My Birthday!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! Max it was so sweet of you to remember! But I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less from such a courtly, gentleman cat!

The day did not start out well. Mom saw that we were low on crunchies over the weekend so she went to the store. On Monday morning, my actual birthday, she went to fill our bowls only to find that he accidentally bought... DOG FOOD! What??? How could she make that mistake?? So we had wet food for breakfast, which for most cats would be great, but I don't really like wet food that much, and I had to meow all morning for my crunchies. Then Mom went to work and didn't even spend the day with me. And I should point out that I got locked out of Mom and Dad's bedroom for simply going in and announcing my birthday. I know it was 4 am, but I was excited, and I DID wait FOUR hours before going in to play.

So my day started out lonely, crunchy-less, and Mom-less. But then I got my cake from Max and all your well-wishes and that was wonderful. Then Mom felt so horrible about the lack of crunchies that she put a handful of Temptayshuns... in. my. bowl. So that was pretty good. Then she busted out the nip for Nip Fest for me. We got this scratcher for Christmas, so it's not new for my birthday, but the fun was new. And we ended the day cuddling on the couch. So all in all, turning 3 wasn't so bad. Here's some pics of the NipFest!



Thanks to everyone for your help in making it a good day after all!

Daddy's Furry Girl

I've always been partial to Dad. It's true that when I was a baby and had to be kept separate from Mattingly, it was Mom who slept with me in the spare room every night so I wouldn't be alone. All other duties Mom and Dad split evenly when it comes to taking care of Mattingly and Me, but I am just Dad's cat. Maybe it's because he picked me. There were a few other kittens in my litter, but Dad chose me. I'll never forget that, and I guess that's why he's my go-to guy.

When Mom had our Girl in her belly, I was Mom's kitty for awhile. I loved snuggling with that belly, and Mom was pleased that for once I would choose her. They used to say I was trying to help her hatch a baby because I was always on her belly. But once Girl arrived, Mom's lap was always full and I had no problem going back to being Dad's cat, almost exclusively. The second he sits down anywhere in the house, I'm right there to be on him. Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to the past few months...

Watching TV with Dad:
Helping Dad play Guitar Hero:
And when I have to give up the lap to Girl (because really, she's ok), I find a way to still be snuggly:

Happy Valentines Day! (Belated)

We've been away for far too long, and there is no good excuse really, so I won't offer one... except for the usual, it's Mom's fault, not ours that we haven't been blogging.

First and most importantly, Harlie and I have some very special wishes to send out. We missed Christmas/Chanukkah, New Year, and Chinese New Year, but we will not miss Valentine's Day! Ok... we did miss it, but we're going to fix it quick.

First, to my lovely Tipper, I give these roses, and hope she can forgive me for being silent for so long. Though we've been sneaking little visits to each other, it's been some time since I declared my feelings for her openly, so Tipper, these roses are for you:

Harlie sends this box of catnip treats to her special guy, Max. She would be here to write her own Valentine's wishes to him, but she is on a very important bug hunt in the kitchen. I told her I'm sure Max understands. We have a lot of new important duties with the blurpy girl around. Anyway, here is her gift to Max:


We actually have several stories to share... some good, some bad, some harrowing, but for now we will just pass along a few pictures and begin the story telling next time. I did mention that we have new duties now though, and one of them is talking with our girl. We can just call her Girl. Here we are having a chat on the bed last month:And here is Harlie trying to teach her how to roll over. Harlie is an excellent teacher and coach for these types of things.And here is a picture from yesterday. Mom and Dad are real proud of this one. Apparently this is a big deal. It seems blurps aren't born knowing how to sit up and they have to learn it.
So that's all we have for now. But we'll be back in a couple of days with more. Purrs and lots of love to all our kitty friends!

Very slow response!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry to keep you waiting for so long. The stork brought our blurpy girl on Friday, Sept. 5th, but the stork didn't bring her to the house. Mom and Dad had to go get her. It was kind of rough because Mom was gone for days and we missed her so much. Fortunately, we had the grandmas here to keep us company while she was gone. Then one day Mom came home, but there was no blurpy girl! It turns out she's ok though. Something happened and she was very yellow and had to stay more time in the hospital (2 extra days). They let mom stay the first extra day, but not the second. Oh, and Mom says the yellow was caused by a very big bruise on the baby's head from a long and sort of difficult birth. But everyone is ok now and we've all been home together since the 9th.

