About Our Katie
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< > April 2008
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Fri, Apr 25, 2008 10:00 AM
Tomorrow morning Steve, Katie, and I are heading to Manhattan to meet up with Stacey, Andrew, and (drum roll, please!) Miss Maddie. (Hooray!) We're planning to take the girls to the Central Park Zoo, and after Stacey and Andrew head back to prepare for the next leg of their trip, Steve wants to take Katie to Times Square to the gi-normous Toys R Us.
This will be Katie's first trip to the Big Apple. And it's gotten me thinking about MY first trip to the Big Apple, which certainly didn't occur at age three. I was 20 and in my last year of college before I made it there. I went with Sarah, and I remember being completely petrified of being mugged. If memory serves, we put our purses across our bodies AND under our winter coats. We were pretty scared (well, *I* was; Sarah can chime in and correct me if she remembers feeling bolder)!
That spring break trip also marked Sarah's and my first real experience with toll roads. We only knew the wonderful, oh-so-convenient highways of the Midwest--where you can actually GET where you're going quickly and at no charge. I vividly remember us standing in line at a fast-food joint right before the Pennsylvania Turnpike entrance. We had a heated (and, in hindsight, very comical) discussion about how the highway would "know" when we got on or off. We truly were that clueless (although, if you ask me, it's the entire East Coast that's clueless about how roads really SHOULD work!).
Anyway, I wonder what Katie will be "clueless" about when she's a senior in college. Somehow I doubt she'll be quite so intimidated by NYC or so ignorant about turnpikes. ;-)Add a comment:
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Thu, Apr 24, 2008 9:30 PM
After weeks of debate and deliberations about Katie's hair, tonight Steve and Katie and I finally made a decision: We had three inches cut off her thick mop. For awhile, I'd been thinking about donating 10 inches to Locks or Love, but Steve was vehemently opposed to such a short 'do. So we compromised--making the hair shorter and more manageable in anticipation of summer camp (when she'll be swimming twice a day and spending most of her time outdoors).
When we got home, Steve and I each got a turn in Katie's hair-styling "chair." I was first, and she carefully sprayed and combed out my hair before placing a headband with floral appliques on my head and pronouncing me "Princess Mommy." Steve was next, and he got a VIGOROUS shampooing and scalp scrubbing. It went on for so long I thought he might be bruised!
At any rate, when we were both finished, she ordered us to stand up, hold hands, and dance together in the middle of our family room.
* * *
Katie's thoughts and opinions can vary from minute to minute, second to second. And she isn't afraid to voice them. For instance, early this morning I was downstairs getting some housework done. I heard her calling, "Domebody come get me up! Domebody come get me up!"
Now, she doesn't usually say that. Normally, she just gets herself up and dressed and then comes in to our room begging for "opa-meal" (oatmeal). But I played along, and went up to her room to "get her up."
When I got there, she said, "Go away!"
HUH?!
Instead of leaving the room, I sat in the rocker and just relaxed for a minute. While I did, Katie talked to herself in bed--apparently engaged in a "conversation" with another "mom."
"Baby growing up doe bast," she sighed wistfully. "Djee gonna be a big girl doon."
* * *
Earlier this week, Katie received a special package from my brother and sister-in-law (a.k.a. "Uncle Murp" and "Aunt Nepf"). In it was a great assortment of goodies--including a stomp rocket!
As soon as she saw the launcher, Katie wanted to play with it. So I took her outside and demonstrated how to use it. Then I watched her do a few stomps and went back inside to work on dinner.
Five minutes later I went back out to check on her, and saw that she'd developed a great technique. With her feet and legs together, she jumped, step by step, from the top of our patio stairs--concluding with an extra-forceful stomp on the rocket launcher. The first time I saw her do it, she shot the rocket over the top of our family room and almost into the neighbor's yard!
The next day after school, she wolfed down her snack and asked, "Can I play wid da game brom Uncle Murp now?!" It wasn't long before she had an entourage of neighborhood kids taking turns on it. (Way to go, Ryan and Steph!)Comments:Add a comment:
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Sun, Apr 20, 2008 9:45 PM
After lunch today, Steve, Katie, and I did some light shopping at the new complex near our house. Steve and I each had an "interesting" conversation with her.
