Treat Please

I'm constantly double-teamed. It's simply not fair.

There's a treat jar on the kitchen counter. It used to be "hidden" in the cabinet, but that made no difference to the girls. They knew exactly where it was, and would sit and stare at that cabinet as if I needed reminding.

Maia is the instigator. She'll find me and use her eyes and body language to discuss with me the merits of providing her a treat. She succeeds about 90% of the time.

Since the house rule is that if one girl gets a treat, so does the other, they've learned to double team me. They know I have almost zero ability to resist two beseeching girls.

This sequence of photos shows a typical evening. I'm sitting at the dining table, reading the paper, watching/listening to TV. Maia is laying on the floor behind me. Meadow comes up to Maia and starts being impossibly cute: she gives Maia an "ear bath" by affectionately licking inside one of Maia's ears. Maia tolerates this briefly. Of course, Meadow would be just as happy if Maia would start playing and wrestling with her, but as Maia gets older (she's now eight) she's less inclined to play.

I find the ear baths such an adorable and loving thing that I reward them both with treats.

Sit!

Girls always sit for treats. It's the polite thing to do.

They were mildly annoyed that I took so long to get photos of their looks of anticipation. It's what I always see, and what I can never ignore. Resistance is indeed futile.