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?? :)