I haven't taken the time for awhile to post some small, everyday moments that Katie has. They're things that make me laugh or that I want to remember for no other reason that they were part of who Katie was at the moment. Sometimes life does feel like a rush. Paying attention to these little moments helps me remember not to hurry. Enjoy every little bit.
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Loving Animals
Last spring, we walked out our front door and found a pretty, little yellow bird that had unfortunately died and had fallen in our planter. Katie was very interested in looking at the bird and thought it was very cute. Instead of disposing of the bird right then, we decided to wait until Katie wasn't around. When we went out the next day, the bird was gone. We weren't quite sure what happened to it, but we were glad we never had to take care of it. When Katie exited the house the next time, she asked where the bird was. I told her that I wasn't sure and that it was just gone. She promptly answered back, "When we get our next dead bird, I will take care of it!" (Luckily we haven't had any more dead birds!)
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Snorts
When Katie was little, one of her favorite books was P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother? If you've never read that book, the baby bird thinks a piece of construction equipment is called a "snort" because of the noise it makes. I've never been interested enough in construction equipment to learn the proper names, so anytime we've ever seen equipment that looks similar to the one above, we've referred to it as a "snort."
Over the last several months, houses have been being built on our road, so Katie has seen lots of equipment up close. One night, she was very excited to see something right across the street from us. As she looked at it, she said very seriously, "That is the biggest snort I ever did sawn!"
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Book Language
Like many kids who love books, Katie ends up memorizing a lot of her favorite books. Then she'll practice reading the books on her own by reciting the story. In doing that, she'll often use the phrase, "he/she said." I guess she got used to using that language. She started saying things like…"Let's play Candy Land, I say." It made me laugh!
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Language
Sometimes Katie (and I) don't have specific words for things - like for a snort. Other times, Katie surprises me with her word choice. As her school year was ending last year, I was doing a project to thank the people who worked with her. I asked her to tell me about one of those people. She quickly responded, "I like him because he's smart and fabulous!"
When Katie was making up the story of "The Magic Napkin," she described where the castle was. It was in "the sprawling woods." Where did she learn "sprawling?"
Sometimes something happens that concerns Katie. She'll often shout out, "It's a disaster!" or "I have an emergency here!" Her disasters and emergencies (thankfully) usually turn out to be something like a light bulb has burned out, or she can't find a clip.
Katie, like most children her age, can be rather demanding at times. She will often hear from us, "Can you ask that in a polite way?" Then she'll ask again and add "please." Lately, she has been very formal without us giving any reminders by saying, "Would you be so kind as to…?" None of us ask things that way, but it's very polite.
When Katie was talking about seeing Ian again, she very excitedly said, "Now Ian can't wait to see how long I've grown!" Someday she'll start talking about her height instead of her length!
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Trying to Say the Right Words
Like most children trying to grasp new words, sometimes words come out a little differently than when adults say them. Katie loves to describe the puppies as adorable. When she says it, she says, "She's so adorbalow!" Other times she'll say, "She's so adorbalell!" She's close, but not quite there.
One of her pronunciations that she's outgrowing is how she says "usually." Up until recently, she has said, "Oosually." For some reason, I loved it.
One day, she was reading The Little Mermaid to the dogs. She read, "Ariel truly neckonized she had missed the concert!"
Katie was looking at a picture of Disney's Chip and Dale. I pointed to one, and Jennifer and I were discussing which one it was. Katie looked at us seriously and said, "Are you talking about Chippen or Dale?"
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Figuring Out Relationships
At one point, Katie asked Jennifer why she didn't have a "Grandpappy" like Goofy. Jennifer explained that her grandpa was her grandpappy. Then one night at dinner, she looked at me and said in such a surprised way, "Hey! Grandpappy is my grandpa, and he's your dad!" Then we asked her, "Who is he to Grandma?" She thought and thought and then smiled proudly and said, "Her friend!" It made us laugh!
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Reading with the Presidents in Mind
One night, Katie was reading a Barbie book to the dogs. She read, "Barbie has a dream. She dreams her cat is a princess. Now she is a princess. Barbie usually dreams of Andrew Jackson. She loves him!" I was cracking up as I listened!
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Texting
When Katie is around me, I try not to spend a lot of time texting or on my computer. I try to wait until she's asleep, but sometimes that doesn't happen. With that, she has learned some of the terminology surrounding technology. Her favorite terms are forms of "texting."
One night, Katie grabbed my old phone, and I asked her what she was doing. She said, "I'm texting. (pause) To Mrs. Gaga!" (Gaga is Katie's nickname for Grandma.) She was feeling pretty grown up about the whole thing.
Then the night we were playing pirate, Katie did something that I thought was funny, so I picked up my phone and texted the story to my mom and sister. Then very reproachfully she looked at me and said, "Pirates don't text!" Point taken.
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Eating
When you know that someone eats more fruits than desserts…One night after dinner, Katie was eating an ice cream sandwich. She said, "My favorite part of an ice cream sandwich is the skin!"
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