Kate's back

Last week was rough, actually, things are still kind of rough. Kate and Anna have been sick, either both of them or one of them, since a week ago Saturday. I’m exhausted.

On Saturday Dave was working, I popped Kate in front of T.V. while Anna napped so I could run up and take a shower. Before I could shower, though, Kate demanded a drink, a snack, and then her toys.

I, teasing [sort of], said, “Are you kidding? Go get your own toys. Mommy needs a break! I never get a break.”

To this she answered, “You went to the doctor this morning.”

I said, “That’s not a break!!”

I then sat down to write an email back regarding the lice situation at church. Kate looked over at me and said, “There. You’re on the computer. There’s your break.”

Sunday evening we were playing in the living room. Kate was being a little stinker, which was a welcomed relief after she’d been so sick for over a week, and Dave said, “Welcome back, Kate!”

A couple minutes later, Kate brought a book over to me to read. It’s a Richard Scarry book that’s at least 40 pages long. It’s tedious and annoying to read, and it literally takes about 45 minutes to get through. I looked at the book and said, kind of tackling her, “No way! Pick another book! I spent 45 minutes reading that this morning!” Dave said, “Seriously! No way, Kate!”

I then told her I’d read seven pages and Daddy could have a turn.

After I’d read the first two pages I said, “Okay, that’s two. Turn the page, and I’ll read two more.”

Dave, teasing me, said, “Oh, so two plus two equals seven?”

“No,” I answered him, “I’ll read those two, then two more, then one more.”

Kate, thinking she was going to be cheated, said, “Two plus two and one more is only five!!”

Dave laughed at her quick math and said, "Yep, welcome back, Kate!"

Fall is here

I checked the weather today and told Kate we should probably wear long sleeves. She scoffed, “Of course we should! It’s fall!”

Impressive

Kate has been doing an amazing job learning her Awana verses, but the other day, one of them wasn’t quite right. I helped her out with the correct words. She just looked at me and finally said, “Mommy! You’re supposed to be impressed!”

Kate had to help

At Target the other day, Anna was being kind of naughty. She would not sit in the cart. I would tell her to sit down and then physically sit her down. She'd stay seated all of 10 seconds, if I was lucky, and I'd do it again. This went on, probably 10 or 15 times.

Finally Kate had to help me. She said, “Mommy, just ignore her. If you keep yelling at her, she’ll think it’s funny!”

That's Annie!

A few thoughts about Annie at age 19 months...One of my favorite things the girls do is so cute. One of them will start making an animal noise, like “Meow!” And I’ll say, “What? There’s a cat in the house?” Then they’ll make all sorts of other noises, both girls together. It’s total chaos, and they love it so much. Sometimes, when Anna wants to play this game, she’ll come up to me, looking at me intensely, nodding and everything, and say, “Mooo… house, moo… house!”

I love little Annie’s talking. She knows tons of words, and gets across so much of her ideas, but sometimes, she’ll have more to say than she knows how to say, and she’ll just look at you, tilt her head sometimes, nod a lot, use a lot of facial expressions, and just babble, babble, babble, insert a word, add more gibberish, and then add another word. I love it. She did it to the girl working the check-out at Target the other day, and the girl couldn’t help but respond.

Annie also loves races. The other night Kate declared a pajama race. All Annie heard was race, so she yelled, “DOH (go)!!” and started running. When no one else ran, she came back into Kate’s room and reiterated, “Race…DOH!”

One of Annie’s newest expression is, “Ah wuvoo.” (I love you.) or, if you say it first, she’ll often say, “Ahwuvoo TOO.”

Annie brought one of Kate’s word cards to me last week. She pointed at the letters on it, and said, “t…c…t!” Now she'll often notice letters on things, point them out, and declare, "t" or "c."

Anna also loves to say goodbye to Dave. When he’s anywhere near leaving, she’ll start to shout, “Bye, Dada.” She loves to wave out the window at him. Sometimes, throughout the day, she’ll return to the window she waved out when he left and say, “Bye, Dada!”

