Movies, unwelcome house guests, and more

Here it is, the ninth of October already. And stinking hot. It was 91 degrees at 5:00 today. That is so wrong. I hear a cold snap is on the way, though ... yay!

I had planned to post Saturday morning about our date night Friday but something came up. Friday night we dropped Katrina off at the Y for Parents' Night Out and headed to the theater to see The Game Plan. It was such a cute movie! I tend to be a tough critic when it comes to movie content - don't care for violence, language, alcohol, onscreen sex, etc. - so I was interested when I read the PluggedIn review. While it definitely wasn't Ryan's first choice for a movie, the football storyline appealed to him (I think). I highly recommend it for a cute date movie, and even a family movie for those with elementary kids. (Nothing in the content is bad for younger kids, it's just that older kids could sit through the movie better and follow the storyline).

Friday was one of a handful of dates we've been on since Katrina was born. We know how important it is to have time together, and we really do intend to do it more often, but time seems to fly by. And honestly, we enjoy spending time as a family eating out, going to the store together, etc., too. We both went into the Y to pick up Katrina at the end of the night - we wanted to see who she missed more. :) It was Daddy, hands down, of course. And I love that - I love the relationship they have and how Ryan has become a Daddy, not just another guy with a kid. (Am I making sense?)

Saturday. Ahh, sweet, peaceful Saturday. NOT. Ryan had to work 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., so I made plans with a girlfriend to go to a street festival in Frederick. Katrina and I were up early and were just about to leave to hit Borders before meeting my friend when the unwelcome house guest arrived. It wasn't his fault - he didn't come by choice. You see, Davis (our cat) ran outside when I was buckling Katrina in her carseat. Davis caught a chipmunk, brought it in the house, and LET IT GO!!! I was so terrified. Completely irrational. Creeped out. Freaking out, standing on the couch yelling ... at a chipmunk. My attempts to get rid of it did not work, not even the trail of yummy acorns leading to the front door. So we left. I was certain I'd come home to a bloody murder scene with chipmunk parts spread all over the house, but there was no sign of the stupid thing. The cats were sort of stalking the other couch then, but eventually walked away and fell asleep. Lazy cats. Ryan got home at 10:00. The sequence of events went something like this:
10:00 p.m. Ryan walks in the front door
10:03 p.m. Ryan moves the couch
10:05 p.m. Ryan scoops up chipmunk (alive) in box, takes it outside

He's my hero. :)

Finally, a quick Katrina story:
I found a set of flashcards at Wal-Mart with uppercase and lowercase letters on separate cards. Tonight after dinner we pulled them out for the first time, and Katrina knew several of the lowercase letters! (She knows all 26 uppercase letters now.) Lowercase letters she named: c, e, h, k, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, y and z. That's more than half the alphabet! I purposely didn't ask her b/d/g/p/q because those are so confusing, but she did tell me that a b "go up, no down" and drew a 'b' in the air. The other cute thing - she calls them "baby" letters. So an e is a "baby E."

Even more exciting is that she recognized four words! Ryan wrote CAT on her MagnaDoodle, and Katrina spelled out the letters. Then when Ryan asked her what it spells, she said, "Kitty!" He wrote MOM, and she did the same thing - said it spells "Mama." DAD is "Dada," and BABY is "Baby."

By the way ... Katrina will be two and five months (29 months) next week. When asked what we should name her baby sister, she says, "Ummm ... Rabbit!"