Kitty's lunch.

You know when you have a task that is far too daunting, and so you find any way you can to avoid it and make it worse?

That's what this post is. I'm avoiding Christmas pictures. I'll get to them, I swear. In the meantime, these pictures suck, but the story makes up for it in cuteness.

I was home with Lily the other day, trying to get things cleaned up, reorganized, and put away for the next 11 months. During rapid cleanup, we stuck our plastic serving trays on top of the cupboards. There were three serving platters, one giant bowl with a punch ladel, a three-compartment tray, and a bear-shaped cake pan. I stood on a chair and pulled them down to put them away. Lily came along and announced she wanted to help. So I handed each item to her to set down for me. She did, and then she began to play with them, doing pretend things, lining them up, and other odd things that toddlers do. Fine, no problem. I went about my business cleaning up the house.

A few minutes later, Lily wandered around the house saying "Meeuw? meeuw? meeuw?" I asked her what she was doing, and she said, "Where Kitty?"

We found Kitty sleeping in Lily's room, and Lily said "Wake up, Kitty! Lunch!" as she marched out of the room.

Moments later, she reappeared with the three-compartment tray on top of the serving platter. A spoonful of yogurt had been placed in each compartment, and a spoon was provided, too. She gleefully told Kitty to wait as she ran back to get the other two trays she had prepared.

She instructed Kitty when to eat from which bowl as she happily and repeatedly proclaimed "lunch for Kitty!"

Kitty was all too happy to oblige her being the yogurt addict that she is.

First Lily instructed Kitty to eat from the cake pan.

Then she took it away and decided it was hers.

It was all too perfectly adorable until Lily tried to scoop yogurt into Kitty's mouth with a punch ladel. Kitty backed up away from her, and apparently Lily was offended. She came to me and said, "Kitty no like me. Kitty mad at me."

Oh, my heart broke. How do you explain cat behavior to a toddler?

So I hugged her and told her how nice it was to make this lunch for Kitty and I was so proud of her.

She smiled and was better, and so was I.

How long will I have this power? Please tell me it's forever. I don't know what I'll do without it.