For a few days in a row when Dave had been on call, he was sleeping in while I had the girls in the morning. Annie would ask where he was, and I’d say he was sleeping. For a good week afterwards, whenever she couldn’t find Dave, whether he was working or at a Brewer’s game, Anna would nod in understanding, and conclude, “Dada ni ni!”

Annie always wants to wear shoes. The first thing she’ll say when she wakes up half the time is, “Hoos! Hoos!” She can’t go on with her day until we put her shoes on. If she isn’t wearing a pair of her own shoes, she’ll take care of the problem by putting on a pair of dress up shoes from the dress up box.

Anna gets so excited about things. If she hears she can watch a show, she’ll shout “Yeah!!” and run in by the T.V. (Yesterday, I wasn’t fast enough getting the T.V. ready, and she brought the remote in the kitchen.) Sometimes, she’ll just be impulsive about things. When she’s like that, she often has her teeth in an under bite and grinds them together. Occasionally she’ll come up to Dave or me to give us a kiss. It’s nearly violent. She’ll have that crazy under bite and then she’ll kind of hit us and give us a huge kiss. It’s hilarious!

Note to parents

Note to parents, well a note to other-overly-ambitious-parents-with-new-sewing-machines-they-got-on-Craigslist-for-$30-that-they're-dying-to-use-because-it's-really-only-a-good-deal-if-you-actually-use-it:
When making a Tepee for your kids, make it a lot bigger than you think you should. This Tepee was meant to fit both the girls AND me, not one girl and one (small) doll. I thought I had it all planned out using that A2+B2=C2 theorem thing... where did I go wrong?

My kids

Sometimes there's a moment, a perfect little moment, in the day where I ask myself. "Are these two little creatures, with their own distinct personalities, really mine to raise, to cuddle, to love?"

How blessed I am.

(There are a lot of other moments in the day, as well, but we won't talk abou those!)

Mermaid

A sneak peek at Kate's mermaid costume. We finished it last night... (drumroll, please)

Madalyn Rose

Samantha's youngest daughter, Maddy, is much adored by Kate and Annie. They both think Maddy is the ideal baby. I think they're right!

Proud little girl

Here is Kate last night, sleeping in her Awana vest...

"Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa" Cookies

Kate and I made up this recipe today. Although they're still cookies, the recipe uses bananas as a substitute for half the butter of a traditional recipe. It also has whole wheat flour, flax seed, and oatmeal... kind of as healthy as some granola bars, but they taste deliously rich. So much so, in fact, that Dave even scoffed, "Yeah, I bet" when Kate told him they were healthy.

The name comes because they're based off traditional "Cowboy Cookies," and Kate has a book called Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup butter
2 bananas
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 large eggs
2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

Sift together dry ingredients; set aside.
Blend together butter, bananas, and sugars.
Add eggs & beat until light & fluffy then stir in vanilla.
Combine with dry ingredients & mix well.
Add remaining ingredients & mix well.
Drop by tablespoon full onto greased cookie sheets (Makes 36 cookies) and bake in preheated 350°F oven for 16 minutes.

Kate and Connor

The neighbor boy Connor just loves Kate. She's pretty fond of him, too!

We all scream for ice cream

Kate's Awana verses

Kate joined the Awana club at church last week Wednesday.

I worked with her twice on Thursday to memorize the verses for that week. She did so well, I told her the other two from the entrance booklet. On Friday night I said, "Oh, Kate, we forgot to work on your Awana verses." She said, "I didn't..." and proceeded to recite all four without pause.

Last night she was awarded her vest and first book for getting through that booklet. She is so excited about it. She went to bed with her vest over her pajamas.

Party girl

We hope she gets it out of her system before Spring Break in college!

Lucky things...

Lucky for Kate, the Ergo is made to carry kids up to 40 pounds. Lucky for me, she's still less than 30 pounds.

Recovery

Popsicles are a proven way to recover from a hard day at the beach!

Annie and Oma

Lake Michigan

I think yesterday was the first time in my entire life that Lake Michigan was a comfortable temperature for swimming!

