For Jeffrey

Our nephew Jeffrey loves to see pictures of Smudge.  He is still my best beast, and we certainly have no shortage of photos.  I was looking for the photo of Smudge joining us at the table for dinner because he does that almost every night.  He has his own chair, and he just sits there and patiently waits for bites.  As long as he isn't being rude or grabby, he can stay.  Here he was above, snuggling with our laughing monkey toy.

Here he is, still knowing when someone is sick.  The last two times Aiden was ill, he hung out near him.  Otherwise, he doesn't do that.

This is one of his favorite places to perch himself.

He occasionally chooses an item to sit on, though.  Ethans lunch box.

He made his way to the towel, but was removed.  He's not allowed on the counters.

We thought he might eventually fall over.

He is easy to catch in a box.  He doesn't hang out in the living room very often unless there is a box.

 He was trying to play with Chippy.

 "But what about more peanuts?"

He rolled over inviting play.  Chippy wasn't interested.

Look, Jeffrey!  Chippy came in!

We all love when Smudge joins us for group time.

We don't get anything done when this happens.

My favorite thing about Smudge is that he can sense when I am annoyed with paperwork.  He has, on several occasions, recognized my mood changing, and then proceeded to sit on top of the paperwork that was bothering me.  In this photo, it was the menu for Henle House.  My least favorite chore.  Just this week, he placed himself right on top of the cell phone bill I was griping about.  He senses stress and illness.  Good boy!

Meanwhile, the kids all received a copy of 'The Little Mouse The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Big Hungry Bear'.

I love this book.  It's got beautiful illustrations and the reader is actually engaging the mouse in conversation.

Here's another one I thought was wonderful- 'the cow loves cookies".  

For art, we created a four leaf clover.  The kids were sticking tissue squares to the clear contact paper.

They had a bit of trouble separating the tissue squares.  

Once they had the contact paper covered with tissue squares, they added a four leaf clover frame and a pipe cleaner handle.  Something green for March!

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