Kate Moments

I am suddenly a little curious about what goes on after we turn out the lights at night because Kate has started comming down each morning in different jammies than the ones I put her to bed in. A few nights we even had midnight crying because she had taken off her diaper and then wet the bed. She has stopped taking off the diaper, thankfully, but she has started coming down the stairs each morning in her swimsuit. Why you would want to sleep in a swimsuit is beyond me.

She is turning 3 tomorrow, but for the past 3 weeks she has been telling people "I not 2 any more". We hadn't even talked much about birthdays- she just decided she was moving on.

Here is a video of her singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" the back ground noises are cute baby "Rangel" as Kate has renamed her cousin Rachel. Kate's voice is barely audible but I'll take what I can get. Her outfit is her typical attire when at Grandma's house.

This second video is even less audible. There are no baby "Rangel" noises but Kate is singing even quieter. I have posted it mostly because I have so few videos of my kids and because of the song she is singing. This is her favorite primary song. She sings it all the time and I just love it. I was trying to help her along but I think that just made her sing quieter. I love the facial expressions though. So here is Kate's silent version of "I'll Walk with You".

Rabbit - by Mack Easton

Mack brought this home from school and I was so impressed. I would have scanned it but since our scanner doesn't work you will have to see it this way.

Rabbit

Onec A rabbit wint for A
Wack And he soo A Wlfe
So he ran A Wae from the
Wlfe then the Wlfe Wint
too Ceach the rabbit
the rabbit Cepe runing And
runing And then a Cogre Came
the rabbit ran A Way from
the Coger And the Wlfe. The End

Interpretation for those out of the habit of reading Kindergarten spelling

Once a rabbit went for a walk and he saw a wolf. So he ran a way from the wolf. Then the wolf went to catch the rabbit. The rabbit kept running and running. And then a cougar came. The rabbit ran a way from the cougar and the wolf. The end.

Spring Break

For Spring Break this year I let the kids make a list of all the things they wanted to do...go to Grandma's house and sleepover, go to McCall, and visit the zoo. We managed to do it all.

Grandma's house was a blast playing with cousins and collecting eggs.

McCall was beautiful but rather slushy. Mack and Natali enjoyed their last day of skiing with Grandpa and Aunt Val while I stayed home with the smaller kids. We didn't get a ton of sleep but we had a lot of fun.

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All we had left was the zoo and Andrew's special request to go see hawks and eagles. So Greg took Friday off and we all went to the zoo and the World Center for Birds of Prey.

It was more like winter than spring break. By the end of the day we were soaked and covered in snow but my kids always love the zoo. Here they are in front of the penguins.

The best moment at the zoo was with the Amur Leopard. He was pacing on the ground and started chasing the kids back and forth so we stopped to pose in front of him - then he rose up against the glass. I love Andrew's face in this picture as he realizes what the leopard is doing.
The other kids figured it out one by one.Here the leopard is staring Andrew down. Looks like a pretty tasty snack -huh.


The leopard jumped up on the glass over and over. The kids loved it. It was intimidating though to see how much bigger the cat was than my kids. Good thing the glass was thick.

The birds of prey place was very interesting. Less kid friendly but we managed. We got to see a Red Tailed Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. Natali tried to ask the man as many questions as she could and soaked up lots of new info. Andrew was trilled to see meat eaters and everyone had a great time.

The Belly

I realized the other day that I really have no pictures of me pregnant. Not just this time, but every time. I guess there are some, but I am usually sitting down holding a child on my lap so you can't see much of the belly. I figure my posterity needs one picture of me really pregnant so here it is. (As you can see Andrew has none of my camera avoidance).
I am due the 28th but my babies have been between 10 and 4 days early so I am hoping this one breaks the record and comes a full 2 weeks early. Hey I would even be okay with 3 weeks early-but I try not to get too optimistic.