That's Anna

Anna loves to swing on the "big girl swing." We finally took the baby swing down completely last week. She does an amazing job holding on for just turning 19-months-old!

Two girls in a bucket

Our date

Kate and I had a mommy-daughter date today. We went out for tea and we painted pottery.

At the coffee shop, they were playing Beatles music. Kate said, "I don't know who sings this music."

I said, "It's a band called the Beatles."

She asked, "Is it a marching band or a rock band?"

Woh, Tea.

Anna likes to play with her milk (her tea, as she calls it) and pretend it's doing crazy things. She'll declare, "Woh, Tea!" It makes us laugh, but it really cracks her up! I love how she'll almost compose herself, but then she'll just have to keep laughing.

Weird kid

I actually posted this by accident because I couldn't tell which one I was posting. But, since it takes so long to download, I'll leave it. It is a cute video.

From garden to breakfast

Kate picked this mammoth zucchini out of the garden and dragged it into the house.

We then shredded it and made a triple batch of zucchini bread and muffins.

And, Anna happily offered help eating some of the muffins.

A little odd... but, oh, so cute

Anna has a new dance she likes to do. It's super-funny. When I tried to get it on video, she was a little distracted by one of her favorite things to do, feed Mason.

Oh, no.

We went to Home Depot yesterday afternoon to pick up a couple things. Despite a terrible head ache, I was trying to be cheery. We found one of the race car carts, and I put Anna in, saying, "Here you go, Anna Banana."

Then I picked up Kate and said, "And now you, Katerdoodle."

"I'm not Katerdoodle!" Kate declared.

"Oh?!" I said, acting surprised, "You must be Katerpoodle... poodle, like the dog. Do you bark?"

"I'm not Katerpoodle!"

"You're not?" I asked as we began to walk into the store. Pretending to think it over, I asked, "Are you Katershnoodle?"

And at that point, Kate turned around in the race car to look at me. Her eyes were blazing, and between grit teeth she said, very deliberately, "You. Are. An. Idiot!!"

Talking in her sleep

Anna has had some incidents of what I believed to be bad dreams before. But, last night was the first insight I had into her dream-life. I don't know for sure what she was dreaming of, but she talked in her sleep for the first time. She was demanding, "Doh [Go]! Doh! Doh! Doh!" I went in and picked her up, but she kept insisting, "Doh! Doh! Doh!" I said, "Okay, honey, we'll go. We'll go." And she immediately quieted down and went back to sleep.

Owww!

Anna's latest attention seeking word is, "Owww!" If it's time to go in for dinner and Anna doesn't want to, she'll scream, "Owww!" as I carry her in. If we're at a store and I try to get Anna seated back down when she stands up in the seat of the cart, she'll yell, "Owww!" and I will ignore the stares.

As Dave and I were getting the table set for dinner on Tuesday, Kate and Anna were having some argument. Anna yelled, "Owwww!" Dave said, "Kate! You're hurting Anna. Stop it!"

Kate was unfazed. She said, "No, Daddy, actually everything is 'oww!'"

Dave was taken aback. Stifling my amusement, I said quietly to Dave, "She's got a point, you know."

Not this little sweety?!

Note

Kate now realizes that (with help) she can write things that tell other people messages, so she likes to make notes and things. For our ratatouille meal, she made a menu, but one of my favorites was what she did last week.

Dave takes a long time to get ready in the morning. I, personally, thinks he just hangs out in the bathroom to get some quiet time before having to go to work, but Kate thinks he takes really long showers. Dave and Kate have a joke where he'll say how he takes a fast shower and Kate will say, "No, you take slow showers, Daddy!"

Last week, after one of these exchanges, Kate told me her plan:

"Mommy, I'm going to take a piece of paper, write 'fast,' and I'll cross it out! Then I'll write slow, and I'll get a piece of tape and hang it on the shower!"

Kate, making an announcement on the train at the Children's Museum.

