Squeals of Delight

The girls' new most favoritest thing in our household, as of late, is GREGORY.

Especially for Miss Addison.

And, its too adorable!!

Any time she sees him, the smiles come out, little coos and squeals generally follow, and the world melts away as she happily and adoringly gazes upon the big, fuzzy four legged animal next to her.

Maren likes him to, but she likes being a little more rough with him. If he's anywhere too near her, he'll find himself missing handfuls of fur--she firmly plants her little hand on his body and pulls out wads of hair. I think she understands the word 'gentle', but she sure doesn't implement her understanding of it when he's involved.

He's learned very quickly to leave any time the kids are in the same vicinity he is. Both mommy and daddy have smacked him when he's gotten a little too irritated with the kids (and therefore swatted at them and threatened to bite). To compensate, he hides most of the time. Actually, he does that anyways, and I think its his way of dealing with all the noise they make (such as grunting, crying, screaming...) He didn't have to deal with them much over the summer because he was outside all the time, but now that its winter and he thinks its too cold to be outside, he hides under our bed, and only comes out if he needs to go to the bathroom or feels hungry or thirsty. Every once in a while he suffers from cabin fever and goes a little nuts (his meows creep me out-they're sooo eerie), but other than that, you'd hardly know he's even there. And, it mostly seems to happen late at night, when husband and I are getting into bed.

And, in his defence, its natural for him to defend himself when someone or something pulls out a good chunk of his fur. He just doesn't understand that they don't understand that what they're doing hurts him. So, we naturally let him know that it isn't going to fly, because its harder to let them know their actions won't fly. They're a bit too young, yet.

Their squeals of delight anytime they see him make their mother squeal with delight- internally, of course. They are definitely their parents daughters- they like animals as much as we do!