Jack the Cat

Jack the Cat

We have a great cat named jack--the kids carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothers him. Mostly he's prone to hang out and nap all day long on the rug in our bathroom.

Bill and I have two sons, aged 4 and 3 years old, and a 1-year old daughter. The 3-year old is Eli. For whatever reason, Eli really love chapstick. LOVES it. He keeps asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So, finally, one day i showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick an told him he could use it whenever he wanted to, but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

It was Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around, trying to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. The two boys had been fighting over the toy in the cereal box. The baby was fussy, and I was trying to nurse her at the same time I was putting on my make-up. It was chaos.

Finally we got the older boy and the baby loaded in the car and wer were looking for Eli. Bill and I had searched everywhere- I finally went into the bathroom, and there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now, if you have a cat,you know that Eli is right-- their little butts do look kind of chapped. Jack was being his usual laid-back self and, frankly, didn't seem to be minding the attention.

Bill's eyes met mine. . . you know, one of the parental, mind-meld moments. The question that came simultaneously to Bill and me in that moment was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cats behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever, because it reminds me that no matter how hard we try to civilize these little ankle biters, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.