Memories to Treasure

It's that time again to post some things about Katie that I don't want to forget.

I enjoy Winnie the Pooh quotes. To some people, Katie and I might lead a relaxed kind of life, but A.A. Milne reminds us that it's important to take time to do "nothing." We hear the things we wouldn't normally hear if we were busier. We appreciate just being. I love the little moments that could easily just pass by if we weren't paying attention.

******************************

Current Pronunciations

Katie's speech came a little later than some, but she is really doing well in that area - for the most part. Her hardest sounds are "s" blends at the beginning of words - st, sk, etc. She can say the "s" sound, but when it's in a blend, she'll often just skip that sound.

Katie is never stuck. She's duck. "Help! I'm duck!"

One morning, Katie was getting ready for dancing. Jennifer complimented her on her dress. Katie was quick to correct. "This isn't a dress. It's a ballet dirt!"

Katie stands in her "bot" in dancing - never her spot.

At her age, Katie wants to try a lot independently, and she lets us know when she wants to do something by herself, but for some reason she doesn't say "by." "I want to play buth myself."

Recently, Katie has started saying Jennifer's name differently - only at times. Sometimes it's still "Aunt Jennifer," but it's often "Aunt Jenn-fill-er."

In the same lines, elephant is pronounced "ephalant."

Katie likes to collect rocks. They are special to her, but they aren't what you'd gasp over. She always lets me know her new rocks are for her collection, or "collect-choo-lun."

I'm standing on my "bot" for our dance.

******************************

Different Names

Sometimes Katie uses different names for objects. It's not that she can't pronounce the actual name, but she has misunderstood the name. I try to work with her on the correct words, but some of her replacements are funny enough that I let her continue with them for a short while anyway.

When Katie wants to go on the elevator, she takes the "alligator."

Sometimes when Katie is excited about wearing something or playing with something, she'll sing a song about it. One night, she was excited to wear her earmuffs upstairs. "Earmuffins! Earmuffins! Wearing my earmuffins!"

Not so much a different name as a different sound, but Katie makes her rooster say, "Cock-a-doodle-do-do!" She never says the sound without the extra "-do" at the end.

Katie loves eating "peppernoni."

As Katie's hair has gotten longer, it has gotten more tangled after a bath or after sleeping on it. As I comb it out, I often say things like, "You have a lot of knots in your hair tonight." One particularly tangly morning, I was combing Katie's hair, and she looked at me in a pretty unhappy way and said, "That comb hurts! I have a lot of nuts in my hair! Just like banana bread!"

I really love peppernoni!

******************************

How Cute!

For awhile now, Katie has said "How cute!" when she sees something cute - usually an animal of some sort. It's really funny to hear her say it because her voice gets sort of squeaky and has an awwww-like quality to it. It has always made us laugh. We're never surprised when we hear things like, "Look! A baby dog! How cute!"

Lately though, Katie has used the phrase for other things that make us laugh even harder. Awhile ago, Jennifer and I had taken her out, and we parked in the lot next to a little, sort of broken-down, car that was probably from the early '90s. It was nothing special for sure, but I'm sure it got its owner where they needed to go. "Look! A baby car! How cute!"

Not long after that, Katie was having a piece of banana bread for breakfast. She doesn't like to eat the nuts, so she always pulls them out of the bread and piles them on her plate. As she creates the pile, she makes a face at the nut just for being un-eat-worthy. After eating most of her bread and making her pile of yucky nuts, she found a nut that had been cut in half. "Look at the little nut! How cute!"

Those nuts are too big to be cute.

******************************

Phrases

Whenever Katie doesn't hear what we say or she wants us to repeat something, she never says, "What?" She always says, "Say again?" We're not completely sure where she gets it from. My mom thinks she might ask Katie to, "Say it again." when she doesn't hear her. It's funny though. "Say again?"

When something doesn't work, Katie first assumption is that it needs batteries. For awhile, when she saw dead insects, she would think they just needed batteries too. I've always thought it would be great if things could be fixed or could come back to life with batteries. 

The night we went to pick up my mom at the airport, I put Katie in the car and she told us, "Grandma's car needs new batteries." I told her it worked fine, but Jennifer caught on and realized she was saying that because it was dark and she couldn't see what was out the window. Jennifer explained that it was nighttime and the sun wasn't out anymore. "Did the sun go to bed?"

I don't know why I make people laugh sometimes, but I like it when I do.

******************************

Never Giving Up

One thing I appreciate about Katie is that she doesn't give up easily on something that is important to her. When she plays with her mermaid castle in the bathtub, she always tries to fill the bottom part of the castle with water since it's supposed to be the ocean. There are small holes near the top of the plastic though, so the water drains out pretty quickly after she fills it, and it's a continual frustration for her. One morning, I was in the bathroom while she tried to fill the ocean.

"Not again! Mama, look! It's leaking again. Maybe I'll use my washcloth."

Katie wrapped her washcloth around the whole bottom part, so it would block the dripping water. She tried pouring more water and saw that it still leaked.

I said, "I liked your thinking, Katie. That was a good idea."

"Maybe I'll think again. Hmmmm. Think. Think. Think. (tapping her temple like Winnie the Pooh)  I know!"

She moved the washcloth. She tried again. It didn't work again. Then she whispered, "Think. Think. Think," again while tapping her temple.  She decided to stretch her washcloth from the ocean and connect it to her soap. She tried again. I didn't think it looked like it worked, but she did. 

"It works! I fixed it and it don't drop anymore!"

Ahhh, the satisfaction of success after a lot of thinking!

I love to fix a problem!

******************************

I Want…

Like a lot of children, Katie has realized that she wants a lot of things in this world. The one thing I can say for her is that when she doesn't get what she wants, she can usually be pretty easily distracted with something else.  One morning though, she wasn't distracted by anything. She looked at the TV and saw that there was a baby tiger. An animal expert was talking about tigers and how they behave in the wild. "I want a baby tiger!"

I tried to explain that people can't keep baby tigers in their houses, but it was no use. From the time she saw it until the time I left for work, I heard about the baby tiger that she wanted.

I know Chloe and Bingle would love my new pet!

******************************

Toddlers Should Be Poets

As I've listened to Katie over the past year, I've decided that toddlers really should be poets. Poets have a different way of looking at life, and that kind of thinking seems so natural to toddlers.

One morning, Katie and I looked up and saw a "V" of geese flying through the sky. After watching them, Katie said, "Bye, birdies! Have a nice fly day!" As the birds continued to fly on, Katie said, "Look! Those birds are making a kite!" 

I guess I would have never thought to see their formation as a kite, but after she said it, I could see it too.

I love watching birds!

******************************

Names

Katie doesn't usually name her toys unless they come with a name. She has always just named them what they are. For example, her toy giraffe is called Giraffe. Lately though, she has been more interested in names. She still doesn't name things, but she always wants to know everyone's and everything's names. Since we don't usually know, we just make up names, or she'll keep asking over and over what their names are.

She finally chose a name on her own the other day. She had asked me to draw a picture of a mermaid. Then she quickly named her mermaid "Pete." First of all, I'm not a wonderful artist, but I think my picture was clearly a girl. In fact Katie said, "Her name is Pete." Second of all, I don't even know where she has heard the name Pete. Whatever the reason, she was very happy with her name choice!

If her name wasn't Ariel, I think Pete would be fitting.