Dave on the news

At the Children's Museum, Kate and Dave did some activities in their news studio. On the way home, Kate was so excited. She asked me, in a way like she was hinting at something, "Mommy, when we get home, can we watch TV and see what the weather will be like tomorrow..."

That's when I realized what she was thinking. Dave has been on TV a few times this past year when he was interviewed for a news story about something health related. She thought, because of what she did, Dave would really be on the news again.

I felt so bad for her that I didn't even know what to say. I started to talk to her about how we could use the camera at home and watch Daddy on the computer, but Dave, like it was no big deal, just explained that he was just on the TV at the Children's Museum. Kate, also, like it was no big deal, just excepted that. Sometimes, I'm just too sensitive.

Cup patrol

Anna is so spunky. When she gets angry or very excited, she has this little under bite face she makes. It's very intense.

One thing that she can't stand for is me using one of Dave's coffee cups for my tea. The difficult thing is, she considers every single mug in the house, except for the one they gave me for Mother's Day, to be Dave's.

She'll go on and on every morning my cup is in the dishwasher, "Da da tea, Dah-dy tea, Dah-dy tea." (It's funny she switched to "Dah-dy" because I think she thinks this is more official than Dada, since it's what Kate calls Dave.)

The first couple times it got so intense, I got mine from the dishwasher, washed it, and dumped my tea from "Dave's cup" to mine. When I was done, she, in relief, exclaimed, "Mommy tea!"

Lately, I haven't been switching and she'll compromise and call it, "Dah-dy Mommy tea."

The excited under bite... not the intense, angry one; the intense, happy one!

Anna's humor

Anna may be only 18-months-old, but she's hilarious. She has a sense of humor that is so much like Dave's. It's a good thing I find him funny, I suppose.

Yesterday, she got a piece of a plastic wrapper stuck on her foot, she came in and said, "Wee wees, ow, wee wees, ow." I asked, "Did you hurt your toes?" She stood next to me, held on to my leg, and lifted her foot. I said, "Oh, my goodness, was that stuck to your foot? How silly!"

After I took it off, she ran in to the living room, where she'd earlier spread out all the little plastic tiles from bananagrams. She came running back in saying, "Wee wees, C, wee wees, C." She stood next to me, held on to my leg, and again lifted her foot. I saw a bananagrams piece stuck there, she again repeated, "C." I laughed. It wasn't a C, but it was a letter.

She disappeared and came right back, saying, "Wee wees, T, wee wees, T." When she lifted her foot, there was another bananagrams tile!

She has such sticky little feet; it's so weird. But, I guess, comedians play off what they've got!

The new no-whine system

I swear, I came up with this because, yesterday, the only other option on my list was putting her up for adoption. (Kidding... sort of.)

It's actually working great so far. We went from barely-tolerable, nearly non-stop, make me want to scream, whining to only four or five incidents of any whining in the last two days. The jars look close to equal, but it's just a reflection.

Actually

Somehow the topic of place mats came up in the car. Kate asked what they were.

I tried to explain they were things that people put on the table under their plates and silverware. Then added, "You know, Kate, like how Mrs. Manning had those square things under our plates when we ate lunch there last week..."

She said, "They were actually rectangles."

Sigh.

Kate with her buddy Emma. The two of them are cut from the same cloth. I think there's a reason God gave each of our families only one of them.

Riddle

Kate made this up last month, but I still think it's funny.

She said to me, "A girl doll is called a dolly, so do you know what a boy doll is called?"

She smiled and told me, "A doll-he!"

Blasphemy

Despite my best attempts, my explanations of certain religious issues often lead to slightly blasphemous results.

A couple weeks ago, Kate blurted out from the back seat, "Why did Jesus die so we could go to heaven? Earth is a really nice place!"

And, last week Kate exclaimed, "Why does God know everything? He's a smarty!"

Beetatouille

Didn't one of you wonder why the ratatouille posted on Saturday was practically fluorescent pink?

It's because I wasn't able to fully attend to the chef demonstration. Between chasing after Anna and walking her away now and then while she screamed, I somehow missed the fact that the beets the chef made were a separate recipe!