A Different Reality (Lasting Love)

Getting a Kitten?

"Hi, cutie!"  I pick up Bentley out of his crib and sit down to feed him.  He grabs onto my hair and pulls it as he eats.

Kayleigh runs into the room and curls up on my lap.  I hold her up with my free arm and she cuddles up as close to me as she can get.

"Good morning, sweetie."  I kiss her forehead. 

"Mommy, I hungry."  She looks up at me fluttering her eyes.  I get up and carry Ben downstairs to see that Justin is already in the middle of making her breakfast.  She runs up to him and he sets her on the counter letting her help mix the pancake batter.

"Do we have any bananas?" I ask Justin "I wanna try giving him some again.  Maybe he'll like it more now."

He hands me one and takes Ben from me so that I can mush it up.  Ben starts to cry because he's still hungry and I stopped feeding him.

"Someone's grumpy today."  Justin plays with him for a while trying to get him to stop.

I take him from Justin and carry him over to his high chair "Let's see if you like this." I put a little banana on the spoon and get him to open his mouth.  He looks like he likes it at first, but quickly spits it back out.

"He not eat it."  Kay walks up next to me and takes the bowl.  She gets the spoon from my hand and starts to eat it herself.  I pick up Ben and feed him the food he actually wants.

Justin walks over and hands Kay a plate of cut up pancakes to eat.  He sets a plate in front of me as well, and I wait until Ben is done eating so I can give him to Justin and eat my food. 

"What are we doing today, Kayleigh?"  Justin asks.  We always let her pick on our days off. 

"Mama and papa?" She asks confused.  She's used to going to her grandparents.

"No, me and mommy are off today."  He laughs as she gets really excited "We can do whatever you want."

"Movie!" She yells excitedly. 

"Okay, what movie?" I ask.

"Kittens." She answers.  She's been obsessed with some weird cat movie recently.

We finish breakfast and Justin puts Ben down for his nap while Kay and I clean up.  She loves to wipe off the table, even if that means just throwing the crumbs on the floor.  I do the dishes and get the crumbs off the floor while she goes in the living room to set up her fort.

"Mommy!"  She yells while tapping on the glass patio doors "Kitten!"

"There's no kitten." I reply laughing.  She's probably just holding up her DVD.

"No, Jen."  Justin walks to where he can see her "There's definitely a kitten."

"I tell you!" Kay runs into the kitchen to pull me towards the door.  I stand next to Justin looking out the window at a poor little kitten that somehow got in our yard.  We both look from each other, to the kitten to Kay trying to figure out what to do about this.  We know she is going to want to keep it.

"Is it the neighbors?"  I ask him "Don't they have a few cats?"  I remember Kay playing with them before.

"No, theirs are all orange.  This can't be theirs."  He opens the door to walk out "I'll go see if there's a collar or anything on it."  The kitten runs right up into his arms once he gets outside.

"I go?"  Kayleigh begs inching closer and closer to the open door "Pweas?" I open it further and we both walk out.

"Don't touch it yet, honey."  I pull her hands away "You don't want to hurt it."

"But mommy!"  She complains giving me her best puppy dog face.  I stand by what I said, not knowing if the kitten could be sick or anything, and keep her hands away.

"Well, 'it' looks like a 'she'". Justin says after inspecting her "She doesn't seem hurt or anything since she's letting me hold her."

"She mine?"  Kay asks hoping we'll let her keep her.  I look to Justin and motion for him to talk to me.  Kay stays sitting on the ground playing with the cat.

"Should we let her?"  I ask "There's no collar or anything, but she might be someone's pet."

"I don't think she is, Jen."  He looks over at them "She's really skinny.  It doesn't seem like she's been fed in a while.  I don't know if we really need a pet right now though."

"I don't think we do."  I agree with him, but continue to watch how happy Kay is "She really likes her though.  It's really cute."

"It's adorable, but we also have a 8 month old baby inside that's enough work."  He has a very good point "Do we really need more to deal with right now?  It's not like she can take care of the thing."

Kayleigh gets up running over to us with the biggest smile on her face.  I look up at Justin knowing he can't resist the look she is giving him.

"Alright, fine.  You can keep her."  He gives in.  Kay jumps around like crazy from the excitement.  She runs over to the kitten and holds it as close to her as she can.

"You need a name for her, honey."  I sit on the ground with them "You get to name her since she's yours."

She thinks about it for a while as she stares down the kitten.  Justin and I laugh knowing that there can't be too many names going through her little brain right now.

"Iceam." She finally decides.

"You want to name her ice cream?" Justin asks trying to see if we just heard her right.  She just nods her head and says it again.

"Well, then I guess she's Ice Cream Theroux."