She can't be spelling already, can she?

Today we were watching CARS - Mator is a particular favorite of Kate's. Anyway, Lightening McQueen calls someone an idiot in the movie. Kate always asks me what idiot means. I told her it's a bad word that people use when they are angry or being mean. I also told her that Mommy did not like that word, and that she should not use it.

Fast forward 4 or 5 hours. Josh, Kate and I are in the car on the way home from a yummy dinner out. I started to tell Josh the story from CARS. I decided to spell the word so Kate wouldn't know what I was saying. I said to Josh that we were watching CARS and the word i-d-i-o-t caught Kate's attention again. Kate quickly jumps in, "Daddy that means idiot. It's a mean word that people use when they are angry."

I was stunned! How did she know it was idiot? She's 2 1/2 and spelling not to mention defining vocabulary words. Not bad. Not bad. I guess there is a little bit of Mommy in her after all.

From Kate's Mouth to God's Ears

Today was a rough day as far as obedience goes. The morning started out well but we quickly found ourselves disciplining Kate over and over again for not obeying. She was have some quiet time in her room this morning while Mommy was doing laundry. As I came into her room to put clothes away, I saw her in the corner of her room looking up at her bedroom ceiling praying, "God, please help me obey better." Tears streamed down my face...a teachable heart is all you can really ask for in a child.

Later that morning, we were still in Kate's room attempting to clean it up. Kate had misplaced her treasured "taggie" blanket a few days ago, and despite my best efforts I have not been able to find it. I asked her to look under her bed again. Not there. She kept trying and trying to find it. I told her that she should pray and ask God to help her find the taggie. Kate returned to the same corner of her room, looked up and said, "God, please help me find my yellow taggie. Thanks, God." And wouldn't you know it. About five minutes later, Kate came running out of her room yelling, "I found it, Mom! I found it! God helped me!"

Latest in Katonese

Kate lined up two of her dolls on her rocking chair. "Listen up, girls, I am going to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a girl named Jack. How'd you like that story girls? Let's go meet Jack." And she grabbed her dolls and went to a toy chest. Not sure who Jack is though?

Walking through Whole Foods dairy section on Friday, Kate sniffs the air. "Mommy, I smell cheese. It smells like poopy diapers!"

All day long today Kate has been calling me "Mommy Dinosaur". I want milk Mommy Dinosaur. Mommy Dinosaur, baby dinosaur wants a snack. Etc.

Our Little Girl

A few more pictures so we can boast of how much we love our Kate!!

Latest Katonese:

The other night, Kate was at my parent's house for a sleep over (sort of - a go to bed but have mommy and daddy pick you up later on - over). Anyway, Kate was getting ready to get into the bath, and with the water running to fill up the tub, she had a little accident on the bathroom floor. She looked down at the puddle by her feet. Then she looked at my mom and said, "Who's gonna clean up this mess?"

This morning Kate was watching her new favorite TV show Max and Ruby. When the episode ended she began to throw a little temper tantrum because she wanted to watch more. She kept saying, "I want attitude! I want attitude!" We are not sure what she was referring to?? Was there a show called attitude? Was the word of the day on Sesame street attitude? Who knows exactly what she was asking for, but I can assure you, Kate, you have plenty of attitude. You don't need any more!

Followup on 9/4: We were joking that someone probably told Kate to "watch your attutude" as in "you need to obey." We finally figured out what she was referring to when she kept asking for attitude. She has been asking to watch the movie (at least part of the movie) called Ratatouille. She really likes the rat in the movie and the cooking scenes. I'm glad that we figured this out, because she was getting quite persistent in asking for it!

The Things Kids Say...

Kate can talk - and talk- and talk. In fact it seems most days she never stops. I'm not complaining though. I love to hear what is going on her mind, and she provides so many opportunities for Josh and I to laugh. But being a precocious, verbal (almost) 2 year-old has its disadvantages too. Here are a few things she's said lately.

Kate loves to greet people we see on our daily adventures. A few days ago, we were walking and two middle-aged woman stopped to say hello to Kate. They were kind of dressed up with some sparkly clothing and big jewelery. Kate returned their greeting with, "Hi, Pirates!"

On a similar note, Kate doesn't have to be greeted first. She'll often shout across a grocery store to someone she thinks she recognizes. For example, the other day in Bloom, and then again on one of our walks, Kate started yelling (and I mean yelling), "Hello, Gordon." I was stumped for a moment. We don't have any friends or family named Gordon. Until I realized who she was recognizing. Meet Gordon:

All of you Sesame Street fans will recognize him right away. Well so did Kate. Apparently, all African American men with shaved heads are now Gordon!