The grandmas stayed for awhile after that and then they left and we've been trying to settle into a routine. Mom has been terrible about helping us blog, but we are forgiving her because it seems all she does is feed the blurpy girl (they had some trouble with that at first too, but it's worked out now), try to sleep, and try to sneak in loving with us when she can. There was one point where she didn't even shower for days! So we are forgiving her.

Harlie had a tough adjustment at first. I moved right into my role of big brother and like to check on the baby when she's sleeping (but I know not to get in the cradle with her!) and sit next to Mom on the arm of the couch when it's feeding time, but Harlie was upset at first and wouldn't go near the baby or Mom and just kept close to Dad and the Grandmas. But within a few days, everything was back to normal, and she's back to sleeping on Mom at night, which she hasn't been able to do since before Mom got huge, and she seems to like the smell of the baby now.

It will still probably be a few days before we can come around and visit other blogs, but we wanted to make sure to finally update. Sorry it took us so long, but if we can be patient with Mom, hopefully you can too! So without further ado... here are some pictures!

Abigail Elizabeth
Born September 5, 2008
8 pounds, 3oz, 20 inches long

Here's Harlie getting her first look. Moments later her tail was puffed up and she went under the bed. It's hard to tell here, but there is a kitty face embroidered on the baby's hat!

Here she is with our Dad. There are kitties and bunnies on her shirt.
Here she is strengthening her neck and back muscles!

Here she is wearing another kitty shirt!

Hopefully we'll be around more soon! Lots of purrs and love to all of you in the blogosphere!

Purrs,
Mattingly

Lots of Waiting

Well, our blurpy baby girl is late. Mom and Dad have thought she was on her way here a few times, but they were false alarms. Mom is spending her days working on the computer and waiting and every day Mom and Dad go out and do something in the hopes they can make the thing come. There's also a lot of waiting involved for our outdoor kitty friend. Mom and Dad spotted her last week on their way home from the store one night, and Mom stayed outside with her, but she was scared off before Dad could make it back downstairs with some food and the carrier. Mom came upstairs with leaky eyes because she said the kitty didn't look as good as other times they had seen her. Nocat has eaten the food they've been putting out for several days now. For awhile, the food was being eaten by somecat. They couldn't be sure it was her, but at least there was hope as long as it was disappearing, but now it's been almost a week since the food was eaten. We won't give up hope though.

In the meantime, there is all this great baby stuff around the house that we would like to explore and sleep in, but we are not allowed. I made it into one of the beds once, but right after that, things got sticky, and nothing associated with this baby seems to be comfortable. (NOTE FROM MOM: We put contact paper upside down in the cradle, pack 'n play, and on the changing table. It is kind of mean, but very effective!)

So what are Harlie and I doing to keep busy with all the waiting? Well, I'm spending as much quality time with Dad as I can, since soon he will probably be pretty distracted:
Harlie is enjoying the new bed they got just for us, but that she took over almost exclusively:
I prefer to keep napping on Mom's slippers. I love these slippers.
Hopefully we'll have some good news to report soon!

Generous Gifts

Last week, we all received a very lovely package from our dear friends The Crew. Mattingly and I knew it was coming because they emailed us ahead of time, but it was a complete surprise to Mom and Dad. They were very tickled. The box was full of stuff for our new baby bean girl who is due to arrive any day now. Mattingly was first to check out the bibs and clothes...
...while I looked at the books. At first I wasn't to thrilled about a book with a dog on the cover, but there was a kitty inside, so it was ok.
Then I wanted to check out the bibs and clothes for myself...
I asked Mom if she thought a bib might look nice on me since they were pink and girly and I'm a girl! Maybe Max would think I would look pretty, and I've never tried on fashions before like some of the kitties I admire, Daisy and Lilly Lu.It turns out wearing a bib wasn't all I thought it would be and I don't think I'll be wearing any fashions again.

Also in the box was a package of some nice smelling bath stuff for Mom to pamper herself with. It was wrapped in plastic, so of course I had to try to eat some of it. I love plastic.But by far, the best gift of all was the box that everything came in. It's always the best part.Thank you so much Crew! It was so furry sweet of you to think of our family and get our baby blurpy girl some gifts. Now we just have to get her here so she can wear them! Mom and Dad are getting pretty impatient at this point. We'll be sure to keep you posted!