It was morning, K and I had just finished eating breakfast and I had a ton of things to do before our busy day got underway. K went downstairs and brought up one of the heavy blankets we use for picnics and laid it down on the floor. Next she began hauling dolls out into the living room.

This isn’t an unfamiliar scenario. K plays by herself very well, she has to since she has no siblings. The set up process can be time consuming and because of that it’s often the longest stretch of quiet time I get during the day. She needs no help to establish her play area. She can get out hundreds, thousands, millions of toys, blankets and pillows without any assistance (putting them away? that’s another matter).

Suddenly the silence was broken much earlier than it should have been. There was trouble in the land of K…

K: Maaammmmaa!

Me: What’s up babe?

K: Maaaaammmmmmaaaa make him stop it!

Me: Make who stop what?

K: Him. Tell him to leave me alone! This is MY BLANKET and I need him to get off it.

Me: What?

I got up from my very important task *cough* twittter *cough* and went into the living room to see what the big problem was. K looked at me with a face I know I’d made a million times as a child when my brother decided he had nothing better to do than bug me.

K: Maaaaaaaamma… he’s just trying to bother me… can’t you make him go away?

Sitting there quite happily, perfectly still, poised like a lion was my black cat. I smiled at K then reached down and stroked Spike’s fur. He rose to greet me and meowed before stretching a bit and sauntering away. I turned to K, but before I could speak again she was back to the business of arranging her dolls as she snarled:

You know he just does that to bug me

She’s probably right.