In Borders, I went off to pick out some gifts while Steve and Katie headed to the cafe area. Steve said he paid for his drink and turned to see that Katie was nowhere in sight. He said he figured she was in the store, but still panicked a bit, concerned that she'd be distraught. As it turned out, she had found me and was standing near me when he found her.
I continued browsing, but he pulled her aside for a tête-à-tête. After it was over, he came up to me and growsed, "There's just no talking to her." According to Steve, the conversation went like this...
Steve: Katie, you can't just walk away from Daddy without telling me. I turned around and you were gone. I didn't know where you were, and I thought you might've been lost.
Katie (with a "What-are-you-kidding-me?"
look on her face): I not lost. I ju't go dee Mommy ober dere!
Later, in Bath and Body Works (she specifically asked to go there), she went to the bins of three-ounce lotions and gels and sprays. I told her she could pick out one. She selected a honeysuckle body spray... and then started lobbying for a bottle of lotion, too. At first, I just said, "No--it's either one or nothing." She kept persisting, so I said, "I will pay for one. If you want two or three, you can use some of your own money from home." She gave her answer not with her mouth, but with her feet--walking directly to the counter with just one, fully-paid-for body spray in hand.Comments:Add a comment:
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Fri, Apr 18, 2008 8:30 AM
I supppose that Katie has always been interested in knowing the rules, but lately she's just as keen on enforcing them. (Can you say "busybody"?)
When Steve exits the powder room, she routinely interrogates him about whether or not he's washed his hands. The other night, a neighbor and I were taking a walk, and Katie and Kayla were watching from the front lawn. As we waved from the middle of the street, Katie shouted, "GET ON DA DIDEWALK! ON DA DIDEWALK!" Gran said when Katie saw a boy on a bike, she tsked, "He djhould be wearin' a HELMET!" And when Gran tried to "fake" her way through a hand wash at Katie's school (there's an absurd rule about adults washing their hands, too), Katie caught her and admonished, "Gra-an, lure hab to make BUBBLES!"
Katie's also big on what's "dape" (safe) and "helpy" (healthy). According to Katie, she and a classmate had a little philosophical debate at lunch recently about pudding. She apparently told her friend--who frequently has a pudding in her lunchbox--that it's "not a helpy bood." Her friend insisted it was. So then Katie tried to convince me it was, too, but I didn't buy it.
At any rate, as someone recently reminded me (I can't remember who now--maybe Sarah?), the good news is that Katie is listening and paying attention. And, in many cases, she seems to understand the WHY behind the rule, too. (Last night, Steve and I got a longwinded explanation from her about why we had to stop walking when a car was pulling out of a neighbor's driveway!)
* * *
A few weeks ago, I rearranged Katie's room so that she now has a little lamp by her bed. I tried an experiment--letting her "read" to herself at night until she's ready turn off the light and close her eyes. So far, it's working great. She seems to enjoy having the extra privilege and responsibility, and she hasn't abused it at all.
Speaking of privilege and responsibility, several weeks ago she and I were out shopping. As I was helping her up into the car, I told her, "You know, when you're older, you'll be able to drive yourself without Mommy or Daddy. You'll be able to take yourself shopping or to the movies. And you can go out with your friends, too."
She really latched on to that idea, and a few days later informed me, "When I get bigger, I can dribe... go out wid my briends Maddie and Kayla and Hedder." That idea cracked me up since Kayla and Heather are 10 years older than Katie and could be married with kids by the time she's out gallivanting on her own. But it just shows how much she likes them and considers them her pals. (Even though they're almost 14, those girls still come over and play hide-and-seek and all kinds of other games with Katie and Maddie. It's wonderful!)Comments:Add a comment:
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I was 20 when I first went to NYC but my heated discussion was about the high cost of roasted chestnuts with the street vendor in front of the UN. The new road I encountered was the roundabout in New Jersey. Kentucky had toll roads when I was younger so that wasn't anything new.