More random cuteness

We've been collecting lots of quips and photos that are blog-worthy, and now that I've filled up the memory card on the camera I thought it was time to post them. :)


We forgot to mention in our anniversary post that we would practice our dance steps while putting Katie to sleep (yes, we still walk with her -- she is only 17 lbs. after all!). She seems to prefer the Fox Trot -- it works like a charm. :) She loves dancing herself -- whenever she hears music she'll start bopping along.

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We have such pious children. Katie now says grace with us. Well, that is, she always smiles and claps her hands, because she sees us putting our hands together, and we must be clapping, right? And Miriam now has our special Advent prayers memorized -- she was holding the booklet and pretending to read it, when I realized that she was reciting the prayers Mr. Pickles says when we light the candles. Kids have amazing memories.

Maybe Miriam is just aurally gifted -- she now has most of the songs from a new favorite musical memorized: the 1957 TV version of Cinderella with Julie Andrews. We've watched it a total of 3 or 4 times, and already she'll correct us if we get a line wrong. It's a great musical with some really fun lines -- I think Mr. Pickles' and my favorite song is when the two ugly stepsisters (who were hilarious) sing about what's the matter with a man who prefers a "frothy little bubble, with a flimsy kind of charm" to "a sturdy girl like ME!"

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Here's Katie playing peek-a-boo with the Baby in the Mirror (a bday present from Nana):

peek-a-boo!

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Many households with pets experience the phenomenon that whenever the can opener is used, wherever the pet is in the house, it will come running. With our Katie, it's the sound of the dishwasher opening. She has a fascination with the silverware basket, so whenever she hears us opening the door, she'll come running so she can grab handfuls of spoons and forks before we notice her there. She's fast, too, the little goober.

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Proof positive that all our children are going to be certifiably nuts:

ha ha!

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Some of Katie's other recent accomplishments (aside from throwing clean silverware on the floor) include closing doors. She loves this. The other day she closed herself in the bathroom upstairs, with the lights off. I just waited to see what she would do when she found herself stuck in the dark. After a few seconds I heard an inquisitive little, "Doh?" as in, "Where'd everything go?"

Katie is also getting very communicative. She's growing up so fast, I still can't believe she's 13 months already! Sigh. Anyway, she can nod and shake her head in answer to a question. A few weeks back she was whining and just generally having a hard time dealing with life, so Mr. Pickles asked her rhetorically if she wanted to go upstairs and go to bed. To our very great surprise, she headed towards the stairs, nodding her head and rubbing her eyes! This is the fun stage where we get to see how much she really understands. (and where she gets to assert her will by shaking her head "no"!)

To facilitate early communication, I had planned to teach Katie some baby sign language to help overcome a lot of the frustration that occurs at this age, when little ones have definite needs but don't know how to express them, and as parents we spend a lot of time trying to figure out what pointing and "unh unh!" means, while said little one is working herself into a frustration tantrum.

So, even though I wasn't able to teach her as many "baby signs" as I had wanted, we tried at least to do "more food" (fingertips touching together) and "more drink" (thumb pointing to mouth), and "diaper change" (patting diaper). The food signs both became her pointing with her index finger to her mouth, but that works. We just interpret it as "Put something in here!" I've also started with "please" (rubbing chest) and "thank you" (like blowing a kiss, but without the kiss). This morning at breakfast she had snarfed all the eggs on her plate, but noticed some left on mine. After noticing that her pointing and saying "um! um!" was being ignored (I was attending to Miriam) she decided to pull out all the stops, and signed both "more" and "please", unprompted! I was so impressed. After such a display of intelligence and cuteness, how could I refuse? :) Yesterday she was practicing saying "thank you" while I fed her little pieces of orange (we do drive-by meals now -- it's the only way to make sure she eats enough!). She would come up with her mouth open like a baby bird, I'd pop in a piece of orange, and she's spin around and take a couple steps away, then turn back and blow a kiss (albeit from her chest), saying something which sounded an awful lot like a baby version of "thank you". She's picking up on things so quickly -- we can really see her little brain just soaking things up.

Katie can also say something that sounds like "hi". I know that is what it's supposed to be, because she'll grab our old dead phone, cradle it in her neck, and yell, "Aiii!" She loves phones. If any of you ever call us and you hear chortling and shrieking in the background, that's Katie -- she's fascinated and highly amused by the talking, glowy-button thingy. She also loves saying and waving "bye-bye" -- whenever I put my shoes on, or even grab my keys, she'll start energetically waving her hand and exclaiming, "bu-baaaaaa!" She loves standing at the screen door to watch whoever it is leaving, so she can wave to us.

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For sisters, Miriam and Katie get along pretty well together. It's so nice seeing them playing well together:

"playing" a "game" "together"

I can tell they're also going to get each other into trouble. This is what happens when Mommy is on the computer too long:

caught!

Like all older sisters, Miriam of course exercises her prerogative to be bossy (I can say this because I'm one!). Several times I've had to remind Miriam that I'M the Mommy, not her, so she can't do X to Katie, such as feed her large chunks of food, carry her around, and various other life-threatening activities. Yesterday when Katie needed a diaper change, Mr. Pickles teasingly asked Miriam if she wanted to do it, and Miriam explained rather loudly, "No, Dad! I'm NOT the Mommy!"

Well, I'd love to blog more, but the laundry basket is full, so...

time to do laundry!