Books

Katie has always loved books, but I love to see her relationship with books change over time. These days, her bedtime story routine has changed. Instead of just listening to her stories, Katie likes me to read the story to her and then when I'm done, she reads the story to Winnie the Pooh. She doesn't like me to look at her when she's reading because the story is for Winnie the Pooh, but I still listen. I love her retellings and I love to hear her voices for different characters. The other night she was reading Cinderella, and in her version:

* The prince is from China.
* The prince needs to get a lot of envelopes, so he can write invitations to the ball. Every time he licks an envelope, he says, "Yuck!"
* Cinderella gets to the ball and then quickly says, "I've gotta go but thanks for the dance!"

Other than bedtime, Katie just loves to read. More and more often, she just grabs a book and reads and reads - even when she's in the bathroom! It makes the teacher in me very happy!

The other morning, I caught her reading one of the first books that she learned by heart, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I was glad she didn't see me, so I could get a recording of it.

Enjoying Reading

A Special Castle

Katie was supposed to make a castle out of a box and take it to her last music class of the season. Since I was busy preparing for the end of my school year, Garyldine was kind enough to take on the project for me. Needless to say, the castle looked so much better than it ever would have, had I done it! Thank you, Garyldine and Aunt Jody!

First, Garyldine covered the box in foil and drew brick shapes. 

She didn't think it looked enough like bricks, so then Aunt Jody put individual pieces of wrinkled foil on the top of the bricks. 

Then the details started getting added. 

Bit by bit, the castle grew.

This was the castle when Garyldine was done. 

I dressed up with the theme of the day.

We posed for a picture before we went to my class.

My teacher liked the castle.

I got Garyldine a special tiara for the occasion that she wore all day. 

I didn't leave Aunt Jody out either. 

Afterwards, we went to see Jim at the store. 

It was a fun day!

Entertaining in Pajamas

Awhile back, I had bought Katie a nightgown to see if she liked them. She put it on one night and then decided she wanted her regular pajamas back. Time passed, and she never wanted to wear the nightgown again. Then one night after a late bath, Katie wanted to wear her Cinderella costume. I thought I was really smart and I said, "It's too late to put that gown on, but you have a nightgown that you can wear all night." I showed it to her, and I was so happy when she was excited to wear it because it would save me the work of putting on all the parts of her costume, just to take them off again in a few minutes.

Katie put the nightgown on, and right away, she began to curtsy and twirl to try out the princess-like qualities of the gown. She loved the nightgown so much that she didn't want to change out of it the next day and then wore it night after night after night. Eventually I had to buy a second nightgown to be able to trade off with something.  My really smart idea I had didn't feel so smart when I saw the same nightgown over and over and over.

About five days after discovering her "beautiful night ball gown," Kai was coming over for a play date while Kathy and Jennifer did some work together. As I was trying to get Katie dressed, I heard, "I have to wear my gown. Kai loves pink, and he loves ball gowns!" Eventually, I just let her wear it, and on that day, she finally got dressed at 1:00.

I was waiting for Kai to come to my house. I decided to add wings to my beautiful gown. 

I had everything set up for him, so I called him on my phone to see where he was. 

When he got to my house, we cooked eggs - or at least the shells. 

Then we had tea and snacks. 

I let Kai play with Ariel while I played with Cinderella. 

Then I read to Kai while he made coffee. 

Kai really liked my Ariel camera. 

We put two coins in my play toaster, and then they wouldn't come out. We both tried to get them out. 

We made some time for Peek-a-Boo. 

Then we hid from my mom behind the curtains. I don't know how she found us! 

I love when Mary Poppins catches a bird on her fingers, so Kai and I held spatulas out my window to see if birds would land on them. 

 When we didn't catch birds, we pretended to paint the kitchen with the spatulas. Kai's spatula accidentally hit my face, but since he can't say "I'm sorry" yet, I told him that, "I feel sorry for me, so you don't have to!"

Then I hugged him, so he knew I forgave him. 

Even though he didn't look happy in his picture, he was happy when he found my flowered purse. 

I hugged him again just because I like to hug him. 

While we played, we washed all of the towels in my washing machine and dried them in my microwave. Then we threw them on the floor to walk on them. 

I showed Kai my microphone, but he didn't sing a song for me yet. 

I even let him put on my prized shell necklace. 

While Kai was busy putting on the necklace, I played with my zoo.

Thanks for coming over, Kai! I can't wait for you to see my blue nightgown!

An Adventure

Every time we go exploring around our house, Katie looks at it like an adventure even if we don't find anything out of the ordinary. Katie loves to look around just knowing the possibility of finding something new or great exists.

We went behind our house to look for animals. I didn't find any, but I found a big rock! 

On the way back, I picked flowers for everyone! 

After my adventure, I rested in my chair.

Applying Make-Up

One morning Katie was taking her bath, and I saw that she had moved the soap bottle and was hiding behind it. I asked her what she was doing, and her answer was, "Nothing! Close your eyes!" Pretty soon I decided to look and see what she was up to.

I thought that my Little Mermaid doll had a tail that looked liked a make-up brush. 

It really helped me put on my soap bubble make-up. 

I felt like a professional make-up artist. 

Hey! Are you looking at me? 

I was hiding! 

Okay…you can look!

Traveling with Books

We were spending some time outside one night when Katie insisted on taking her books with her. Who wouldn't travel with books everywhere?

I brought my books outside to enjoy the weather. 

First, I showed my books my tree. 

Then, I danced with my books. 

Finally, I found a rock for them. It was fun!

Wild Flowers

Katie has been enjoying all of the wildflowers around our house lately - especially the daisies. One night, she picked some flowers for Aunt Jennifer and herself.

We both loved the flowers!

A Discovery

A long time ago, Garyldine gave me an old school desk that has just been sitting in the basement. It has been there for Katie to see, but she never really saw it until recently. Since finding it, she loves to go downstairs and draw pictures at her desk.

I love this desk I found!

Oops!

Katie was helping water our tomato plants one afternoon when she realized that she could see a rainbow by the water if she turned the hose just right and sprayed the water in our yard. As she was turning it to show me, the hose got away a little and ended up soaking both of us! Katie looked at me with a look of shock, which quickly became an outburst of laughter!

I couldn't believe it when the hose water sprayed my head and shirt! 

I got soaked! 

I told my mom I was going to send Aunt Jennifer a text message to tell her. 

Then I called her. "Then the water hit me. Yeah…yeah…YOU'RE KIDDING ME!" (I never found out what shocking thing Aunt Jennifer was telling her through our old Wii remote.)