Creative play time

Katherine and Caroline have so much fun together and play so creatively.

The other night they decided to pretend to go to Hawaii. Uncle Justin and Aunt Leah live in Hawaii so that is where they wanted to go (I want to go too!)
They put on their raincoats, hats, sunglasses and packed their bags and strollers.
They traveled around the house to the "airplane" which was the couch and chairs set up in the den. We all traveled over the ocean. They went to Katherine's room to swim and then back to the den for a luau.
This fun activity of pretending to go to Hawaii kept all four of us entertained for at least half an hour.

The girls also love to play with all of their stuffed animals and blankets. They make beds for them all over the house. Beware the mom who accidentally walks over a bed and wrinkles it.
I just noticed that in the photo above Caroline is actually doing her sign for "I love you" to her Pooh.
I love that the girls are so creative and also so nurturing.
This was the largest bed of all. I think that every baby and doll blanket in the house was used and each bear and doll had their own spot.

Katherine has also really gotten into making tents. She wants to use her blankets and not larger sheets so it is a little limiting. She will work forever on getting them to stay up and then Caroline will knock it down either on purpose or on accident. It causes a lot of drama at our house.
She love to snuggle with her bear in her tent. She even made a bed for me but it was not under the tent. I am too tall and mess them up trying to get in.

Let's buy it!

Today Katherine was watching Sesame Street on the computer while I was in the office. We had the funniest conversation.

K-Mommy, I want to buy something on the puter.

Me-Really, how are you going to do that?

K-Will you help me?

Me-I want to see if you can do it

I really was curious just how much she knew. She then proceeded to click to a different page which was in fact a page where you could buy Sesame Street merchandise. She saw a blank and filled in her name. It was actually the search box but she had no clue. Then she asked me our phone number to fill in another blank. That is not what it was asking for but still! I decided to ask her a few more questions.

Me-Katherine, if you buy something, how will you get it?

K-It will come out of daddy's puter.

Me-Where?

K-I don't know, maybe there. (She pointed to the tower where there are all the disk drives and such)

Me-How will you pay for what you want to buy?

K-(very excited) I know, I will go get my money out of my bunny bank AND my piggy bank. I have lots of money. (She has maybe $4)

Me-And where will you put it?

K-Into daddy's puter.

We stopped at this point and had a very serious discussion about how you NEVER put anything into daddy's computer. I also explained that when you buy something online you actually use your credit card and don't put your money in the computer. Then you don't get what you buy right then, you have to wait a few days or weeks for the mailman to bring it to you. That did not discourage her, she then said,

"Mommy, why don't we use your credit card to buy this and I will wait a few days to get it."

I am pretty scared. It will not be too long before she can read and really figure out how to buy something.

Katherine's Birthday

After Katherine's party, Nana and Pops stayed to watch her open presents from them. For some reason she decided to wear her dress up clothes. She is opening her fun new set of tinker toys. She loves to "tinker" with her daddy and this has provided a lot of fun. She made a castle that is taller than she is. You will notice that she has the girl set of tinker toys which features pink, purple, green and blue plastic pieces. I was actually glad that they were plastic since Hooligan has been known to eat wooden toys.
On Katherine's actual birthday we all got up earlier enough to go to the donut factory, otherwise known as Krispy Kreme before work and school. What a fun treat!

We let Katherine choose what to eat for dinner and she chose Chick-Fil-A. Due to a miscommunication, I went with the girls to Chick-Fil-A and Sam came home to pick us up. So we ended up just bringing it home.

Finally, time for presents. You can see that she is excited.

Sophia and Ally gave her a fairy cookie kit and a Disney Princess CD.
She received a lot of books.
This year we called her "year of responsibility". She received a chore chart/system, a divided piggy bank for her new allowance and we started sponsoring a child through Compassion International that shares her birthday. She was not quite sure what to think of the framed photo of a little girl in Honduras but we have been praying for her every night since then and it has been fun to see her interest grow.
Finally, we had ice cream sundaes and watched a movie.
We had a fun day celebrating Katherine.

Arboretum

Today we went to the arboretum. It was a gorgeous day and the spring festival starts this weekend. We figured that it would be pretty but now crowded. We were right. I joined 3 other moms from church with their kids. There were 7 kids from 16 months to barely 4. They were all over the place.

