snack station

I love the way Dulcie is becoming her own little independent person these days.  She always does things her own way, sometimes quietly and sometimes with a determined digging in of heels and a, "No, Mummy!" or (more likely) a, "No, Daddy!"

Some of her steps into independence are tiny but (I think) significant, like the way she uses her surroundings now.  Yesterday I gave her a snack and she immediately scuttled off with it.  I found her, quite contented, having made a wee seat for herself out of this cardboard box (full of glitter, unbeknownst to her) that has been sitting in the hall.

 Lola is never far away when food is a possibility, but Dulcie is more than capable of defending her bounty!  They have a funny little relationship, these two, Dulcie ("Come here, Lola!"/"Go away, Lola!") being at once bossy and affectionate, Lola trying to keep her distance but knowing that Dulcie is the most likely source of food in the house.  This morning, while I was hoping that Dulcie was going to snooze on long enough for me to have a cup of tea, Lola broke into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed and woke Dulcie up.  Dulcie was unfazed, responding with, "Where's Mummy gone?  Miaow!"  A regular mini Dolittle...maybe.  In all honesty, she is becoming something of a master conversationalist these days, which I love :)

Snacks + (relative) autonomy = happiness.  One of life's simpler equations.

Incidentally, I think I'm going to have to stop using the "baby" label for posts about Dulcie as she gets quite cross if anyone makes the mistake of referring to her as a baby these days.  "Dulcie is a girl!" has become one of her catchphrases.  She'd be furious if she discovered my lazily inaccurate blog-post labelling...