Personality. It’s a strange beast. Every day, a little bit more of Riley’s personality emerges. But it can be hard to tell what is actual personality and what is her being a toddler. It is hard to tell what she was born with and what she has learnt.
She’s extremely gregarious. But not around toddlers. Only around adults. Either way, gregarious is not something she learnt from me, or from Mr Goog. Now her reserve, quiet and tendency to play alone around other toddlers, that’s something that looks familiar. And then, …

Here they are this morning, enjoying their special friendship. Which means that Riley can kick her (a little bit) and Morgan doesn’t mind. Riley is at the stage where she is very intent on hugging Morgan. She pursues her with the kind of intensity that makes me feel sorry for future objects of her affection.

Still looking great and 16 years young . . .

Despite receiving more gifts than any little person could actually focus on, Riley still demonstrated a keen interest in the cat bed:

Undeterred by the fact that it was, after all, a cat bed – she laid her claim

Several times:

Ironically it is this precise behaviour that has led to the bed becoming such a big hit with the cat, who has previously turned up her nose at all forms of cat beds:

When Riley was born I was continually worried that Morgan (the cat) would smother her. It didn’t help that Morgan likes to sleep on or near peoples heads. She’s weird like that. It was very helpful then, that when Riley was a newborn blob, Morgan failed to identify her as an actual person. Although she did seem to like her smell and would take any opportunity to sleep on her clothing.
It was somewhat of a shock to Morgan when she realised that the pleasant smelling blob was actually alive. And …

My cat has failed. Fair enough – she may be pretty old. 112 in cat years, she’s no Posey, but still she’s getting up there. And this is no ordinary failure – not some life unlived failure – but an actual failure to fulfill her genetic potential as a cat.
She is scared of birds, and cockroaches, and spiders, and generally any creature that moves in a vaguely irregular manner. I should also note that she doesn’t climb trees. There has been only one time that she has actually climbed a …