what's new, pussy cat?

Happy Father's Day Breakfast!

I thought I'd sit down & write an update on Kate. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. There's so much I could write, so trying to be concise (ish) is a bit difficult here. I chose a few words to describe her personality: smart, curious, role-playing, growing in independence, extremely imaginative, and shy. There are so many more that I could write about: funny (this is actually one of my favorite traits of hers, but it's so hard to describe!), hospitable (she's always asking me or Josh if we need grapes at the dinner table or would we like some goldfish), kind, daddy's girl, and affectionate (likes to be "snuggled" at bed time).

Smart -- She learns new concepts & words very quickly & uses many words that are quite adult, such as "awfully cute," "practically", and the other day she told me that such and such an item was "similar" to another. The way she learns is through repetition & imitation, as most kids do at this age. If I find that she's asking me a question over & over again, I know that she's trying to learn it and eventually wants me to ask her the question so that she can repeat the information. The same holds true when she's trying to learn a song. She may ask me to sing it 10 times in a row. Her latest conquest is "Glorious Things." When I try to go to the second verse, she typically stops me and says, "NO, no, not THAT one."

Curious -- As I mentioned, she asks questions a lot, as most children do, but is very curious about particular pieces of information -- like what city we live in, where other people live, lists of people that belong together, what jobs people have, and where people are currently. So, she knows that we live in Dacula, that Becky & Elias live in Guatemala, that Ben & Jen ALSO live in Dacula, and that the softball fields are in Suwanee. She knows that the name Kelley goes with her "friend Greta." (She also says her name in this fashion, my friend Greta). She knows that our cousin Brad, whom she has met once, is a librarian. She has recently learned the title of daddy's job and likes him to play "builder" with her using blocks that we gave her at her 1st birthday.

Role-playing -- At this point, her favorite role to play is mommy, but sometimes she plays nurse or doctor. Whatever she finds in her hand to make a "baby," she does. Things recently made into babies: cell phone, water bottle, and a faux razor (something that came on a VEET canister). Speaking of the "razor," she has picked up two of these things & totes them around, at various times telling me that she needs to take a shower and shave.

Independent -- She is learning to be much more independent in her playtimes. When I ask her/ tell her to go in her room and play by herself, she does! She also spends about 2-3 hours in her room in the afternoons napping & playing in her bed. She has very fixed opinions about her clothes, her hair styles and her shoes. She LOVES shoes and one of her favorite things to do when we go shopping is try on shoes. She is currently in to pokies (pony tales), but just one, not two. And, bows are for Sundays, so she informs me, but even on Sundays, it's very unreliable that she will cheerfully wear one. She is pretty good at matching her clothes & likes to be involved in picking her outfits. I frequently give her "choices" & just the other day she told me, "I choiced myself, mom!"

Imaginative -- Anytime I tell her to hurry up, she asks, "Because the bear is coming?" This all stems from one time of pretend play with Lydia where they played that a bear was coming to get them. She has a pretend house that she plays in, pretend babies, pretend peaches, pretend mommy, and pretend stores that she goes shopping at. And when I say pretend -- I mean invisible! My favorite thing is the phrase that I get to hear quite frequently, "No mom, it's preTEND!" She uses in this type of context.
K: Mom, do you wan to go to the store?
M: No, we have to have lunch, so we don't have time.
K: No, mom, for preTEND!

Shy -- She gets put off her feed pretty easily by having someone new around, or even a lot of her favorite family, or any number of social situations. At home she's cheerful, bubbly, funny, and very talkative. In public she's shy, sometimes to the point of being morose. This is quite a conundrum to me, especially when it happens around family. At some level, I guess it's a result of being out of her comfort zone, but in my mind, her comfort zone is very tiny. Another example of her shyness. We were at Bob & Lisa's the other night for dinner, and when the adults were talking, she sat next to us just whispering in her own pretend play. Even when she had a question for Mima, she whispered it.