Is my tongue green yet?

This is my niece KK.  Sarah and I were watching she and her brother yesterday and she told me a cute little story.

We were sitting on the couch watching a movie and she showed me an 'ouchie' on her ankle.  I asked her where she got it and she explained that the cat bit her.

I was surprised!  Their cat, Smiley, is one of God's most tolerant creatures that is currently walking on the face of the earth!  This cat has been tortured in so many ways by these children that there isn't a way to describe it.  But throughout whatever 'game' they play with the kitty, she meekly bears it - way beyond normal-cat limits.  At the point that she's done she feigns enough violence, without actually touching the kids mind you, to startle them enough that she can get away.  Saint Smiley is what her name should be.

So I ask KK, "What did you do to the cat to make her bite you?"

With her big, innocent, blue eyes staring right at me she replies, "Nothing!  I was just petting her!"

An insight to KK's soul: She is a through and through Delilah.  She could manipulate you out of house and home if you weren't on your toes.  Which I always am with that child.  Don't get me wrong, she is sweet and funny and can be very kind and nurturing.  She wouldn't do anything out of spite or to be truly mean.  But she'll spin a story like a cyclone to make it look the way she wants.

So I come back with, "I don't think so.  What did you do?"

Again she tells me, "I was just petting her," showing the hand motions of petting, "And then I tried to get her mouth open so she could eat a peanut."  The true story!!  With descriptive hand motions and everything!

"She didn't like that, did she."

"Nuh uh, she didn't."

When I told her parents this story later, they almost stopped breathing they were laughing so hard!  The great part about it is that it could be true, but it could be a story she made up to seem exciting to the 'big kids' at her preschool (who, according to my brother, are probably five or six to her four years old).  I love my niece.

And then there's my nephew, WD.  He is growing up so fast!  He'll be 9 in October, which seems impossible.  Well, he decided that the movie we were watching yesterday was boring so he wanted to go outside and play (we were watching The Labyrinth, he prefers horror movies or Jaws...).

A few minutes later he runs back inside and says, "Aunt Angela, can I get some ice cream?  I heard the ice cream truck coming."  I made sure he had some money, put on my shoes, and we went outside.

The ice cream truck was just going by, so I had him run ahead to catch it.  He kept turning around to make sure I was coming.  Thankfully the driver saw him and stopped at the house next door.  

He eagerly approached the ice cream truck with me in tow, and we perused the menu on the side of it.  He had $4, and everything was for $2, so I told him he could have whatever he wanted.  After deliberating for a while, he chose a popsicle and said, "I'll get one of those for me and one for KK."

I was touched and happy.  Without hesitation this little boy spent his own money to make his little sister happy.  We got the popsicles and went back to the house, where KK was anxiously waiting. (In fact I found out later from Sarah that they were about to follow us...).  WD doled out the popsicles and happiness abounded.  In good part because these popsicles were HUGE!  They were taller than the kid's heads!

See. Enormous.

Don't worry, I had them eat dinner before they ate the popsicles.  And they both ended up only finishing half of the suckers.  I'm tellin' ya...

I love spending time with these little munchkins.  They give me so much joy.  Between the bickering and the tantrums, that is.  But they really do make me so happy.  If I never have kids, the time that I get to spend with these two will make it OK.