd

never seen, and I explained to her what they were.

We read the book WOOLY and I was hoping

Wooly making gloves and hats and such for her

friends would make sense, since

there are really not very many cold days in Texas.

As props for this book, I have a scarf, mittens, a hat.

But the gloves! They were new and exciting!

So, the next morning, after having her diaper

changed, she wanted to put on her gloves,

remembering the discussion the night before
about cold weather and dressing warmly.

(here she agreed to the coat but not clothes!!)

She kept on saying "COLT"
(which means cold)

Then she didn't want to take them off

or get dressed!

Let's Go!

I've got the keys; let's go!

New Tomato Product

Royanne likes food unusual for her age:

blue cheese, feta cheese, Asiago cheese, cold kidney

beans, hot and spicy breakfast sausage,

salsa and chips.

Bruce found a new diced tomato at the grocery store,

with added chipotle peppers.

Royanne was willing to give it a try.

YUM!

Toothbrushing Practice

I Love Elmo, mom!

"Elmo wants to chicken dance, Elmo wants

to chicken dance, BAWK! BAWK! BAWK! BAWK!"

I never thought I would like Royanne to

fall in love with a character. Like Mickey Mouse or

Sponge Bob. And definitely not Barney the

purple annoyance.

BUT..............

then along came Elmo, and she could say

Elmo, and she loved an Elmo DVD I rented

(Kids' Favorite Songs, 2)

so much so I actually bought it!

Then the cousins passed on their Elmo that

is dressed like and dances like a chicken!

SHE'S IN LOVE!!

She puts him to bed and she covers him up.

(Look real closely and you can see another

Elmo in the kitchen sink behind her!)

Elmo gets to sit on her couch.



Elmo going for a slide on the playscape.