Cat Flap

He's got a new skill.
I remember, quite some time ago now, I was newly pregnant and we'd gone out for a meal at Nandos. It's not exactly the heights of culinary excellence but it's good comfort food especially when you're feeling a bit wobbly. On the table next to us were two women and a little boy who was somewhere between one and two years of age. The tables were quite close together and the little chap was clearly quite eager to meet new people and share things with them.
I was handed the childrens menu, the main menu and several items of cutlery. I probably would have been handed the cruet as well if his mum hadn't got a handle on things.
Yes, Joseph has now mastered the art of handing me things. It started out as him just holding things out to me, but he hadn't got the idea that he needed to let go. Now he's quite happy to hand me toys quite a lot and even some of his finger food, a concept he finds quite hilarious. A few days ago he held out one of his baby crisps to me and I leant forwards to jokily try and eat it. As I did so he shoved it quite firmly into my mouth. Well, I've been doing the same thing to him for months now so I can't really complain and they were quite nice crisps.
Handing me things goes hand in hand with "putting" things. Toys are picked up and put places where, to be honest, you don't really want toys. Mostly it seems as if he's trying to hide them in the manner of a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter. Perhaps he's trying to get a toy stash for the lean months ahead!
No, I don't think so. He's just not that tidy and his favourite place for depositing toys wouldn't lend well for the location of a secret stash.
He's discovered the cat flap. More importantly he's discovered that he can open the cat flap and post things out of it. So far we have had a muslin (twice), several soft toys, one of his little shoes, a broken handset from our cordless phone (he likes toys with buttons, it's a useful distraction), some plastic rings, some wooden blocks and my mobile phone which I had been looking for and it was making me a bit cross that I couldn't find it and in the end had probably been on the front step for quite some time and it's a miracle it wasn't stolen.
If I lock the cat flap then Joseph can't post things through it, but it's only when the cat flap is locked that The Cat decided she wants to use it. Normally she completely ignores  it in favour of scratching at the back door or jumping up through the kitchen window if it's open. My kitchen window is covered in muddy footprints now thanks to that annoying animal, but it's better than having to deal with her constantly being on the wrong side of the back door.
So, you see the dilemma. Cat flap open - toys on the front step but no annoyed cat. Cat flap shut and no risk of toy loss, but cue one irritating little moggy having a whine by the front door. Also, whilst she never uses the cat flap to exit the house, she occasionally uses it to enter quickly when being chased by other feline members of the community. The sight of her slamming into the cat flap at full tilt, totally unaware that it wouldn't open was both tragic and quite funny. The cat that was chasing her caught up with her and was so confused that he'd done so he didn't know what to do. They both sat there looking a bit embarrassed until I let The Cat in the house where she turned and hissed at the chaser safely through the locked cat flap.
Right now the cat flap is in its usual unlocked state and I am keeping an eye open for anything that might get sent through it.