Things You Learn About Your Cats When You Have Toddlers in the House

~They will quickly learn when mealtimes for the toddlers are, and will prowl under the table for dropped offerings. Only the bravest come out during mealtime.

~They will just as quickly learn when naptime and bedtime are. And at those points, the cats miraculously reappear out of the woodwork.

~Mika will eat corn.

~Mika will also eat alphabet-noodle mac and cheese.

~Popoki will not eat hot dogs. (Apparently she's a food snob.)

~Keiki WILL eat hot dogs. And meat balls.

~Keiki will also eat tater tots, as we discovered during dinner tonight.

~Popoki is the only one brave enough (stupid enough?) to venture into the bathroom for a sink drink when all three girls are in the tub.

~Keiki will still "talk" loudly to herself late at night, no matter how much shushing you do or begging her to come into the bedroom and talk to herself there, in order to not wake the blissfully sleeping munchkins.

~Popoki will lay defiantly in the middle of the playroom (formerly the dining room) floor during lunch, as if to say I'm NOT letting them take over MY house.

~Surprisingly, Minou (whom my father refers to as the "Apparition," because she's so rarely seen) will come out to eat her breakfast if the girls are eating theirs at the same time.

~And oddly enough, Pa'ani, who knows no strangers (for they are merely friends he hasn't met yet), will not come downstairs if the girls are on the loose.

~None of them, when confronted by squealing little girls who are alternately wanting to pet the nice kitty and being giggly-afraid of the nice kitty or wanting to grab the nice kitty's twitching tail (all attempts there have thus far been successfully thwarted), will do more than offer a scary hiss or a deep-chested growl. (Small Fry niece has taken to trying to hiss, which is a riot.)