Car Riders!

About a year ago, Gigi got a little car for free from someone who was getting rid of it.  With a little rehab, it looked just like my Element, and Katie Anne loved having her own little Element to drive around.  The best part was that it was just the right size to drive around our house on the hard wood floors.  Katie Anne really enjoyed it and drove it a lot, and it was her major mode of transportation in her pretend games.

However, she doesn't love it nearly as much as SJ does!  Within the last few days he's become absolutely obsessed with that blue car.  He wants to sit in it, drive it, or be pushed around the house in it all the time.  He would love to spend every waking second in this car! 

 Katie Anne thinks it's great that he wants to ride shotgun with her, and she has loved having a passenger in her car!

She's not quite as sure about having a new driver, though...

 Katie Anne has been very sweet to SJ and has done a good job of sharing the car. She lets him sit in it whenever he'd like, and she loves pushing him around in it, too.

 (It also might help just a teeny bit that I foresaw this problem when SJ first started dominating the car.  So, I went upstairs where we've been saving lots of KA's toys for a younger sibling, and I got down another riding toy of hers from the toddler days.  Sneaky Mommy!  So, one rides in the blue car and one rides on the "motorcycle", and then they switch.  Sharing is much easier when you've got another vehicle waiting on you!)

And, just for fun, here's one more picture... she was actually reaching up for the camera to look at a picture I'd just taken, and I accidentally snapped one more, but it looks like Katie Anne's protecting SJ from the paparazzi.  "No more pictures!"

Little Chef

 SJ gave Katie Anne a wooden make-your-own-pizza set for her birthday, and she loves it!  She's always in her play kitchen whipping up an unusual pizza for us to try.  She's our little chef!

A Real Baby Alive

Katie Anne has her ultimate real Baby Alive right now... her little brother!  She loves to pretend that he's her baby doll.  

She loves to pretend to feed him in her play kitchen.  Of course, SJ plays right along.  He doesn't seem to care that there's nothing on the spoon - he thinks whatever Katie Anne wants to do is a great idea!

Yum yum!

A Reason to Call Poison Control

Here's a memo to all girls out there who are planning to have tea parties with their stuffed animals.

If you are looking for something to serve as a straw, a black marker is probably not your best choice.

That's right... Katie Anne decided to have a tea party with her stuffed animals in the foyer while we were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner on May 3.  She set up all the animals with little cups, saucers, and plates for tea snacks.  Then, she decided everyone needed a straw for their tea cup.  What do you do with a straw?  You sip on it, of course.  Unfortunately, when you sip on the cap of a marker for a long time, the cap fills with spit... and ink.  When the cap pops off in your mouth, your mouth fills with black inky spit.  Not a good thing.

So, Katie Anne came running up to me, crying and screaming behind her hands (which were pressed tightly to her mouth), with blackish-blue something streaming out from between her fingers and running down her arms.  I freaked out - I had no idea what was pouring out of her mouth, and she wouldn't tell me because she thought she would get in trouble.  Finally, under threat of a spanking, she told us that she'd sucked on a black marker.  We rushed her to the bathroom, and Saunders started rinsing her mouth out as fast as he could while I called Poison Control.

Luckily, the very nice and understanding Amanda at the Poison Control Hotline said this was a very common thing with kids, and that - since the marker was washable - Katie Anne would be fine.  All we should do is rinse her mouth, wash her face (and hands and forearms since it poured out of her mouth), and brush her teeth.  Then, she needed to drink lots of water to dilute any ink that was in her stomach.  But, Amanda warned us that it might take some time for the ink to wash off... and it did!  Katie Anne was sporting the ink mouth with black lips and gums for almost three full days!

FYI ... all these pictures were made AFTER about 20 minutes of rinsing, scrubbing, and teeth brushing.  In the heat of the moment - when I thought my kid was dying of some kind of freak esophagus eruption or coughing up black blood or something - I didn't take the time to snap a picture of how terrible it actually was, but trust me ... these pictures don't do the first sight of her screaming and crying with blue-black liquid pouring out of her mouth any kind of justice.  :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Well, not exactly - it isn't really looking like Christmas at all.

