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Mon, Feb 27, 2006 8:30 PM
I realized later today that I forgot to mention several of Katie's vocab words. Other words she uses regularly include "moh" (more), "beez" (please), "aye"/bye, and bar.

For instance, while we were in the car this weekend, I gave her some dried cranberries as a snack. When she finished off the initial helping, she commanded, "MORRRRRRRRRRRRRRE!" from the back seat. When I reminded her to say "please," she immediately downshifted into a big grin and a sheepish "beez?"

And today after school, she went right to the pantry door and knocked on it while saying "bar, bar, bar." She loves those Earth's Best organic snack bars!

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Mon, Feb 27, 2006 10:30 AM
Katie is doing so many funny, mischievous, and memorable things on a daily basis that it's becoming harder to capture all, or even most, of them on here!

Let me try to record just a few:

* First, she is REALLY testing boundaries lately. Because of the body language and facial expressions she uses when she's doing something off-limits, I'm convinced she knows right from wrong. (Case in point: A couple of weeks ago, while Steve and I were getting dressed, she managed to get into some of our bathroom drawers. When I checked in on her, she made sure I saw what she had--a pair of scissors in one hand and a Sensor Excel shaver in the other--and then took off down the hall, laughing all the while.)

* She's thisclose to full-fledged talking. Her vocabulary now includes "Momma," "Da-da," "no," "gar" (car), "up," "hot," "coh" (cold AND coat), "mee" (milk), "my" (mine), and "hat." She babbles constantly with perfect inflection--but nonsensical words. And she enjoys having "silent," but very animated, conversations with me.

* She's still a book-a-holic. One of her favorites is Eric Carle's From Head to Toe--in which the reader is encouraged to mimic the action of an animal featured on each page. For instance, the first page says, "I am a penguin, and I turn my head. Can you do it?" A few weeks ago, I read that page to Katie, and she turned her head left to right--exactly like the penguin! Just when we were ready to sign her up for the Gifted & Talented Program, I read the next page: "I am a giraffe, and I bend my neck. Can you do it?" Katie's response this time? She turned her head from left to right--just like the penguin. Sigh. (For what it's worth, she now does the proper movements for each page. But turning her head remains her favorite motion!)

* Finally, this morning I discovered that Katie can climb out of the bathtub by herself. Heaven help us... ;-)

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Mon, Feb 20, 2006 10:00 PM
Katie had a banner day with Grandpa! They left the house at 9 a.m. and headed straight to the Montgomery Mall--where Grandpa says they completed at least 25 roundtrips on the escalator, shared a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard, and engaged in a lengthy game of peekaboo in the JCPenney men's department.

Once she was strapped back into her car seat, Katie promptly fell asleep. So Grandpa drove back and forth to Doylestown and then back and forth to Warminster for over an hour--giving her a nice long snooze.

Finally, they headed to Chuck E. Cheese's, which Grandpa told me was mind-numbingly busy and noisy. (Schools were closed for President's Day.) He said the biggest problem was that there was a line to get in--and Katie kept trying to push ahead. Once inside, she kept trying to climb up into the overhead tunnels, which she's not ready for yet. (Just try telling HER that.)

At 4:30, they returned home for dinner and the other nigthtime rituals. Katie was in a delightful mood and was still bustling with energy. I can't say the same for Grandpa. I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn: he and Katie were BOTH in bed by 8!

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Fri, Feb 17, 2006 10:00 PM
In bygone days, I relished the solitude when Steve would go away on business. With the whole house to myself, I could enjoy a break in the normal routine. I could also indulge in some guilty pleasures—namely, watching back-to-back episodes of Law & Order, visiting multiple Target or Marshall's locations in a single day, and leaving lots of messes around the house.

Now that Katie is on the scene, it's really more of a pain when Steve leaves town—which is exactly what he did this afternoon.

As you can imagine, Katie precludes any marathon shopping sprees. She makes so many messes with her books and toys that I don’t enjoy making more. And she's bound to get weirded out that her number-one padre is nowhere to be found. (Tonight she was already grabbing his blanket and one of his sweatshirts, then smiling and nodding as she repeated, "Da-da-da-da-da.")

But what makes the current business trip especially troublesome is that I have an incredible workload AND Elbow Lane is closed for President's Day. Just when I was about to find—and pound on—a panic button, Grandpa Murphy came to the rescue. At the last minute, he booked a trip from Louisville to Philly. He’ll be in town from Sunday to Wednesday—and he'll be taking care of Katie all day Monday as I tackle my work.

Although I don't expect my dad to embrace the idea of visiting multiple Targets or Marshall’s in one day, perhaps I COULD convince him to watch some L&O episodes with me!

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Wed, Feb 15, 2006 9:30 PM
Yesterday was Katie's first Valentine's Day at Elbow Lane. We didn't participate in this class party, because neither of us would have been able to bring her home right afterwards. (And it would get ugly to show up and then head back out without taking her, too.) But, her teachers reported that it was a lot of fun.

Speaking of her teachers, last week we were all blaming that Albuterol cough syrup for some "aggressive" behavior Katie had been exhibiting toward her peers. I took her off the syrup last Friday, so I'm not sure how to account for some continued b-r-a-t-t-y behavior. Perhaps too much Valentine's Day junk? Or maybe she's cutting another tooth? (I'm sure Danielle will get a chuckle out of that overused excuse!)

At any rate, she's quite a handful lately--ultra stubborn, opinionated, defiant, and willful. Either she's cut out to be plain old hard-headed or she's just working her way up to the "Terrible Twos."

So, if you see her writhing on the floor in Target, try not to point and laugh at her (OR me!).