Last story for today: Kate still puts everything in her mouth! We are really trying to break her of this habit. So we have this little mantra at our house. "What goes in your mouth?" Kate answers, "Food and drink only?" We say, "Is this food or drink?" She says, "No." Or that's is how is it supposed to go. This morning I asked Kate the question, "What goes in your mouth?" She very quickly answered, "Only ice-cream."

Prayer Time

As part of Kate's bedtime ritual, we say our prayers. Part of our prayer time is thanking God for things that happened that day. Kate calls this time "Thank you for" as in "Mommy, pray thank you for now". We usually take turns. I might say, "Thank you, Jesus, for Papa's visit tonight." Kate usually says something like, "Thank you for Shayla." or "Thank you for motorcycles." But tonight, she got pretty creative. Tonight Kate said, "Thank you for Diet Coke." Hmmmm...

Potty Training

Kate has begun the process of potty training. She hates having wet or dirty diapers, and is becoming more and more insistent on me changing her diapers immediately. So the process of potty training has started. This week it has been just sitting on the potty getting used to big toilet. (Last week she got a little scared of it.) The other day, she was confidently sitting on the toilet looking at a book. Suddenly, she stopped, looked up at me, and loudly proclaimed, "Privacy please!"

No joke...she really said it. And I think she meant it too!

It's in the Genes

Some things are intrinsic- they don't need to be taught or even modeled. They are in our genes. They define who we are as individuals. Kate's love of motorcycles is one example. Josh never really told her about motorcycles, never talked about them, or really pointed them out to Kate. But Kate's fascination with bikes grew and grew. Boy was Kate surprised to learn that Daddy actually had a motorcycle hidden in the garage. We pulled it out the other day and let her sit on it. She was a little apprehensive when we revved the engine, but all in all she loved it. Now she asks to go down to the garage at least 5 times a day to see the motorcycle. Sadly (in some ways) the bike has been sold and will be given to its new owner tomorrow. It's an end of an era for Josh...and I'm afraid a heartbreaking discovery awaits Kate the next time she goes into the garage.

Above: Kate on Daddy's BMW

Below: Kate on a friend's bike.

Thanks, Ben, for letting Kate have a turn on the bike!

Another discovery that personally I LOVE about Kate, is that she seems to believe that she is from Boston. Her accent would place her in New England any day! I swear I didn't influence this. But Kate speaks like a true Bostonian. Here a few of her favorite expressions:

Bye, bye! See ya, latah.

Where ah we?

Cah ride?

Now, if I can just get her to say that lunch was "wicked" good...she'll be good as gold!

Good to Be in God's House...

Our Pastor starts every Sunday with the saying "Good to be in God's house!" And today, Kate seemed to agree. As we entered the sanctuary, the music had already begun. Kate usually goes straight to the nursery, but since she heard the songs, she asked to go "Sing songs." They were singing the song Come and Worship - some lines from the song were: Come, now is the time to worship. Come, now is the time to praise the Lord. Kate burst through the doors into the service yelling, "I come! I come!"

Kate-onese

Kate is almost 19 months and is talking up a storm these days. This week she has really started putting three or more words together to make small sentences. We often still have two or three word phrases. Yet,she'll suddenly come up with something and Josh and I will look at each other and say, "Did you hear what I think I heard?"

Her vocabulary is astounding. She amazes me with how much she knows. All of a sudden, we'll be out and she'll identify something in the grocery store or see something out the window and name it! When we are in the car, all I hear is a running commentary of everything we go past: Snow, bird, tree, boy, people, car, truck, snow, noise, house... She also has every one's names down in the family, even Jecholia (although it sounds like cholia).

She's also really perceptive to sounds! At least a dozen times a day Kate will say, "Noise! Noise! and it might be a car horn, or a car door, or a plane, or a bird, or the heat kicking on, etc. She notices it all. Yesterday, we were in Costco and she heard a baby cry long before I ever did. She kept telling me, "Baby, Baby," and low and behold she was right. However, she thinks all babies are either her cousin, Collin or Holly's little girl, Mia.

Sometimes Kate's chatter resembles English. Sometimes it's a language all it's own - a language we fondly call Kate-on-ese!

Here are some things she's been saying lately:

When mooching off Josh's or my plate: "Some me!"
With arms stretched out to be picked up: "Hold you?"
(She's just starting to experiment with pronouns!)

Kate: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's not here right now?
Kate: I find him. I find him.

As heard through the monitor in the middle of the night:
Mommy! Mommy! Where are you? I awake!

She's always yelling, "Shayla, (where) are you? (Shayla's our dog!)

I'll try to pay more attention to her conversations and document them more frequently. They really are fun to hear. I love that she can communicate with me.