However, for our little planner Katie Anne, June is not to early too start planning for Christmas!

(And I LOVE that she's such a think-ahead planner... that's Mommy's baby right there.)

How is she planning ahead?  Well, she has gone through the entire new Fisher Price toy magazine and made decisions about almost each toy.  It took her several days of looking through the catalog to make up her mind about things.  The decision tree breaks down like this:

3 Toys that Katie Anne wants for Christmas

3 Toys that Baby Saunders wants for Christmas

1 Toy they both want to share for Christmas

Toys neither of them want for Christmas

Here's what's what...

Toys that Katie Anne wants: Snap 'n Style Dolls, the Victorian doll house, and a twin baby doll care set

Toys that Baby Saunders wants: Thomas the Train stuff, a plastic tricycle, and bath toys

Toys they both want to share: A Little People Animals/ABC set

Toys neither of them want for Christmas: everything else in the catalog  :)

Katie Anne's not done ... just deciding is not enough.  She also knows that she must communicate these desires with Santa Claus.  So, she carefully tore each page out of the magazine, and now she calls that "mail" for Santa Claus.  She has put the pages with the items they want in the "Santa Claus mailbox" ... which happens to be sliding them under the linen closet door.  See the mail peeking out?

I pulled out the pages for documentation purposes - here's the mail that tells Santa what they want:

The mail that tells Santa what they don't want is stacked neatly on Katie Anne's nightstand:

 (We can't throw it away because she wants to mail it later, after he's gotten the mail that says what they do want.)

Then, after a few days, I noticed that this page - which is the animal/ABC set that both kids want to share - was sitting on the corner of the kitchen counter next to my keys, to-do list, etc ... basically, where all my "actionable" items are kept.

When I asked Katie Anne why she'd left that page there instead of putting it in the Santa Claus mailbox, she said, "Well, I thought we'd already asked Santa Claus for a lot of fings, so maybe this could be a toy that you and Daddy get us for Christmas.  So, I put that mail there for you."

That kid cracks me up.  

I have a funny feeling that she and Baby Saunders will be getting the animal/ABC set from Mommy and Daddy this year.  What about the stuff from the Santa mail?  I can't say - you'll have to ask Santa!

The Little Hulk

**Update: My friend Kelly commented on this post to tell me that the word Katie Anne was saying is "empujen", which is the Spanish word for push!

One of the easiest things about parenting Katie Anne (and one of the things that we will hate to lose when a new baby comes into the house) is that she's really responsible around the house even when she's unattended.  Of course, I should knock on wood before I even type this, but she's never done any of those typical things that kids her age do when left alone for a few minutes... she doesn't climb to high places, draw on walls with crayons, get out stuff that she's not supposed to, or break things.  She even warns us to be careful around things that are glass or small choking hazards like she's the parent!  She puts drinks on coasters if people forget, puts laundry in hampers if someone leaves it on the floor, and loves to clean and put things away.  In fact, we don't worry about letting her color with markers or play with Play Doh while we're doing other chores around the house - she is very responsible with these things and always follows the rules once you explain them to her.

So, I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup yesterday while she was playing in the living room.  I could hear her playing with Peach - it sounded like they were getting ready for a party.  Then, I heard her chanting some word I didn't know over and over... it sounded like "Imbuhen!  Imbuhen!"   After hearing this over and over, plus hearing a subtle scraping sound, I called out to her and asked what she was doing.  She told me, "Just moving a black chair for me to sit in at the party!"  I thought of one of our kitchen chairs, which are small and partially black, or even our dining room chairs, which are a little heavier and all black.  So, I walked into the living room to see what she was doing.  

Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw this:

The black chair she was talking about - which is actually dark brown - was our leather recliner in the living room!  This is a very heavy chair, and I have a hard time moving it by myself.  To give you some perspective, here's a picture of how far she moved it.  It's normally facing the opposite direction in that corner by the french doors.

