Weekend Kat Blogging: Walking, Riding and Kitty Cuddling

Well, it’s that time of week again, and I have a bunch of pictures of my wee sproutling to post for everyone. Why?

Because she has started really moving around a lot and I want to share her milestones with everyone.

First up–Kat is starting to cruise around holding onto furniture, our hands, or her little scooter/pushcar toy. I know it looks like we are trying to teach her how to mow the lawn (it is never to early to learn to earn your keep!), or do the shopping, but that little scooter is a convertible riding toy/scooteresque walker, and she loves it.

You can also see the presents her Aunt Laura sent her for her birthday and for Generic Winter Holiday last year. This year’s birthday gift is that super-cute top with the polka-dotted undersleeve and the kitty face on the front. Last years gift was the polka dotted hat. The pants–well, we found those at Target and they looked perfect with the top, so we picked them up, of course! She looks rather like a polkadotted elf or gnome or something, but she sure is cute.

What I find most amusing about watching her walk is how tiny she is–she looks younger than her age because of her size–so she looks like a six or seven month old toddling around. (Though, I have to say, when I was a baby, I was tiny, too–you wouldn’t know that now, but its been a few years. Zak was a small kid, too, so I figure that while Kat will grow out of being really small, she is never going to be a very tall person.)

Here she is riding on the toy in its incarnation as a car. No pun intended. Previously, we have pushed her around in the car, chasing the cats, and making traffic noises, and she held her feet up out of the way and laughed like a little fiend. This day, which was late last week, she put her feet down and learned that she could push them against the floor to move the car.

Unfortunately, she can only go backwards as of now. Which is okay–it made me laugh because it reminded me of the chick on the reservation in the movie, “Smoke Signals,” whose car could only go in reverse, so she drove around everywhere backwards. She’s a minor character, but a memorable one in a really good movie. You should see it, if you haven’t already, so you can learn about John Wayne’s teeth, and the frybread miracle. Yeah, I said teeth. (Speaking of which, Kat now has two–not one, but two–teeth which have just come in on her bottom gum. Yay, teeth!

As you can see, Kat doesn’t mind going backwards at all. She is just excited that she can locomote on her own!

Now, these pictures coming up were caught by Zak on Tuesday afternoon. Kat was cuddling on the couch with her bestest kitty friend, Cordelia, and the cute quotient was very high. Almost too high. So, I am warning you now–if you are allergic to cute baby and kitten pictures, don’t keep reading this post.

Delia was curled up on the couch and Kat wriggled off of Zak’s lap to go and cuddle her. The camera was nearby, so Zak slithered off the couch, and crouched on the floor and started snapping. This is where I found him when I came out of the shower.

Purring the whole time, Delia was totally relaxed as Kat cooed, gurgled and trilled at her, and was quite patient with Kat’s clumsy attempts to pet her. (Which, at best were more like patting than petting, now and then shading over into whacking.)

The two of them are very loving with each other, and will seek each other’s company every day. When Cordelia comes into a room and Kat is there, she immediately goes up to her and rubs against her, and when Kat comes into a room, she checks out which kitties are present, and if she sees Cordelia, her eyes light up even more than they do if she sees another of the cats. They really do have a special bond that is fascinating to watch develop.

When Kat has fallen asleep on my lap while nursing, Cordelia likes to curl around Kat’s toes or stretch out next to her. As both of them get bigger, the room on my lap diminishes, which means that more often now, Delia gets to lay atop Kat’s feet which hang off my knees onto the couch, but it makes both of them happy to be close. As you can see here.

I think that this last photo is close to my absolute favorite picture of Kat so far. It just captures so much of her personality. I can also see in it how her face has changed and isn’t quite so babyish anymore–I can really see the “toddler within” and it only makes me excited to watch over the coming weeks, months and years how she develops and grows alongside Cordelia and her other kitty friends.

I always feel so privileged to watch children grow, their personalities and bodies unfolding and transforming. I am lucky in my children.

7 Comments »

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1. She looks absolutely adorable! Oh what a gorgeous smile.

   PS Really super cute cat, love the pics of your baby and the cat together… what a happy couple!

   Comment by Mamlambo — October 20, 2007 #

2. That smile just slays me every time - she is so adorable!

   She looks rather like a polkadotted elf

   LOL, OK, now I don’t feel bad that the first thought that popped in my head was “little elf!” when I saw that pic.

   Comment by Cindy — October 20, 2007 #

3. We are lucky to have your sharing!

   It’s so generous of you and makes Kat like a member of the extended family–my one wish when having children was to have a red-headed girl.

   I feel very glad to peek.

   Comment by wwjudith — October 20, 2007 #

4. I love it when you share your family with us; I feel like Kat is my own red-headed niece. And you know - you are lucky in your children because they have a loving, wise mother.

   Comment by Nancy — October 21, 2007 #

5. Thanks for sharing these darling pictures. In a voyeuristic way, I love hearing about your family. Both of your girls are so gorgeous! They are both so lucky to grow up in a house with so much love (of both the two-legged and four-legged varieties).

   Comment by De in D.C. — October 22, 2007 #

6. Wow - don’t think I’ve ever seen a cat so relaxed near a small child! I have loads of cine films of myself as kid crawling desperately afer our fleeing cat… You truly have a remarkable cat and an adorable daughter

   Comment by Jeanne — October 25, 2007 #

7. Thanks everyone–I am glad that folks like to see what my family is up to.

   Jeanne–believe it or not, but my Mom’s Siamese cat, Missy, was my companion from infancy. Mom popped her in the crib with me when she brought me home from the hospital, and from then on, I was “Missy’s Kitten.”

   She groomed me, she slept beside me, she kept me warm, she fussed at Mom if I cried or if I messed my pants and Mom didn’t know, and she guarded me and would let no one pick me up from the crib except Mom and eventually, Dad. She’d growl and threaten to bite anyone else who tried unless Mom told her it was fine.

   Morganna wasn’t quite as lucky with cats as I and Kat–my cats when she was little were universally terrified of her, except for Ozy, the cat who is the same age as her. He loved her, and would drape across her lap and love on her and all of that.

   The cat she desperately wanted to pet was my Siamese, Tristan, and for years she would walk up to him slowly to pet him and he would dash away in horror.

   When she was nine, she was sitting on the couch watching a cooking show with me, and Tristan jumped up with her and put a tentative paw on her lap, while staring up at her to see what she would do.

   She whispered, “Mom! What do I do–he’s acting like he will get on my lap!”

   I told her, “Be very still, and quiet, and let him move closer.”

   He put a second paw on her, and the poor girl was shivering she was trying so hard to sit still. (Never her strong suit–it still isn’t.)

   Then a third paw, and her arm was twitching, she was working so hard at not grabbing him or hugging him. When he miaowed at her and started to purr, I told her to very slowly reach up and pet his back.

   She moved terrifically slowly–like an inchworm or snail–and finally, her fingers stroked his silky fur. Her eyes were about to pop out of her head as he rubbed against her hand and purred and finally sat on her lap.

   He let her pet him for about a couple of minutes, then he jumped down. She let him walk out of the room and then she started bouncing up and down, flapping her arms in joy. “IgottopethimIgottopethimIgottopethim!” she giggled.

   She still remembers that to this day.

   She still tends to scatter a lot of our cats, but Kat–most of them will at least come up and rub against her gently. Or they sleep with her. Grimmy sleeps with her, but if Kat is awake and tries to pet her, she dashes away. They are funny.

   Comment by Barbara — October 25, 2007 #

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