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Liza and I spent the evening playing together as Kate and Mike went to see Sin City. Mike had been wanting to see it for a while now, talking about it, complaining that he wouldn't get to see it for a long while because of various circumstances.

So, I offered to watch Liza while they went out for the evening.

Liza's 2 years, 10 months. At this point, she has a personality. The great thing is that it's a pretty wonderful personality. When she laughs, oh my, the room and the world light up. When she giggles, oh, you have to giggle, too. It's great. She's great.

I'm sure if she were my child, however, I'd be less enamoured with her. But for now, heh, since I can give her back, she's still magical.

At nearly 3, Liza is fascinating to me. I find watching her and learning her interpretation of the world to be entertaining. For example, at some point in the evening, she wanted to wash the dishes. Well, okay, not something I would put on the top of my Friday night list, but sure. So, she found the scrubby pad for me, and "washed" the dishes with me. Her version of washing dishes is to stick her hands in the water, and thrash them around. After that, the dishes are magically clean!

Throughout the evening, we also played checkers (which involved stacking the checkers then knocking over the stack), hid under the covers, read Stray Dog at least 10 times, built a cushion house, and played with her blocks (twice!).

She was so funny with her blocks. She would take an 8 block, and put 8 one blocks on it, then another 8 block, then another 8 one blocks. She repeated this until she ran out of 8 blocks. Of course, at that point, she was bored. But when I asked if she would help me clean up, she did so without hesitation. I certainly didn't do that when I was young.

She currently has a way of using, "Sure!" instead of yes when answering in the affirmative. I'm not sure she knows the difference between "Sure!" and "Yes." but her use is terribly cute.

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This kind of calming effect is, however, seen only when there is both an affinity for the type of animal, and some sort of positive bond between the pet and the owner. This bond is most typically seen when the owner chooses the pet, instead of having it foisted upon him (say in the case of marriage or other live-in relationship).

Well known is my struggle with Kris' dogs.

Oh, so now they're Kris' dogs, eh?

Well, for this moment, yes.

I'm not a dog person. I'm a cat person. I like cats. Cats are cute. They're cuddly. They're quiet. Except for their litter boxes and their butts, they smell good. They're small. In every way they are superior to dogs.

However, Kris is a dog person. And this round (this round!), Kris chose the pet. We have dogs. And they annoy me. They hover around me whenever I'm in the kitchen. They never quite beg, but they definite whine for food when Kris isn't looking. They vomit on the floor. They pee in the bed. Yes, that's right, our dogs pee in the bed. And the scrounging. Argh!

So, best to make the most of the situation, right?

I've recently trained Annie to dash out of her crate, spin a circle and dash back into her crate before she gets her food. Her dashing is hysterical. She surprised me by running around me this evening. Oh, so entertaining.

Better yet, while making my smoothie today, I offered Bella the yogurt container. She was far too tentative about the container, so I offered it to Annie. When she, too, was too dainty with the container, I shoved it onto her nose.

Ah, much more entertaining.

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