re: "house our thoughts and spirits.?"
Dematerializations and apports, cool.
It's been awhile since those type of things have happened to me.
I call it the Cosmic Trickster. I have no idea what it is but it's an intelligent force that plays with us. It happens when the air is emotionally charged and certain people are together, or who have just crossed your path. My mother was involved once, and she was completely stunned and confounded. I just got used to it, because it ran concurrent with other phenomena.
Did you tell your wife about your daughter's stuffed cat?