Cat Kisser.

Ellie loves cats, it's true. Perhaps more than she loves puppies or bunnies. Probably because they are more readily available to her. Rocky and Petunia mostly endure her, because they are large, amiable dolts. Lulu tolerates her, with dagger eyes and the occasional bite, because while she likes to be out and about, she really only enjoys Tim and I. Lulie is my protective girl. And after a solid 18 months of being absolutely terrified, Thor has decided that he likes her okay, and will actually allow himself to be snuggled. 

The thing is, Ellie wants more than snuggles. She wants to hug the cats. She wants to hold them. She'd ideally like to carry them around the house and push them in her doll stroller. And none of them are up for that, nor do they really appreciate 30 pounds of big headed toddler trying to lay on them. 

So we keep telling her, kitties don't like hugs. Kitties don't like when you lay on them or squish them. Kitties like nice pets and loves and scritchles (aka scratches. And for "loves" she just sort of rubs her face against their fur.) But I did tell her, you're too little to hold the cats. Someday, when you're a grown up, you can hold a kitty.

Randomly throughout the day now, she will stop what she's doing, look at me and say "someday I be big, and den I hold four-rey." Yes. Someday you will be big and you can hold Thory. She usually follows up with "but now I little." Tonight she tried to tell me that someday she's going to hold Lulu too. I had to break it to her that NO ONE holds Lulu, and that she better just hope that Lu goes completely senile.