Why you shouldn't let a cat sleep on your head

Last night, amid the noise of the basketball game on TV, Greg and I heard the sound of someone crying. Usually if our kids are crying at night they are already on their way down the stairs to tell their dramatic tale; so we waited. Nothing for a while - then more moaning. Greg went up to check it out and found Andrew in bed covered in blood. His ear was bleeding and while we cleaned him up we asked him what happened. No response. The kid kept falling back to sleep only waking up when I touched the gash in his ear. He had two little cuts and one big one - and we had no clue what could have happened. I taped a cotton ball in his ear and let the poor kid go back to sleep.

After some discussion we have determined that Gimli, our cat, must have been sleeping on Andrew's head. When he jumped off the bed his back claws must have ripped up poor Andrew's ear. Luckily, Andrew has no idea what happened because it would break his heart. He loves Gimli sleeping with him. At bedtime he calls to Gimli and waits for Gimli to lay down next to him. They really share the pillow every night. But maybe letting a cat sleep on your head isn't the best idea.
This is what it looks like this morning - poor cat lover.

My Light Weights

Well most of you know my kids are small - like they don't register on growth charts because they are that far below average. In contrast my sister Val's kids have always been well above average. For sometime we have been wondering if her 2 year old outweighed my 6 year old. So The other day we were all at Val's house and finally satisfied out curiosity and weighed each of our kids. Here are the results in order heaviest to lightest.

Natali (8)-----------46 lbs.
Abby (4)------------38 lbs.
Mack (6 1/2)-------37 lbs.
Luke (2)------------34 lbs.
Andrew (5)---------32 lbs.
Kate (3)----------- -24 lbs.

We had a good laugh at the extremes of both of our kids and I decided to post it so that someday they too can look back and laugh.

The Adventures of a Girl Named Kate

Kate has suddenly come into her own- personality that is. She has transformed from my easy going, quiet, joyful child, to the kid that makes me want to pull my hair out (or hers). The role of biggest boss has been transferred to Kate as each of the other kids give into her every whim rather that listen to the screaming. After a few talks with the other kids they are starting to defend themselves by actually telling her no. Which means she now spends a lot of time in her room screaming to herself, or on the porch screaming for the neighbors to hear (but at least I can't). With the baby coming soon I think she is just testing the boundaries and sadly I really don't want to rise to that occasion (because I don't like getting up at all) but I am trying to nip this in the bud before the baby comes. For the sake of all who plan to watch Kate when I have this baby I hope she gets over this adventure quickly.

The adventure of potty training has also begun. I read the Potty Training in a Day book that has been such a success with my sisters kids and was determined that I would do this by the letter and thus have overnight potty training success. I'd like to say I am joking, but I really thought that Kate would have this all figured out within three days. Well she did great the first day - only 2 accidents. Then we hit the bump- she stopped using the potty. The next three days were a discouraging blur of wet undies and wet eyes. I was ready to return to diapers, but then suddenly she started using the potty again and had 2 days with no accidents, followed by one a day for the last three days. Maybe it worked; I'm not holding my breath.

However, not all of her adventures have made me cry. We can't help but laugh at some of her latest interests. She learned about Harry Potter from Natali and has taken to calling herself 'Miney' like Hermine Granger. I probably call her Miney as much as Kate - she insists. She also refers to me as 'Lily', Andrew has become 'Potter', Mack is 'Ron', Greg is 'Potter's Dad', and Natali is either 'Buckbeak' or 'Miney's Cat'. It cracks me up that my 2 year old has embraced the Harry Potter world so entirely. She has even named the baby in her tummy Miney (you did remember she was pregnant, right?).

Kate has also taken it upon herself to name our baby. She has been sure the baby is a girl for the entire pregnancy but in the last month she has started to call the baby Pananunu. I have no idea where this name came from but she consistently refers to the baby as Pananunu. I hope she isn't too disappointed if this baby is a boy or if we don't choose Pananunu (Greg hasn't rejected it yet...trying to find a name for this baby is another story).

She is still my bouncy, fun, little blondy, but she's got a little more sass and we are all adjusting to the change. This post is an effort to convince myself that this is part of the adventure not just torture.