Gerald Durrell, by any chance?

And Betsy gets it in one.

Mallory will.not.sleep if there's anyone around. Too interesting to writhe, poke, prod, kick, talk, etc. The only exception was the 4:00 am feeding, when we'd both fall asleep.

The babysitter was really surprised that he knows when he's alone or not (and HATES being alone). Is it weird that he does?

You'd be surprised at how quickly the pleasure of warm babylump on you gets balanced by the desire to roll over on your side.

Ah, no...I have a warm catlump. So I get that. But I still would like to cuddle with Mal.

Kara was not ever a cuddler, which was disappointing. Aidan likes to snuggle though, so maybe the next one, Raq (if there is a next one).

I've been wondering about the doctor/cindy conversation too.

Ellie is such a pretty baby, and she has such pretty parents.

I have a warm catlump

Ozzie has a habit of trying to sneak up on me so he can stretch out on me without my noticing. Of course, he weighs over 25 pounds, he's longer than my torso when he stretches out, and he's usually purring loud enough to wake the dead, so it generally doesn't work that well.

I'm sure the critters eat every day, so it's not like you don't have another chance.

The Ellie pics were quite lovely.

That is just the nicest thing I have heard all day.

It's nice when you have something to look forward to, isn't it?

ION, Naturalizer online is giving 50% off the sale prices. So tempting to do damage because they carry my wee size.

Morning, All.

Happiest Birthday to Aimee!!

It's 11:30. There's still too much gronk. Some of it should have dissipated by now.

Ozzie has a habit of trying to sneak up on me so he can stretch out on me without my noticing. Of course, he weighs over 25 pounds, he's longer than my torso when he stretches out, and he's usually purring loud enough to wake the dead, so it generally doesn't work that well.

Legion does the same thing. He'll get pushed down to the foot of the bed, where he waits on tenterhooks until he's decided I've fallen asleep (usually about 20 seconds), then he slowly creeps back up. Like I'm not going to notice 17 cat-pounds being delivered to my squidgy bits via tiny cat feet.

And on that note, the baby has given me a sloppy baby goodnight kiss and curled into his crib, so I'm going to grab the catlump and head for bed myself.

I think there are two good ways to handle dialect. One is going all-out, liek Irvine Welsh, and using phonetic spellings and colloquial word choices for everyone. The other choice is to write everyone using standard English spellings, and suggest dialect lightly, through word choice.

As Susan suggests, writing one group of characters in dialect while acting like everyone else speaks perfect English often is racist or classist. I think it should probably only be used if you're trying to show that the narrator is racist or classist, or if you're trying to show that the narrator's in a completely unfamiliar setting.

I agree that pidgins or creoles are a bit of a wildcard, and I'm not sure how they should be handled.

Normally my catlump curls up next to my head where he can be in my hair. In cooler weather, he likes to sleep on my hip or my chest. Hubby has, on more than one occasion when I can't sleep, picked up the protesting catlump and dropped him on my hip, whereupon catlump and I proceed to doze off. Koogie, said catlump, is a bony old skinnycat who barely clears ten pounds these day.

Hubs is beginning to be afraid if I get to bed first. Teddy will be asleep by my head, and Max by my feet. Often not leaving enough room for Hubs to sleep there.

Marie likes the top of the cat tower in the living room.