Furry, four-legged babies

Dixie and Samson, our four-legged "fur babies," are often our entertainment at home. Dixie is a smart, sneaky thing who will stop at no lengths to get a piece of Samson's food (the higher fat kind that we have to keep in the pantry in hopes that only he has access to eat it...but she finds ways to sneak in a bite here or there) or to have some people food on occasion. Her absolute favorite nights are when Jason grills...well...ANYthing. She loves tuna steak, ribeyes, chicken, virtually anytime the grilling utensils come out, she's a meowing machine! Samson could care less about people food...unless he hears the whipped cream cannister come out of the fridge. He'll eat his AND his sister's portions. It's gotten so bad lately that he knows once dinner time is over, if anyone opens the fridge/freezer, it's dessert time, for the whole family. (Jason lovingly refers to Reid as his "little tub of ice cream" sometimes. I didn't think it was really that bad until I saw that we did indeed have four different kinds of ice cream in our freezer...and none of them lasted that long!)

So in honor of our kitties, the pictures today will highlight Easter at the French household. We went to church, had a bite out to eat, did the usual grocery shopping, then decided it's probably about time to figure out the stroller and car seat situation. I was so bummed when I got an email from Babies R Us a few months back saying that our stroller/car seat combo were being discontinued. (not a part of any of the recalls) We'd looked at tons, and this one was lightweight, semi unique, and pretty colors/pattern. I lamented this information to my sister, and we had a special package delivered the next week. Who says the older sister takes care of the younger one? ;) Anyhow, I digress...today Jason pulled all the parts out of the box and we sat down to assemble it. Unbeknownst to us, Dixie apparently has skills:

If that video post worked, I will attempt to capture Reid's antics on a video. He doesn't perform on demand, but hopefully I could catch him on a day like today. After all that action, we were tired and being that it was a nice, cloudy Sunday afternoon, a nap seemed the perfect activity for all of us. (except for Reid, who has been rolling, kicking, and generally moving most of the day--love it!!) We ended up sleeping quite soundly, and I woke up to this hilarious vision, which looked like Jason gave birth to a furry 15 pounder:

We often wonder how the cats will adjust to a squirmy little screaming human invading "their" house... I didn't realize they'd never really been around kids until my roommate's nephews (toddler and 4ish) came over one day when I was in my third or fourth year of teaching. Dixie immediately hissed, ran away, and hid under the bed. Samson was scared at first, but then came out to investigate. They also haven't been around too many babies. The first time Samson ever heard one was when we lived in Spring and friends brought their newborn over to watch an LSU football game. The baby was in her car seat on top of the kitchen table--Samson bolted into the room, up onto the table (a big no-no for the cats) and stuck his nose in to see what the crying mini human was upset about. It was pretty cute! Dixie, being the calico with the attitude, wanted nothing to do with the baby. It will be interesting to see how they adjust...and what baby things they 'claim' for themselves. We thought the car seat was going to double as a cat bed for awhile there today...