I was very shocked that she'd been able to move it that far in such a short time.  I told her that she didn't need to move it because it was too heavy for her and it would scratch the floors, so she said, "Okay, I'll just put it back where I got it."  Then, she got started on the work:

I made a little video of her moving the chair back - mostly to get her saying "imbuhen" out loud.  The video is dark, but you can hear her saying the magic word.

(Of course, as soon as I put the camera down, I moved the chair back to where it belonged.  Don't want you to think I left the poor kid hanging.)

I asked her more about "imbuhen", and she said it is a Spanish word that she learned from Dora.  She said it is a magic word that helps you push heavy things.  I've googled several spelling variations of the word, and I can't find a word that matches with what she was saying ... but regardless, I may start saying "imbuhen" whenever I need to push heavy things, because it does seem to work!  

Let's hope our little Hulk's furniture moving days are over!

That's The Way...

the teddy bears have their picnic!

(Actually, there aren't any teddy bears at this picnic... but I just think of the song whenever I see these pictures.)

Katie Anne has gotten very into making picnics in her play kitchen.  She loves to make a plate of picnic food and bring it to Mommy, Daddy, Abby, or Ginger ... but especially to her stuffed animals!  She makes an animal picnic in the living room on an almost daily basis.  Here are some pictures Saunders snapped of her setting up the snacks for her friends before we sat down to the table to eat dinner.

All her friends loved the delicious dinner she made!

Prepping Mommy for Two Kids

Katie Anne is SOOOO into babies right now.  She is completely excited about being a big sister, and she loves to talk about babies, plan for the day when Dorfee arrives, and come up with ideas for things that she'll do with and for Dorfee when the time comes.  (Yes, she calls the new baby Dorothy aka Dorfee.  That's what she fully believes he - and she knows it is a he - shall be named.)  She also talks for Dorfee (and cries loud, fake, and long in his stead since he cannot) and tells us what he's thinking, doing, and feeling in my belly.  She is very ready to help with all Dorfee's needs - except changing poopy diapers, she says.

So, a big part of this baby adoration is a renewed passion for her baby dolls.  She's always loved playing with her babies at home, but now she must bring at least one baby with her EVERYWHERE.  She also has to bring a diaper bag that she painstakingly and slowly packs with all sorts of very necessary and interesting things.  At first, we'd just pack the basics - a bottle and a paci for the baby.  Now, we're into taking wipes, diapers (real diapers... no fakers for her babies, no way), a small stuffed animal or two for baby, an extra change of clothes, a sippy cup, a small plastic plate and baby spoon... I could go on.  All this packing and preparation adds 5, 10, or even 20 minutes to our get-out-the-door routine.  And, I've decided it is really helping me out.

How is this helping Mommy, you ask?  Well, because when Dorfee does get here in August, I will be totally ready for packing and lugging the junk that two kids will need all around the world.  You see, I've started pre-packing diaper bags for Katie Anne to help speed us along.  So, I go around and gather up some random baby supplies that the little mother might need, and that's actually good practice for gathering up real stuff for Dorfee.  And, of course, does the little mommy KA actually carry her own diaper bag and baby stuff through the store?  Of course not - she carries the baby and maybe the bottle, while Mommy is left schlepping along through Party America today with the diaper bag and various accompanying baby doll supplies while trying to also keep track of little mommy KA, her doll, and gather all the needed Tinkerbell party supplies for next weekend.  So, I'm actually being well trained to be a mother of two courtesy of Katie Anne and her little mommy dreams!

Seriously, I am so glad that she is so excited about the new baby and so into the pregnancy.  She loves to hug and kiss Dorfee in my belly multiple times a day, talks about him all the time, and really looks forward to when he becomes a part of the family.  She even already misses him - when we were playing Ring Around the Rosie, she pointed to an open spot she'd left in our circle and said, "We're missing someone... we're missing Dorfee!"  I think she's going to be a great big sister.