Sunday, October 21, 2007

Construction

Katrina made a "slide" out of the broom handle today. She propped the handle on the top of her pumpkin, then tried sliding down, but the handle kept slipping. She looked around for a bit, then moved the handle to a bushel basket we keep in the living room for her books. The handle of the basket kept the broom from slipping. She sat halfway up the handle and 'slid' to the bottom, with her hands in the air and said, "Wheeeee!" After doing this a few times, Katrina then turned to me, and holding up one finger, said, "One more time, Mama."

Monday, October 15, 2007

He Fix It!

Katrina has really been into "fixing" things lately. Her pajama pants often get bunched up at the calf (something she hated last year) and so she will pull them back down and say, "I fix it!" She also brings things for us to fix. It's been quite a lesson to learn when we've had to say, "Honey, we can't fix that for you" (like a crumbled cracker or something).

We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner on Wednesday last week. After dinner, Katrina and I went to Target while Ryan went to Costco. As we were getting in the van to leave the store, Katrina said, "Oh, no!" I asked what was wrong, and she replied, "Clouds! They broke!" Sure enough, the clouds were a dark stormy blue. I explained that the clouds were blue because maybe they would bring rain, then we talked about how God makes the clouds. (Not the actual science of clouds, just that He is the creator of clouds.)

Fast forward to the next morning on the way to the babysitter's house. Katrina looked out the van window and said, "He fix it!" I asked her what she meant, and she replied, "Clouds! Clouds no blue. Clouds white. He fix it!" I asked her who fixed the clouds, and she said, "God fix clouds!"

I love this kid. Good days and bad, we have learned so much much. Just last night Ryan and I talked at length after the lights were off about all the cute and funny things she said this weekend. Like Saturday morning she found Ryan's football and asked me, "I say 'touchdown?'" I said sure, so over and over again she said, "Touchdown!" and put her arms up in the goal post symbol. When I asked her if she wanted to go show Daddy (he was still sleeping), she said, "Yeah!" We woke him up, only for her to giggle and then refuse to say anything.

Saturday I also had a talk with her about yelling across the house. If she can't find us, she'll stand in the living room and yell, "MOM! MOM! MOM! DAD! DAD! DAD!" I told her that yelling is not nice, and if she cannot find us, she should look for us and ask, "Where are you?" So sure enough she started asking, "Where are you?" Ryan and Katrina were talking about her little sister that is soon to join our family, and she asked, "Sister, where are you?"

Oops, it's late ... almost 7:30! I need to finish getting ready for work.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Super Chicken

While watching The Office tonight (we're a few days behind on shows, as usual), there was a commercial for something and it mentioned Super Chicken. Ryan does not remember Super Chicken!!!! I used to watch it as part of George of the Jungle. Does anybody else remember Super Chicken? http://youtube.com/watch?v=dAHlGeVGp-4

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

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!"