some stories

Kat's vocabulary and cognitive thinking is growing by the minute practically. I need to write some stuff down before I forget. These stories are happening so fast I can't get them all in print!

So the other day she had preschool and then Little Gym right after. Normally, this is not the case. Normally after preschool we come home and rest. But this day we had to do both. So on the way to Little Gym I was asking Kat about her day at school and she told me that they were playing restaurant in the play kitchen and a boy was playing with a toy. Then, another not nice boy came and ripped the toy out of the hands of the first boy. You know what she did? She told the mean boy, "HEY! That's not nice!" I was so proud of her I started to get a bit teary eyed! My little shy girl stood up for a boy she barely knows! I told her that she made a good decision and that it was nice that she helped the boy. (and of course told her that we never hit or push, but that it was OK to say something) So, I told her that for making a good decision, we would do something special together when we got home. She was very excited at my approval and thought for a few minutes...

Then she said, "Mommy, I'm feeling very tired. And I'm anxious to get my special time. So can we skip Little Gym just this once and go home now?" I know she likely was tired, so I agreed that this one time we could skip Little Gym and go home. Then on the way home, she told me, "But Mommy? You know what? Daddy still thinks I'm at Little Gym right now!" Her dad was at work, so I thought it was pretty funny that she realized that Daddy had no idea that we changed plans. She is a very good thinker.

When I'm at work, Kat will often steal some printer paper and tape and go into her room and wrap a "present" for me. Very sweet. So she did this a couple of nights ago and before bed laid my present out for me to see when I got home from work. She told Daddy, "Obviously, you can't tell Mommy what it is.... (whispers, with her finger up in the air).... but it's a hair pretty and a coin!" Obviously? Oh my.

So the only other thing I can think of right now is last night she was getting out of the bath and ready for bed. I asked her, "honey, is your room clean and ready for bedtime?" She said, "I think so, but go look". I asked her who the boss was and told her that she may not tell Mommy what to do. She said, "Mommy, I was just telling you what you could do, not what you should do." Oh, that's a hard one to argue with.

Call it a wild guess, but I think my hands are going to be more than full as she grows up. Yikes!

1st day of school scrapbook

My Best Little Helper

Today I needed to get a lot of cleaning done and I was running out of time. Normally Kat follows me around and helps me with whatever chore I'm working on, but today I asked her to go and clean her room. Yeah, I know... she's 3 1/2. But still. Seriously, go clean your room! I didn't expect miracles but I figured she could get started until I got there, and this would allow me to clean faster without her right there with me.

I got into a cleaning zone and Kat suddenly came out of her room yelling for me to come look at how clean her room was. When Kat is excited, she jumps up and down in place. She does this often, and it's so freakin cute. Anyhow, she was frantically jumping up and down in place and of course I dropped what I was doing to go look at how "clean" her room was.

And you know what? She did a terrific job! I was amazed at her focus. She helps me with everything... she cooks with me, cleans with me, changes baby with me... and now she cleans her room! Ah I love the little Kitty Kat....

Imagination

Kat is using so much of it lately. She comes up with really elaborate scenarios complete with details that I have no idea how she invents. And she articulates it really well!

Today while Hubby and I dealt with some deep cleaning we asked her to play in her room for a little while. I walked in to check on her and Woogie (her girl twin) was in the stroller and Kat had her sunglasses on. I asked what she was doing and she said, "well, Woogie has a play date today with Amelia. And we're just taking the stroller because Amelia's house is close enough for us to walk to. Amelia is a friend I made up for Woogie and she's a baby too and her mommy and me and Woogie and Amelia are going to Amelia's house to play". Later she told me that it was a good time, they didn't really get anything done but they had a lot of fun playing together.

I find Kat making faces at herself in the mirror sometimes or she'll say something funny while looking at herself. Hubby walked in on her the other day bouncing and dancing to a song she made up, "Take me to the best, take me to the best". Funny girl.

Kat is so eager to help out around the house. She gets upset if I start a chore without asking for her help. I love it that she wants to be so involved even though every little thing does take longer than it should. I love being with her.

Kat's new favorite book is Purplicious. I found her 'reading' it to herself and it was so cute because she was pretty darn close to what the pages actually said. She got really self conscience though when she realized I was listening. I asked her to please keep reading because I love it when she tells stories and here's what she came with: "well Mommy, maybe we can do that in my dreams tonight" (Every night we asked where in our dreams we will meet and do something special. Most nights it's Disneyland, tonight it's Purplicious) I think it's sweet because that's her safe place to read when she feels shy and she's going to share it with me. She's a sweet heart.

I'll leave with a video I took from my cell phone. It's not the greatest quality at all, but it's super cute!

MOOOOOM??? Are you done in the bathroom?

