how getting the kittens is the best thing that's ever happened for my no-playing policy

While, as established, I was brilliant in cranking out all these children so close together, it wasn't quite close enough. I would have been better off having our fourth when the twins were 18 months or younger, apparently, because Helena is completely left out.

Somehow the older three are in mostly the same stage, developmentally. They like to stage elaborate battles with action figures. They like to build forts and hide from monsters. They like video games. And Helena ruins everything.

Poor thing. When playing with action figures, the kids complain that she "doesn't do it right." She is afraid of having the lights off during the monster game. She loves making video game characters jump, but that is the extent of her abilities. (She got that from me.) Once in a while the kids will play house with her, or the monster fort game will be played with lights on, but otherwise she's on her own.

Enter the cats. Finally, someone on par with Helena, developmentally speaking. She can spend hours running around in a circle with a ribbon. I'm not sure what this says for her future, but in the meantime it keeps her from whining to me about wanting to watch Dora. The cats chase her and her ribbon, then they all run out of energy and stare out the windows together. It is awesome.

Also, Helena has an irritating habit of chasing and grabbing my ankles when I walk. Much like the kittens. As I wrote that I realized it felt familiar and I found this from a year ago. NOTHING has changed.