bigger sis

Big sis is growing up every day. I cannot believe she is three! Well, maybe I just can't believe she's not five! She acts so old sometimes, it kills me.

What is Kate up to?

Learning her letters -- she's got a few down cold K, J are her two best letters. So far, her favorite associations are people's names. So, we have L for Lydia, J for dad's name, K for Kate & Grandma Kathy. We've started adding B, P, R, and M to list. Her best letter in writing is E. No promises on how many bars it will have though.

Drawing -- she has started to EXPLODE in her artistic expression. She has always had great fine motor skills (i.e. she likes to draw very tiny things, and has a fine time picking up tiny things too), but she's finally putting her skills to use in creating things that are other than squiggles. She can now draw a smiley face (the same pattern every time -- two dots that are very close to the perimeter, if not actually ON, the circle. Two bars over the eyes for eyebrows. One line perpendicular to the eyebrows is a hair, and usually a straight line for a mouth. I know, it's supposed to be a smiley face.) She can also draw balloons, dots, and cats. And circles. The other night she drew maybe thirty circles on her page, some very small (like the size of an a lower case o). After she would draw ten or so, she draws a circle around the entire lot of circles.

Matching -- she's very good at picking up on whether things are matching or not. She has a harder time with the idea of complementary -- so on Sunday she told Josh that his tie did not match his outfit. :-)

Memorizing -- we are working on a few Scripture verses, but she likes to memorize all sorts of other things, too. We have a Between the Lions Cd of stories and she likes to recite parts of the them (Red! Green! Red! Green! On one side the hat was Green. On the other side the hat was red!).

Potty -- she wears undies all of the time now, but we still have a ways to go with finishing up our training. We'll just leave it at that!

Mothering -- She plays mommy games every day. Now she has an entire troupe (like 8) of friends, children, daddies, and mommies that she moves from one room in the house to another. The other day I was making dinner, and I peeked into the living room to see her entire "family" arrayed on the couch. And the couch was full. She uses dolls, stuffed animals, large, small, it doesn't matter. Favorite names -- Mountain, Falia, Steve, Micah, Emily Charlotte, and then a random assortment (as if that wasn't random enough) of names from whichever book she's been reading. Today we had Mr. Mallard, Mac, and Baby Mallard. Today she had me take care of her kids while she had to take a nap. Taking care of her kids involved driving them to Mexico in the car (couch). She even had one baby in a car seat & put the stroller in the car (couch) before she left. She made me promise that if they wanted a snack, I'd give them one; and if they wanted a toy, to give them that too. Oh, and take them to a store with breakable things. They're very 'sponsible, mom. They can touch breakable things. Sounds like Kate's dream trip!

Thinking -- I think she spends a good deal of time thinking about things, figuring out things, and she has a really great intuition about people. A funny example of this: Last night we were driving home from prayer meeting & she realized that she'd forgotten to thank Mima (prayer meeting is at their house) for giving her snacks to take home. We called Mima and she got to talk for a bit with her, then Papa. Then, she asked me if I needed to talk to Papa. I didn't. But, she really insisted that I thank Papa for the chili (we eat there too). So, I reached back & grabbed the phone from her. I put it to my ear and realized the line was dead, but I decided to play along & say, "Papa, thanks for the chili; it was delicious. Bye." A few seconds past & then she asked me, "Was Papa there?" I couldn't believe she had figured me out. I laughed & confessed that I had just pretended. A few more minutes past & then she said, "I forgot to thank Papa for the chili, too. Can I call them?" I told her it was too late & we would just talk to them another day. "But, I want to do how you did it, mom." Ahhhh. . I handed the phone & she had her pretend conversation, too.

And lastly, and pretty uniquely, Kate is really into families. I know I've mentioned this before. She loves to have Josh or I go through all of the names of people that she knows. I didn't realize that this love for names extended outside of our family, but in our Family Bible Story books, some of her favorite pages are the family tree charts. She LOVES to have us recite all of the Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Japheth had a son, and he had a son, and . . . you get the picture. Maybe we have a future genealogist or historian on our hands.

Her schedule (if one even exists):

8:00 Wake up

12:30 Lunch

2:00 - 4:00 Nap or not (lately it's been not)

6:00 ISH (very ish) Supper -- she always eats w/ Josh & myself, unless Josh gets home extremely late, like tonight, and then she, Rach, and I eat together.

8:30-9:00 Bedtime -- She is a night owl, like me. . and can stay in her bed awake for a very long time. Isn't there a shut off switch somewhere?