As Shelly recently noted, we have not yet acknowledged the newest member of our family. We introduced yet another animal to the mix on Christmas Eve--a gray tabby male kitten who we eventually named Cosmo (though Emma calls him Playful).

He has worked his destructive self into our family rather quickly and continues to drive us all crazy. He has picked up my nice couch slipcovers with his claws, sprayed a few times in the house before he was fixed, chews up the bills while I pay them (this might not be so bad), and is driving my husband absolutely crazy. Though our most successful gift to our children to date, it has also been the most divisive. We finally had to institute days for each child with one day off for rest (mostly for us parents). The cat wakes up our children during the night by attacking and biting their feet while they sleep. Esther likes sleeping with the cat while Emma does not--unfortunately the cat likes it the other way around. Shaun threatens the cat with deportation on a daily basis.

However, he is the perfect cat for kids. He likes sitting on laps and does not claw the kids as they drag him around the house or squeeze him just a little too hard. He is quite a wimp actually. On Wednesday, I attempted to take him outside for the first time. He ran up over my shoulder and made a bee-line for a small gap to the crawl space--not for the back door that stood open. After hanging half in/half out for 2 minutes, he decided that under the house was safer and disappeared. I finally had to crawl under the house that night and dislodge him from the top of a support column. He was covered in cobwebs and generally in a bad mood. Who knows if he will ever venture into the great unknown again.

So, introducing Cosmo: