Ratatouille

There was a cooking demonstration at the Farmer's Market today. A chef from Lake Park Bistro made ratatouille.

Kate was enthralled. When we came home, she had to try her culinary skills. She did a wonderful job, especially considering she used a butter knife!

Do! Ih do!

"Do! Ih do!" is Anna's very firm affirmation. For instance: "Do you want to go to the park, Anna?" "Do! Ih do!"

The other day, Anna was crying for "Dahdy!" I said he'd be back soon and then asked, "Do you love Daddy?" "Do, Ih do!" Anna replied, nodding! I thought it was the sweetest thing.

"Do you love Mommy?" I asked, looking for a feel-good moment. Anna's response:
She shook her head, as if amused, and replied, "No, no, no, no!"

Watch!

Kate has been obscessed with jumping for the last couple weeks.

She started by jumping off single steps and other 6-10 inch heights. That was until last week when we were playing with a friend's seven-year-old, who showed her how he jumped from much higher places.

Two days later, last Saturday, we had the Schwakes over to our house. Kate stood at the top of the slide, yelled, "Daddy watch!" and before Dave knew it, Kate had jumped off the top of the slide, landed on the bottom of the slide with her knee smashed into her eye, and then fallen into a face-plant in the grass.

One black eye later, we had a new rule. Before jumping from any new place, Kate first needed Mommy or Daddy to okay the proposed jump. Here are a few jumps that I "okayed."

New hat

Kate made this hat as a surprise for Dave. She thought it would be a great hat for him to wear to the Brewer's game tonight.

Little Amerricka

Yes, that is seriously how it's spelled.

Dave had off of work last Friday and we wanted to take the girls some place special. We found a place in a small town next to Madison called "Little Amerricka."

It certainly was an experience. It smelled worse than any dairy farm I'd ever visited (and I my best friend growing up lived on a dairy farm), but it had some fun rides. The strangest part was they let, in fact, encouraged, adults to ride on all the kiddie rides.

It also had a 20-minute train ride. It was pretty neat, but a little bizarre. We passed all sorts of animals: geese, ducks, sheep, cows, bulls, horses, zebras, pigs... yes, zebras. Very strange dichotomy.

Potty time?

Anna has been showing interest in trying to go potty when Kate does. She'll beg for me to take her diaper off. The problem is, she'll generally sit on her toilet for less than 10 seconds before the temptation to run around bare-bottom is just too much!

Little reader

Kate loves to read (look through books) before she goes to sleep. Apparently this particular book didn't captivate her attention long enough for her to get through it.

Band-aid magic

I just discovered, to my pleasure, that Anna has now reached the age where a band-aid can make any minor injury feel immediately better!

The funniest thing was this: Anna hurt her hand. She stopped crying when I got out a band-aid. She started crying again, this time out of frustration, when I put the band-aid on her hand. She stopped crying after she removed the band-aid from her hand and put it on her leg, which wasn't hurt, but was where she wanted the band-aid.

Hints

Instead of letting Kate watch movies or TV, Kate and I often check out books on CD from the library. She can then sit during her down-time (1/2 hour of Anna's nap) and have somone else (via CD player) read to her.

For the first time, however, we're missing one of the CDs, and it's due back at the library. I looked all over for it yesterday, but I can't find it.

Today I said, "Kate, we have a problem, the CD for this book is missing and we have to bring it back to the library today so someone else can check it out. Do you know where it could be?"

Kate thought for a second and then said, "Do you want a hint? Go straight, and look under everything you find."

I walked away, chucking at how much like Dave she is, and looked some more.

Later I came back and told her that her hint didn't work.

She replied, "Here's another hint: If you see a CD that's medium round and says 'library' on it. That's the one!"

Where's...

I was talking to Anna.

"Where's your nose?" I asked.

Anna pointed to her nose and said, "Beep!"

"Where's Mommy's nose?"

Anna pointed to my nose.

"Where's Mommy's hair?"

Anna rubbed my hair.

"Where's your hair?"

Anna turned her head upwards, and strained her eyes at the ceiling, looking for her hair.

Hola!

Anna was racing around the table. When she ran past Kate, she yelled, “Hola!”

I’d had my back turned so, thinking it had to be Kate, I just responded, “Hola!”

Then I thought, That sounded a lot like Anna. “Kate,” I asked, “Did Anna just say ‘Hola’?”

“Yes,” Kate replied enthusiastically, “Now Anna knows how to speak Spanish!”