Oh yes, she said it. I was combing my hair and walked out to check how much longer I could expect Bear to nap for and she popped out of her room and said that. I was a little surprised and somehow felt like I had done something wrong! I said, "yes, I'm done for now"... pretty much knowing what was to come next. She said, "well, you're supposed to turn off the light. and you didn't. I saw you just came out of there and you forgot to turn off the light." Well, she's right. There wasn't much for me to say, so I said, "You're right, Kat. Can you turn it off for me this time?" She said, "Well, I already did, but you need to remember to do that from now on, OK?" Precocious little shit! I love it!

OH, and she now correctly uses the phrase, "Mommy, that was a rhetorical question!" Lovely.

Some insight and stuff

So yesterday was a busy day for Kat. We seem to have double booked her crazy 3 year old schedule. We signed her up for a summer school class... cooking for preschoolers. She loves it! However, she is also taking a summer musical theater class for a couple more weeks. She loves that one too, but it overlaps cooking class on Tuesdays. So, for the 2 Tuesdays that it will affect, she leaves cooking class 15 minutes early and we're set.

So yesterday I took her to Musical Theater class and the teacher wasn't there yet. So we sat outside and she had a snack and she gabbed my ear off about what happened that morning at "school". She told me all about how 2 boys were naughty and they got time outs. "I wasn't naughty though, and I didn't get a time out. But those boys were naughty like sometimes my brother Bear is a naughty. Um, I think boys are just naughty and that's why boys get time outs. Cause I didn't get a time out but they did." ...

Then she started telling me about her new friend Holly. She said, "And at snack time I played with Holly. She didn't get a time out either. She's my friend at school." I asked her how her and Holly became friends and Kat looked at me like, duh, and said... "I just told her I wanted to be friends and I'm {Kat} and she said yes." My eyes are welling up with tears as she tells me this. I tried to poke around for more details but apparently it's pretty straight forward... "We were inside before snack time and I told her my name and said I wanted to be friends and she said yes. I told you this already, Mom." OK, I'll take it for what it is.

Then she tried to pick a flower off of a bush outside musical theater. I told her no and she pretended to do it anyway. I said, "Kat, I told you no. Do not pick that flower". She said, "oh, please Mother. I want to so bad". MOTHER? Since when does she call me mother. So I asked, "since when do you call me mother?" She said, "Well, you ARE my mother, right?" I asked her where she learned this and she says "From nowhere. I just know you're my mother". She's drama.

So today we were getting all loaded up in the van to take her to school and she told me something kind of interesting. She said, "Mommy, sometimes when just you and me are driving in the car, it's kind of like we're in a movie and everyone is watching us on TV." What a concept for a 3 year old to articulate! The funny part is, I used to... and often still do... feel the same way. I would almost hear narration in my head of tracking my moves as a child. Often I would get de ja vu's and such and it would freak me out. I think it's so neat that Katie feels this also, and that she is able to express it.

Kat says the damndest things

So today alone Kat has said so many crazy things I can't even remember. She's 3... THREE! But she speaks like she's, well, older than 3.

So today was her first day of a cooking class we put her in at the preschool that she will go to. She told me before Daddy took her to school that "sometimes she gets a little shy." I told her not to worry, that Daddy would stay with her until she felt ready for him to leave. She shrugged and said, "I'm ready, he can leave". Oh geez. She's growing up too fast! When we picked her up I had to choke back tears because she really was OK. She smiled and hugged me, but didn't seem at all concerned that I had been gone for the past FOUR hours. She had a blast.

Today she randomly asked me if I'd like to get naked and go swimming. Not too sure where she got that, but OK.... moving on.

At Toys R Us she got to pick out a new lunch box today for school. She chose an Abby Cadabby one and when we got to the car I realized it was torn. So she told her dad to please exchange it for an Ariel one. I told her to only get the one she wants, not the one she thinks we want her to get. She said, "I WANT the Ariel one. I changed my mind." I told her OK and Chad went in to exchange. So while he was in there I told her I was sorry that the Abby Cadabby lunch box she liked so much had a tear in it. Later I apparently repeated myself because she said, "Mommy, you already said that earlier. You don't have to be sorry... I got an Ariel lunch box now".

She was playing a game with Bear where he had to get the right shape into the right shaped hole. IF he started to do it wrong, she would say, "oh no honey, this way. I know honey. This way honey. Honey, it's like this..." Little Mommy!

Then earlier I was coming around the van and she said, "Oh Mommy, you scared me... and I had to make a face like this..." (asked me to move so she can hope out of the van and re-demonstrate how her face looked) She hopped down and made a fake scared face that was the cutest thing I saw all day. Then she got back in and proceeded with whatever crazy talk she had been doing. Later I was telling Hubby about this and she showed him the scared face and then asked if she could get out of bed long enough to see it in the mirror. She's so funny.



Darn it, that's all I can remember. She said so many more crazy things today.