Thank Yous

We are in the process of working on our thank you notes for the bounty of birthday presents that Kate received from friends and family. I have morphed into teacher mode as I am becoming relentless in working with Kate on writing her name. True to form, she can not be bothered doing anything of which is asked of her by a third party. Stubborn is not the word for it, that would imply run of the mill strong-willed child...No this one is more than stubborn, she's crafty. (Do you know many other toddlers that will not poop in the potty, but insists on changing her own pull-up-without help? That's a story for another day...) When I finally convinced her to sit down and try to write a "K", she came out with this...

See, what I mean. I think she has been tricking me all along, perhaps she has been able to sign her name for months now. She just has been too stubborn to show it. I did have to help with some of the letters(especially the "E"), but I call it a win as this was the first time she would even humor me by even attempting to write her name. We take it when we can get it....I guess they all regress to the norm. At least that is what I learned in my Probability and Stats. class....

This is Kate's representation of Neverland for the Thank You notes. Very abstract...

Return from Neverland

It has taken me a full 5 days to recover from Kate's Neverland birthday. The day went without a hitch and we all had a pretty good time. As it turns out, the party was a good outlet for my varying neuroses.

Three!

On Kate's birthday we went to the park and caught some bugs for her new bug houses. A special thanks to Aunt Yvette, Uncle Steve, and Cousin Lucy, as well as Aunt Joey for the bug gear. She is now obessed with all things creepy crawly (yay)that can be put in her bug house. She is now attempting to put everything into her houses. I caught her the other day trying to stuff one of the cats in it.

That was then, this is now...

Taken at birth, May 22, 2005 at 1:06 PM

Notice the everpresent pout-it was cute then...

Taken on May 22, 2008 at 1:06 PM

The trademark pout isn't as cute at 3 because it usually is followed by the word "no" and a scream that can make your ears bleed...

Almost 3

I'm thinking braces?

While they are only in preschool, I am having nightmares about highschool with these two...

Kate will be 3 in a couple days and I can hardly believe it. I know everyone says how fast it goes and it really does. But it also goes so slowly at the same time. I have to say it seems as if it has been an eternity since I have met this one, I can barely remember life without her. Even though she is probably one of the most cantankerous and strong-willed children I have ever met, I would not change a single hair on her head. (Even though most of my hairs have turned gray during these past 3 years.)

Strawberry Fields

The makings of a melt down over Ring Around the Rosie. All major altercations start out this innocently...Should have taken a couple of pics. of the after math-it wasn't pretty.

We went on our first trip to the strawberry patch for the year.

Kate dressed up as a Princess today!

...for a minute...Kate asked me to help her dress as a Princess. This was quite a moment for me, ripe with photo opps., however Kate wasn't really into it, as you can plainly see. The next minute, she had stripped off the princess gear, except for the purple fancy, fluffy dress shoes and decided to be an mailman instead. That would have been a better picture in hind sight.

Happy Mother's Day

photo credit:P.Haver

This weekend we went to visit Mamoo and Grandad in Maryland. Kate had a total blast and was quite sad to leave. We have been having quite a lot of dialogue about consequences lately and she couldn't wait to tell her Mamoo and Grandad all about consequences. For example, the night before she wouldn't pick up her toys and was told that the consequence would be for Mommy and Daddy to take her buddies (stuffed animals) out of her room. That consequence hit it where it hurt as Kate holds two categories of her toys above all others: her buddies and her books. Anyhow, when Grandad accidently locked Kate and Mamoo out of the house, Kate was quick to point out that there should be a consequence for Grandad. The consequence quite logically was to take Grandad's toad(a quite ugly garden statue sort of thing) away. She was relentless with the consequence and she is now upstairs now sleeping with Grandad's toad...

Before we headed back to NC, we stopped in DC for a visit to the Natural Science Museum. Kate loved the museum, especially the dinosaurs. Here are two pictures of Kate holding some bugs-I really don't know where she gets this fascination for all things creepy crawley...

The Birds in North Carolina

Perhaps not the best place to post inside jokes, as this might seem odd, but this pic. was just too good not to post. Game Over!

Now It's Crocodiles...

Kate now is in love with this huge crocodile. And yes it is a crocodile, not an alligator. She has been carrying it around for days and sleeping with it every night. We bought it for her Peter Pan party (Tic-Toc the crocodile which will "swim" in Meramaid Lagoon.) I haven't been able to pry it from her hands. She gets many a stare as we go through our day while she is carrying this thing. It is quite a conversation starter.