Anna's vocabulary

Anna’s language has grown remarkably, just in the last week. The last few days, I’ve mentioned a few times that Anna seems to be saying about five new words every day. When Anna would say a new word, I’d sometimes go write it down to add it to Anna’s list of vocabulary. A few days ago, Kate asked what I was writing down, and I told her how I keep track of Anna’s words. Now, when Anna says a new word, Kate will say, “Oh, you have to write ____ down!”

Anna had an especially impressive day with her growing vocabulary today. During breakfast Anna was looking at the scab on her knee that she got from falling at the pool. She pointed to it, looking at me, and said, “Knee." Kate said, "Oh, now you have to write 'knee' down!"

Later, when I made her come in but she wanted to ride on her ride-on toy, she cried and yelled, “Bike, bike…” then she tapped her head and said, “helmo, helmo!” Two words she'd never said before.

When we were out on our walk, Kate was waving at cars. When she’d see a car, Kate would yell, “Car! Wave!” so Anna started to yell those words, too. Kate said, "Oh, you'll have to write 'car' and 'wave' down!"

When we got home from our walk, I put Mason in the house. Anna asked me, “House… Mas, house?” House was a new word, and she'd combined two.

When I was reading a book to Kate, Anna began to shout, “Dorce, Dorce…” Then she set a book on my lap. It was a Curious “Dorce” book. She did the same thing tonight when I was reading, and I said, “What do you want to read, Anna?” She said, “Read Dorce.” Another combination. Kate said to Dave, "Mommy will have to write 'read' down!"

Eight new words today... I know it's probably just because I'm her mom, but find it very exciting!

Washing Kate's hair

Anna always tries to do what she sees us do. Luckily, Kate was very patient as Anna pretended to wash her hair.

Pull, pull

Kate was playing tug with Mason today. When Anna walked in and saw what was going on,
she ran up to Mason, hugged him around his back and said, “Puh! Puh!” She appeared to be trying to help him.

Now the question is: Did Anna just want to play, too, or did Anna think Kate was trying to take a toy away from her dog, as Kate sometimes does to her?

Birthday Suprises

There was a lot of hype this year as my birthday approached. Kate informed me weeks ago that she had thought of an idea for a present for me and that Daddy had bought it. She kept hinting that it was "something to make something," but she never gave the surprise away.

It turns out that she'd requested Dave buy me a tea maker, since he had a coffee maker, but I had to make my own tea. Since they don't make "tea makers," Dave got me an iced tea maker from Kate. She was so excited, and I was so proud of her for keeping it a surprise so long!

They also got me an icecream cake... which Kate almost slipped about, but actually covered it up really well.

Slugger

I love how much like me as a kid Kate is in this video... No, I don't mean the hitting part; I don't think I ever did that. I mean how she stuck the bat in the crook of her neck and swung around... now she just has to use her glove as a hat and pick dandelions in the outfield and she'd be the spitting image of young Kristal.

Big girl

Not long ago, Anna decided that dry Cheerios weren't good enough for her, and she switched to eating cereal with milk, just like Dave and Kate.

Now, perhaps it's because she turned a year and a half, she's decided she doesn't need her booster seat to eat them either.

Anna's half-birthday

Anna turned 18 months old on Sunday. Kate was really excited to get Anna gifts for her half-birthday. She thought long and hard and decided on two ideas she thought were just perfect. You can see what they were in the following clip.

More "Anna Humor"

Anna was showing off, to anyone who would listen, that she'd made herself a new "hat."

Mermaid anatomy

The other night Kate had been pretending to be a mermaid during her bath. Bath time was over and it was time to get ready for bed. I told her to go get her jammies on. She put on her pajama shirt but told me that mermaids don’t wear pajama pants or shorts. I said, “Okay, but they wear underwear. Go get your underwear on.” Then she looked very thoughtful and asked me, “How do mermaids go poopy and potty?”

I thought for a second of how a mermaid’s anatomy would be structured, but then I had an idea. In the past, Dave has told me that I answer questions such as this in too much depth, so I saw this as a perfect chance to let him see how difficult it is.

I told her to go ask her Daddy. Without missing a beat, Dave responded, “In an underwater toilet.” Kate said, “Okay.” I was baffled. I was sure she had wanted to know where the poopy and potty would come out. I decided Dave was right. I do answer too specifically.

The next day, as she herself went to the bathroom, Kate asked me, “How do mermaids go poopy and potty?” I said, “In an underwater toilet, remember?” She said, “No, where does the poopy and potty come out? Wouldn’t it go into their tails?”

