Jenny's Birthday Book

Every day after school, Wolfie and I take the back roads home and count how many cats we see.

“Wolfie, how many cats do you think we’ll see?’

“Uh, 1…2…3….4…5!!” He says, slowly counting like he has a fail proof system.

The count varies from 1 to 10, depending on his exuberance.

We creep streets leading to our house, always stopping at a botched renovation house where the feral cats congregate. Peering into the cut holes in plywood used to ventilate and secure the house, feral cats peek out wondering why-the-hell the same mini-van stops in front of their house every day.

Wolfie yells, “Dada! Do you see? Number 4. Dada!!”

Cats are currently big in our family. Wolfie’s favorite book of the month (they’re always changing) is called Jenny’s Birthday Book. It’s about a city cat’s birthday in Central Park. All her friends are there and they dance the Hornpipe. Most of the cats have names (The Duke, Pickles, Edward, Checkers, etc) but some are just faces at the party. I asked Wolfie to name the guests and he came up with these names for the cats:

Money-Monkey
Blue Bit
Branches
Truck
Jingle Bells (his favorite)
Tree-Tree

Too cute.

Angry Eyes

Tuxie is the cat who adopted us 2 years ago. He used to belong to our neighbors (down the street) but they didn't like him much (and the feeling was mutual, as he didn't like them either). Anyway, he's a big cuddler and is enjoying his senior years with us. We're not sure how old he is, but we figure around 8 or 9. He is really great with Wolfie....and Wolfie likes him very much. But the other day Wolfie looked at Tux and said, "Why he not happy?" "What do you mean? Tuxie is happy." "No. He not. He not smiling. And he eyes. He have ANGRY eyes. Like this..." [and then he scowled in a hilarious way, narrowing his eyebrows.] It is now a recurring theme in our house...Tuxie and his "angry eyes." haha

Poopin' in the Pot

While his Opie is in town, Wolfie has decdied to poop in the pot for him. He rarely extends this courtesy to his Momma and Dada!

What Toddlers Dream About....

This morning Wolfie woke up, still groggy and half asleep, and whispered to me
"Momma, the Incredible Hulk....he not a monkey. He a gorilla." "The Incredible Hulk is a gorilla?" "Yes. He not monkey. He a gorilla."

Then he rolled over and went back to sleep.

Chips...I Like Chips

Wolfie's school put together a cookbook for the holidays. Here's his contribution:

I like chips, only polka dot chps.
Circle ones.
I eat yellow and black chips.
I drink white milk too.

Are You My Friend? You my friend.

Wolfie is prone to asking, “Are you my friend?” In my parent state of hyper sensitivity, I sometimes feel that he asks the question because he doesn’t have any friends, which is untrue. And I know he doesn’t mean it like this. (refer to hyper sensitivity).

This morning while driving Wolfie to school, he said, “Dada, you’re my friend.” And I replied, “You bet, Sweetie.”

I love my little guy.

MOMMA'S version of this story:
Wolfie rarely says "Are you my friend?" as a question. He says it as a statement. "You MY friend mama." And my (more optimistic) interpretation is that he is learning what friendship means. And exploring the idea of what it means to have a friend...or more than one. One thing, as a modern parent, that we struggle with is NOT wanting to appear as a braggart about our child. So in someways I feel like we downplay how awesome Wolfie. But the truth is he is a great kid. And he's actually pretty popular. There was one day when i went to his little school and the main teacher said "Wolfie is settling in so well. All the kids love him and so do all the teachers. He's such a sweetie." Then a fellow parent (who hadn't heard the teacher say this) said "Oh you're Wolfie's mom! My little girl talks about Wolfie ALL the time! He's quite the popular one!" And then literally another parent said "ooooh Wolfie's mom! We love Wolfie. And my boy always talks about him." I have to say I was beaming. Not because he's "popular" (although a little part of me loves that too) but knowing that people are responding to him because he has such a sweet and sunshiney personality. He's our little Golden Boy. And he IS our friend.

Mom and Dad Wax About Parenthood