Go figure

Kate cracked us up last night by eating sour cream by the spoonful. Yes, sour cream. She saw it in the fridge and thought it was yogurt. Ryan told her what it was and that she might not like it, but she called his bluff and proceeded to tell us that "she loved it so much." Sour cream eating alone is not all that funny, but what is funny is Kate's total love of condiments. Not food, condiments. She has never been an adventurous eater. In fact, she's pretty much disinterested in food. There are about 10 foods she loves and the rest she can take or leave. But she's rarely met a condiment she doesn't like. She'll eat: butter, cream cheese, syrup, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, guacomole, hummus, ranch dressing, sour cream and probably more that I'm forgetting. She loves to go to the brewery to eat ketchup and mustard on their own with a knife. This is, in fact, how we let her entertain herself while we eat. It works well (never fear, it's a dull knife). I'm not sure what this love of the stuff that goes on food (or, for Kate, is eaten as a food group) means but if it buys us the time to have a dinner out, we'll indulge it!

It seems I haven't had much to write about of late mainly because: the kids have been sick for a week and it has been COLD (-3 this morning!) so we've been stuck inside and even with all this inside-time there never seems to be any time to use the computer since there are always noses to wipe and tantrums to avert. But enough complaining. All this time confined to the house has meant there's been a lot of time to have great conversations with Kate. Her mind astounds me every day. Of course, I can't really remember any specifics now that I'm sitting here but we did have one yesterday that lead me to believe she hasn't quite grasped the whole marriage concept:

Kate: "mommy, I already have a husband."

Me: "Really, who is it?"

Kate: "It's Will. And your husband is Grandma Connie."

Me: "Then who is daddy married to?"

Kate: "Uncle Jay!"

Now, I think this is all kinds of illegal in most states but must sound grand to a toddler who loves her family! In other Kate news, she is still mystified and annoyed by "Kookaburra." Yesterday, she was singing it and, given her rendering of the lyrics, I think I can see why. I think the song goes "kookaburra lives in an old gum tree, merry, merry King of the bush is he..." Kate was singing, "Kookaburra lives in an old dunk tank, very, hairy King of the bush is he..." Dunk tank? Where has she even heard that?? In Will news, he's still enjoying his expanding palate. He's now had rice cereal, millet, sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, avocadoes, pears, apples and bananas. He's eating with gusto! He's also just about sitting up and the most confounding thing in his universe right now is that he can't figure out how to get his knee into his mouth when he's in the bath. Oh, the trials of a five-month-old!

Kate's likes and dislikes....

...are endless, but here are a few I think are worth remembering: She likes youtube. I don't think I know any kids (or grateful parents) who DON'T like youtube. How did our poor parents do it without all these modern conveniences? But, here's the thing: Kate likes foreign editions of "Mickey Mouse" on youtube. I discovered this by accident because, usually, Kate bathes while I shower, thus killing two birds with one stone and allowing me to keep an eye on her. Sometimes the timing of this doesn't work, though, so in that case she usually watches clips of things on youtube while I shower as quickly as only a mother can. :) She always asks for Mickey Mouse and I let her point at the one she wants. The other day she pointed at one and I played it, but I didn't stay to watch it. She kept asking for it again, and then more and more that it suggested as the next one. Today I discovered that they were all in foreign languages. I asked her if she could understand it and she said, "of course I can, mommy" as if I were asking the dumbest question possible. Who knows?? As for her dislikes, these are also abundant. But two things really bug her: the book "Rock-a-bye Farm" and the song "Kookaburra." In "Rock-a-bye" farm this farmer rocks all his animals to sleep, and the last one he rocks is a mouse. The mouse goes to sleep in a little bed in the farmer's room (weird, yes). The next page is the farmer going to bed and the mouse's bed is still there, but there's no mouse in it. This has driven her crazy for months. Seriously crazy. If you read it to her at night, she wakes up the next morning asking "where is that mouse?" Since her mouse-paranoia was in turn driving us crazy, this book just made it's way into a school gift exchange.... As for "Kookaburra," if it comes on in the car, she asks "what is this song about, mommy? I think it's weird." And I must agree. And that's my "kooky" kid!!

Ugh. Yuck. Blah.

I. HATE. COLDS. SO MUCH. Kate's working on her third this winter and Will caught this one, which is the first time I've had a sick baby. I feel so bad for them both. Couple the colds with the TWO literal blizzards we've had this week and we've been stuck in the house WAAAAAY too much. Poor Will can't breath at night so I basically sat holding him all last night, listening to him snort and snuffle. Can anything make a mommy feel worse and more sad than sick kids? I don't think so. On the upside, they both seem better today and I'm crossing my fingers that this is the last nasty bug for a long, long while. Spring come quick!!!!

Brother and sister?

