It was Spirit Day at the children’s school today. Everyone pulled out their school shirts and did “wacky” hairstyles to celebrate. Fun morning — love the group Katie-squish.
Author: brookeshelf
Katie Update
Katie . . .
- Has learned how to get a drink for herself from the water dispenser in the fridge. She usually takes a sip, then spits it out all over the kitchen floor.
- She also knows how to get pears for herself from the fruit bowl. I’ve slipped on three half-eaten pears this week, all left on the living room floor.
- Pears are obtained by moving around the kitchen step-stool. She usually does this by picking up the stool and yelling “I’ve got it!” which is now one of my most dreaded phrases to hear
- Insists on wearing a princess dress to the park (see picture, above. Her dress is stuffed in the swing)
- Insists on carrying a little travel-sized bar of soap wherever she goes, including trips away from home
- If you forget the soap, she yells “DOAP DOAP DOAP” until you get it for her
- Has discovered how to get into the sugar bowl in the pantry, which she usually goes after with double-fisted sugar-munching action. Last time she had a big wooden serving spoon to get more of it.
- She’s so euphoric with sugar that any attempts to discipline her (scolding, time-outs) are pointless, since she’s just laughing madly and chuckling “SUGAH! SUGAH! SUGAH!” until I give up. (Yes, I should move the sugar to a higher shelf, but that would require cleaning out my Tetris-like pantry entirely)
- Frequent viewings of Sesame Street led to a habit of laughing like Ernie whenever she thinks she’s done something clever
- Lately there’s a high interest in using the toilet. Except she often confuses her consonants, and so calls the “potty” a “cubby.” And whenever someone else uses the bathroom, she gets possessive. “MY CUBBY! MY CUBBY!”
- Insists on helping fold clothes (usually unfolding whatever I’ve already done)
- Insists on helping wash floor (usually by spitting water all over the floor first)
- Insists on helping to re-organize china cabinet (today she dropped a glass goblet into a crystal pitcher. The goblet broke, but the pitcher’s fine)
- Went totally ballistic when she saw the merry-go-round during our most recent trip to the zoo. She got to ride it (see picture, below) but the resulting tantrum when it was time to get off caused my other three children to say, “Mom, I like the zoo, but I think Katie needs to go home.”
- Asks to snuggle on my lap with a sippy cup while watching My Little Pony. She does this by grabbing my legs, batting her eyelashes, and asking “A ba-ba? A pony? A lap?”
- is pretty much irresistible. Thank goodness she takes 3-hour naps.
Katie Turned 2; Here’s the Birthday Party
Woodland animal cupcakes!
Owls, hedgehogs, bears, raccoons. The hedgehogs were the most popular. Because sprinkles.
And Aunt Kristen was there! Grandma was there, too, but somehow wasn’t in any of my pictures. My latest dithering efforts with the ice cream maker meant we had three kinds of sorbet: meyer lemon, blood orange, and kiwi. Blood orange was the most popular. Because blood.
And we didn’t have any birthday candles, so we just used regular candlesticks. Katie enjoyed this, but when it came time to blow them out, she opened her mouth and SCREAMED.
Yeah, this picture makes it look like her mouth is open in a state of gleeful surprise. No, she’s shrieking. This may be my favorite new method to blow out birthday candles.
” . . . biiiiirth-daaaay toooo youuuuuu–”
“EEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAA!AIAIAIAIA!”
We gave her a doll for her birthday. Katie was thrilled enough that she spent a good 15 minutes at bedtime singing it a nonsense-sound lullaby. D’awwwww.
Eleanor also spent all of dinnertime creating “party stations” upstairs. There was a station for making paper flowers, one for a beanbag game, one for a puppet show, one for drawing. She used colored tape on the floor and hung handwritten signs to show where each activity was to take place. I’d have commended her more if she hadn’t used this project as an excuse to skip dinner (we were eating something she didn’t like).
But: this paper airplane. How can you stay mad at someone when they make this for their little sister’s birthday?
Happy Birthday, Katie-Boo!
This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day fell on Katie’s birthday. Can we be forgiven for focussing more of our attention on her? She is the ripe old age of two. In case you forget her age, just wait a moment. She’ll eventually do some semi-disastrous thing and remind you.
Both Brian and the kids had the day off from school, so to celebrate, we hit the slopes!
That is to say, we walloped the mountainsides with inflatable penguins.
Sledding! Which does not come cheap in these parts, especially since what I’m used to paying for sledding is nothing. I’m sure there are sneaky little hillsides in the Snoqualmie Pass where one can sled for free without being cited by the snow police, but I’ve yet to locate any of them. So the state parks-run Hyak sledding hill for us it is.
And, well. It is nice to have heated bathrooms on hand, if that’s what the entrance fee pays for. Ahem.
Much to my surprise, Katie loves sledding. None of my other children enjoyed it when they were two, but Katie just squealed, laughed, and wanted to go again and again.
That is, until she got sick of wearing her mittens, and refused to put them back on. Instead, she wanted me to hold her in my arms and blow hot air on her fingers to keep them warm. That’s when I decided to retreat back to the minivan for hot cocoa.
During that break, Katie somehow managed to flip on the van’s headlights without me noticing and drained the engine battery. Because I had obviously forgotten that she was two, and had to remind me.
