Hilarity and Advice Request

My child is truly hilarious. At the ripe age of 3, she has comic timing down. Her delivery can be deadpan. And not because she doesn’t realize she’s saying something funny. She knows she’s being funny, she LOVES making me laugh, and can deliver it without cracking up. For instance, the other night we were cuddling at bedtime, and out of the blue she says, “Mommy, take off my fingers.”

“What?!”

“Take off my fingers,” she repeated emphatically.

“But how will you do things,” I asked. “How will you eat?”

“With a fork.” Not missing a beat.

“How will you hold your fork?”

She tossed the covers off her legs, stuck her feet in the air, and declared, “With my feet.”

“How will you play with your toys?”

“With my feet.”

“Okay. So, every time you want to eat or play or do anything, you’ll have to take off your shoes and socks?”

“Yeah!”

See? Hilarious!

 On the other hand, she is a normal three year old, and the latest phase of meltdowns and tantrums are a bitch. It’s suddenly hard to go into stores with her, as she wants whatever catches her eye. She tells me “You MEAN and you WRONG!” if she doesn’t get her way. Not fun. Yet, I’m not having as hard a time with it as the tantrum phase that hit just before she turned two. I’m more confident about handling it. I’m not embarrassed by her meltdowns. She recently had one at our local Wa1greens, where they know her, because I wouldn’t buy her a plastic shovel she wanted. There were four employees by the register as she flung herself to the floor, screaming and crying. They know her by name. “Sunshine, cut it out and listen to your mommy!” The village is everywhere.

Now for the advice request. One of our cats will be leaving us in the near future. Our Woohoo (formerly known as Wilson) has a tumor in the sinus area on one side. His nose is almost completely blocked on that side and he’s got a constant sinus infection, despite being on antibiotics for a month and a half solid. It’s just not an operable area on a kitty. Thankfully, he’s still eating, drinking, and hanging out for cuddles. He’s definitely not his usual self, but he’s not miserable enough to make the call to euthanize yet. I’m looking for books to help Sunshine prepare for and deal with his death. I’m looking for suggestions for books that deal with it in a secular way. I bought her this book when she started asking questions about death recently. I like it, but I want something that will be specifically about losing a pet, but without discussing heaven or religion. I bought this book, and although I like the way it handles the question of belief systems, I don’t think she’s old enough to understand the concepts. I’ve started to prepare her a bit by saying that I don’t think Woohoo is going to get better. That we have to take good care of him, give him his medicine and wipe his drippy nose, and just be extra gentle and loving. This REALLY sucks. Anyway, suggestions would be appreciated.

Sunshine and Woohoo napping together (OMG!) two years ago