More Kate-isms

Kate is just getting SO big. I feel like I say this all the time, but I look at pictures from a year ago, 6 months ago, and I can't believe how much she has changed. I am positive she will be taller than me. She is so long! Long legs, beautiful curls, and a combination girly girl and tom-boy... She can hang with her cousins in a world of princess costumes, pretend performances, and doll houses or trampolines, trains, and baseball games. She loves dresses, but lately has been requesting to wear pants. Her favorite color is yellow, just like her Daddy, but pink is close behind. She loves to draw and color, she is VERY creative. She also plays with all of her toys in a different way that they were intended to be played with. I love to see what she has in her purse, you really never know what you are going to find. I think one of the funniest things was finding plastic fruit, as if she could eat it for a snack when we were out. (You can also find things that you thought were missing in her purse.) She likes to help me cook and she can even crack an egg and put it in the bowl without shells! Her favorite foods are breakfast sausage, chicken salad, and spaghetti & meatballs. She loves carrots, chickpeas, corn, and beats (yes, beats) and dislikes green beans and peas. To get Kate to eat her carrots when she was little I told her what my dad did, "Have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses?" One night she was not eating her carrots very well and I was a little done, so I looked at her and said jokingly, "Good luck seeing tomorrow." Man, she ate those right up! (David almost blew my cover a few nights later.) She eats carrots like a champ, what can I say. So tonight at dinner, she asked me, "What chickpeas (aka butt-beans) did for you?" I was a little speechless... (The best I could come up with in my head was that butt-beans gave you a cute butt???) She answered for me, "They give you good toots!" (Thank goodness!) Sometimes you need to get a little creative right?

I thoroughly enjoy listening to what Kate has to say. I love her phrases, in a couple whiles (aka - a couple minutes paired with in a little while), her hand gestures, and her even her pronunciations. Last week Kate was coloring a birthday card for her Nana and she was drawing a bird. When I asked her about the picture she said, "It is a cardboard one, Nana loves those." (LOL... Nana loves Cardinals.)

Tonight in the bath Stephen and Kate were both playing with empty plastic bottles of shampoo. We only had one top and Kate discovered that it fit both bottles, even though one bottle was wider than the other at the base. A perfect opportunity to teacher her the width of a circle is the diameter. She could not say "diameter" and it was hilarious the way it came out, di-anter, di-antler, di-nater... She could not get the "m" out.

I also LOVE the way she loves our animals. I find her filling up the water bowl in the bathroom because Shiloh wants a drink. She want to give Libbie and Sumter treats and of course little brother Stephen wants to participate in this activity. She loves to pet the cats and I am amazed at her gentle nature and her ability to read them. (Gee, I wonder where she learned that from?) She holds out her hand out for the cats to sniff her before she pets them. She can tell me when Sumter is in a bopper mood. And she adores Shiloh.... I think she is no longer my cat in Kate's eyes, she is Kate's cat. She has nicknames for her, Shi or SheShe, and she wants to know where she is whenever we are upstairs and then gives me updates. . (Shiloh is the upstairs cat.) Shiloh still sleeps with me at night, but sometimes before I come up to bed she is snuggling with Kate. If I can get a picture of this, I will.

She is an excellent big sister and genuinely loves her little brother. They chase around the house and laugh, they color, create with play dough, race cars and trains, and yes, he also plays with her High School Musical doll house and princesses. She is very good about sharing and including him in her play. The other day at the Chick-fil-@ play area, she helped him up each climbing ledge and then helped him down the slide. He would come out the slide with the biggest grin on his face and clapping for himself. Kate was right behind him helping him back up again. It was precious that she understood and cared enough to help him.

We still have our battles that a four year old can break you with, I told her today that she should be a negotiator when she grows up. By the way, she wants to be a dance teacher when she grows up.