Last weekend, I desperately felt like  a lie in. Unfortunatley by 6:45am,
there
was a sqeak, a thud, and a little voice saying in a concerned sort of way
"Mummy, wake up."

Although knowing it was utterly futile, I replied "Don't wanna" and rolled
over.

"Mummy, wake up, sun is awake"

I peaked out of the doona that was over my head.

Whilst true it was past sunrise, it wasn't very much past sunrise, and
besides, it was dark and cloudy.

And the best thing about children is you can lie to to them.

"Its still dark ouside, Cary. Time for sleeping"

"Pickle is awake".

I should know better than try to reason with a 4 year old, but I hadn't had
my coffee yet.

"Yes, I know, but cats are nocturnal. Go to sleep."

"What that means?"

"Nocturnal?"

"What that means?"

"Nocturnal means sleeping when the sun is up and being awake when its dark.
You aren't nocturnal, and its still dark outside. Go back to sleep"

"Mummy, I'm hungry"

Thats one of the ones he can't be distracted from, and most begrundgingly, I
hauled my unwilling body out of its nice warm bed to make vegemite on toast
so he can feed it to Fluffy and steal my chocolate instead for breakfast
while I'm the shower (I really ought to get a lock on the fridge). No point
denying it any longer, the day had started.

That evening, after we got home from the days activities, Cary was yabbering
on about whatever it is that Cary yabbers on about as he usually does in the
evening (he never stops talking, even if its only to himself). He was also
sorting through his toys looking for something small and sharp he could
leave between my bedroom door at the toilet later that evening (or whatever
he was looking for - maybe it was just his way of taking every single one of
his toys out of their respective toy boxes and systematically scattering
them across the floor as he does most days). And then he found one of his
Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles.

"Mummy? This is Turtle?"

"Yup, Cary, thats a turtle"

"Why are cats turtles?"

"Cats aren't turtles, silly, *turtles* are turtles."

"No, Mummy, cats are *turtles*," he said,  stamping his foot.

"Cats are *not* turtles," I emphasised.

"Not turtle?"

"Thats right, cats are not turtles. *This* is a turtle"

"No!," he said in exhasperated tones (dunno where he got that from....),
"Cats *are* turtles".

"No," I said, rather confused myself, "Cats are like Suki & Pickle, they're
furry and say 'meow'. Turtles have hard shells and are very slow. A cat
looks like that," (I pointed to Suki) "and a turtle looks like this",
pointing to the Donatello

"turtles sleep during the day?" he asked cautiously.

And only then did I realise what he was talking about...

"Oh, sorry Cary, you are right, cats are noc-TUR-nal," I said, enunciating
the syllables very careful.

"Cats not turtles?" he asked, looking for confirmation.

"Noc-TUR-nal", I tried again.

"Not turtles"

"noc-TUR-nal"

I could see the frustration on his face "NOT TURTLES!" he yelled.

I sighed. There was no point going on.

"Yup, you got it, cats are not turtles".

"Silly Mummy," he said when he knows he's right and I'm wrong.

I agreed "Silly Mummy".

Either way, he's right. Cats may or may not be nocturnal but they are
*definately* not turtles.

Yowie