Happy Birthdays!

My kittens officially came of age this week, reaching their one-year landmark. Happy Birthday! So now I'm expecting them to turn into more typical cats, sleeping away most of the day (oh yeah, they do that already), becoming fussier in what they eat, and generally being more dignified and aloof. In short, more adult. This doesn't seem very likely, however, as they chase each other up and down the length of my apartment and then beg me to play with them.

This got me thinking to our assumptions about age. Do we expect to become more dignified and aloof as we get older? Do we expect others to accept our eccentricities and selfish fussiness as we add years to our age? I think I'll try to hang on to more of the playful innocence and wonder of childhood (or kittenhood), the older I get. After all, the main result of having cats in my life is a constant reminder that I am not the most important person here, even if I am the only human. And that's not a bad thing.