I think so! This was Ryan's hat when he was little, and there exists a similar photo of him...lucky for him there was no digital photography back then but, yes, Will and Kate do indeed look like their daddy! :)

Will

Will

Kate

"That silly guy, Uncle Ross"

As has been well documented here, Kate loves to talk about "that silly guy, Uncle Ross" (really her great uncle). He was under the weather while we were in Yreka and Kate is still telling me, "I hope Uncle Ross feels better. He will tease me next time I see him." What an impression he made on her at Christmas, huh?! So, until she meets him again, she has informed us that this cat is named "Uncle Ross." I hope he takes this as a compliment---I think it is one, at least as far as a toddler is concerned!

Asserting her sartorial independence...

Kate originally wanted to wear leggings, jeans AND a tutu but I talked her down to just the one pair of pants. Compromises are what it's all about, right?? :)

A toddler's mind is an awesome thing

Kate says a lot of things every day that make me laugh, but this one may top the list. Tonight, while giving Will a bath, she noticed (seemingly for the first time) that Will has different "equipment" than she does. She's known that there is a difference for some time, but has never questioned me about anything other than herself and "lady parts." Well, tonight, she declared: "wow, Mommy, Will has an ACORN. Can you believe that??" At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but she continued on adamently about his "acorn" for quite some time. I really couldn't even begin to explain to her what she was actually seeing--mostly because I was laughing so hard. I've never heard her reference an acorn before, but she picked quite a way to start!

Small victories

Before sweet potatoes: "I'm ready, Mom!"
After sweet potatoes: "I'm ready for MORE, Mom!"

Before I had Kate and Will I never realized how much of parenting is really just trial and error. I'm not sure what I assumed it would be like, but probably a lot more structured than it actually is. I mean, there's no manual that can give you the right answers for your kids so you just have to make it up as you go. Some of your experiments work, some fail miserably, and there's really no way to know which way they'll go until you try. I've had lots of misses when it comes to my "tries" with the kids, but we've recently had a couple hits that are making life easier. First, Kate, our staunch non-napper, now has "quiet time" in her room for an hour every day. And she likes it! We let her watch a movie on the portable DVD player (thank you, Grandpa Mac!!) which is a treat because the only other time we use it is on road trips to Yreka. I justified letting her watch it because I'd normally let her watch something for awhile in the afternoon anyway, so I can get some chores done. It works a lot better for her to be in her room, though, and the best part is that she truly seems to enjoy it. I'll check on her from time to time, and she's usually just playing or reading books on her bed. I set a timer for an hour, but she usually stays in for a bit longer after, even after I open the door. Hooray! The second victory we've had is that we've started a bed time routine for Will that is not just breastfeeding him to sleep (this works wonders of course but doesn't help him learn to fall asleep independently at all!) So, we do stories and then a bottle and for the past three nights he's gone into his bed still awake and fallen asleep on his own! Since we put him down soon after Kate, we have two kids asleep by 7:45 pm!! I'm starting to see the light at the end of the loooooong too-little-sleep tunnel....still working on the middle of the night wakings, but I know that will come with time. For now, we'll pat ourselves on the back and enjoy these small victories!

Yreka!

Thanks, Grandma Starla and Grandpa Bobby for making our trip SO, so much fun! As always, the time with grandparents went by way too fast but we had such a great time--thanks especially to Starla for babysitting while Bob and I skiied for three days in a row!!

On the bench dedicated by and to Starla's family

Our walk around the lake at Greenhorn Park (very nice until Kate tripped and split her lip--oops!)

Enjoying the view!

Will gets a view from the front pack....

...and from the little stroller, which we discovered he really likes (especially looking at his feet).

Tired little dinosaur

Grandpa and Will watching the news

Super Bowl Sunday??

The Super Bowl is on and we've been outside playing in the 60 degree weather! Really! Is this February? Ryan and I went on a long trail run today and we've been out basking in the sun with Kate and Will. No coats needed! Seriously fantastic. And, yes, I know the Chargers aren't playing in the Super Bowl, but Will and Kate had to represent for daddy's team. And, also yes, we're back from Yreka, where we had a great time (more photos later to come....)

Food: here Will comes!

I wasn't planning on starting Will on any solids until 6 months (clearly, he's not in need of extra sustenance...) but he so obviously wants to eat "real" food that I figured we might as well go for it. His desire to eat has become more and more evident each day, topped off yesterday when Starla had to literally pry a banana away from him. He drools like crazy whenever he sees food and would gladly stuff it in his mouth, even though he has no hint of a tooth. This is a totally new experience because Kate never, ever eyed our food (in fact, she still doesn't care much). It took me months before she would even eat solids more than once a day, and then she only really went wild for any sort of dairy product. Will, on the other hand, is shaping up to be the opposite. He looks at spinach with lust in his eyes, so I'm crossing my fingers that this is a good sign about his nutritional future. As for his first try at food, he went at it with gusto. I don't know if he swallowed much because he still has the tongue-thrust thing going on, but he was definitely willing to try. Then he got a little mad whenever I took the spoon out of his mouth; he didn't even want to wait long enough for me to reload! So, he's got a few things to learn but I think he's going to relish this process. I can't believe he's already eating....slow down, my sweet little boy, and don't grow up too fast!