I went to bed at 8 o'clock tonight. It obviously didn't take because here I am, awake and missing my cats. Pedes and I cuddle every night, but yesterday it was too cute. We slept with our foreheads together and our feet/hands atop one another.

I want my critters! (Pedes thought Bana (dog) was his mama and nursed on her neck so much that it balded a spot on her throat.)

I'm spending the night at my uncle's house because his kiddos need babysitting. I picked them up from daycare and sent the girl off to basketball practice. Her younger brother, of course, cried when she left, but I've found the way to stop the crying. I held him for about a minute, put him back down, and then walked away. I've noticed that if I fawn over a kid when he or she cries, that kid will not stop crying ever. Anyway, he's a clever little guy. He wanted me to switch on the TV in the car, but I'm not the TV kind of person. He kept repeating, "Mommy said yes! Mommy said yes!" I buckled him in, gave him a kiss on the noggin and replied, "Cousin Bethany says no." I think he forgot about the TV once we started driving and laughing the entire trip home. Later, he pulled the "Daddy said yes" card when he wanted to go outside to play baseball. Let's see here...cold, rainy and outside playing catch or warm, dry and on the couch, snuggled under a blanket. Cousin Ferny is gonna have to say "no" again.

After playing "football" on the kitchen floor, he wanted to feed the fish. I was afraid we may overfeed it, which has killed some fish of mine in the past, but then I saw that it was already dead, sucked against the air pump. I wasn't prepared to deal with death in front of a toddler, especially one so sensitive. So, when he asked me where the fish was, I told him that the fish had gone out to get some milk.

Yeah. I refuse to turn on TVs in cars, ignore superfluous crying, and lie to kids about their dead fish. I am a bad, bad babysitter.