I love how not a single child would look at the camera. Julia is playing in the water. Luke is playing with his belly button. I think that Caroline, Katherine and Emma are looking at the fish and Ally and Ava are looking at the sidewalk.
Caroline is showing off her new hair style. She has started wearing, and keeping in, her bow.
Caroline loved the fountains.
I wanted to get them to all sit on the bench but they were not very cooperative.
Katherine sat on the bench and actually asked me to take her picture. Her hair is all over the place, she has a busted lip and she dressed herself, but what a cute 4 year old.
Luke was the only boy in our group. Isn't he handsome?
Julia just turned 2. She liked to smell and pick the flowers which is of course a no no at the Arboretum.

Katherine...The things she says.

Goodness, I love this 4 year old so much. What a fun age. I love that she is so talkative and I can really know what is going on in that head of hers. These are many snippets that I have been jotting down over the past few months.

Katherine is really becoming very spiritually sensitive and aware. It is so fun to see her asking spiritual questions, repeating things she has learned at church, school and home, and just a childlike faith in God. It was especially fun at Christmas to hear her repeating back different portions of the Christmas story. She goes through phases as far as praying and right now I catch her praying aloud on her own. It is so cute. She also understands that praying is a normal activity and we can ask God for anything. She still wants to thank God for her "favorite princess" every day and while it is an odd request, she is showing gratitude for what is important to her.

In about October she finally has decided to pray aloud instead of just listening to mommy or daddy. Some of her prayers are very long. One night she had a very long soliloque about business and dancing at church that I had no idea what she was talking about but it was sweet because she was talking to God like a friend who was right there. The parts I remember were, "Dear God, thank you for my happiness. Thank you for dancing. Thank you for ballet and thank you for princesses. Thank you for my house. I thank you that God loves me and I love Jesus and He is my friend. I hope he does not have to die on the cross again. Thank you for my parents. Amen." I love her empathy for Jesus. She knows that it was sad that he died and does not want him to have to hurt and have the men be mean to him again.

11/13-Katherine's quote for the night: "Mom, if I was God, I think the world would be very heavy in my hands." This was said after we sang, "He's got the whole world in his hands" before bed. I explained that God is very strong and her reply was "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty" just like another great Sunday school song.

11/17-Mommy, if you go to jail for going too fast, tell the policeman that God is in jail with you. When he says, "what, I don't see God" you say, "well, God is here. God is everywhere. He is invisible."

We were talking about how we prayed for Caroline to feel better and how she does feel better.

"Katherine, we need to thank God that he answered our prayer and Caroline is better."

"But I did not hear Him answer."

"He does not answer us with his voice, His answer is that he made her feel better like we asked."

At four years old her theology and world view are already developing. It is fun to see that she is learning about God's power, sovereignty, his omnipresence and love.

At lunch one day she asked if Sam and I were still married since we love each other. We talked about how we will always be married. I asked her who she would marry when she grows up. Here was our conversation:

She said, "When I grow up I be Cinderella and daddy be Prince Charming so we be married."

"But Katherine, I will still be married to Daddy."

"That's OK."

"What about Caroline, who will she marry?"

"She be married to daddy too."

"So we will all three be married to daddy?

"Yes"

"Honey, you can't do that. You can't marry your daddy and you can't be married to more than one person. You will marry someone else who is a kid just like you but they will be all grown up too. You probably have not even met him yet."

One night we were eating dinner and she finished her plate so I gave her a small bag of cookies. She offered me one and I said, "no thank you, you eat it." Her reply was, "mommy, your tummy is big". What?!? I had recently lost 5 pounds, surely my tummy is not still huge. I asked her what she meant and she said, "Your tummy is big because you are full and have no room for the cookie." Ok, that makes me feel better.

Not 5 minutes later I was going to join her on the couch to watch Angelina Ballerina. She said, "mommy, sit on this side because your bottom is bigger than mine." Again, Ouch! Now granted, my bottom is in fact bigger than hers and she was pointing me to the space where I fit but a 3.5 year old just does not know that you don't say those kinds of things.

"I'm sorry to myself" is a phrase I hear her say often when something unfortunate happens to her.

10/31 - Mommy, I think we should have 3 babies

11/1 - I don't want a baby any more. She pulls my hair.

"I don’t want a car when I grow up. I’m going to have a carriage. With one horse and a closed top with pink and blue and rainbows."

We were talking about how mommy was going to get her haircut the next day.

"Katherine, tomorrow I am going to get a haircut. I wanted to take you with me so we can ask the haircut lady if you should cut your hair."

"Mommy, I don't want a shortcut until my hair is really long like Rapunzel."

I was glad and we then had a repeat discussion about how the only person who cuts your hair is the special lady at the hair cut store.

"Mommy, when I grow up I am going to be a Princess, fairy, ballerina, superstar of the show!"

"Mom, I remember that in my brain." (said when pointing to her head)

"Mommy, I need some lotion because my hands are really crispy".

19 months

19 months, time is flying by. Caroline you continue to change so much as you grow and learn more.

This month we had a lot of cold weather so we moved our small slide into the den. It has provided a lot of fun. It has also provided for some fun discipline opportunities as you like to climb from the slide to the couch or if you try to walk down the slide on your feet. You love to jump and will climb up onto stools, steps, chairs or couches to jump off of them. You have no fear.
Speaking of discipline, you have spend a lot of time in time out lately. The main offenses are standing up in the chair at the kitchen table, playing with dog food, giving food to the dog and bothering your sister by messing up her things on purpose. You have only been spanked twice but it is interesting how that has made an impression. When I tell you that you will be going to time out if you repeat an offense, you then start to say "pank, pank" and then "ime out".
Discipline is not fun for mom and dad but we are really trying to be firm, consistent and immediate in discipline so that we can nip some of these things early. Overall you are such a sweet girl but this is an age where you are certainly testing us.
We have tried doing a few more art projects this month. You come home with beautiful crafts from school. I have no idea how your teachers do it because at home you just make a huge mess and usually stick the crayon, marker or paint brush in your mouth. You do have a lot of fun trying and making a mess.

You imitate and copy everything we do. I love that you were trying to fill out Katherine's 4 year questionnaire. You look so studious and are holding the pencil pretty correctly.

You love to be helpful around the house. We are working on cleaning up toys. You like to use a wipe to clean things. The other night after dinner you crawled out of the chair and took your plate to the sink and dropped it in. Good job!
You try to dress yourself and also to undress yourself.
You are pretty good at dressing yourself, especially with any pants that you find, but of course being able to undress has caused problems with finding you diaper-less.

You have been fascinated with things related to potty training but I am not interested in starting that process yet. You follow anyone into the bathroom and want to sit on the toilet yourself. I have let you a few times but there have been no successes yet. When your sister is getting dressed, you like to steal her panties and put them on. You are so proud! We let you wear her panties over your diaper for awhile and you thought you were so big.
One of my favorite things is when you say and sign "I love you". Last month you would repeat or sign when asked but now you initiate and will tell us "yuv oo" on your own. I love it. Here you are signing it.
You adore Katherine and want to be with her all the time. The hardest part of your day is when you are awake and she is napping. You are so bored but I can't get you all to nap at the same time to save my life. You still can't say her name but you have your own version that sounds like "nanine". You all play so well together and she is really patient with you most of the time. I love seeing you all become best of friends.

You want to be just like Katherine. I love how you found her leotard and ballet shoes, put them on and started dancing.

Your vocabulary is funny and so different from Katherine's at this age. That comes from being a second daughter. You know the words for tutu, ballet, princess, wand, "bibbety, bobbity, boo" and you can identify both Ariel and Cinderella. These are all words that Katherine was not really even exposed to at this point.

You repeat EVERYTHING. Your vocabulary is exploding. I love this phase where you just add new words every day. I also love seeing connections you make. You were in my bed and pointed to daddy's pillow and said "daddy". When I told you he was gone, you said "work". You knew that when he is gone, that is where he goes.

It is really cute to hear you "whisper". If I ask you to tell me a secret, you will come close and whisper nonsense in my ear. My favorite phrase that you say right now is "pee pease" or "pretty please". You already understand that you have to ask nicely and say "please". Then if I say "no", you will say "pretty please". You most often use this tactic when you want to nurse and I am saying "no".

Speaking of nursing, I am getting ready to be done with it. The hard thing is that we are not really on any kind of schedule so it is not as easy as just cutting out a feeding every few days. Really, I would not mind continuing to nurse if it was just at home at night and in the morning but you still sometimes want to nurse at really odd times. I find that at 19 months people think that I am really odd for still nursing you. When I was still nursing Katherine at this ate we were living in Norway so it was a different scenario. I find that people literally look at me like I have horns growing out of my head when I tell them that I am still nursing. Really, I could care less about others. That is not why I am ready to be done. I am just kind of ready. You, however, are not. So, we will see what happens.

You have finally turned a corner and enjoy going to school. For awhile there you hated it and would cry the whole time. Now you are happy to be there and have fun. I am so glad.
You are such a snuggler. You will come up to me and say "ug" and give me a huge hug or you will give me kisses. You also love to blow kisses and you yell "bye bye" with gust0. I love that both kids love to snuggle.

Caroline, you are growing up so fast. You seem like such a big girl. I love the language explosion and being able to understand what you want Your little mind is so creative and it is fun to see how it works. I love you so much sweetie!