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Sun, Feb 12, 2006 9:15 PM
Earlier tonight, Steve and Katie came into the office, where I was working on the computer. In his hand, Steve had a book--one of the "Classic Stories & Essential Values" that Chik-Fil-A hands out with a kid's meal.

He opened it up to the inside back cover, quickly showing me a headshot of the company's president and COO. He said, "Guess who Katie thinks this is?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Da-da."

I looked at the photo more closely and then howled at what I saw: a middle-aged bald man in business attire.

For the record, Steve really doesn't look a thing like the Chik-Fil-A president...well, except for being middle-aged and bald and wearing sportcoats. ;-)

See Dan T. Cathy (a.k.a. "Da-da") for yourself: http://www.chickfilapressroom.com/leadership.asp

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Tue, Feb 7, 2006 9:00 PM
When I picked Katie up from school yesterday, her teachers informed me that there was a confirmed case of bronchialitis (sp?) in her class. They hastened to add that they were also concerned about HER cough (which she's had since Friday). When we got home, I called her pediatrician and ended up taking her in last night at 6. Turns out, she doesn't have bronchialitis, but she does have a little ear action going on. And, the doc also prescribed some syrup to help break up the ugliness in her chest.

To be safe, we decided to keep Katie home sick today. And, because I had two long-scheduled client meetings to attend this morning, I called Nay Nay to see if she could come and take care of her. (It didn't take much arm-twisting; thanks, Nay Nay! :-D) After a day home--and lots of extra TLC--Katie seems to be much better. Heaven knows she isn't lethargic!

Here's some other miscellaneous cuteness of late:

* Over the weekend, we were wiping Katie's nose constantly. At one point, she took a Kleenex for herself. But instead of wiping her own nose, she wiped Big Monkey's, then MoMo's, and finally Pooh Bear's.

* One of her teachers told me that during Monday's naptime, Katie got up and covered one of her friends with a blanket.

* I brought several books with us to the doctor's office yesterday. While we were waiting, Katie sat on my lap and "read" to herself. She was VERY animated--talking in her own special language (which is reminiscent of the natives in the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy!) and using her finger to point to words on the page (which is what I do when reading to her).

* Today Nay Nay said Katie kept going into the powder room, saying "bye," and then closing the door. After a couple of seconds, Katie would crack the door and extend her little hand for a wave.

* And, finally, tonight I was sitting in the green chair, trying to finish getting her ready for bed. When Katie started pulling at my sleeve, I said, "Katie, don't boot me out yet!" She stopped in her tracks, went to her closet--and pulled out her suede patchwork boots.

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Sun, Feb 5, 2006 11:00 AM
We had our friends, Kim and Joe, over for a casual dinner last night. In doing so, we realized that Katie REALLY enjoys having company.

Normally, she takes a little while to warm up to people whom she doesn't see all the time. But in her home and with her parents at hand, Katie was in rare form: showing off, hamming it up, and loving every minute of it. She was "talking" up a storm and joking around with both Kim and Joe.

Steve and I realized that we can and should start reinvigorating our dormant social life. We think Katie's ready! LOL

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Thu, Feb 2, 2006 9:30 PM
Today Katie had her 18-month check-up. She definitely recognizes the pediatricians' office now. As soon as we went in, she beelined for that toy cash register on the "sick" side of the waiting area. And, when the nurse came out and called for "Katherine," Katie promptly headed for the door--the one leading to the parking lot.

Once in the room, I stripped her down to her nappy while the nurse asked me the usual questions. By the time the Q-and-A session was over, Katie had one of her shoes back on. The nurse commented on two of Katie's "ities"--dexterity and intensity--and then said Katie was clearly plotting her escape.

Considering her desire to leave, the child was surprisingly well-behaved while her measurements were being taken. Speaking of which, she is now 32 inches long (between the 50th and 75th percentiles) and weighs 23 pounds, 9 ounces (between the 25th and 50th percentiles). Her head circumference is 18 3/4 inches--yes, that's still the 90th percentile.

Katie got two shots today. After administering them, the nurse gave Katie a little box of medical-supply tissues so she could wipe her tears away. As usual, Katie started emptying them out one by one, so I took it away from her and started packing up. THAT prompted even more tears than the vaccinations! She threw herself on the floor in the hall, staging an all-out (but futile) protest.

Finally, I did have two questions "saved up" for the doctor. On each hand, Katie has a little bump near the base of her fingers (which I was convinced were warts) and some really rough skin on her calves (which I was convinced was eczema...or however it's spelled). Anyway, the doctor was kind enough not to laugh in my face when she said the bumps are absolutely nothing or when she suggested that I apply some lotion to her legs.

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Thu, Feb 2, 2006 9:00 AM
We still put Katie in her booster most of the time, but I think it'll be "extinct" sooner than later. A few cases in point:

* Steve worked late yesterday, so Katie and I ate dinner on our own. When he came home, we all sat back down while he had his dinner. Katie wanted to sit in a regular chair, and we let her. It was a bit of a disaster, though. Three times, she climbed up on the table and crawled quickly across it. We tried being very stern, but she didn't take us too seriously, I'm afraid. In fact, she kept cackling with glee at her own antics. (I ended up belting her into her booster for the rest of the meal.)

* Later in the evening, she demonstrated her ability to climb up on to a counter stool--on her own. We didn't know she could do that!

* And, earlier today, I was busy making some food in the kitchen. When I turned around, she had put on her striped winter hat (correctly!) and positioned herself in a regular chair. Fortunately, she was just nibbling on her waffle--not moonwalking across the table...

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