I sighed. Although I was somewhat happy that Dave hadn’t actually been right, I now knew I had to answer her question. “Maybe they go potty and poopy under their tails. Mason has a tail and he goes poopy and potty.”

“Oh! Yeah.” Kate agreed.

Yum!

Anna got to have a delicious cupcake as we ran errands yesterday. She was pretty happy about that!

Friendly Bears

Kate likes almost anything that Emma likes. Emma likes to dress up as a Care Bear... Kate does too.

Boy humor

Anna and Kate are so different. Kate has always been kind of dainty, a little girly-girl. Anna is much more rough and tumble and she has what might be called a typical "male sense of humor," bodily functions really amuse her.

Here's the latest thing that cracks her up:

First Tomatoes

Our garden at the new house hasn't been a completely successful attempt so far. But, we finally have a few ripe cherry tomatoes. What a thrill that was for one red-head......and Kate thought it was pretty neat, too.

Baby!

Anna is very fond of Maddy. They are less than nine months apart, but Anna thinks of her as a cute little baby. Here's Anna attacking Maddy with a very affectionate kiss.

Prayers at meals

Anna has started to pray at meals. She’s been folding her hands and saying, “men” for some time. But, now she says something like this:

"Que gah fo di day, fo mama an dada [incoherent babble] Men.”

This makes perfect sense, I suppose, because Kate always says,

“Thank you for this day, thank you for my Mommy and Daddy, friends, and Anna [then she'll mention specifics of that day] Amen.”

It's just adorable to watch Anna, not yet a year-and-a-half, say this. I really hope to catch it on video.

Mommy's indiscretion

Yep, I did it again. I need to have more discretion, especially around my two little sponge-brained kids.

Yesterday, after dinner, Dave was goofing around, throwing grapes into his mouth to show off for the girls. He kept missing, but kept trying again. He commented that we needed to get more grapes, because they were the most fun food we had in this house. I just laughed, shook my head, and said quietly, "You're a moron."

Last night, Kate and Anna were playing in the tub. Kate, as usual, was playing mermaid and trying to convince Anna to play just the way she wanted to play. Anna, evidently wasn't being a proper mermaid. Kate tickled Anna playfully and said,

"Go under the sea, Moron!"

Three times the fun

Kate, Amber, and Ashley having fun on the glider, while our swing set rocks back and forth precariously.

Mason's advocate

Mason doesn't always get the appreciation he might deserve. Lucky for him, Kate's friend Ashley thinks he's the best.

Oh, Anna!

Here's my little drama queen after she was told she couldn't have more raspberries until she ate something (anything) else.

Unorthodox

Last week one of Kate's best friends Ashley was baptized at church. It was a wonderful day for Ashley with a party to celebrate at her house afterwards. And it was very exciting, but also very confusing, for Kate.

I tried to explain it to her a few times but left her somewhat confused every time. One time I basically left Kate thinking that Ashley was trading her father Nick in for a new dad!

Finally I was able to explain it a little better: Ashley believes in Jesus. She knows that we all do things wrong and can't be close to God or go to heaven on our own. But, because Jesus died for us and rose again, we can be close to God. That makes Ashley a Christian. Christians get baptized to show others that they believe in Jesus. When Ashley gets baptized, Pastor Tom will put her under the water and lift her right back up! Then everyone who sees will know that Ashley is a Christian, that she believes in Jesus.

That was last week.

Last night, Kate had a swimming break-through in the bathtub. Although she had refused to go to swimming lessons last week until we finally decided to try again next summer, this is what she did last night:

This morning, when we were praying before breakfast, one of the things I said is, "Please help us to live like you want us to today, to put others before us." When we were done praying Kate mentioned how she tries to put others first, but Ashley always lets her go first. I said, "Yes, Ashley lives like a Christian."

Later, Kate started taking about going to the pool today with Grandpa. I thought she wasd thinking of what she did in the tub last night. She said, "If we can go swimming today, I'll go in the wading pool. I'll go under water and come up again in two minutes!"

I thought of lack of oxygen and said, "Two seconds?"

"Yes," she agreed, "two seconds. I'll go under and come right back up again. What do you think that means?"

"That you're a great swimmer." I answered.

"No."

"That you're very brave?" I asked.

"No, Mommy!" Kate said, exasperated.

"That you like the water?" I tried again.

"Mommy, Ashley went under the water and went right back up again."