Luckily, we were able to get a battery jump from other kind families and get home to hot pizza. Yay, birthday memories . . .
Festival of Cultures
Our kids’ school has something like 60+ nationalities represented in its student body, with over 30+ spoken languages. Know what that means!
INTERNATIONAL SHARE-YOUR-FOOD NIGHT!
Or the “Festival of Cultures,” as the PTA calls it. But really — it’s about the food. Momos, Hawaiian barbecue, arroz con leche, sushi, samosas, and whatever the heck that weird Korean candy was: all there for the tasting. I walked around in a daze thinking, why on earth did I eat dinner before coming here?
It’s just like Salt Lake’s Living Traditions festival — but all the food was free! I could just weep. WEEP! In these pictures, my kids aren’t smiling because their cheeks are stuffed. Really.
I volunteered to help with the “Germany” table. Know what my food contribution was? PRETZELS. Because I’m guessing that nobody wanted any fresh sauerkraut. Call it lame, but every picky eater in the building that night was very, very glad to see that bowl of pretzels. Didn’t take home a single leftover.
I also brought the propeller-spinny thing (it’s called a wienachts-pyramide) and the Grimm bros. fairytales. Because, you know, culture.
Although if I had known in advance that the Korean table would be pumping “Gangnam Style” in an endless loop, then I might have brought Beethoven. Maybe.
But in truth, I must admit that, in the grand global sweep of the room, the Germany table couldn’t hold a candle to the other tables. I mean, who on earth can compete with Mexico?
Well, I’ll tell you who can compete: ERITREA. What you are seeing below is a traditional East African coffee ceremony, compete with beans roasted over a live flame (nearly setting off the fire alarm) then hand-ground and brewed in a special ceramic flask. It smelled so, so good. An Eritrean woman stood beside me and murmured, “Back there, we used to do this every day, usually twice a day.” I couldn’t tell if she was nostalgic or relieved. Anyway: injera. Plus four kinds of stew to go on top. I’m not even kidding. Where on earth did they find the teff flour?!?
Static Electricity, Oh My
Tonight Eleanor and I worked on her Home Scientist badge for Brownie Scouts. It was so much fun!
We made rock candy, floated an egg in salt water, bent a stream of water with static electricity, inflated a balloon with a vinegar/baking soda reaction . . .
. . . and made the ol’ cornstarch-n-water slime, which the Brownie handbook called “dinosaur snot.” So fun to play with!
Eleanor has now passed off all her badge requirements — and Wimmy is wondering if he can have a badge, too. He isn’t a Brownie Scout Helper, he ‘s a Brownie Scout Hero, he insists. Cute.
Devil Horn Moon
…. is what I am going to call all waxing crescent moons from now on. Because my children were behaving like Satan’s minions this morning, that’s why. I wasn’t much better; blew my top over and over. And then …. Katie had a meltdown at library storytime and had to be dragged away.
Oh, she looks innocent, but don’t let that fool you. DEVIL!!
Just beneath that adorably pudgy exterior likes a shriek designed to scrape the cartilage off your ear drums. And it was not appreciated by the patrons of the Richmond Beach Library. What to do?
This seemed the best solution to my problem:
Yes, I purchased a Cuisinart ice cream maker at the thrift store yesterday. Mexican chocolate ice cream and Meyer lemon custard, hooray!
Jeffrey Quote: Consequences
This is a quote that I was reenacting at parties and gatherings during most of the holidays. Forgive me, friends, if you’ve heard it before. I just wanted to get it down on digital paper for preservation’s sake.
JEFF: Mom, when I disobey you, you shouldn’t get upset.
ME: Oh, no?
JEFF: No, you should just take a deep breath and ask yourself, “In the course of my life, how much will this really matter?”
ME: But Jeffrey, if I didn’t give you consequences when you disobey me, how could I teach you to do what’s right?
JEFF: It would be hard.
ME: What would happen instead?
JEFF [growing very solemn]: I would choose the wrong. Just like Muammar Gaddafi.
?!?!!? As my brother-in-law Patrick put it: “That is off the wall.” For the record, I did a little digging and discovered that the “in the course of my life” quote is from Walk Two Moons, which Jeffrey read for school (nice to discover he’s absorbing something).
He said he learned about Gaddafi from “listening to the news on the radio.” So . . . thanks, NPR?
Jeffrey Quote: Robot Dog
While delivering Eleanor to dance class today . . .
JEFF: So Mom, which would you prefer, a real dog or a robot dog?
ME: Well . . . a robot dog wouldn’t cuddle up warm with you.
JEFF: But a robot dog would obey over 100 commands!
ME: True. It also woudln’t poop on the floor, chew up toys, or run away.
JEFF: Yes!
ME: But a robot dog would never look you in the eye to say “I love you.”
JEFF: Hmm . . .
ME: It’s a tough decision. Which would you choose?
[beat]
JEFF: I think I would just like a cat.
Tortilla Time
Wimmy is helping with dinner tonight by cooking tortillas on our griddle.
“I’ll smash all the air bubbles for you, Mom!” And he does, with gusto. Should I tell him that it isn’t really necessary, but a job I made up because it seemed fun to do?
Casa Camisas 